Story Development Part Two

My goal from last week’s entry was to write the same scene using the three POV’s three times, or once from each perspective. In the forest, all three are hunting for a magical beast. Lyra, the MC, showed her arrogance and snarky attitude, only caring about testing out her ability against the monster. Nasir, the second POV, was more susceptible to thinking to himself as his own cheer leader and coach. He only cared about impressing Lyra. Tinesi only cares about the mission and is apt to ignoring the others when they are talking about anything irrelevant to the goal.

The challenge I have given myself is to take the unique structure from Jay Kristoff’s Nevernight chapter one and add my voice and unique take on it. In his book, Kristoff goes back and forth between two contrasting scenes four times while using similar or the same phrases with a different connotation between the MC loosing her virginity and killing a man. I bought a copy of the book for analyzing the chapter and breaking it down so I can extrapolate what makes it so unique and powerful and how I can replicate it within my voice and story constraints.

After further study and listening to the audible version of the chapter over and over, I noticed a lot more in common. The amount of work that went into combining the four pairs together is astounding. Sentence structure. specific details. It all follows the same order with added text around the framework that helps define and differentiate the two scenes.

For example, the first pair both start off with the same sentence structure of (The __ was __). “The boy was beautiful. The man was repugnant. Both were simple yet very to the point. Each followed this with a physical description with the use of the phrase “O, Daughters, his eyes” (This kind of language is prevalent in the text and one of many unique ways the narrator speaks. They both mention scenery and name a bridge next before they both repeated(with minor variation), “Her last nevernight in the city. A part of her didn’t want to say goodbye. But before she left, she’d wanted to know. She owed herself that, at least.” and “Her last nevernight in this city. A part of her still didn’t want to say goodbye. But before she left, she’d wanted him to know. She owed him that, at least.” This first pair ended with someone asking her “are you sure” with her reply, (“I’m sure”, she whispered).

For my interpretation, I plan to have my MC out in the forest alone fighting a magical beast that came to close to her home under the light of a blood moon that triggers a memory of a tragic event that played out from her past. It is taking a flashback and intertwining it into the beginning action. In chapter one for Nevernight, both events happen back to back, but is told at the same time ending at the current time whereas mine will be separated by many years yet end in the current time. He doesn’t mention the MC’s name for a while, but I will name mine by the end of the first chapter, once in both the past and present.

My goal by next week is to outline the past and present action sequence before trying to piece them together using the structure from Kristoff. What makes his chapter so powerful is the technical skill that went into each word and sentence. I don’t want to rush this process. The goal is to create a similar but unique take on this opening chapter and use it to my advantage starting my novel.