The Fatal Question
Good heavens. My last post was in 2019.
Let's not discuss it.
My latest novel, Iron Heart of Terlian, has just released! I am always asked: "How did you come up with the idea?" Anyone who's ever written a book can tell you there's no simple answer. If only there were. Brains are like spaghetti; the imagination is no different.
But, because I'm asked this so frequently, I will do my best to explain how the current story of IHOT came to be.
In 2017, I nannied for a family with four children. One afternoon it was just me and the two-year-old, exploring the backyard. As I watched her little mind make connections, I got struck with an idea: a little girl has a special power that an evil witch wants to exploit.
As it goes with my imagination, the story quickly progressed, all within the span of a few minutes. The witch was her mother. The witch had tricked a good man into marrying her so she could conceive a child, a child who'd have the power to destroy worlds. By the time this man realized how evil his wife was, it was too late. He gave his daughter to his brother for safekeeping, and was then murdered by the witch. The brother took his niece into our world in order to protect her from the witch. Meliora was the villainess, Kelispar the murdered father, and Alikar the brother.
Now in our world, Alikar, an absentminded and eccentric wizard (very much inspired by Howl Jenkins), is attempting to fit in. He needs someone to watch the little girl, Areli, while he does his Wizarding Things and keeps Areli safe. So he puts out an ad for a babysitter. It's somewhat of a magical ad, and that's how Violet discovers it.
Violet is in college for graphic design and was just recently fired from her job. The last thing she wants is to get a babysitting gig, which she finds demeaning. But, when told that Alikar pays a ridiculous amount of money... well, she goes to meet him.
Their relationship is very much Sophie and Howl (Howl's Moving Castle by Dianna Wynne Jones). She finds Alikar ridiculous. Of course, they fall in love. But evil Meliora finds a way to Earth! She tricks Violet into revealing Areli's location, then kidnaps little Areli and takes her back to Other World.
Alikar is pretty furious at Violet and goes after Areli. Distraught by her mistake (and at having lost Alikar's respect), Violet finds a way to the Other World, joins forces with Alikar and his sidekick, Eliathor, and together they rescue Areli. Through her magic, Areli defeats Meliora. They all go back to Earth (sans Eliathor), Violet and Alikar make up, and everybody lives happily ever after.
I got about six chapters into drafting before I was like... there's too much time on Earth. They don't go to the Other World until right before the climax. And, by that point, I was itching to write something more epic fantasy, rather than very, very low contemporary fantasy. So I came up with an entirely different plot, one that enabled Violet to enter the Other World earlier and spend most of the story there.
I'd just heard the Scottish ballad "Skye Boat Song" and found the story of Bonnie Prince Charlie tragic and fascinating. That sparked the desire for a Rightful Heir to the Throne story (no, I'm not a Jacobite), where the true king is exiled in disgrace. I carried over the characters from my OG idea, keeping Meliora as the villain, though a more complex one. She still gets Kelispar killed, but she did love him and she's sad about it. And there's no more Areli because I didn't know what to do with a child in this new idea.
I wrote an entire, complete, beginning-to-end first draft in which Meliora pulls the strings, pretends to love Eliathor (they're not related in this version!), and manipulates a series of events that I can't describe because it's slightly spoilery. That draft ended with a heartbroken Eliathor having to murder his beloved Meliora in a cinematic way that was very much inspired by [stolen from] X-Men: The Last Stand, when Wolverine sobbingly stabs Phoenix. It was... dramatic. And by the time I got to that part, I already knew this idea wasn't working. Meliora's villainy was next level cringe. I'm pretty sure her lips evilly curved in a way that Morgana from BBC's Merlin would have envied. Evidently I cannot write a femme fatale.
So I had to create entirely new villains. There were two at first, Yakiv Stefanos and this guy named Yal (he got to keep his introduction scene in the final version—he's the cord thief aboard The Vagabond). Yal was a prince, and he wanted Eliathor for Reasons Which Cannot Be Disclosed. But the plot got too convoluted with both Yakiv and Yal, so I decided to combine my favorite qualities of both villains and shove them into Yakiv's persona. I apologize if this process pained him. I also kept Yal's prince backstory for, ahem, another character. More on that in Book 2.
But what to do with Meliora, who was no longer the main antagonist or even evil, for that matter? She was the hardest part of the rewrite. I considered scrapping her altogether, but then there'd be no female presence in the story other than Violet, and I really wanted to highlight feminine friendships. To this day, I am not 100% satisfied with her role in IHOT. It was simply too late in the process to recreate her entire personality and motivation in a way that felt organic. However, I do love where Meliora's story goes in the sequel, and now she has a permanent place in my heart. But, sadly, because I had to retrofit her into the plot, she's definitely one of the weaker characters in IHOT.
Over the next couple years, discovery writing took me all over the place and through many iterations of the plot, until I finally understood that liryn has crowns and cord thieves exist. That was an aha! moment that allowed all the various noodles of my spaghetti imagination to finally coalesce into a single lasagna noodle.
The main cast (Violet, Alikar, Kelispar, Meliora, and Eliathor) remained, and I picked up a few others along the way. When Violet et al. board The Vagabond, I made up the other passengers on the spot. I saw a picture of a guy on Pinterest and thought, "I want to create a character whose personality matches this guy's expression." That's how Nikos was born. I had zero plans for him, except as a passenger. That's how Yal was born, too—Yal, the previous villain who is now simply a cord thief in one scene. I saw a picture of some guy with a scar on his face and was like, "Him! I want him!"
My writing process is a blend of discovery writing and plotting. I macro plot and micro discover. So, I knew I needed my characters on a boat, but as to what would happen on the boat, it came to me while I wrote. Only later, when I decided Nikos was important, did I return to that scene and give him more significance.
Prince Ezio's character was pulled from a line in an earlier draft, when Violet has to approach Prince Ezio and describes his expression like "one who's watching a bull approach." After writing that line, I was like, "Huh, I guess Ezio is afraid of confrontation" and then I took that trait and ran with it.
Alikar is the only character who stayed the most consistent. He's rather vibrant in my imagination and is hands down one of my favorite characters to write. He gets his own POV in the sequel, and his voice just pours out onto the page.
Violet was always more on the reserved side, but it took awhile for her to feel real. Eliathor's original vibe can be compared to Volstagg in the Thor movies, and EL OH EL did he change.
I still have those few chapters of Violet and Alikar-the-uncle-who-needs-a-babysitter. It was hard to let go of that idea, I'll admit, but I'm so pleased with how the final story turned out. Will I ever use the original idea for something else? Probably not.
Would you like to read that original draft, messy and unedited though it may be? Let me know in the comments, and I can email it to you!
Let's not discuss it.
My latest novel, Iron Heart of Terlian, has just released! I am always asked: "How did you come up with the idea?" Anyone who's ever written a book can tell you there's no simple answer. If only there were. Brains are like spaghetti; the imagination is no different.
But, because I'm asked this so frequently, I will do my best to explain how the current story of IHOT came to be.
In 2017, I nannied for a family with four children. One afternoon it was just me and the two-year-old, exploring the backyard. As I watched her little mind make connections, I got struck with an idea: a little girl has a special power that an evil witch wants to exploit.As it goes with my imagination, the story quickly progressed, all within the span of a few minutes. The witch was her mother. The witch had tricked a good man into marrying her so she could conceive a child, a child who'd have the power to destroy worlds. By the time this man realized how evil his wife was, it was too late. He gave his daughter to his brother for safekeeping, and was then murdered by the witch. The brother took his niece into our world in order to protect her from the witch. Meliora was the villainess, Kelispar the murdered father, and Alikar the brother.
Now in our world, Alikar, an absentminded and eccentric wizard (very much inspired by Howl Jenkins), is attempting to fit in. He needs someone to watch the little girl, Areli, while he does his Wizarding Things and keeps Areli safe. So he puts out an ad for a babysitter. It's somewhat of a magical ad, and that's how Violet discovers it.
Violet is in college for graphic design and was just recently fired from her job. The last thing she wants is to get a babysitting gig, which she finds demeaning. But, when told that Alikar pays a ridiculous amount of money... well, she goes to meet him.Their relationship is very much Sophie and Howl (Howl's Moving Castle by Dianna Wynne Jones). She finds Alikar ridiculous. Of course, they fall in love. But evil Meliora finds a way to Earth! She tricks Violet into revealing Areli's location, then kidnaps little Areli and takes her back to Other World.
Alikar is pretty furious at Violet and goes after Areli. Distraught by her mistake (and at having lost Alikar's respect), Violet finds a way to the Other World, joins forces with Alikar and his sidekick, Eliathor, and together they rescue Areli. Through her magic, Areli defeats Meliora. They all go back to Earth (sans Eliathor), Violet and Alikar make up, and everybody lives happily ever after.
I got about six chapters into drafting before I was like... there's too much time on Earth. They don't go to the Other World until right before the climax. And, by that point, I was itching to write something more epic fantasy, rather than very, very low contemporary fantasy. So I came up with an entirely different plot, one that enabled Violet to enter the Other World earlier and spend most of the story there.
I'd just heard the Scottish ballad "Skye Boat Song" and found the story of Bonnie Prince Charlie tragic and fascinating. That sparked the desire for a Rightful Heir to the Throne story (no, I'm not a Jacobite), where the true king is exiled in disgrace. I carried over the characters from my OG idea, keeping Meliora as the villain, though a more complex one. She still gets Kelispar killed, but she did love him and she's sad about it. And there's no more Areli because I didn't know what to do with a child in this new idea. I wrote an entire, complete, beginning-to-end first draft in which Meliora pulls the strings, pretends to love Eliathor (they're not related in this version!), and manipulates a series of events that I can't describe because it's slightly spoilery. That draft ended with a heartbroken Eliathor having to murder his beloved Meliora in a cinematic way that was very much inspired by [stolen from] X-Men: The Last Stand, when Wolverine sobbingly stabs Phoenix. It was... dramatic. And by the time I got to that part, I already knew this idea wasn't working. Meliora's villainy was next level cringe. I'm pretty sure her lips evilly curved in a way that Morgana from BBC's Merlin would have envied. Evidently I cannot write a femme fatale.
So I had to create entirely new villains. There were two at first, Yakiv Stefanos and this guy named Yal (he got to keep his introduction scene in the final version—he's the cord thief aboard The Vagabond). Yal was a prince, and he wanted Eliathor for Reasons Which Cannot Be Disclosed. But the plot got too convoluted with both Yakiv and Yal, so I decided to combine my favorite qualities of both villains and shove them into Yakiv's persona. I apologize if this process pained him. I also kept Yal's prince backstory for, ahem, another character. More on that in Book 2.But what to do with Meliora, who was no longer the main antagonist or even evil, for that matter? She was the hardest part of the rewrite. I considered scrapping her altogether, but then there'd be no female presence in the story other than Violet, and I really wanted to highlight feminine friendships. To this day, I am not 100% satisfied with her role in IHOT. It was simply too late in the process to recreate her entire personality and motivation in a way that felt organic. However, I do love where Meliora's story goes in the sequel, and now she has a permanent place in my heart. But, sadly, because I had to retrofit her into the plot, she's definitely one of the weaker characters in IHOT.
Over the next couple years, discovery writing took me all over the place and through many iterations of the plot, until I finally understood that liryn has crowns and cord thieves exist. That was an aha! moment that allowed all the various noodles of my spaghetti imagination to finally coalesce into a single lasagna noodle.
The main cast (Violet, Alikar, Kelispar, Meliora, and Eliathor) remained, and I picked up a few others along the way. When Violet et al. board The Vagabond, I made up the other passengers on the spot. I saw a picture of a guy on Pinterest and thought, "I want to create a character whose personality matches this guy's expression." That's how Nikos was born. I had zero plans for him, except as a passenger. That's how Yal was born, too—Yal, the previous villain who is now simply a cord thief in one scene. I saw a picture of some guy with a scar on his face and was like, "Him! I want him!"
My writing process is a blend of discovery writing and plotting. I macro plot and micro discover. So, I knew I needed my characters on a boat, but as to what would happen on the boat, it came to me while I wrote. Only later, when I decided Nikos was important, did I return to that scene and give him more significance.
Prince Ezio's character was pulled from a line in an earlier draft, when Violet has to approach Prince Ezio and describes his expression like "one who's watching a bull approach." After writing that line, I was like, "Huh, I guess Ezio is afraid of confrontation" and then I took that trait and ran with it.
Alikar is the only character who stayed the most consistent. He's rather vibrant in my imagination and is hands down one of my favorite characters to write. He gets his own POV in the sequel, and his voice just pours out onto the page.
Violet was always more on the reserved side, but it took awhile for her to feel real. Eliathor's original vibe can be compared to Volstagg in the Thor movies, and EL OH EL did he change.
I still have those few chapters of Violet and Alikar-the-uncle-who-needs-a-babysitter. It was hard to let go of that idea, I'll admit, but I'm so pleased with how the final story turned out. Will I ever use the original idea for something else? Probably not. Would you like to read that original draft, messy and unedited though it may be? Let me know in the comments, and I can email it to you!
No comments have been added yet.
