Savior of The Stars Book 1 process
SPOILER WARNING This post may contain things that spoil content within SOTS Book 1, as it goes over the process of it’s creation, the content within it. If you haven’t read book one yet, please read at your own risk! SPOILER WARNING
Where do I even start with this one? This book was the first and so it needed the most care and thought to be put into it. After years upon years of changes, I think I’ve stuck the landing on where I want this book to be. It’s got the fun and charm that I’ve wanted to keep throughout, the story and plot has become easier to follow as the changes were made, and most importantly the characters are where I want them to be. Drafting up a cast for this book was definitely a challenge, since of course I know who and what I wanted, but the bigger issue was getting them to actually work as a team. How would I get someone as uh, interesting as Kelpson, someone soft-spoken like Liz, siblings as loving and close as Ruben and Michelle and someone as oddball as Darren to all manage to work together? Asking that hard question, actually made things a lot easier to write because the answer was right there in front of me. They wouldn’t work together!
That issue, was my greatest strength for writing the cast. Instead of making them buddy buddy, why not make them not like parts of one another or like certain members more than others. Why not make them disagree? In life, you don’t always see eye to eye with everyone, so showing that through these characters seemed like the right course of action, but with that said, I had to try not to bridge and push the gap between disliking and wanting to strangle each other between the cast. Most of them play by the rules, such as Liz, Gramps and Ruben, while not always understanding everyone or seeing exactly what they see, they can find some sort of middle ground. Michelle and Darren seem to walk a tightrope, but even if they do cross a line they also come around to understanding what was wrong. Kelpson on the other hand, was quite the problem child when it came to writing out what the cast would do and how they would interact with one another since he was such of a prominent figure in the group, for better or for worse.
Moving away from the characters for a moment, the book as a whole is always something that I want to be enjoyed by all audiences, while also never shying away from ideas that some readers might not have interacted with. Not everyone can relate to Kelpson getting bullied in school and being outcast by most people around him, not everyone can relate to Gramps trying to guide a rowdy kid like Kelpson in the right direction, not everyone can relate to how Liz may feel as a young black girl surrounded by people who all have ideas and expectations about her and how she should act, not everyone can relate to Michelle and Ruben being thrust into the world at a young age without parents and only able to rely on one another, and not everyone can relate to Darren and what it’s like talking to others who laugh at your way of speaking or who you are. Not everyone can relate to one or maybe even all of those, but at least one person can, and that’s what this book and all the books after will be for.
For the person who can relate, and for the person who can’t relate, maybe both people can read and understand something new, or feel a little better being seen, or maybe just get a laugh out of the story. Amidst everything in your life right now, always try to understand.
Well, that’s all I’ve got folks, so for now, let’s do something a little fun! Comment down below what superpower you would want if you could have one! Mine would probably be something that could heal or restore things to how they were, like a certain JoJo! Wait, is that a JoJo ref-
Until next time, keep on shining like the stars you are!