Sarah: This post is ACTUALLY about writing.

One morning (not too long ago, actually) I woke up and I suddenly knew what Camelot looked like. I hadn't been thinking about it previously, hadn't even been wondering what on earth King Arthur and his knights were up to. But this story, Once and Futures, presented itself to me in one giant lump of ideas.

I suddenly knew what Arthur looked like. I knew how he and Lancelot became friends and what Merlin meant to both of them. I knew the things that would happen to all of them, the tests they would endure, the struggles they would face...

...All for one, nameless girl.

For the past three days, this story has consumed my entire life. I knew how the story would start. I knew where the girl would go and who she would go with and the risks and pain everyone would endure. That day, I began the story.

Since then, I've been attached to paper and pens when forced away from my keyboard. In three days, 10, 000 words have come to me. This is a story that is writing itself, it seemed. The people come to me and tell me their stories. I'm just the messenger. I've been struggling, really, really struggling, to make sense of these people and understand their souls.

The characters are very, very real to me because of the intense level of writing energy I've been enduring. My heart has pounded in the intense moments, and I could practically feel the emotions running through Lynette, Arthur, Lancelot, and Merlin. Today, when I glimpsed how this story would end, how I know it must end, despite my best efforts to change it, I honestly started crying, just a little, knowing I would lose the Arthur I had created in my head.

This story is special to me, though it is not my first attempt at writing, because I finally accepted what I knew all along: I am a writer. And that is a calling I simply can't deny.

Lots of times life is crazy, senseless and even disappointing, but every once in awhile the stars seem to align to make everything feel just right. Writing Once and Futures has been one of those latter times. This isn’t a “pet project” of mine, it is a soul project. It comes from the deepest parts of me and has consumed my entire life. Camelot and all the amazing people who suffered, struggled, and sacrificed to make it happen have gotten under my skin.

And that's why I know, despite what scholars and people of knowledge have said for hundreds of years, I know Camelot must have existed, as with Arthur and Merlin and Lancelot and Guinevere and all the others. Because this, this thing in my head, it's all so real.

You might never read Le Morte d'Arthur (I was forced to in eighth grade and thought nothing of it then) but my desire is to make that world come alive for people. Let them be transported back in time. Let them go on an adventure. And let them fall in love with these characters who have become close friends of mine. I’ve found that the people I spend the most time with for the past couple days have been dead for a long, long time.

But not anymore. Camelot is back. Enjoy the sword fights, jousting, and, of course, the impossible romance of the medieval era.