Chosen by Fire NaNo Peek

Aiya!

Sooooo, as some of you maaaaaaay know… *Takes a deep breath to calm down* *Epically fails and leaps about in excitement*

I DIIIIIIIIIID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AAAAH!

*After a year or two of flailing and screaming…*

Okay, okay. I completed NaNoWriMo. 50k by day 20. Eeep!

As you can imagine, I have been veeeery excited about this, and therefore figured I’d let you, privileged readers of Inspiration, look at a few cool things and snippets from my WIP.

At 50k, I am at the climax of my fantasy novel, Chosen by Fire and figured I’d give you all an update of what has been happening in the book, and what has been happening in NaNoWriMo.

So, first off, this NaNoWriMo was unusually chaotic. Mainly because my sister is having a wedding in a few days, so, that meant a lot of excited business, and not tons of time for writing. Plus, there were exams, music nights, excursions and school in general, so, yeah. That drains a fair amount of time available to write in. But it was still a whole heap of fun, and, I would love to do it next year. *Tries to ignore the fact the I will be in year 12 for that.* I can totally do it.

Now, onwards to the novel.

I found that writing Chosen by Fire was a really cool experience. Mainly because I had a few unusual twists planned, and I wrote it in a totally different style. This was my first ever case of trying for First Person Present Tense, and I loved it. Every now and then it was hard, particularly at the start as it was my first ever time, but eventually I got into the flow of it.

I ended up learning a lot more about my characters as I wrote, particularly Caeden, my epic street musician whose instrument changed halfway through the book. Mainly as I realised that it must be quite a challenge to run through streets and jump onto roofs with a guitar… so, it swapped to a lute.

Here’s a snippet of me realising that I seriously needed to change the instrument for this to work…

‘ I’ve given this town all I have and it has given nothing back to me. I glare up at the snowing clouds as I hug my guitar closer to my body. Snow is certainly a successful way of ruining business. The only people who are stupid enough to walk along the streets are Callers, and most of the store tenders hadn’t even come. Oh yes. And then there is the random street guitarist who thinks that snow is fine to play in. I shift the position of my guitar slightly and tuck a hand under my arm. So cold. Pickles race over my skin and I shiver—glancing behind me. My muscles pull tighter than my guitar strings. He’s still following me. Why is he following me? 

With a low growl I push my aching bones into a jog. I need to get away. I can’t let them keep sticking onto me like this. Snow cushions my shoes so that they only release a soft thud and the running warms me up. Maybe this isn’t such a bad thing to do anyway. I duck behind a house and jump, sliding my guitar onto a low shed roof before climbing up to the main house’s rooftop with it. Please don’t let him find me now. It vaguely crosses my mind that running away may not be the best idea if I’m trying to look completely innocent.

My back presses into the mud roof and I try to force my breathing to still. My limbs start to shiver again. So cold. Why does it have to be this cold? 

Footstep thud past where I lie, powdery snow dulling them to a soft, muffled sound. A sigh escapes my chest as they move past the house. Rolling, I move to the edge and peer over. No one. I drop to the ground, bending my knees at the impact and instantly straightening, with the guitar still clutched in my hand. Maybe doing stunts like that is not such a brilliant idea with a guitar. Why a guitar? Couldn’t I have picked a more practical instrument? ’

So yes. After a few incidences of Caeden jumping on roofs and running through markets with a guitar, I figured I should swap it for something more manageable. So, a lute it was.

I also realised that the world building ended up coming a lot more into my novel than I thought it would. My characters were constantly bombarded by strange creatures, explosive flowers, and last minute travelling. I realised pretty quickly that I did not have any names for the structuring of the towns and country… so, that became rather confusing rather quickly.

‘ “We need to go to the Ninth Sector.” My breath fogs up in front of me and my lute swings gently by it’s strap—tapping on my thigh.

“We are already in the Ninth Sector.” I turn to Jade with a slight frown on my face. Has she never studied Miritain’s town structure? My frown deepens. I guess I haven’t either. 

“Like...” I wave my hands about vaguely, “The Ninth Ninth Sector.” 

Jade’s steady pace comes to a halt and she turns to face me, her eyebrows shooting into  her reddish hair, “The ‘Ninth Ninth Sector?’ Honestly?” With a casual finger she flicks some hair from her eyes. “What in Miritain is that meant to be?”

Why does she always have to turn everything I say into an argument? Maybe it’s because of the fire stuff. “The middle big circle sector in the middle of the big circle town in the middle of the big circle country.” 

She blinks. ’

… Maybe in my second draft I can come up with a better system of ordering my country, sectors and towns… *shrugs* Let’s leave that for another time.

One of the things I was most excited about though, was getting up to the climax. It was cool to finally get up to the most dramatic point.

Now, in case you don’t know about this already, my main character, Jade DeArchet, is the Chosen One of an ancient prophecy, and the only one with fire magic (Or any magic for that case) left in Miritain. She is the only one who can possibly save her world from this danger that lies in their government—the corrupt Callers.

So, she sounds like a pretty cliche main character. The biggest stereotype of all time.

What I’ve done to ammend this is to make her not want to save the world. She is a coward. Her sidekick who has dragged her along on this mission the whole time is a courageous musician with no sign of any magic.

So when at the climax, does Jade actually follow through to fulfil the prophecy? Or will she run away and fail yet again? (Mwahahaha, I feel so evil now.)

Here are some snippets of the general area for you to look at and torment yourself more with! (Hopefully…)

‘ I’m here. My eyes drift up to gaze at the massive pillar. Caeden urges me forwards with a slight nod of his head. ‘All you need to do is burn the pole. Bring magic back into the fiery heart of Miritain.’ I bite my lips as Travier’s words writhe through my mind. Light it on fire Jade. My trembling hand drifts upwards—palm out towards the massive pillar. You can do this.
…
I whip my head around—gaping at the quickly disappearing figure down the tunnel. Dakried steps closer again, a smirk playing with the corners of his mouth. “You can’t win. Not anymore.”
…
Staggering blindly backwards and falling to the ground with his body on top of me, I fling my arm out towards the pillar. Fire roars and billows up. Dakried’s body freezes above me—his grip on my throat loosening briefly. That’s all I need to roll away, coughing and rubbing my neck. “You did it.” His voice rings through the room despite the crackling of the fire. “You…” 
…
The scorching heat of fire overwhelms me. Why can’t I control it? A scream rips from my throat and I stagger forwards, trying to fend my way through the blur of agony and flames. How could this happen? ’

Well, there you go. A few little snippets from the climax area for you to read. Sorry that it is rather first draftish, that was a busy day.

Well, I reckon I have talked enough. Now, I must give some Inspiration to get you through this last stretch of NaNoWriMo-ing

Eeep! I still can’t get over all of this! Yay! How are you going with NaNo? Have you had any interesting discoveries about your characters?