Developing the late Twenties and early thirties: attempts and tension

This section was pretty hard to do and honestly not spoiling anything was pretty easy, as everything is only building and there are limited payoffs here, as with most of the first act it is setting up the most important elements. Though, there is still quite a lot of act one to go! Let's get started!

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Dance with the Prince

This scene was written to showcase the other side to Nate, another form of intimacy for a different purpose: bringing Lucifer down. I wanted to try and make sure that I can open up Nate a little more, as there is a very limited amount known about him in this part and we are already twenty-eight chapters in – although – I have only used one scene per chapter and tried to balance the different threads of narrative that have spread up.

Some plot points, though, will be revealed later.

The aim of these breakdowns is to give you an insight into my creative process, and I want to only provide non-spoiler context. There were limited amounts of ’page time’ with this sequence and I wanted to show this more as its one of the major parts of the novel, even if we are about one third-ish, though. The plan and its failings make up the majority of the novel, currently sitting at 100-120,00 range, which is why it’s a beast to edit through. When I originally wrote in first person inspired by the Spooks series, and not, surprisingly, Derek Landy (as he writes in third person close). I was reading a lot of first-person teens and 12 fiction(s) at the time and wanted to write this novel. It wasn’t very good. I might make it available in some form to the public someday.

So why have I included this scene in this reflection? Because I want to show you the confusing emotions that Nate experiences from his past and why this scene words, I think because it showcases a different way of him processing emotions away from his Father’s blood-soaked hands.

The central conflict is Lucifer, and, as such, everything should revolve around that central conflict, acting as a ‘spoke’ on a wheel which all other plot points stem off. Storytelling comes at the price of central conflict encompassing the other conflicts and feeding into them. Even if this is the technicalities, everything needs to feed into the themes I want to illustrate.

This part of the scene, I want to make sure that I showcased that the confusingness and Nate’s pursuit for power and connection overshadows him. Some of the most beautiful writing I’ve done recently is in this scene and the flaws in Nate’s logic remain very clear here: ’you can’t love a killer or murderer’. This, is, in fact, false. Falling for people, as I am sure everyone can understand, is for a reason. Everyone loves someone for a reason. Nate is in mental pain during this whole interaction and the feeling of needing her against him – the feeling of his heart being torn apart – isn’t something that is easy to write and the determination to get something from her shows how desperate he is and how power destroys him. This is meant ot be a fake love scene and the acting illustrates the dramatic need for love. As I was somewhat deprived of affection from my dad when I was younger, from love being conditional for the most part and my mother showing love through gifts and not experiences, the urge for connection is strong.

This comes from my own mother’s belief that everyone is out to get everyone else. Nate tries to find some kind of metaphors – the motif of plants and books come up again – to try and find a way to process his feelings towards Erica in this scene and what she is doing by providing him some from of connection that isn’t a bloody hand on his cheek and death.

Chapter Twenty-Nine: The First Round

I wanted to include this scene to show the contrast from Erica’s perspective and the way she feels being not in control and contrast these from the last scene where she was in control of Nate’s movements. This part was hard to edit and easy at the same time. As you can see here, I edited this section with two devices – hinted at the red and blue lines on this image. There is so much tension – from the thin platform Erica and Lucifer are dancing on – from the amount of weapons Erica has and the fact she is concealing herself. Images used here for Lucifer are consistent across most of the text up to this point, aside from the change in uniform. Erica and Nate have the same issue with paying attention and not being amazing, trained dancers and instead preferring and in their different ways, storming into somewhere, spilling blood, then getting out.

They both are trained killers in their own ways. Erica must carry this out because she has been trained by the academy and Nate’s fear forces him away from trying, as we see later. I can’t wait to break down that scene!

One thing I haven’t said much about in these breakdowns is the footnotes. I want to bring particular attention to this one because the person writing the footnotes (who I won’t reveal yet) has got a particular way of writing and it’s because I thought that the novel was too serious and there is a world where a little light humor every so often, to diffuse the tension, is needed.

They mostly make comments on the work or give useful information, so you can read the text by ignoring them if you would rather. I was reading This is Going to Hurt and got the idea with how Kay uses footnotes in his work to explain medical terms. I also took inspiration from the Bartimaeus by Johnathan Stroud for the tone of the piece, and there is a specific reason for that, but I don’t want to say too much.

Chapter Thirty-One: Stories

This scene is like the one that I covered in one of my other posts on this subject. I wanted to have a mirror scene here, and this was the perfect opportunity to do so. Both scenes happen after major events, and I wanted to give both characters similar types of scenes to explore them and the best place to do it is in their rooms(s). I wanted to write this scene because of the intimacy that Nate has is unique to him and I wanted both me as the author and you as the reader to be able to explore that with him.

Intimacy, in my work, with Nate, is something I can show through stories and the hurt and the harm and the blood. Yes, characters revealed through the story, but also through reflective scenes like in the Handmaid’s Tale, are important.

Spelling mistakes, frequently, are part of the process when editing. I wanted to show thi to you because sometimes there is a suggestion that I am so good with spelling and on my phone the amount of time I spend correcting things and although I am not dyslexic, I ma utterly horrible at spelling. I once read that authors can create great stories but are horrible at spelling, Brandon Sanderson in his lectures, supposedly, are like that. Regardless, I am human and part of these breakdowns are showing you the work, but the other part, more importantly, is showing the developments of the work. Spelling, or lack thereof, is part of that. Just as Nate does, I need to show vulnerability within this process, and I want to do that.

The theatre and acting within her character and the Assassins academy in general, in quite a large part of this novel, is the motif of acting. For those who don’t know, I’ve got a tiny amount of experience with lighting and the mechanics of drama, which allows me to have a little bit of an understanding of the types of things they might teach in these types of classes. Erica, as part of the Assassin’s academy, would need to take these classes and blending in with a group of people, gaining loyalty, then cutting their head off, is kind of part of her job.

This conflict between Durrius and Erica might end differently than last time (if you want to know, and don’t care about being spoiled, then I might give you the result) and I wanted to add this almost acting as a mirror, to where this time, even though Erica is not as full strength because of her fight with Lucifer, and the flames burning and the world practically coming to an end in the party room. The party atmosphere, though, adds to the chaos, as parties tend to be quite chaotic affairs. The audience, too, works in Erica’s favor. Having an audience for an actor, that attention, are sometimes the best fuel for the actor’s fire and for all intents and purposes, Erica adores playing a role, faking romances, and mostly killing. In fact, there was q whole short story where I had a very different medieval type of Erica storming into places and obliterating people. I might share that someday, once I’ve edited and rehauled it.

Back to this scene, though, the drama works because of the situation I’ve placed the characters in and the burning, cracking, horrible, environment that I’ve put them in. Erica has failed her mission but this resolves, somewhat, the whole finding him sequence.

Chapter Thirty-three/thirty-four: Lucifer’s Blood and Legacy

If you want to read more about the development and process behind these two chapters and how I combined them, you can read that here. As I don’t want to repeat myself too much, All I will say is that this chapter was hard to write and needed a lot reformulation. I go more into the details of the chapter and what it was originally in the post about the chapter itself, but I want to jut use it in this post to illustrate the development on the first act and this chapter was meant to set up Lucifer’s possible downfall and further drive home and give him the opportunity for the reader to understand the villain and their sode of the story through interactions. This part will more focus on what was the chapter called Legacy.

This part of the narrative is sombre and sweet, Lucifer having accepted that he is dying and now he needs to do something to prepare his Son for the eventual moment where he can’t stand anymore.

Something that I want to highlight is that you can put a comment along the lines of ’do this’ and use square brackets to not break the flow of your writing or when you’re editing and can’t be bothered to deal with a specific thing now. This is really useful because you know that you need to work on something and instead of banging your head against a wall, the best course of action is to put a [] and then carry on because I find it hard to transition from getting into and out of the writing mood. The bridge I’m trying to build here, though, I can’t say much about because I’m in danger to spoil the narrative too much. The bond between Lucifer and Nate is stretched and there is almost an anxiousness and anticipation from the reader here of what the hell is Lucifer planning and you, as the reader, hopefully will be waiting and thinking what is happening and expecting this to end in violence. I’ll give you a little hint below, but it will be very spoiler heavy. This scene isn’t one where they are going to fight a lot, but there will be a lot of understanding and the world feels easier to navigate as a result. It is Nate’s legacy and sole goal to kill his Father. He has the perfect opportunity and he could do it, but there is a lot left to do before eh feels like he can. Lucifer, not to mention, is weakened, so my intention is for you to be screaming at the page like ‘just call a blade forth and kill him!’.

I hope that's the feeling or reaction you had when you read the extract.

This has been really fun to write and look forward and also back, at some of the scenes I've covered and write about what I wanted them to be and how I hope that you've taken them! I can't wait to continue this series and reach the final stretch, which will hopefully, show you how much the novel The Burning Throne has to offer.