The perfect medium

The first "real" novel that I wrote was called Every Color (sound familiar?). I was eleven, and I'd written pieces of novels before, and lots of picture books (illustrated by me, of course), but I hadn't actually committed to writing (and eventually editing) a full novel. Every Color was total fantasy: portals, other worlds, mysterious dream catchers, some kind of evil "presence". It makes sense, because fantasy was my favorite genre at that point. Around that time I ended up getting into analyzing fantasy too, by comparing all sorts of different books I've read and classifying them into subgenres. And, like I tend to do when I've spent too much time classifying something, I started to go wider with my definitions. Was science-fantasy considered "fantasy"? What about soft sci-fi? What about mostly real-life with a hint of magic?
That's when I got into my slice-of-life phase. I wanted to write a book that was real life, but was steeped in fantasy. Nothing crazy would happen, but there would be an undercurrent of unreality throughout. I was into surrealist art at that time (I was about twelve at this point), so my first attempt was about a gallery. It didn't work out at all, but my second attempt in this vein was also about an art gallery (and, more specifically, surrealism). It was about Andrea, a sporty girl who meets Vega the dreamer. They became friends through surrealist art, and created a club (the "Dream RELM", which is the name of the novel as well) about "exploring" imaginary worlds.
And then Vega was supposed to disappear, to go into one of those imaginary worlds, without leaving any sign of her existence. She was supposed to be the magic element of the book.
Except, I got stuck writing it. It felt too short, and I kept trying to stretch it out and make it into a novel. And then I got bored. It was too quiet, too subtle. I started to write another "slice-of-life-with-fantasy" novel (it's called River Girls), which blended magic with real life in a more fluid, more interesting way. Eventually, River Girls stalled out too, and I tried once more before stopping slice-of-life altogether.

About a year ago, I went back to both novels. I realized that they were destined to be novellas, and I didn't try to force them. I basically finished Dream RELM, but when I read it over I realized it ended too abruptly. Vega and Andrea have their last conversation, then Vega leaves and BOOM: epilogue. So, okay...I just need to fit in some scenes in between, right? But I couldn't bring myself to do it. I lost interest again.
But yesterday, I was talking about plays with my Mom of Awesome (you'll see why she's called that in a sec). I was saying how I want to write plays, but so far it doesn't seem like my medium, and I have to keep trying. Then the topic switched to my earlier novels, and Mom of Awesome said, "Maybe you should make Dream RELM a play."

HOLY CRAP.


It's going great. I would act in it, if I was twelve. THIS is the medium for Dream RELM, if not all my slice-of-life-fantasy novels. And as a bonus, it's adding to my WriYe word count! The only thing is...I'm starting to wonder if I should change the ending. What if Vega reappears near the end, and the play ends as they start talking? (Or maybe Andrea sees her, but decides her life has changed, and walks away?) We'll see.
I'll keep you posted.