My names Danny and I’m a student at InFocus College. I wanted to talk about a story I’m working on. My story is called When Death Came and is a Fantasy story but set in modern time.

How I got the story idea

I was going to bed one evening when I had the sudden thought, what would happen if the fictional being Grim Reaper or Death got tired of their job of taking peoples souls? Which then sparked my story idea.

Story Summary

It starts with Death who’s tired of their job and wants someone to take over. They are in a world or universe where it’s not too common, but some people have abilities. They want to find someone with similar abilities who could take over, so they go on a journey to find this person which ends up being Randy who then becomes the main character. I won’t go into anymore detail as I want people to read this one day.

How my characters came to exist

Death was quite easy, once I had the story idea their character came to me easily. I wanted an interesting character, but I also wanted to have some humour there too. While reading you can see what sort of character, they’re like but I don’t describe what they look like. While that may sound strange for me, I wanted Death to be interpreted however people want. I felt for this specific character how different people imagine them is interesting and important. I can describe all my other characters how I want but death themselves should be up to people’s imagination. I didn’t want the simple idea of a skeleton and a scythe like they’re depicted so many times but for people to run wild with it.

Randy’s character is a lot different, I sat there trying to think who would take over from Death’s responsibilities. I wanted a character that’s likable as Randy is the main character and after Death has found them, we see it from his perspective. Randy’s different to my other characters and more complex in a way. I wanted him to have a strong motive to keep him going, something different to what you and I might have as a motive if we were in their situation. I’d say Randy’s got this headstrong way about them but also a bit of uncertainty he’s also humorous with banter between him and Death and a bit of sarcasm there too. They’re one of my favourite characters to explore.

Akey is one of my other characters, I came up with him because I wanted a wizard in my story to go with one of the plot points. I needed someone for Death to ask for help from and he felt perfect. He lives in a magical place completely separate from the cities and such of the main story. He’s rather to himself but likes to help people when he can, he’s also kind and caring. Definitely someone I feel anyone who reads my story will want to know more about.

There’s also a council of different creatures that appear too. I don’t mention them much so there not much to say about them.

The challenge of creating a world and bringing it to life

I wanted to talk about this because it can be hard trying to write my world how I want it to be. I have no idea how others will imagine my story and characters compared to how I see them in my head. I can talk about how beautiful Mystia for example which is were Akey lives but actually getting people to see what I can see in my head is difficult. I want to be able to get these different scenes across but whether people will imagine the scenery and characters like I do is another thing. For example I could example that a city is busy, has tall skyscrapers and so on but actually getting someone to see my image is hard. It’s definitely a challenge because I want people to be able to see it the way I do. In fact I worry that my writing isn’t good enough to do this but I’m hopeful it is.

Things that are going well

I’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback from people I’ve shown the first bits of my story to. I had my parents tell me It captivated them from the beginning. My dad said my writing reminded him of Terry Pratchett. I’ve had some staff members at college tell me how good it is and I’m very happy to hear that. I can doubt myself sometimes and it’s a good feeling to know people like what I’ve written so far! It gives me the confidence to keep going and spurs me on as I really want to finish this one day.

Things that are tough

I can get stuck on parts that I’m writing sometimes. I will know where I want to end up but actually getting to that point is difficult. It’s hard to know how to write these things out and making sure people will stay interested. I also worry that I’m not portraying my own characters to the fullest. That might sound silly to some people but getting what I have in my head onto paper can be hard. I care about these characters a lot but actually getting them right can be hard. I’ve had people reassuring me it’s fine but how can they be sure when they can’t see what I can see in my head?

I talked about this a bit above, but I can never be sure if how I’ve described scenery is how someone will see it in their head. I could imagine these tall skyscrapers in a city for example but being able to get that image across is tough.

Why I’ve written this story

Honestly, I just wanted to get my ideas somewhere other than my head. I want to write these stories rather than just thinking about them. Exploring When Death Came has helped me with just how well I can write. I can see I’ve improved a lot over time.

Originally I was just writing this for fun but now I want a wider audience to see my writing. I want people to be able to experience this story and my characters the way I see them. That’s one of the tings I love about writing, I enjoy it but also other people can enjoy what I’ve written.

My next steps

So, what are my next steps? Originally, I was just going to keep my story to a free website for sharing your writing. However, I felt that I could do more! I want to have a go at self-publishing when my story is finished. 

This is a very far goal but if I could far in the future a dream of mine would be to make this into a movie or TV Show! I have a lot of ideas and I’m going to do what I can to try make this happen!

I believe if you have an idea you should go for it! Nothings to big or small to have a shot at!