One Third Down
Credit to @florin_palamarciuc
Today’s update isn’t major, but I’m happy about it nonetheless!
I’ve finished with the main rough draft for Cheryl and have started on the second character’s draft. These will all be weaved together in the final book, a sort of “A, B, C, A, B, C, etc” format that will balance the three stories and their respective focuses while allowing me to branch out with each character’s origin point.
Marie differs from Cheryl in a few ways. Whereas Cheryl was somewhat distanced from the horrors of the war and the fallout (both literal and metaphorical) that followed, Marie was born and raised within one of these territories. Her perspectives, her beliefs and experiences, all of that will be directly reflective of the climate she is in. Lissi, the small town that Marie seeks to escape from, is both a dying town and an iron prison. Contrast this to Cheryl who was born in eastern Europe (like Marie) but raised in the US, and you have a vastly different tale to tell.
I still have a lot of refining to do with Cheryl’s drafts of course, and bouncing between her template and Marie’s is kind of fun! Marie’s arc deals with some heavier material than Cheryl’s, so it’s a little tricky trying to find a good balance point between too much and too little when it comes to the elements I’m looking to explore.
Like many things in this series, Marie’s environment draws several conclusions from the real world. The scars left behind by the UDF and the Great War are still fresh, and the soviet-inspired blocs and villages that now sit in disrepair reflect that heavily. Old abandoned factories and sealed bunkers litter the dense forests and mountain ranges, and despite once being a part of the Verdusk Empire, Savo (the country Lissi is in) feels distant and removed from some of the Great War’s worse events. (See my other pages on locations and factions within TKP if you haven’t yet, they explain some of what I’m referencing here!)
The grass is usually greener on the other side, right? For Marie’s sake I hope it is. It’s easy to lose the woods for the trees in a place as unloved as Lissi.
That’s all for now, folks. ‘Til next time!
