The night my mentor and friend instructed me to write a 10,000-word story, I wanted to be proactive. I didn’t want to fall behind or drop the ball this time. That night, I started thinking about my main and secondary characters (MC and SC, respectively).

I remember asking if the MC had to go out with the SC if he asked her out again. What if she didn’t want to see this guy again? So, it was decided that in the midst of writing, if I thought the ending was going to be different, then that was okay. With that in mind, I didn’t want her to say yes. In fact, I wanted my MC to be the reason why the date went to hell.

I began developing both characters with that thought in mind. The MC was a tall, auburn-haired, white woman who lived alone with her German Shepherd, Misty, and worked at the art museum. She was a quiet woman who’d been single for about a year as a result of a broken engagement.

The SC was kind and funny. He was 6’2 with dark brown hair and gray eyes. He was confident, but not arrogant. He reminded the MC of her ex-fiancé – not just his personality, but also his appearance.

After having some basic idea of who they were, I thought about how they met. I concluded that her friend (someone she’d known for a few months) had set them up on a blind date. Then I started thinking of how she could mess up the date.

The SC was kind to her during the entire date, which was something she wasn’t used to. Unfortunately, she offended him repeatedly. He tried to salvage the date, but decided to call it quits due to her behavior.

There was supposed to be some back and forth between the two that would lead him to ask what man ruined her. He would tell her that his sister spoke highly of her, which was the exact opposite of how she was behaving. At that moment, she’d realize that her friend and his sister were one in the same.

I took more notes on the outcome of the date and completed my version of an outline (nothing fancy). The story would begin after the MC came home from her date. There would be flashbacks to her getting ready for her night out and what occurred during the date.

After coming up with this, I decided to take the night to sleep on it. The next day after I came home from church, I scrapped the idea of my MC sabotaging the date. I also changed her physical appearance.

My girl went from an auburn-haired white woman who worked at the art museum with an unknown profession to a biracial (half Colombian, half black) art curator. Once I decided to change her ethnicity, I knew I needed to visit Writing with Color http://writingwithcolor.tumblr.com/ to make sure I described her in an authentic, respectful manner.

While researching how I’d describe her hair texture, skin color, etc., I learned that my MC wasn’t biracial. It was at that point I stopped trying to make her into something and let her be who she was meant to be.

She became a black woman named Vanessa Monroe. The German Shepherd was now a Basenji. She went from possibly living in a condo or townhouse to living in a Spanish-style bungalow – thanks to her dog (search the internet for Basenjis and let me know if you’d live in a condo or townhouse with that kind of dog 😂).

I continued developing Vanessa before deciding that her date was no longer white. He was a Japanese-American named Kento Parsons. Needless to say, I spent a lot of time on Writing with Color. 😂

When I finally had their primary information, three days had passed and I hadn’t written one word. With less than two weeks to complete this story, I had no idea what my next move would be. I panicked and questioned my writing process. Eventually, I gave up and prayed.

That night, I closed my eyes for a few minutes when a scene pop in my head. Vanessa and Kento were in a restaurant and they weren’t happy. Their issue, the reason for their date going to hell in a handbasket, was occurring in my head at 2:30a.m. (those two had no respect for time – and still don’t).

I grabbed my phone and typed as fast as my little fingers could go (yes, it would’ve been easier to get on my laptop, but it’s a piece of crap). I wrote the restaurant scene, the aftermath, and outlined the entire story. By the time I was done, it was a little after 7:00a.m.

Over the next few days I worked on Vanessa’s backstory along with the flashbacks. My goal was to time the flashbacks just right so that the story flowed and the reader was intrigued.

When I started, I struggled with finding my voice and settling on the POV and tense. Most of the novels I gravitate toward are written in third person past tense. I’m used to being on the outside looking. That’s how I saw Vanessa, so I wrote her part in third person present tense.

For some reason, I switched to first person present when I wrote Kento’s part. I have no idea why. I may have been influenced by a book I recently read that used different POV for the two main characters. It’s also possible I felt the need to slip into Kento’s shoes in order to understand him. Who knows?

After I wrote the dialogue, I struggled tying everything together. I made the mistake of editing while I wrote, which was a disaster. I was in a never-ending editing cycle. When I read it, the first words out of my mouth was “What the f***!” My inner critic wreaked havoc on my confidence.

Since I hadn’t been writing on a daily basis, I was embarking in unknown territory. I knew it would be difficult, but I didn’t anticipate how hard it would be to manage my time and stay focused. Needless to say, I scrambled to finish on Day 14. I passed up a family get-together in order to finish this assignment.

I had until 11:59p.m. on the last day and I used every minute. I emailed the rough, messy project to my friends at 11:58p.m.. Although I desperately wanted to revise it, I didn’t let that stop me from celebrating a small victory.

This 10-000 word story has evolved into two parts, each one being over 9,000 words. It’s gone through so many revisions it’s not even funny. Regardless, the first installment of Vanessa and Kento’s story is complete. Yes, there’s more. Their story has become more than a first date, which is unexpected. I thought this would be the end of it, but brainstorming with one of my friends resulted in three additional short stories. It looks like my mysteries will have to wait.

Next week I’m posting Blind Date Part One. I can’t wait to share this with you. I hope you come back and check out how Vanessa and Kento’s story begins.