After I put up my last post a friend of mine asked me what’s happened to Project Phoenix, and I basically said that it’s already a completed novel hat me and Owen have spoken about but it’s a long way off.
There are a number of reasons why the biggest of which is that me and Owen both have other stories that have not been told yet. Phoenix is the first thing that me and Owen ever wrote and although we have a strong belief that the story is a strong one none of our characters share that strength, nor does the world that we have created. We have both tried to reboot it a number of times to make it the story that we both want it to be, but I think that we both got tired of it and branched off into other projects. This has not been a bad thing in my opinion for both me and Owen have grown as writers and for Project Phoenix to be what we want it to be we both need to learn so much more. There is a strong military element to the story so I need to learn about the military more then I do now. I want to read a lot more military sci-fi so I know what others are doing and to inspire my own work. I also want to read some true life military writings. I’ve already read Sniper One by Sergeant Dan Mills which I found fascinating a well as Colonel Tim Collins autobiography which I also found a good read.
This story will not leave my head, each day that goes by I think of another little bit that will help the story. The protagonist in the story has no real growth, neither does the lead female character. The support characters are weak and often carbon copies of each other and definitely lack depth. We also had too many characters in the story which neither me or Owen were able to structure so that the story did not get flooded with useless characters. As I think about it we had six primary characters and thirty secondary. I have no idea why we had so many named characters but I guess that’s just an example of inexperience.
One day me and Owen will re-write this story, but that day is some way off. We want to write this story with the strength and skill that it deserves.