Writing Stuffs: Know the Novel pt. 1

 

I've been hinting at this story for a while now, saying I'll talk about it in more details eventually... but I haven't yet.

The short explanation is that I was procrastinating. There was also a short period of time where I wasn't certain if I was going to keep working on it right now because there were some other projects I wanted to focus on and the part I was in frustrated me so bad for literally no reason. So I wasn't sure whether I wanted to start screaming about a story that wasn't going to go anywhere.

And then I suppose the other part of why I waited was that I wanted to wait for the Know the Novel tag to come around. 

I found this tag last year and was like, "Oh that sounds interesting..." and so this year as I was working on cleaning up my blog and I found those posts, I thought, "let's do that again for A Word Unbroken!!" 

So here we are!

For those of you who don't know what Know your Novel is, here's a quick explanation:

Know the Novel is a 3-part tag for writers, one for each of these last three months of the year. Each part will feature ten questions you can answer on your own blog (or anywhere else on social media!). The questions will be focusing on different parts of your novel and how the writing is progressing.

This tag was created by Christine Smith. Check out her blog to find out more about the tag and see other authors' WIP.

Anyways, on to the fun!! 

1. What first sparked the idea for this novel?

Oh darn, where did I first get the idea? This current project I'm working on is the second version of the story, and it is a whole lot different (and hopefully better) than the original. I don't remember where I got the initial idea from. 

I think I had just finished reading Shadow Hand by Anne Elizabeth Stangel and got inspired by the portal/time travel/everything in there, and I decided I wanted to write something of my own like that. The first draft was handwritten in a blue Patrick Henry College journal that I got when we dropped my sister off. I didn't get very far into it. Don't think I even finished the first chapter in there. *furiously finds said notebook and scans it* Okay, I did finish the first chapter and started a paragraph of the second. But that's it.

A little while ago, when I was in my really bad writing slump, I grabbed one of my notebooks at random and started working on it again. I happened to grab that one. It was originally called The Adventures of Serwrenna and Kelberth. That changed almost immediately, along with shortening Kel's name.

After a bit of working on it in the notebook (a.k.a., one day, during which I finished that first chapter and started the second) I came up with a better idea for how the story would go and switched to the computer. I don't think much more than the names and a few small details from the first draft continued in this version.

Welp that was a longer answer than I expected... Next question!

2. Share a blurb (or just an overall summary)!

Betrayed by everyone he called friend, all Kel wants now is to protect his sister and younger brother. But when their past comes back to take them, he must choose whether to plunge into an unknown land or stay and face his demons. 

Serwrenna refuses to let her heart be broken again, and she hides her hurt behind a mask of cocky indifference. The only drive she has any more is survive and even that is fading. Why should she, when most of the people she loved most are either dead or cowards?

When their worlds collide, Kel and Serwrenna must decide whether they are willing to risk being hurt again in order to protect their remaining family. Trust is as fragile as an insincere promise… but as strong a weapon as a word unbroken.

3. Where does the story take place? What are some of your favorite aspects of the setting?

The story takes place in the continent Khogea on either side of an impregnable mountain range. Most of the first half of the book takes place in the province of Treridon, which leans toward a light fantasy genre. The rest of the story is in Qaris, one big sci-fi city. I took very light inspiration from Coruscant. 

I really enjoyed coming up with the fine details of Qaris, since I haven't yet had a story in a sci-fi world that isn't Star Wars. In Qaris, the thing that makes the speeders and such run is a little electric pulse called a "radio wave" that a special reader on the speeder latches onto and directs the speeder through the city. It was a very fun detail to come up with and figure out how it works, so that's probably one of my favorite setting extras!

4. Tell us about your protagonist(s)

Alright, the hero squad... the full "good guy" section has 13 characters. Not all of them have POV's, although several of them have had chapters mostly focused on them. I chose the three who're focused on the most to feature here. The rest are great and chaotic and everything awesome, and I DEFINITELY will be doing a post talking just about this Cast of Chaos (halp me i used chaos twice in one sentence why am i like this) and about the not-super-serious-but-still-sweet ships. 

Anyways, here's the Big Three:

- Kel Berweth

- age 17

- originally from Qaris

- primary weapon: lumo-gat

- former rebel, now fugitive

wishes he doesn't have to be the strong one, hates that he has to keep secrets from his friends, wants to run from his past but it always comes back to haunt him, will never let anyone hurt his family ever again.

- Serwrenna Myhlber

- age 16 

- originally from Treridon

- primary weapon: long sword

- former rebel, now survivor

hides her pain behind a laugh, ready to break down at any moment, doesn't want to fight anymore but doesn't have a choice, refuses to let her heart be broken again but can't help falling for him, doesn't care about what's happening to the world unless it touches her family.

- Garrin Teccur

- age 21

- originally from Qaris

- primary weapon: lumo-gat

- former rebel, now general of Qaris' army

protects a city teeming with people who want to kill him, tries to save too many people at once, doesn't understand why they won't listen, keeps his heart separate so no one else will get hurt.

So that's a brief overview of who the "Big Three" are, and as I said, there will be a later post going more in depth with the whole gang. I don't think I'll make you wait until the end of this tag, that wouldn't be very fun or nice, I think, so maybe this month or next I'll do four posts instead of three. We'll see!

5. Who (or what) is the antagonist?

Oh boy. The primary antagonist of this particular book is Mayfir Hakkyn, an army commander from Treridon that makes his way to Qaris through a portal and proceeds to suck up to some of the city's leaders while attempting to undermine Garrin's authority in the guard. Hakkyn also briefly took over the group of rebels that Serwrenna and her close band of friends were a part of, until they realized they were working for the tyrannical king and left. Because of that, he's set on tracking them down and bringing them to "justice," especially Serwrenna's adopted brother Ollyn Dhane -the son of the former leader of the rebels- since he represents Hakkyn's failure to fully remove the sparks that initiated the rebellion.

Also mentioned throughout the story is Lorren Tirone, the leader of a rebellion in Qaris and the bane of Kel's and Garrin's lives. He isn't a prominent character (still hasn't actually shown up, not sure if he will) but he is a big reason for much of the personal conflict of several of the other characters, so he's definitely on the big antagonist list!

6. What excites you the most about this story?

This is one of the first stories I've actually sat down and plotted out where it's going (even if I threw all those plans out the window while in Honduras), so that was really exciting. 

I also love the characters, as usual, but for once it's more than just because they're chaotic. There's been a few places I've been able to draw from my own experiences (albeit a bit less fatal and fantastical) to make my character's hurt really real, so that's made them personal and a bit more special to me. There's been stuff like that in some of my other stories, especially the Martyrs Saga, but I wasn't planning on doing anything like this for this story, so that's really made it extra for me. Just getting to know my characters more intimately has made me really excited to keep writing.

7. Is this going to be a series? standalone? something else?

It is going to be a trilogy! One of the first times I have started a book knowing it will be something big and knowing which loose ends to leave untied!

8. Are you plotting? pantsing? plansting?

Welp I went through and answered a question before it was asked. I started out pantsing... then I switched to plotting... and then I threw all that out the window for a different set of plotting... so I guess we're gonna classify this as plansting!!!

9.  Name a few unique elements in this story.

Back in "favorite aspects of the setting," I mentioned the radio waves. I felt like that was pretty unique.

Another unique element also already mentioned though not elaborated on would be the lumo-gats. I wanted the sci-fi world of Qaris to have some kind of blaster, but I was working really hard to distance A Word Unbroken from any of my Star Wars fanfictions, so I took a while figuring out an alternative.

The lumo-gat has a main body similar to a blaster or revolver except it collects energy from sunlight and generates them from some amount of different exit barrels. The energy that exits those barrels then rejoin together into a strengthened, concentrated bolt of electric light, called a lumoshot, that burns whatever it hits. The more barrels a lumo-gat has, the more powerful the lumoshot. Lumoshot energy can be collected and stored in a magazine since electric lights won't charge the gat; it has to be sunlight. The gat can also be set at different levels from a light searing to a stun to a shot similar to what blasters can do. The most common amount of barrels in Qaris is four or five, with six as the rarest and most in a gat. 

Here's a diagram of a three-barrel lumo-gat drawn by the me:

10. Share some fun “extras” of the story (a song or full playlist, some aesthetics, a collage, a Pinterest board, a map you’ve made, a special theme you’re going to incorporate, ANYTHING you want to share!).

ALRIGHTY EXTRAS WOOHOOOOOOOOOO. I HAVE LOTS OF EXTRAS! 

ahem normalcy is good i've been told.

okie, here's some goodies:

yes, I made the cinnamon roll meme! 

it is where part of my blog's name came from, after all. I couldn't skip it!!

I do have a Pinterest board this time 'round, but my account is private because I'm still a smol bean so sadly I can't post it. Very sad, because I organized it very nicely XD

I do, however, have a Spotify playlist:

https://spotify.link/XOpb5wXTTDb

The And collages:

just an overall collage

one of my two main ships: Dalith

the other main ship: Kelwrenna

and now two concept covers (one has words in my terrible lovely handwriting, the other is simply art):

 

which do you like better? please let me know!!!

And I think that's all I have now! Thanks so much for reading, and thanks Christine for this lovely tag! Hope y'all have a great day!