Concept Art : Dance My Memories Away
Summary
Mikanne has had a rough past with her step-father, her mother's death, and her sister moving out, leaving her to live the rest of her adolescence alone with the man she hates. Suffering now from PTSD while not being able to recall a single joyful memory, or the person who helped her have them, she dances her time away. She runs into a few people who supposedly know her, and as they try to uncover why she keeps forgetting them, she finds the dark secrets about her world, and these new friends.
Concept Art
Main Characters
Why?
While Ellyssa has never been a part of a dance group, be that ballet, hip-hop, jazz, or the like, she has always enjoyed the thought of dancing. Taking inspiration from fantasy, and science fiction, she had created a world set in a time without the use of electricity. The steampunk theory had always been something that had intrigued her, and led her to write the story she did.
Except no story can be complete without a little bit of angst, and lore. As she continued to write her story, the more she had developed the level of history behind this mythical world that she had fallen in love with. Without the use of electricity, it causes a lot of difficulties in writing, especially living in the time period of today, where the use of phones, electricity, and just day to day living is much different than a world where man-made islands float in the skies.
Writing Lore
The hardest part in writing the lore and the day to day living of the story, despite how fast pace it is, is probably the communication, and her favorite character Daisha. Daisha, as can be seen in the concept drawings is a singer, and a lot of the story takes place in that theatrical world that seems so far apart from our day to day lives. However, without the use of electricity, it becomes a question on how can there be a famous singer, a ballerina, and this theatrical center that most of the story revolves around?
Sketches
When drawing the concepts of the story, it's always nice to start with a sketch.
What Ifs
One sketch can lead you to ask why? And what if? What if they were different, would the story go about a different way
In asking those questions you can really see what the feel is you're going for. Ellyssa continues to ask those questions as she writes again and again for her story, a story that makes her ask, 'is this the direction I want it to go?' Bringing her to have multiple possible endings in her head, where she just has to pick exactly which one she wants to lead her readers.
Ellyssa continues to write each and every new chapter, and draw each new concept to solidify her vision, so that she can finally release another book.
