Writing Report Week 5 – Crucible

Today I had a narrow time frame to complete my work on Crucible, but that only motivated to do the best I could. Crucible has always been a novel I have had apprehensions to write because of how unfamiliar the territory is. It makes me glad when I can get past everything my brain says and do good work.

Wednesday 28 Progress Report (Previous Report)

Word Target: 2,500

Words Written: 2,555

• Overview

Crucible continues to change my views of it the more I continue working on it. My initial apprehensions of writing in a genre so flooded with novels has all but faded. That is because I chose to take a different approach. Unlike the Young Adult Post-Apocalyptic Novels that roam the world, I made Crucible an adult variant on the genre and I feel it works better than it would otherwise.

The world of Crucible is evident: it takes place on a post apocalyptic Earth and involves elements from both Crow and Eden to fuel its backstory. The primary location that the novel will take place in is Laas Neda, which is a not-so-subtle reworking of Las Vegas, Nevada. While I am yet to introduce the city, I paint the landscape around it with vivid colours and descriptions.

The main thing is creating a post apocalyptic world that makes life hard. To do that, I borrowed from Chernobyl’s Elephant’s Foot to create uninhabitable zones. As such, a lot of the world lies covered in radiation to such an extent that extended habitation is impossible for hundreds of years.

A lot of this disaster zone takes place in a vast desert that occupies most of the former United States of America. There is very little to inhabit and it is a hostile place, not too different to real world deserts.

• What I Did Today

Today I finished work on the second chapter of the novel. It clocks in at around 25 pages and really finishes the majority of initial character build up. The third chapter received a rename from Expedition to Endurance to better signify that the characters are in it for the long haul. It also marks the start of the character arcs and how the two main characters, Lumi and Ash, swap their positions.

• The Best Sample From Today

Today’s chosen sequence is a long one that helps to build the changes that will occur in both Lumi and Ash, while also providing commentary on sociopathic behaviour. I always find it interesting that people speak of psychosis without really understanding how it happens or how the person affected sees the world. I used that fact to write this sequence in order to try to educate people.

I gulped as the collar fell from my neck and I could breathe again. Ash unshackled me herself as she ordered Bear-Face’s living family presented before me. The boy’s ear still bled and his skin was a pale white. If I chose his mother, he would not last long. If I chose him, his mother would die of heartbreak. Ash somehow managed to outsmart me even when I thought she surrendered the round to me. No matter what I decided, both of these people would die. I felt Ash’s dagger in my hand and a strange feeling came over me. A bloodlust started to seep into my mind. I inched forward but not of my own free will. Ash walked beside me, mimicking my motions.

While most of the paragraph relies on Lumi’s feelings and how she once again found herself manipulated by Ash, the last four lines are what make the entire sequence powerful. I write it to seem like a bout of psychosis coming across Lumi while avoiding her reaction to the event. It provides a shock to both Lumi and the reader and makes them rethink everything about the previous chapter.

• How Productive I Felt I Was

Most of today focused on the psychology of Lumi and how her mind is not as strong as she believes it to be. I felt I did a fantastic job getting the point across that maybe Lumi is not quite sane without being overt about it. The other half of today relied on world building and giving more backstory to the reader about the state of the world. As I specialise in creating worlds, I know that the work I did on that is of a tremendous quality.

While today was time rushed (I did all my work in three hours), it did not seem as though I needed to hurry at any point. I felt at every sentence, I was keeping my timing perfect and I did not let the fact I wrote late bother me at all. I find more and more that as I focus less on time and more on writing, I do much more with much less.

• What I Intend To Write Next Week

Next week is continuing to work on the third chapter and the journey toward Laas Neda, as well as the possibility of starting the first true romantic sequence between Lumi and Ash. I never claim to be good at romance, but I always find how I write it interesting. I do it from the heart and so it feels less rehearsed than when I do it from the brain. It also helps that the entire novel takes place from Lumi’s perspective, so I can manipulate the reader into seeing things solely from Lumi’s point of view. Romance is not one sided except in novels.