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snitchnippedWell, this is it! My NBB, Fuel To Fire is posted!
And with wonderful icons, too, courtesy of![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
crantz!
Some of the amazing works I’ve read in the past year have been so incredibly inspiring. Last year at this time—almost to the date—my nights were spent pouring over Narnia fic after Narnia fic with a large pitcher of hot tea as my only companion...and not getting my fill of either. When it came time to the NFE, there just wasn’t any doubt—I had to give it a shot. And thus the Dichotomy universe was created, quite by accident.
Writing proved to be challenging, yet fun. Especially since I have made it very vocal for several years that I have never, ever liked being forced to write anything for anyone. Really vocal. However, the NFE changed my attitude, as did the smattering of one-shots that came soon afterwards. And then a niggling of an idea sprouted from a throwaway line in Dichotomy, I started jotting down ideas, before you knew it, I had 24K written of a story… and then the NBB was announced. Perfect.
So. Here we go. This is a word dump of ideas, thoughts, feelings and a drop of beliefs here and there. In some sense, it can even be a bit autobiographical, but I’m sure most writers can be accused of that. It’s strange to close this chapter, literally, in Scrivener…I’ve been staring at this stuff for 6 months after all. But, I have other writing folders that are ready to be explored.
In the meantime, there are many things I want to share with the readers regarding Fuel To Fire, so behind the cuts are extra notes, research, inspiration, and whatnots for each chapter.
The Title
The title came before the plot. Kinda. I listen to quite a lot of music when reading/writing, and of my favorite current musicians performed at a small local venue. In her setlist, she had a new song, tentatively entitled “Fuel to Fire”—she was playing around with other titles, but this one seemed to stick.
That being said, this is NOT a songfic. Though there are some relevant things in the words to this story, it was more of the feelings evoked from the music alone. Regardless, it was on nonstop repeat while writing.
But anyway, Agnes Obel is lovely and y’all should check her out. And here’s the song:
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Chapter 1
Not many notes on this chapter—it’s just a massive set-up of what’s to come in the story. It was necessary to hit upon the themes first explored in Dichotomy, but especially delve back into theme of Susan’s memory. In my verse, Susan is the only one who remembers England. This was for two reasons, A) to set up a mirror to her being the only one who forgets Narnia, and B) I’m a huge Susan apologist, so this reason somewhat softens the blow of her “denying” Narnia. There are plans in the works to explore this much further. But y’all have to wait on that.
And, of course, there’s the Elephants!
The idea of the elephants came from a throwaway line from Dichotomy. And that line was influenced by another song that I was listening to non-stop, called “White Elephant.” This REALLY has nothing to do with my canon, but hey. It’s a good song. And when I saw the band in concert, I got a signed poster of below and it now hangs on my wall. Elephants everywhere!
Now, of course the Pevensies had to recognize an Elephant when they saw it! And so Susan had a memory of one she saw at the London Zoo… even though the elephant rides they had back before WWII and all the animals were evacuated were provided by Asian elephants. Susan doesn’t realize it at the time, but she does notice a difference between Durah and the elephant from her memory!
Similar images can be found here.
Chapter 2
Finally! They’re on the road! Where are they going? Looks like we’re going to need A Map.
The map was a necessity. There was going to be a lot of Lords and a lot of traveling involved (though really, both cut down significantly in the writing of the story), and I needed the reference. And then the realization came that the readers needed the reference, too!
The scene in Anvard was so, so hard. It got longer and longer and it’s very much an info dump of what seems like irrelevant information. But…I don’t care. It all needs to be out there, in readers’ minds and memories for the future. Trust me on this.
But it also sets things up a bit for Horse and His Boy, too, and some of the themes in there. And we meet Cole (and, in away, his brother Colin) who are in HHB! Such nice men. They needed a voice.
And then Edmund…oh, dear, Edmund. Though I consider this more of a Susan story, since a lot of “Edmund ‘sploring” was done in Dichotomy, dear Ed needed to have some fun. And his friends are horrible, horrible influences. And allergic reactions to the mixing of vices made for a strange turn…
His hallucinations were a complete accident. It all started when I realized “Hey… nearly all of my characters names’ sound pretty much alike. Wouldn’t it be funny if Edmund mixed them up?” But Ed wouldn’t do that unless he was drunk. And they were already smoking the blue lasaia, so he was even more messed up… and then WHOA. We got to play with Ed’s memories. That was a fun discovery.
And the songs! My ‘verse is very, very music heavy. Why? ‘Cause song was introduced to Narnia before Narnia was Narnia. (Thanks, Frank!) So, musical tradition is very important in these cultures. Upon my research for musical traditions in cultures in OUR world, I came across the marvelous tradition of the bertso of the Basque. Bertsolaritza is the artform of singing improvised verses.
This is a great little documentary about how huge this is in the Basque culture, with National Contests drawing people by the thousands to attend. And it features the first ever woman winner from back in 2009!
[Error: unknown template video]
But the Basque were not alone. From the wiki entry:
“Other cultures have traditions of sung extemporary verse not unlike bertsolaritza. Amongst them are the Austro-Bavarian Gstanzl, the Italian improvvisatori, and the Sardinian mutos (also known as mutettus, repentina or ottada in different parts of the island.”
And hence came the inspiration for the cantas. And yes... I wrote two little ditties for the cantas. I just had to!
The upbeat tune Ferrin starts with:
The more dire song that other Cantos sing:
Chapter 3
OK, things are finally picking up here! Susan gets a better idea of the scope of her mission. It was fun exploring Lord Dar a bit here. The poor man…he and his brother Darrin are also pulled from HHB. All the others were made up for the purpose for this story. Well, save for Lord Nel. He’s actually been referenced before.
That whole scene of Susan should be called “Susan and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.”
And then there’s Edmund. Ed, Ed, Ed… it’s embarrassing to admit that his scene with Tarna was the very first thing written for this story, 7 long months ago.
… yeah, I know. It’s… yeah. No idea where it came from. But irrelevant comic relief is usually a welcome treat. Right? Right?
And then more shenanigans with Peridan and Ferrin. Ooh, and the second Telmarine…with a lead! This story is actually going somewhere!
Notes on Chapters 4-6 will be in the next post!
And with wonderful icons, too, courtesy of
crantz!Some of the amazing works I’ve read in the past year have been so incredibly inspiring. Last year at this time—almost to the date—my nights were spent pouring over Narnia fic after Narnia fic with a large pitcher of hot tea as my only companion...and not getting my fill of either. When it came time to the NFE, there just wasn’t any doubt—I had to give it a shot. And thus the Dichotomy universe was created, quite by accident.
Writing proved to be challenging, yet fun. Especially since I have made it very vocal for several years that I have never, ever liked being forced to write anything for anyone. Really vocal. However, the NFE changed my attitude, as did the smattering of one-shots that came soon afterwards. And then a niggling of an idea sprouted from a throwaway line in Dichotomy, I started jotting down ideas, before you knew it, I had 24K written of a story… and then the NBB was announced. Perfect.
So. Here we go. This is a word dump of ideas, thoughts, feelings and a drop of beliefs here and there. In some sense, it can even be a bit autobiographical, but I’m sure most writers can be accused of that. It’s strange to close this chapter, literally, in Scrivener…I’ve been staring at this stuff for 6 months after all. But, I have other writing folders that are ready to be explored.
In the meantime, there are many things I want to share with the readers regarding Fuel To Fire, so behind the cuts are extra notes, research, inspiration, and whatnots for each chapter.
The Title
The title came before the plot. Kinda. I listen to quite a lot of music when reading/writing, and of my favorite current musicians performed at a small local venue. In her setlist, she had a new song, tentatively entitled “Fuel to Fire”—she was playing around with other titles, but this one seemed to stick.
That being said, this is NOT a songfic. Though there are some relevant things in the words to this story, it was more of the feelings evoked from the music alone. Regardless, it was on nonstop repeat while writing.
But anyway, Agnes Obel is lovely and y’all should check her out. And here’s the song:
[Error: unknown template video]
Chapter 1
Not many notes on this chapter—it’s just a massive set-up of what’s to come in the story. It was necessary to hit upon the themes first explored in Dichotomy, but especially delve back into theme of Susan’s memory. In my verse, Susan is the only one who remembers England. This was for two reasons, A) to set up a mirror to her being the only one who forgets Narnia, and B) I’m a huge Susan apologist, so this reason somewhat softens the blow of her “denying” Narnia. There are plans in the works to explore this much further. But y’all have to wait on that.
And, of course, there’s the Elephants!
The idea of the elephants came from a throwaway line from Dichotomy. And that line was influenced by another song that I was listening to non-stop, called “White Elephant.” This REALLY has nothing to do with my canon, but hey. It’s a good song. And when I saw the band in concert, I got a signed poster of below and it now hangs on my wall. Elephants everywhere!
Now, of course the Pevensies had to recognize an Elephant when they saw it! And so Susan had a memory of one she saw at the London Zoo… even though the elephant rides they had back before WWII and all the animals were evacuated were provided by Asian elephants. Susan doesn’t realize it at the time, but she does notice a difference between Durah and the elephant from her memory!
Similar images can be found here.
Chapter 2
Finally! They’re on the road! Where are they going? Looks like we’re going to need A Map.
The map was a necessity. There was going to be a lot of Lords and a lot of traveling involved (though really, both cut down significantly in the writing of the story), and I needed the reference. And then the realization came that the readers needed the reference, too!
The scene in Anvard was so, so hard. It got longer and longer and it’s very much an info dump of what seems like irrelevant information. But…I don’t care. It all needs to be out there, in readers’ minds and memories for the future. Trust me on this.
But it also sets things up a bit for Horse and His Boy, too, and some of the themes in there. And we meet Cole (and, in away, his brother Colin) who are in HHB! Such nice men. They needed a voice.
And then Edmund…oh, dear, Edmund. Though I consider this more of a Susan story, since a lot of “Edmund ‘sploring” was done in Dichotomy, dear Ed needed to have some fun. And his friends are horrible, horrible influences. And allergic reactions to the mixing of vices made for a strange turn…
His hallucinations were a complete accident. It all started when I realized “Hey… nearly all of my characters names’ sound pretty much alike. Wouldn’t it be funny if Edmund mixed them up?” But Ed wouldn’t do that unless he was drunk. And they were already smoking the blue lasaia, so he was even more messed up… and then WHOA. We got to play with Ed’s memories. That was a fun discovery.
And the songs! My ‘verse is very, very music heavy. Why? ‘Cause song was introduced to Narnia before Narnia was Narnia. (Thanks, Frank!) So, musical tradition is very important in these cultures. Upon my research for musical traditions in cultures in OUR world, I came across the marvelous tradition of the bertso of the Basque. Bertsolaritza is the artform of singing improvised verses.
This is a great little documentary about how huge this is in the Basque culture, with National Contests drawing people by the thousands to attend. And it features the first ever woman winner from back in 2009!
[Error: unknown template video]
But the Basque were not alone. From the wiki entry:
“Other cultures have traditions of sung extemporary verse not unlike bertsolaritza. Amongst them are the Austro-Bavarian Gstanzl, the Italian improvvisatori, and the Sardinian mutos (also known as mutettus, repentina or ottada in different parts of the island.”
And hence came the inspiration for the cantas. And yes... I wrote two little ditties for the cantas. I just had to!
The upbeat tune Ferrin starts with:
The more dire song that other Cantos sing:
Chapter 3
OK, things are finally picking up here! Susan gets a better idea of the scope of her mission. It was fun exploring Lord Dar a bit here. The poor man…he and his brother Darrin are also pulled from HHB. All the others were made up for the purpose for this story. Well, save for Lord Nel. He’s actually been referenced before.
That whole scene of Susan should be called “Susan and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.”
And then there’s Edmund. Ed, Ed, Ed… it’s embarrassing to admit that his scene with Tarna was the very first thing written for this story, 7 long months ago.
… yeah, I know. It’s… yeah. No idea where it came from. But irrelevant comic relief is usually a welcome treat. Right? Right?
And then more shenanigans with Peridan and Ferrin. Ooh, and the second Telmarine…with a lead! This story is actually going somewhere!
Notes on Chapters 4-6 will be in the next post!
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