Meredith Mansfield, Author

Thanks to some comments in a writer’s forum I belong to (Hatrack River Writers Workshop) about what is–and is not–a flashback and other kinds of story structures that are not linear, I think I finally have a good idea how BELONG needs to flow.

As I’ve said before, BECOME is loosely based on the Hercules myth/legend cycle–turned upside-down. What has intrigued me most about that story is that Herc, at the end, ascends and becomes a god.

Now, exciting as his story is, it’s undeniable that outside of killing monsters and similar feats, Hercules’s life was a disaster. Admittedly, Hera was responsible for most of that, but still . . . what about his life prepared him to be a god of anything (except possibly killing monsters)?

So, Become is mostly about what happens when my character, who has led a blessed and very successful life (upside-down Hercules, remember) is suddenly confronted with the first thing he can’t do easily–become a god. That’s when the story really gets moving. But there’s a lot of story before that, too. Both about the hero and about his near-twin half brother (very like Hercules) who is his sometimes ally-friend, sometimes opponent and who will be the one to try to take advantage of that failure.

I now think I know how to start the story much closer to that key event and then let the earlier story come in, hopefully organically. We’ll see how well I succeed at that.

I have a reading list of a couple of books that have done something similar to look into, too.

Of course, what I really should be working on is MAGE STORM. I guess my muse just doesn’t agree with my plans.