J is for Jane

It’s April, and that means it’s time for the A to Z challenge. I really must be a glutton for punishment; April is my last month of college, and I’m still an amateur blogger, but I must say, I’m looking forward to the challenge. I’m going to be writing short little blurbs about some retired characters from my DISTANT past up until recently; all of them are failed concepts. Part of me is hoping that writing about these characters will inspire me…perhaps to write more during the summer when school is out.

Today is another subject from a NaNoWriMo, but this time, it’s a story I never finished. I sure did get pretty far however. My biggest problem was, when I started it, the ideas sounded completely unique. I thought I was the bee’s knees, and this novel became my baby. I paused the project for a few years and returned to it in high school. Shortly, after that, I read The Hunger Games and realized that my idea was too similar to compete. So it’s back to the drawing board for that story.

Fun fact: I was digging through old computer files and found the text. I started rereading it and realized that I stopped writing on a cliffhanger. I absolutely hate myself, because I can’t remember what I wanted to happen!

Jane was the daughter of a rich businessman who got kidnapped shortly after she turned fifteen. She spent several years of her life trapped in an underground fighting ring called the Arena. Children were kidnapped and made to fight for others (mostly rich spectators) to watch. Jane escaped death because well…she was pretty. Not beautiful. Not particularly talented. Just pretty enough to fulfill the needs of the man that took her.

I actually never got to write her arc, so  I suppose I can’t say much about who she is as a person because I never thought about it. With the direction she was taking, she was either going to be your typical damsel in distress or your “strong independent woman who don’t need no man.” I’m not particularly fond of either archetype. I’m hoping to find a way to combine the two.