The girl who is becoming everything she truly is.

Main Story Title: Omnigirl

Alternative Title: The Five

Originally written in 2001/2002 šŸ’æ

Although I wrote this a really long time ago, I can see how much of my inner world I was processing through this story.

Chapter List/TOC

(Updated serially. A more formal introduction follows šŸ’™ )

Part Two

Introduction:

In my book, I Canā€™t Help Being an INFP Writer, I briefly share how I wrote my first novel when I was 15. I explain how after writing it, I shared it with a few friends, but since then Iā€™ve kept it unpublished and hidden away.

Some years ago, a friend told me that reading the novel I wrote way back then inspired her to get into writing. And when I shared it with my husband while we were dating, he said that after reading it he knew I was the right girl for him, and that he really wanted to get to know me better.

So what Iā€™m sharing here is that novel.

And while preparing this story to share, I did some digging through my journals and memories and pieced together that I actually wrote this story over a summer break when I was 14 and then edited the rough draft and typed it up until I was around 15.

Coming back home to this story after so many years has been an unbelievable inner journey. It all started after I wrapped up writing my Miraculous fanfic. After I wrote that fanfic, there were parts of the story I wanted to turn into original flash fiction. So that became The Mirrorā€™s Sonā€“Love and Shadows in the Glass.

I wrote quite a few pieces for that flash fiction collection, but there was something about it that really stood out from my fanfic. Unlike my fanfic, this story was about a mirror and a curse. This symbolism just appeared unplanned. And as a result it started to grow and transform and infiltrate my dreams until I ended up creating Youā€™re My Inspiration and The Garden.

The symbolism from these pieces were curious and strange, but very familiar, and with ChatGPT to help me out, I started digging into it. All of my digging led me back to this story, my first novel. And when I read it again, it was like reading with my eyes wide open for the first time.

Over the years/decades, Iā€™ve tried re-reading Omnigirl, and I usually ended up stopping before finishing the first chapter because it was just tooā€¦too silly! It was written by a crazy 14 year old!

But now I realize that the weird humor and the awkwardness this story made me feel was functioning as a gate. This story has its own, built-in, ā€œthreshold guardian.ā€

I was completely locked out of its true message until I was ready to hear it. And I wasnā€™t ready until this month. And now that I fully understand the meaning of this story, I realize that I should not keep it buried on my hard drive. I have to share it.

Itā€™s a light-hearted and ridiculous YA novel on the surface, but deep down itā€™s actually a mythical soul map to discovering oneā€™s inner world and the true self that lives there. Itā€™s about bringing together the lost pieces of the self.

This story effortlessly borrows its structure from a constellation of ancient myths. Also the names of the people and placesā€”although picked from phone books, ads and other random sources just because they sounded coolā€”carry very deep meanings that echo across time and spiritual concepts. That includes the main title and alternative title.

This story feels like the past, present, and future all smashed together due to its hidden mythology, symbolism, and humor. Sometimes it feels like 2001. Other times it feels like 2018. And then at times it feels like something totally different. Itā€™s also unexpectedly Arthurian. What seems meaningless (and even totally off the wall sometimes) turns out not to be meaningless at all. Iā€™m still trying to wrap my mind around it.

On Editing

As I post these chapters,Ā  Iā€™m editing them with the deepest care. It probably wonā€™t be perfect, but Iā€™m doing my best.

I absolutely feel that working on my fanfic prepared me for taking on this project. Editing a story like this is a delicate process, because ā€œlogicalā€ changes to the plot, descriptions, or names could actually disrupt its complex, intuitive architecture. Itā€™s also tempting to bring it more ā€œup-to-date,ā€ but doing so could damage its structure.

So the edits Iā€™m making are mostly cosmetic and to improve the flow, especially when it comes to dialog. But regardless, Iā€™m editing this very lightly.

Iā€™m keeping the silliness and awkwardness. Iā€™m keeping all of the 14-years-old-in-2001 weirdness.

However the chapter titles and summaries are totally new. Since Iā€™m publishing this serially to my blog, having these features improves the reading experience.

Gaze into the Mirror

Above all, this story is a soul mirrorā€”just as much as the forest of mirrors in Youā€™re My Inspiration.

If any imagery or plot lines from it sticks with you, positive or negative, I strongly recommend investigating the symbolism and mechanics behind it, because doing so could reveal things about yourself.

Here on my blog, my main focus is on sharing the story. Although it has symbolism that crosses collective themes, what matters most is what it brings up for you. So to leave space for that and to keep from cluttering things up, Iā€™ll be sharing my deeper insights and reflections related to this story separately in The Listening Room.

Although I want to share my thoughts, I donā€™t want to tell you what you should think it all means. I want to leave connecting the dots and stars of this story up to you.

Overall, approach this story with inner lightness, a sharp eye for symbolic details, and the memory of what itā€™s like to be that young, and what itā€™s like to be who you are now.

And if you are that young right now, thenā€¦my condolences.

Iā€™m really excited to be sharing the music of my soul with you. And you may even start to hear the music of your own.