Outgrew My Vision

So, we all know how stories start, right? Something–a song, a book, a movie, a phrase, whathaveyou–triggers a scene. A thought. A 'what if?' question. And then you're off. There are people in your brain, voices in your head, and scenes amassing, begging to be written.

So you write. Just a snippet here. A line there. Slowly piecing things together until you're sure you have enough to start with. Then you're off again to construct a whole story.

I imagine that for short stories it's probably easier to keep to the original idea. (Don't know, myself, cuz I can't write a short story to save my damn life.) To insert those scenes you'd gone ahead and written first. And to keep true to the characters you envisioned.

For some people, writing novels may be just as easy. In my case, they laugh in my face and wave goodbye as they maroon me on an island of delusion.

The first thing that inspired me to write Demon Kin: The Lovers was the song Lover.Fighter by Svrcina. The very first time I heard it, I immediately got this image in my head of a man heading off to do dangerous shit, and his spouse tying her hair up and being like, "Wait up, baby, lemme grab my gun." This idea bloomed more while I was just starting to rewrite Demon Kin: The Queen and I realized that I loved Noa's name so much that I wanted to use her for this story. Immediately after, I knew Musician would be the LI. Like, everything fell into place so quickly that I started writing DK:TL long before I finished the rewrite. To this day, the file is saved as DK Fanfic because that was the title I started with before I ever committed to it being a full-fledged sequel. And it actually sat there with only about nine chapters finished until after DK:TQ was released. (A little trivia for y'all: chapter 8 of DK:TL is the epilogue for DK:TQ written from Noa's POV. And it came first.)

Anyway, so the inspiration hit hard for me to start this book. It's lagged over time since I've started, but I've always known where it was going. Like, I always knew what conflict they would wade into and how the last chapter would go.

Today, my book outgrew my vision for it. In the best way.

What follows from here will contain SPOILERS. Continue at your OWN RISK.

At the very end of DK:TQ, we know that Reia implies that Noa will absolutely be her heir. She gives it six months, in fact. Now, early on, I wrote a scene in my phone that I took to basically be one of the final scenes in DK:TL. This is what it looked like:

That is basically the original ending. It's a moment of vulnerability for Noa. Everything she loved and cared about meant absolutely nothing when it came to him. And she's holding herself accountable for that, even though Reia had already factored it in.

It would have been a great ending.

Then Noa outgrew it. She does her best throughout the book to hold herself accountable, even when she's on the defensive, but she's less apologetic about things she considers inevitable. She also goes from trying to earn her place to taking her rightful place, which I adore.

So, as a kind of teaser and a definite spoiler, I give you this scene:

I love how different Noa is in each of these scenes. In the first, she's a little emotional because she does understand that abandoning her students was a choice she made. She feels guilt and remorse about it, but she also knows that she would do it again in a heartbeat. Therefore, she doesn't feel adequate enough to take on the responsibility.

The second scene shows an entirely different Noa. She's not apologetic. She's not suffering from guilt or distress. Instead, she sees everything clearly. Including hers and Reia's place in this world. There's no contrition or compassion in this scene. It's a simple, pure acknowledgment of the parts they must now play, and I love that.

It also occurs nowhere closes to the end of the book. Which means there's plenty more to come, and now this new dynamic is factored in, which is going to make it a lot more fun.

It also means that, as of right now, I have no idea at all what the end of this book looks like. And that's the best part.

Which means it's time to get back to writing.