A Few Words on Recycling
Or how to cannibalize your own stories…
When it comes to stories, the truth behind them often is messy and long.
The first version of my upcoming debut, ‘Blade and Lyre’, was conceived in my early 20s. It was a sprawling monstrosity about a girl raised by the fairies who, after learning she was human, decided to leave her fairyland home and find her fortune in the human world.
At 20k+ words, it lacked both goals and stakes. I introduced characters and plot beats but abandoned them whenever they became too cumbersome, when I wrote myself into a corner, or when the tension dropped.
Blainor was a mere side character, but he quickly hijacked the story from everyone else. His obsession with Trisha fascinated me, but because I never took the time to question it or to refine either Trisha’s or Blainor’s motivations, I gave up writing the story.
It would have remained in the folder with my other abandoned ideas had I not reviewed it, hoping to find something to pique my interest and pour my emotional turmoil into.
Through the Looking Glass: A New Perspective
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that I found the story poorly written, with even more poorly defined characters, all set in a vague, D&D-flavored, pseudo-West European world.
Despite it all, I was intrigued enough to pull it out of the mothballs.
Trisha was in her late teens. I hadn’t given her any particular personality, except for a flute and magic she could weave in her music. Blainor, on the other hand, was a warlock in his 30s commanding a group of bandits. But the dynamics between them—a dangerous man and a fairy-raised girl—worked, oddly enough. More than that, their relationship gave me an avenue to explore my own thoughts on power, vulnerability, and love.
(A moral of the story: never delete anything. You never know what you’ll end up using.)
As I’m no longer in my twenties, I had serious concerns about their age gap. Nor am I interested in coming-of-age stories about teenage girls; I find the mental landscape of an adult woman with adult problems much more fascinating. Thus, Trisha gained an additional decade of experience, a lyre, and a traumatic childhood. Blainor, on the other hand, was elevated to the position of warlord and king-elect, and, to keep things balanced, I gave him his share of sorrows.
But those same questions still required answering:
1. Why was Trisha raised by the fae?
2. Why does Blainor need her?
After a few complete manuscripts under my belt, I finally knew how to unspool them into plot-relevant ideas.
As my answers clarified and the pieces slotted into their place, the world formed around Trisha and Blainor: the twelve clans of Eichlandt, a nation with windswept moors, eroded mountains, and quiet forests of birch, spruce, and pine. Its southern neighbor, Normark, and the icy plains of Everfrost.
Trisha’s trusty gelding, Dapple, leaped into existence from another abandoned side plot. The Undying Lands, with its fairy characters, underwent a total makeover as well. No longer harmless fairies, they’re now inhuman and unsettling fae with a craving for human blood. The shining star of my new villainous fairy assembly is Shi’as—Trisha’s teacher, but with his own goals.
I know. I’ve said multiple times that I don’t do worldbuilding. Clearly, that is a lie.
Completed Blade and Lyre is vastly different from my initial idea. The external plot changed; its characters have more complex dreams and fears, and even the world around them is different. Yet despite all those changes, the core remains the same—it is a story of a woman caught between two worlds, wanting to belong.
Perhaps that was what I saw in it and what called to me.
So, To Summarize
I’ve learned my lessons. I no longer spurn my old ideas, no matter how childish they might appear, since behind each is a story waiting to be discovered and told again. Sometimes all they need is just a little time and a fresh perspective.1
I hope you enjoyed learning how Blade and Lyre came into being, along with the character art reveal. I’m so delighted to see these two brought to life visually. Thank you to the amazing Nyx Faye for the artwork.
Blade and Lyre will be released on 5 May 2026.
Thank you for reading!
Except for my first-ever finished novel, which I still cannot look at without cringing. Oh well, maybe after a decade, when I’ve gained enough distance.