Deathberries/Retrospective

Honestly, when I posted chapter 1 of Lost and Unknown, I never knew it was going to be an epic, James-Patterson type series. I never knew that I would end up hating all of my characters. And I never knew what kind of feedback I was going to get.

Of course, nobody else knew that, either. So I guess I wasn't alone.

Lost and Unknown was originally created to show two apprentices beat the odds and become heroes. When I posted Chapter 1 (now Part 1 of the prologue), I only wanted to express a dangerous environment- a she-cat treading too close to MountainClan's border (later ThunderClan) and watching two cats pad away.

Yewtail was killed. And that's where it all began- my desire to kill off characters I had made up in my head.

So I made up two more she-cats to get killed- Grayfoot and her apprentice, Dawnpaw. Yes, it's pathetic, I agree.

Grayfoot was originally intended to be the name of the hero- Grayfoot, a she-cat that beat Berry against all odds. And that would have been the end of it.

But then I killed her in the prologue. Whoops.

So I made Littlepaw. And her best friend and brother, Marshpaw. They were the leader's kits (anybody want to explain what happened to their mother?). They watched as their father dealt with the sudden death of three cats. They decided that they would go hunting, where they only caught a frog, and that was where their adventure began.

The evil cat, meanwhile, was getting ready to kill another cat. I named him Berry after Deathberries themselves- this cat was so prone to murdering that I couldn't help it. It also, at the time, made him sound a bit more innocent than if I named him something like "Blood" or "Jag."

Yes, I thought I was brilliant. I still do.

I loved writing about how Marshpaw's back was broken. It was so fun to fling him against the rock and make his life miserable. I loved writing about kind, brave Littlepaw, who dragged him back to camp. I enjoyed making Berry follow them.

I have to say, my favorite part of it all was pushing Berry off the cliff. That was actually not intended to happen; I wanted to kill him in cold blood, and I never wanted Rockstar (ha ha, funny, I know.) to find out about any of it.

My characters are very defiant, however. They wanted to push Berry off a cliff, so I let them.

I intended for Berry to die at the end of Lost and Unknown, but there were still so many things I could do. I had to fix Marshpaw's back and make Berry spit out his history.

So I extended the series. I called it Deathberries, after Berry, of course, and began to write.

I tricked Marshtail. This was fun- making Hollyleaf and Darkstripe pose as Shadowstar and Pebbleheart (the first ShadowClan medicine cat). "Shadowstar" and "Pebbleheart" knew exactly how to heal Marshtail, and all Marshtail had to do was obey. Only when he killed his father was the trick explained to him. Marshtail was forced to apologize to his Clan, but he was healed.

Airfur, meanwhile, the deputy of WindClan, was slowly falling for Berry (known to her as Berryclaw). He pretended to fall in love with her in order to keep his protection in WindClan. His kits, Eaglekit, Brackenkit, and Dawnkit, would end up becoming a not-so-small part of his life or death.

In September 2010, an IP published a story called "Berries of Death," and, after I got a little overprotective, explained that they had liked Deathberries and wanted to make something similar to it. (Sunstar9, if you ever read this, I apologize for my aggressiveness.)

And then came to writing Berry's history: one of the toughest life stories of my whole writing career to come up with. What was pathetic enough to explain to a she-cat that he loved but yet explain the reason for his rise to terror?

I came up with a common reason: his brother, who abandoned him and who stole the first she-cat he had ever fallen in love with. I came up with a reason for Boulderfoot's birth (the story is explained in segments throughout the series). I invented names for them all.

And then I had a major writer's block. For months and months and months, I didn't know what to say, how to portray the epic finale that the series deserved.

So, I shut up. I stayed quiet for a while.

And then I finished it randomly one day towards the end of my freshman year of high school. It was detail-free, basically, but it was the end to a series empire.

I just want to say thank you to all my supporters- you guys all rocked when you agreed to my frank statement of Deathberries being awesome.

I also want to thank CatZ for letting me steal his idea of a Retrospective. xD

~ When the past calls,   ignore him.  He has nothing new to say. 19:14, June 6, 2011 (UTC)