Hello world.
That's the first thing I have to say here. I've blogged to my heart's content, but before today I hadn't thought of chronicling my endeavors as a writer. Okay, now that I've said it, this sounds like it's going to be boring. But, don't leave yet. This is not going to be one of those "I'm so hungry to be famous! Read my blog about trying to get famous!" blogs. Haha...no. I could care less about getting famous as a singer or a writer.
For my work, I know I want others to read it. I want them to read it and fall in love with it just as I did; but not for a silly reason. One of the things I care most about in life is depth. I want the world to see what I've done and get something out of it. Does that classify as a desire to change the world? I don't know. I simply don't know. If it is, I want to change it into a place of fire and ice. I want to show the world the truth about right and wrong, good vs evil. I want to show them a heroine who isn't flat but isn't unrealistically intimidating. It seems that in modern fiction, the girl is either a damsel in distress or a full-fledged assassin.
I wanted to write a female hero who changes the world because she is lion-hearted. Someone who is brave, strong, make tough choices, and is compelled by love to do what no one else in her world would do.
This post probably doesn't make much sense at all. I'm trying really hard to write an introductory post, but I guess it might be failing. I'll let you be the judge of that.
My name is Keely Victoria. For a while, my pen name was Scarlet Lily, but that was short-lived. I'm a singer/songwriter and novelist from Texas. I've recently turned 18 and am a senior in High School. Two years ago, I had a strange revelation. All of my musings and daydreams came together - mushed with the themes from hundreds of books, movies, and other forms of media I'd understood as a child - and became an embryonic version of a novel.
I brainstormed, I dreamt. I wrote down what I'd dreamt of. I went to Starbucks with my friends and jittered with caffeine as we discussed our ideas. (Monica, I'm still waiting to hear how far you've gotten with your story about the tiny humans). The resulting pile of brain mush was made sense of and converted into the building blocks of a story. Then, I started writing. It started with the simple vision of a girl standing on the beach. Somewhere long afterwards, I saw the girl dancing underneath the moon with a young man (unbeknownst to her, really an otherworldly prince) and falling deeply in love.
There had to be a before, an in-between, and an after. That was when I realized who I wanted this girl to be. I didn't want her to be a damsel in distress. I didn't want her to be some simpleton who was flatter than the paper she was written on. I wanted her to be someone who rose from the ashes and took fate into her own hands. I decided to begin her story as one about a girl with a simple life and a loving family in a dark world. She would loose it all, facing poverty and pressure from the outside; but would ultimately find out that she came from greatness. Though, it wouldn't end there. I wanted her to realize that the greatness wasn't so great and that the hierarchy of her world was nothing compared to the musings of another. There would be bravery, peril, love, danger, and royalty. I named her Elissa McClellan, put her into a numerical caste society, and made her birth one of great complication. From there on out, the story took on a life of its own.
Midnight's Song was born.
I wrote for about a year. At first, I wrote only for myself. Then I began handing out chapters to friends and family. Because I never wanted to consider publishing, I decided to give a few supporting characters the names (or nicknames) of my dearest friends (with their permission) and amused them with their character's tales. It became somewhat of a game for us and turned into something absolutely beautiful. For almost an entire summer, I locked myself upstairs and wrote from 9 am - 2 am. I listened to music on YouTube and came down with a case of cinematic-fever.
Mainly, I couldn't stop listening to that epic orchestral movie trailer music. Sometimes I still have to listen to it just to be healthy.
Anyway, I was finished with it around February. I'd poured my heart and soul into this book, its characters and themes. It contained nearly everything I'd perceived about truth and life so far (in a very fantastical, mythical kind of way). And now, it was time to chop it up. I've chopped and chopped, and now I'm trying to get it published. I thought about self-publishing, which is a realistic option. Though, I've set my sights high. Now I'm pitching myself to agents. I'm trying to gather support for my work, because only God knows how long it's going to be (if) until I find an agent who wants to represent it. Join me by following this blog and reading about this journey I've embarked upon to get Elissa published! I've gotten two or three rejection letters so far, but I'm not stopping yet.
With this blog you will see a sort of concept cover I created for my work that I've been including with my beta copies. It's also included on Wattpad, where I've published the first 11 chapters of my novel FREE! That's all of Part One and two chapters of Part Two! There are four parts in all.
You can check it out here:
Last but not least, I have to explain the name of this blog. It has to do with something I've written about, but even more so about the essence of Elissa McClellan and a trait of hers that I hope I reflect in my own life.
"The one who holds my heart will also have to hold my fire. If he's willing to hold that - or at least try to learn - he's strong enough to hold me." - Elissa (Midnight's Song)
