Do you Write an Origin or Backstory? 

thank you!

Thank you! I wish you luck with your writing :)

The basic idea/twist of the story would be that the protagonist is believed to have died of a severe sickness and is entombed. Instead of burying people, the fantasy world I'm working on has a custom where the corpses of people of relatively higher social standing are laid into pools of pure water in an underground spring with religious significance as a means of ridding their bodies of disease and impurity before they venture into the beyond. However the protagonist recovers (akin to recovering from a coma) midway through the purification process believing that hundreds of years must have passed since her "death". The protagonist still has most of her former memories in tact but believes everyone from her past to have long died. In the short time the protagonist was actually "dead" her husband (who previously held some not insignificant political power) went off the deep end and with him removed from his position the country they lived in got itself involved in a war with a neighboring nation. That's my explanation for why the country has changed beyond recognition since her "death" further adding to her belief that a long time must have passed since then. As the story progresses the protagonist is roped into all different kinds of plots and conspiracies slowly leading her to learn that maybe it hasn't actually been that long as she uncovers what has become of the things and people she remembers from her past. Some more or less related plot points / ideas that I didn't fit into the premise would be: The sickness the protagonist "died" of in the past turns out to be an assassination attempt to remove her husband form his political position which ended up kinda working out in a roundabout way. Since the protagonist laid in a spring of pure water her appearance changed significantly after she wakes up again. (bleached hair, partially translucent skin, almost ghostly appearance). This prevents her from being immediately recognized upon returning to the country/city/kingdom and it could also serve to show the effects of her "death" at the beginning of the story. Perhaps some people are afraid of or hostile towards her at first and she has to cover up her looks? (I just got that last idea after watching the video so this is just a first thought). I'm not sure how I want to handle the protagonists relation to her husband as they both realize that the other is not actually dead. I want them to end up on opposing ends of the conflict but there is a chance for a redemption arc. Unsure whether I'd want to go with that route. Obviously at this current point it's more akin to "a lot of plot-holes with a bit of story" rather than "a story with a couple plot-holes left to fill in" but as this is my first genuine attempt at developing a story I'm bound to completely mess up half the things I'm doing and that's fine with me.

This was my literal, exact problem that made me write this video. Best of luck; I hope you're able to figure it out!! From what you've said, it sounds like an interesting story concept! Something that tends to help me when I'm reaching a plot dilemma is basically just rambling about it out loud or to a friend and seeing which version of events I defend the most, because that's the one that my brain knows is going to work better or be more fun to write, but then theme and storytelling have to play a major part in it as well, so it's a balance.

@@IntoThePlot Thanks! I've been doubting my story ideas for a long time constantly worrying about making some "rookie writer mistakes", falling into some bad fanfic tropes or accidentally copying ideas from other stories so this really means a lot. I'm always in this perfectionist work ethic of thinking way too much and doing way too little but this video helped me get some new insights and improve some parts I was unsure about (I think this is probably my best summarized version of the story concept to date because all the other times I wrote it down or talked to someone about it I disliked some parts of it for one reason or another). Now I feel like I'm slowly working towards a finished and compelling story 0.01% at a time.

@@ze_darku_magician5504 Glad I could help!! No writer is going to make a perfect first piece (trust me, my current book went through 55+ rewrites and versions before getting to the final draft I'm currently editing, and the first 10 drafts were the most cliched things I've ever seen in my life. Literally "evil demon kingdom is evil and burned down the protagonist's hometown."). Advice I wish I had when I started is: write the "bad/scrappy draft" where it's just a rant and vibe. The fact that it's an intentionally shabby draft helps ease the perfectionism. And the second tip I really needed to listen to years ago is to just write a bunch of stuff, rather than working on one thing that keeps needing rewrites to reach an unattainable bar of perfection. The more you write, and the more diverse stories and concepts you attempt, the faster your writing skills will grow. The practice stories don't have to be Shakespeare, they could just be like one page of describing a tree, but it's the momentum that really helps hone the skill.

Thanks so much!

@@IntoThePlot my pleasure. Best of luck to you finishing your story and getting it published.

@@Sarcastic_Sophist Thanks! I'm hoping to finish it within a couple of months. We'll see how the publishing process goes

@@IntoThePlot worst case self publishing is getting easier and easier. May I ask what your book is about?

@@Sarcastic_Sophist True. And certainly! The book is a fantasy/steampunk adventure story about the main cast going from city to city and trying not to get arrested, as well as working through internal conflicts by facing the past.