Kings, Queens and Royalty

Please note, that this will have obvious plot spoilers for the novel The Burning Throne, this is your last warning. Ready? Let’s start!

This blog post will have a variety of chapters that I want to break down and focus on the theme of royalty in some respect! I hope that you enjoy this as I really enjoy writing these types of content and explaining why these scenes specifically are so effective!

This extract introduces more of the same with my favorite character, and at this point its no secret that Erica is my favorite character in this novel. If you didn’t know that, then I don’t know where you’ve been. I wanted to differentiate the Demon voices and the internal conversation through using something I picked up from The Invisible Library and how magic was used in that – as it was boldened and uses the language – go read it if you haven’t. Regardless, I absolutely loved writing the dialogue and took inspiration from this to inform Erica’s next step in her Demon journey, coming whenever I publish the next book.

The extract highlights the places and follows onto a later chapter ‘places where they’re meant to be’ that follows up with this theme of weakness and is also something that this scene lays the foundations for. Just take a second, if you haven’t read it already, to go and read the scene.

I also wanted to note Erica’s difference in appearance. She is considered quite masculine in some respects and blurbs the gender roles. This isn’t about her gender, though, but I wanted to note the more destroyed look in this scene, as you’ll figure out why she’s not so put together if you read the whole scene.

What works here, though, I find, is the dynamic between the two and the amount of work I've put them through, but narratively and pre-writing stages, even if the assassin thing was created very much after the fact, as I wanted to make sure that . With this I wanted to make them both realize that mutually, they needed each other and to work as a unit to get what Erica now wants, and Nate tries his best to articulate, getting revenge for her sister for hurting her.

Fredrick

Here, I wanted to highlight the grief put on Fredrick’s land because of the death of Lucifer. I thought detailing his through a newspaper put on his desk would be a understandable way to ensure that I could get this information to the reader without relaying the same thing they just watched happened three times, as each of the corners of the Empire (the Hands, Feet and Brain) and their responses to the news through a variety of forms. I’ve specifically included the footnotes here to add more to the world, as the emotional weight of the scene already hits pretty well, as Fredrick remembers how the world revolved around Lucifer, and wishes the best to the new King.

I want to go and talk about the footnotes for a second, as I’ve made sure to add the character who narrates them – there is, in this project, anyway, two ‘narrators’ at any one time – the narrator of the chapter and the footnotes when I deem them appropriate or had something to add to the world that the footnote narrator could reliably comment on, as an all knowing being.

I could have slowed the pace right down by adding a significant number of footnotes to the narrative but I decided to only add them when I had something to say, otherwise they would become redundant. One of the main things you’ve got to remember when writing an all-knowing character is to use them sparingly, but also, to make what they say come off as meaningful to the plot. Yes they know everything, but also, they should inform the reader of relevant happenings.

I don’t write with characters that are all knowing s primary narrators as I know full well I’d divulge too much and I think having him as footnotes does a very good job at keeping the suspense and limiting the amount I can reasonably say to not disrupt the narrative too much. I got the idea from this is going to hurt originally, as Kay was the first non fiction writer I loved and he used footnotes. This just shows you that no matter where you reside in the literature world, everything can and will influence you.

I prefer writing in limited third person as it feels like a bridge between being able to not use I all the time and focus on what the characters are doing, but also allows me to write more freely and less continued compared to my frafts in first person, which we do not talk about.

Janara

The development of this specifically is something I wanted to highlight… the darker side of the Janara’s characters. There is a hundred different things I could sy about it, but its best experienced for the first time. If you haven’t, go and read the chapter in your edition and get back to this posy. I want to show you why this scene works so bloody well.

I knew that in the original scene there wasn’t enough tension. Sure, Lucifer died and I was showing that in the different worlds in the Empire, but I didn’t feel like this scene has the unique flair. For the second book in the series – coming whenever I’m ready – I wanted to develop her magic further and this introduction scene does that justice, but ensure that the conversation between the servant and the Queen was heated enough to explore the world, and also, give some difference and contrast and allow Janara to carve her own identity in the narrative.

Janara is significant different to the other monarchs on the Throne, being a lot more like Erica in this context, but more scolded and less advantageous for blood and death. She decided, that a actually, it might be a good idea to go to the Brain and have a say in the different courses of action later in the narrative. I mention this because its important to create ‘chains’ through your narrative and interlink them if possible, with the conflict your main character is experiencing.