New Year, New Project

Hope the start of your new year was a good one. I'm determined to make this year a memorable one.

I haven't worked on my WIP yet this year, but it is for a good reason. My dad is coming out with a new CD this year, and he wants it to be a "soundtrack." He asked me to write the story for it. He's going to publish it to go along with the CD. It's a neat concept, and it'll be good for me to see the publishing process. It'll help familiarize me with the copyright process, and make it easier for me when it comes time to try to get my WIP published... if I ever finish it.

It is very hard for me to write it though. Trying to write someone else's vision is a nerve wracking process. I am not used to showing my parents anything that I write. They only found out that I write at all this past summer, and I have yet to let them read any of it... except the few pages that I wrote for my dad so far. And, boy was that weird. When working on my WIP, I can usually pump out a couple pages an hour, at least, sometimes as many as 10 or 12 pages. It took me 3 hours to write the first page of this story. At this rate, I'll be working on it every waking moment until my deadline in April, just to get 100 pages.

He wrote out a detailed outline for me to follow. I've never before used an outline. My characters take the story in their own direction. It follows their lead. Not only am I trying to follow an outline, but these are not my characters. I can't hear them in my head. Which makes it even harder to write. How can I develop their personalities and describe them? I don't know them. They are my dad's characters. He's a songwriter, not a story writer. I ask him questions about them, but it isn't the same and the explainations aren't what I need... ya know.

Has anyone been involved in this type of project? Anyone have any ideas on how to go about writing this? Any help at all would be much appreciated. Feel free to leave a comment here, or drop me an email with your ideas. I'll take any help I can get.