Catharsis [Novel]

AUTHOR'S NOTE

AUTHOR’S NOTE

            I have always enjoyed reading the “author’s notes” at the end of books.  I’ve especially enjoyed when the author gave insight into the “why” behind their creation of the story.  I liked having the “curtain pulled back” and seeing how a story was created in someone else’s mind.  There’s every chance my love of the “author’s note” comes from my own love of writing and getting to vicariously view another person’s process. It’s a part of the book I always felt blessed to find at the end.  It was an unexpected gift.  A little treat from the author for those people who choose to read past the end.

            And it was something I wanted to put into my own books.

            For me, a story is never as simple as just “sitting down and writing”.  The characters and plot consume my thinking for months leading up to the actual writing process, and that is how I know I have a solid idea worth pursuing.  I started writing Catarina’s journey months before I ever sat down and started typing.  Although when her adventure began in my head she was a boy.

            Yup.  Catarina originally was a male protagonist when I came up with the idea for the story.  I actually wrote the entirety of part one with her as a guy and the first several chapters of part two, also.  Her name back then was Jesus Santiago, and she was a giant (6’ 2”), sixteen-year old Hispanic boy. 

            In the first draft of the story, Jesus went by the nickname “Zoos” (pronounced “Zuse”) and he focused a bit more on his size and muscles when going up against opponents.  He made some jokes about comparing himself to the king of the Greek gods, Zeus, too.  I liked the idea of connecting a kid who “rises from the dead” in the alley with both the Christian savior and the Greek god.  It was an idea I felt I could work with.

            I even called the first draft of the book “Zeus Rising” as a reference to his nickname and the fact that he was coming up into his new power.  That was the title I stuck with up until the point where my boy protagonist became a girl.

            Around the time of the gender switch, I read an article attacking modern young adult literature for its lack of solid female characters.  It stated that too many female characters were weak, ill-defined or just not well fleshed-out.  Even the “heroines” in many contemporary books (Bella in Twilight, Katniss in Hunger Games, Tris in Divergent) were still ruled by males throughout their journeys.  Bella is the lead character, but all of her choices are pretty much controlled, or at least influenced, by Jacob or Edward.  Katniss is a strong chick who can fight on her own, but her story comes down to her love for two boys and how is she going to choose between them and still be happy.  Tris learns to kick butt as a Dauntless initiate, but her ability to really shine is constantly being controlled by her opinion of Four (or his opinion of her).

            In other words, ALL these great female characters are still being controlled by males.  That bothered me, and I agreed with the article (I wish I had saved it so that I could reference it here, but I had no idea of the impact it would have on me when I read it.).  As a father of two strong-willed girls myself (and a coach of girls’ cross country team full of independent young ladies who refuse to bow to the whims of others), I wanted to create a female protagonist who could stand on her own.  She wouldn’t be influenced by guys throughout her journey.  I had the power to create that character as I wrote, and thus Zoos became a girl.

            My goal as I wrote was to not put any kind of “love triangle” or even a “love interest” into the story.  I know that idea alienates female readers at times (I’ve been teaching English long enough to recognize the prototypical types of books my female students enjoy.), but I saw it as the best way to make my protagonist strong.  Plus, a love interest didn’t really fit the arc of the story as I saw it.  Catharsis was about the journey of one girl as she has to deal with what is happening to her.  Adding in a boy would have just confused things more (Don’t they always!).