Writing Report Week 5 – Chronicles: Ascension

A new week and new month of my writing project is underway! A Month of Writing will give people unfamiliar with my task a better understanding of what I have accomplished so far, while A New Beginning will provide you with all the information you need to get started in regards to these reports.

Monday 26 February Progress Report (Previous Report)

Word Target: 2,500

Words Written: 2,522

• Overview

Chronicles: Ascension today was new ground for the universe of the New Expoletian Empire. As part of helping my audience better understand the world the characters live in, I will provide a brief overview of the look of the universe, so that you can immerse yourself in over a decade of work.

I originally created a six-part screenplay entitled Chronicles of Expoletia when I was still in high school in 2008. It was never meant to be anything serious, but I worked on the world more than I would for a non-serious project. That world morphed from a few characters to an entire universe in a matter of months around five years ago, when I gave Chronicles more time.

The first major thing to note about the Chronicles Universe is that it does contain our own Terra Nova, though our planet is not a central focus. Instead, the story Chronicles: Ascension follows carries on from the first and second parts of the original screenplays. The characters come from a binary star system called Tyrgon-Plux, located around 400,000 light years from Earth (or in a region akin to the Magellenic Clouds).

For the story itself, the majority of the action occurs inside the ESV Avenger, which is a state-of-the-art star ship. I chose to set the action in such a space as it is new to all the characters involved. They have experience with the standard layout of the star ships of the Expoletian Empire, so the new setting opens up a lot of interactions not possible with familiarity.

It is difficult to explain the look of an Expoletian star ship as there is nothing in our world that I can compare it to. I will say that the look of the vessel is very clinical at the start. White floors, white walls and not a single groan or creak in the structure due to it being brand new. The sterile environment allows me to use a blank canvas to showcase the personalities of the characters over the course of the novel. The ESV Avenger is a dedicated combat vessel, which is worthy of note, because it helps dictate the course of the story.

With what I said above, it should be clear that Chronicles: Ascension is a science fiction novel that focuses on character but has a lot of scenery porn in it to provide a lot of insight into the world while avoiding exposition.

• What I Did Today

Today was more about finalising the characters and starting to introduce the setting. I spent several pages building in the values of the Expoletian Empire while advancing the story. I made every attempt to avoid stagnation and I believe I accomplished that. A lot of the downtime between characters talking revolved around Kile inspecting her surroundings and the events happening around her. As such, there is a lot of world-building elements hidden in her inner monologues.

•  The Best Sample From Today

I have to use the paragraph where Kile first lays her eyes on the bridge of the Malevellum. She is out of her element and is astonished at the sheer scope of the large vessel.

We all followed in a two wide formation. We made our way to the bridge of the Malevellum and I got my first chance to look at it. Even though the Malevellum sat docked, there was still more than four dozen soldiers racing around the various control panels. I was in awe at what I saw. Somehow, with all the discord of the layout, there was no doubting the prowess of each person assigned to this ship. Without a word, the captain oversaw every operation. The main thing to note was the absence of any kind of displays. The ESV Aeterian at least had monitors where the pilot could keep track of the various systems. The Malevellum had a design that relied on the operator doing everything by feel. This was a place where you needed to know what you were doing to have a chance.

The feel of this sample is that of efficiency. Everything done aboard the star ships of the empire revolves around perfecting an efficient system and the Malevellum serves as the epitome of their efforts. I purposely avoid mentioning any size as that would take away from the feel and the pacing. I allow the reader to develop a sense of scale on their own.

• How Productive I Felt I Was

I still have not gotten to Rainer’s motivations, but the fact I was able to finalise and produce a polished block of work that helps build the characters and establish the ESV Avenger as both set piece and character gives me great joy. I feel I accomplished something fluid and I believe I found my groove for Chronicles: Ascension.

This was a mighty step ahead of last week, though most of last week focused on re-balancing my schedule so it worked better. The result of that is me being less stressed about my writing, working quicker and producing high quality sentences.

•  What I Intend To Write Next Week

Next week will be more of the characters familiarising themselves with the ESV Avenger as I work toward unveiling Rainer’s motivations and why he is the antagonist of the story instead of someone else. I guess that is a lot of the first quarter of a novel: character building, but it is a vital component that I have enjoyed doing and will continue to enjoy next week.