The first draft of my story was called The Evolution of Janie. After several title changes (and seven years), I finally settled on Waken.
There are a few scenes which bear similarities to scenes throughout Waken, and the spirit of the main characters have remained the same. But the actual content of that first draft is gone. Thank God!
So what major changes did Waken go through? Well, it's a long list :)
Top 5 Changes Waken Went Through
1. Names - Janie became Anya and then back to Janie, while Tristan was originally Marcus, then Davin. You can thank my fellow author Apryl Baker for Tristan's final name after she braved my wrath and told me she basically wanted to puke every time she read the name Davin!
2. Summer - The story was once set at the beginning of the school year, but I decided it was too similar to Twilight which was at its peak during my writing.
3. The piano - There was once a scene where Janie played the piano in front of her class, in rewrites I realized that Janie wouldn't want to put her talent on display and that it was too private for her to do in public.
4. Location - Everod, Colorado was once Everett, Montana, then I went up to Telluride with my husband and loved the area so much I moved the story there.
5. The Wolf - I was always hesitant to write a straight-up werewolf story. I tried to skirt around it with shapeshifting, and the myth of the Raven. Finally, I just admitted that I wanted to do werewovles.
Check out the bios for Janie and Tristan featured during My CrAzY Corner's YA/NA Blogfest:
You can still vote for Tristan in the Hottest Guy Competition on My CrAzY Corner!
I know what you're saying about the evolution of the first draft, but even in really rough form Waken was a great story!
ReplyDeleteLinda