A Pantser Writes a Book 2. - Ragna-what?
It's Wednesday again, so I once again immersed myself into my newest book baby (really early in gestation), called After The Gods (at least for now). I just realized you can't read Wattpad without registering (it should have been obvious, I'm really sorry) so I decided to put the finished texts up onto the blog as well, so you can all read it and I'll make sure to include links in these posts as well. You can find the first chapter here: Chapter 1
If you're unfamiliar with the project or this series, I'll leave a link to last week's introduction here: link But for those who'd skip it, here's a tl;dr version:
I decided to write a WIP and document my progress from the inception till the finishing moments of the first draft. Since I'm a proud pantser, this is as much a discovery for me than it is for you, and I thought I'll let you inside my mind to see how I shape a story. What I knew so far was that this WIP would be a fantasy based on norse mythology, set in a post-apocalyptic (or to be more precise and fancy, post-ragnarok) world. Last week I introduced my main character called Asgeir, althought at that point neither you, nor me knew much about the boy.
So, what was today's progress?
Well, first and foremost I re-read the first segment and I found crippling mistakes in both style and grammar. Did I rush to fix them? Of course not, that is not the pantser way. I've seen a lot of writers struggle with finishing their first draft, and I think constantly repairing and fixing your writing is a serious contributor to getting stuck. SInce the aim of a first draft (especially if you're doing pantser-style, but plotters too) is to get down a story from start to finish, I'm not bothered by mistakes for now. I've decided to keep on writing, and when I typed the last full stop of the last sentence, I'll digest the WIP from the beginning and fix those pesky word repetitions and typos.
The new segment shows Asgeir walking into the Nook with a really fancy spear on his shoulders, as well as the ruckus he creates by doing just that. My aim for this scene was to show two things, the spirit of the age (which is gloomy at best and suicidal at worst) following ragnarök, and the consequences of showing up with a unique feat of strength.
And immediately, I had to make some choices. Originally the Edda states the the sea swallows the world well before the new god arrives and the remaining aesir gather, and by that point only a single pair of humans survive who then proceed to repopulate the world, but that's not what I want to show in my story. I want a really harsh world, but with a spark of life so my characters could hope for a turn for the better. I've decided to part with the exact myth, change some details to better fit the WIP. After all, this is not a retelling of the relevant Edda verses, this is a fantasy story inspired by ancient norse mythology.
To show a bit of dark, I based the Nook on the first settlement in Path of Exile, a mishmash gathering of hovels and huts made from junk and the jaded survivors that call it home. The name I think is quite fitting, it immediately gives of an aura of desperation, a last resort of sorts, an unpleasant place one would rather not venture to.
As for the second thing, the consequences I used some characters to show this. I think one of my weak points as a writer is that you can immediately tell who's an important character and who isn't, because the less relevant people are less deep. I always felt after re-reading my earlier works that the side-actors felt unrealistic, vague and cartboardish, so this time I went in trying to not decide immediately who will become important in the future and who won't. Doing that, even I was surprised how Fenris turned out, and I'm quite pleased with the end result.
That's it for this week. I hope you like it so far and you found some interesting tidbits in my commentary, or even learn a thing or two. See you next time, travelers!
Cheers,
Dar
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