09/18/2022
Welcome to the eighth entry of my blog where I discuss the development of the story I’m currently writing, Saviors of Novus. These entries are a place for me to ramble on about the details of my story, and also so I can sort of vent my creativity without having to worry about sentence structure and other aspects of writing a well thought out story. Simply put, I sometimes need to write without thinking, if that makes any sense.
As the title says I’ve finally completed the first chapter for Saviors of Novus. May the editing begin!
After nearly a decade of exploring my passion for creating stories, I’ve finally begun to write my first novel. I believe I have written enough short stories and other fictions to earn the right to undertake this task for the first time. My friends, who are well educated and gifted with knowledge of the English language, have stood by my side teaching and guiding me along this path; and they continue to do so, for which I’m very thankful.
The rough draft was completed about two weeks ago as of the posting of this blog, since then I’ve been working with my friends on making crucial edits and revisions; which are still being made. My writing plan for this book is to write a chapter, then edit and revise it until the level of polish and plot quality are satisfactory enough to move on to the next chapter. If this plan proves to be too slow or seems inefficient, then I’ll explore other possible ways to approach how I write this story.
As for the story itself, the first chapter is complete, but there is still much work to be done outside of the main plot. For a time, I solely worked on the worldbuilding and backstory so as to create a solid foundation on which to build this story I wish to tell. I reached the point where I felt comfortable enough to begin working on the story itself, and so I wrote the first chapter. However, I still have some important decisions to make regarding a few key elements that make up the universe this story takes place in.
I’ve been conflicted on how to approach the designs of the spacecraft our characters will find themselves journeying in. As of now, while writing this post, I’m leaning to the more science fantasy side. Mostly because the people in my story have only just discovered the ability to efficiently warp spacetime to move their ships faster than light. Consequentially, they also learned how to manipulate the warping of spacetime to generate artificial gravity, but only while they warp spacetime to travel. When using classic thrusters, the crew will be in zero gravity. A compromise I will introduce to balance this out, will be the amount of energy required and heat that is generated while warping spacetime. This will create problems and scenarios characters will have to face when making the decision to use this ability; in other words, they won’t be zipping around the universe without restraint or worry. It will be a very deliberate action they take when only necessary.
This topic leads me into another thought I wish to share on space travel within my story. I want to make it clear that space travel is treacherous. One must be well experienced or well trained to make the right decisions to avoid the endless dangers that exist within the cosmos. The theme I’ve chosen to use compares spacers to sailors during the time between 1400 to 1800. These are a weathered and sometimes rough bunch. Every time they venture out into space, they risk their lives and hope the universe shows them mercy. I can’t wait to explore this part of the story in the future.
Next I want to make something else clear, yes I’m writing a science fiction/science fantasy story, but the focus of this story won’t be to immerse the reader in a scientifically accurate world, but rather immerse the reader in the story itself, and the ideas I will introduce through it. I wish to include necessary scientific accuracies, but my goal first and foremost is to tell a good story. I do understand that one can use scientific accuracies to tell an even deeper and perhaps richer story, but I’m simply not a scientist, nor someone with an education in a scientific field that would benefit the story. I’m someone with a dream, a goal to share a story that can inspire and bring joy into people’s lives. Fortunately for me, I do have people in my life who can help ensure certain accuracies are properly represented. I look forward to see how they will influence the story in the future. I understand my goals are quite simple and absurdly common and basic, but I want to be clear that if you’re looking for a story intertwined with scientific fact at every turn, then this may not be the story for you. To summarize, I’m simply writing a story that I would like to read and see exist, and hopefully it happens to be a story that others will enjoy as well.
This first chapter has taught and reminded me to focus on what is interesting to the reader. If I’m bored writing about something, then the reader will probably find themselves bored reading it; most of the time. Through this, I discovered the story began to focus more on the secondary protagonist, Vis, rather than on the primary one, Loy. Vis has grown to become a vastly more interesting character than Loy. This is mostly because he’s already at the point in his life that Loy will find himself in near the climax of the story. Because of this, Vis will be used to introduce readers to the world I have created in the early chapters. Over time, the story will gradually shift more of its focus to Loy as he grows into the character I’ve envisioned him to become. I think this will work splendidly as the dynamic between these two characters will evolve as the story progresses, and through this evolution the plot will thicken just the way I want it to. It’s so nice to see the pieces finally coming together.
I think that’s all I wanted to share at this point. I need to resume work on the first chapter so I can move on to the next. I hope to increase the frequency of these posts as the Fall season nears its peak. I hope you enjoyed reading this progress update. I also hope I made the intentions I have for this story clear as well, it’s sometimes difficult to accurately convey the feelings one can have for something that’s very important to them. Writing is a very personal thing, you’re directly translating your imaginative thoughts into words for people to examine and dissect, and that terrifies me sometimes. Anyways, have a fantastic day and enjoy some screenshots I took in Space Engine below, until next time!
