Finding the Journey Within – GUEST POST by G. T. Jones (THE BEAST TRIALS: MEADOW’S BEGINNING)
Today, we’re thrilled to welcome G. T. Jones to the Hive!
G. T. Jones’ coming-of-age YA fantasy The Beast Trials: Meadow’s Beginning is out today from Cranthorpe Millner, and to celebrate she’s joined us for Women in SFF with a piece on creating her characters. Before we check that out, let’s find out more about The Beast Trials:
“And if I fail, I have to go back to the human world?”
Meadow Woodley hated being a teenager. Self-conscious, and with few real friends, she spent most of her time at home, begrudgingly looking after the neighbour’s hideous cat.
That is, until a few days after her sixteenth birthday…
Discovering that your dad is actually a beast, and comes from an enchanted world called Elementa, is a lot to process. But finding out that you are also half beast; have to travel to this strange magical world, and must compete in a series of terrifying, potentially life-threatening challenges in the company of almost fifty other teenagers is surely taking things a step too far.
Still, it couldn’t be worse than her current life… right?
The Beast Trials: Meadow’s Beginning is out today from Cranthorpe Millner! You can order your copy from:
Waterstones | Amazon | Cranthorpe Millner | Bookshop.org
Finding The Journey Within
by G. T. Jones
Every hero and villain comes from within. Many are born from the sights that you have seen, others from the things you have experienced, giving each character an individuality born from those writing their own story. Each of my characters have been years in the making, and that is before I had even considered putting pen to paper, or even thought of my storyline. Their development has taken place over many years, influenced by my own experiences and drawing breath from my own feelings, whether positive or negative. It is my hope that my characters being born from a source of non-fiction will make them more relatable to the reader.
After much planning, and having a good idea of who I wanted my characters to be, I found that during my writing adventure each character found a voice of their own, moulding themselves into an incredible individual and taking the story places I could have never dreamed of making my own experience; a journey of a lifetime. Those I had planned to be devious and mischievous revealed themselves to have a little something deeper down, giving them a gentler side which warms readers to them and allows for forgiveness, whereas those I had planned to be good and uphold integrity throughout have moulded themselves to have greater depth, to tantalise and keep the readers thirst for drama quenched.
My favourite part of all throughout this journey was discovering the capability of those characters who were simply there to flutter by for a quick ‘hello’, but instead found themselves staying longer, guiding my pen and singing a whole song, playing a key part in not only my main character’s journey, but also in the story itself. This ultimately made me realise that my writing journey was not going to be about planning every moment, but instead finding the story within, and letting it run freely across the page, taking me on my own journey of discovery and, ironically, learning something new from my own writing. So in an incredible twist of fate, my characters have become my teachers.
As an author beginning an incredible journey, and hopeful career, my words of wisdom to those beginning theirs are: follow your own journey and let it guide you to corners of your creativity and imagination you never knew you could reach. Don’t be afraid to follow it, and most importantly, don’t only learn from every moment – enjoy it as well.
The Beast Trials: Meadow’s Beginning is out today from Cranthorpe Millner! You can order your copy from:
Waterstones | Amazon | Cranthorpe Millner | Bookshop.org
About the author:
The author says: “As a child, I always had a creative flair and a passion for writing, and was lucky enough to be supported in this by one of my wonderful English teachers. Sadly, I ended up leaving school before taking my GCSEs, as a result of being bullied, but my teacher’s words stayed in my head, and I went on to take my exams at Surrey College.
After that, I spent many years as a young adult trying to find myself, and it wasn’t until my mid 30’s, when I was at home caring for my disabled son, Jonjo, that I had the time to properly write again, and the idea for The Beast Trials was born.”
