Drafting chapters

For this post, I thought I would take a moment and discuss some of my process for drafting a chapter. Each segment of a story is its own adventure, but there are some typical steps that almost always appear on my journey. As of this post, I’m actually not finished writing the portion of the story referenced below, though much of it is in my mind and on the to-do list for tonight. As the end of the chapter will be full of spoilers, I will focus just on the start and what is already in place. Beginnings are the most difficult anyway. Once I give it a nudge, the story and characters typically write themselves.

The chapter started with a simple note- Chapter 22 (Continuation of Artemus, Jezelle, Moonsail, Edgar, and Ishton). It was a placer. I had written four chapters past this point as I formulated ideas. It would be great if I could bang through the chapters in the sequence they appear in the finished product, but that rarely happens. You have to write what you feel like writing. Forcing it shows up instantly in the prose. I won’t lie. I got hung up, and instead of staring at a blank page, I moved on to stay productive. Usually, when this minor writer’s block happens, the forward movement triggers an idea, and that’s what occurred here.

So, where do we go from this simple note? The possibilities were endless- almost. I did have a few constraints. I don’t want to give away any spoilers, but this group of characters was starting a journey the last time we checked in on them in Chapter 19. The reader and I have known this journey would happen eventually. The trip would be by sea, and their ultimate destination was Thornhold, far to the North. It would require circling the Luenwell Pennisula and then up the eastern coast of the Devilwood- a journey of some 1,200 miles. Sea travel in the medieval period is usually dull, with brief moments of excitement and terror. The Dawn of the Lightbearer has a lot of sea travel, but I milked as much action out of that journey as I could. I didn’t want to go down that path again. I love the ocean, but I’ve never sailed, meaning it’s a lot of research. But a straight shot to their destination doesn’t match the story’s pace. Lastly, it’s also a very long journey. Something would happen if only in the relationship of the characters. They needed an adventure, and thus an island materialized on the horizon.

What kind of island? Well, the southern coast of the Luenwell Pennisula is subtropical- think Florida. In The Mourning Son, book 2, Eric starts his journey of re-discovery amongst the twisted routes of a Mangrove forest on this coast. So, we begin with a tropical island. I spent about an hour looking through pictures for inspiration and settled on Vila Franca Islet in the Azores (pictured above). I liked that it was the cone of a collapsed volcano filled with the sea. The region of Lucardia is volcanic, so that worked, but really it was just the perfectly circular lagoon that resonated with me. Some things happen 🙂 and my characters find themselves on this island. I don’t let my imagination rest completely, Vila Franca Islet is not perfect for my needs, so I increased the scale, added more vegetation, and threw in some ruins. My island is quite remote, so having the remains of an ancient castle at its highest point adds the mystery I need to move the story. We’ve got a setting!

I start the actual writing with thick descriptions to get my thoughts and ideas out. I went into detail on the process of getting to the island and then described all aspects of the island itself. The product of this is dense paragraphs of telling. When I was green as a writer, that was my finished product. The room gasps! I know, and I wondered why I couldn’t get an agent. I’ve learned. Most have heard it is better to show than tell. These purple proses won’t work for an audience, but they help conceptualize everything and ease the feeling that I may lose details before weaving them into the story. And that is the next stage- taking these paragraphs and knitting them into the dialogue and the action. I talk more about this process here. Suddenly, a couple of paragraphs become a couple of pages, and we’re off.

Five characters are hard to keep track of for an extended period. I also want to focus on the relationship between two of these five for purposes that will become apparent later in the story. So, the group must split. I decided to give them tasks relevant to their character traits. Ishton grew up by the sea, so he’s on food detail combing through the tidal pools for edibles. Artemus is an engineer and alchemist- he’s on fire duty. Moonsail is the youngest and was kicking around an old coconut, so let’s put him to use. After a long sea journey, he can gather fresh coconuts for a nourishing drink. That leaves Jezelle and Edgar for some relationship-building. Their job? They must get to the mysterious ruins and the island’s high point to scout the area. In the process, they will search for fresh water.

The view focuses on Jezelle and Edgar. Once off the lagoon’s beach, the island becomes a thick jungle with hints of its distant past scattered here and there. Beyond this point, the conversation and the setting dive into spoiler territory. We get some insight into the characters and the history of Lucardia. Clues on who built the castle come to light as the two climb. As they move up the small mountain, it symbolizes the story arch, and the tension builds as they get closer to the peak. There, they will face a challenge and, with it, some action. There will be a huge reveal, and the chapter ends.

The process above is pretty consistent. You do this 25-30 times, and suddenly, there’s the skeleton of a book. Even when I am happy enough with a chapter to move on, the work is not over. During the half a dozen or more read-throughs, things will move and change and adapt to the needs of other chapters. Sometimes they are cut entirely or transferred to future books. In Dawn of the Lightbearer, for example, I wrote a whole chapter introducing Emperor Vesper the Uniter. I then realized keeping him as just a distant figurehead and a mystery made more sense for that book. The chapter didn’t end up in the trash bin- it found its way into The Mourning Son, where it made better sense.

Well, it is almost 6 pm, and time to finish this chapter. Wish me and my characters luck!

Cheers!