I just finished a short story last night. It features a girl who has a part in the history of many of the stories. And the Nowhere King. I mean, a demon from Chinese mythology who's a lot like the Nowhere King.
The thing that seems to snag me the most in short stories is naming all the characters. I kept trying to cheat in this one, to see how few characters I could get away with using. Since it takes place so far in the past, I couldn't reuse any characters that I already have developed. But I couldn't get away with it. I still needed a bunch of names.
I actually asked Mom to help me think of names. She rattled through a few, and I picked a couple for the kids. Heheh, I feel like I cheated.
And the main character had no character for about 2/3 of the story. She was just a scared little girl. So I started to fix her, and she ended up being pretty much the exact opposite. But I still have a ways to go to make her a good character.
Basically, when I started designing the world for my stories, there wasn't really much in the way of... culture. Later on, after my world started feeling more real, I had to examine elements that I added, and see if they fit anymore. For example, the "magic school" is surrounded by a grove of plum trees. Only because I loved the idea of standing in a grove of plum trees in full bloom - it would be like standing in a cloud.
But plum trees aren't native to the area. So how did they get there? I could have just gotten rid of them, of course. But I still kinda like them there. And there aren't too many original elements of the school's design left. So this story explains why there's a grove of plum trees around the temple.
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