Making The Barren Peace: from one character to the Universe

First Came Aleksander:

Wise, handsome, intelligent and powerful. Overflowing with charm. He was a strong character from the beginning.

At that time I was just writing for fun. Writing short stories, scribbling little poems and dabbling in fan fiction ideas like this one. Never imagining I would ever want to push the dream of being a published author.

I’d just finished reading a series I was going to write a fan fiction for and my imagination started to work on the what if for it. There was so much space in this timeline to work with. It would be fun to work out how I could fill the years between books. And he was very clear in my mind. So I sat down to start. Aleksander was going to play a starring role in said fan fic.

But it started to feel wrong. Aleksander became clearer in my head and revealed more about himself. He wasn’t who I thought he was. Additional parts of his personality came out: the ones capable of diabolical power plays and rage initiated by a loss of control. He insistently told me I wasn’t telling his story right.

At that point, it was clear that shoehorning such a powerful and clear character into a fan fiction wasn’t quite working.

“Okay Aleksander,” I demanded as I deleted everything I’d written on this fic so far. “How would you tell it then?”

He didn’t answer me, so I left it for a little while. But I knew then that this character deserved his own universe and his own story. But what story was that, exactly?

Enter Ruth:

Kindly, demure, faithful and beautiful. Above all, she was the one ready to overlook anything unseemly about Aleksander. She came to him with a clear promise: that even if every other person turned against him, she would love him unconditionally. She would follow him, serve him faithfully and love him well.

When Ruth came into my mind, I thought perhaps this was a love story. An epic romance akin to Tristan and Isolde or Lancelot and Guinevere. Lovers with odds stacked against them that they would either find a way to overcome or succumb to a tragic end.

What if this was an epic poem about these lovers, Aleksander and Ruth?

I started to try it. It seemed to be going well, but only for a few weeks.

So, when did that stop working?

It stopped when more characters came onto the scene. Even more influential was how Aleksander had a visceral reaction to said characters:

• When he lusted after the alluring and enigmatic Lucretia.

• When he revealed a blood hatred for Jakob and his family, a feud that spanned years.

• When a group of religious women, led by the ever faithful Imani, threw themselves at his feet and lorded him as their Emperor and Saviour.

• When he was prepared to punish to the extreme Aisha and her family who had the audacity to choose the wrong side.

• When he started making corrupt side deals with Orion to try and garner an advantage.

• When the specially trained army he’d assembled during his reign prepared for war.

But the character that really drove the shift? That was Lolita Antoinette. The historian. The questioner. The truth teller. She spoke to me next, and her message was clear: this is far more complex than a love story.

It was clear at this point that The Barren Peace needed to be a novel. It’s own story. It’s own universe. It’s own cast of characters. It’s own stakes.

NaNoWriMo 2021 was the opportunity to sit down and smash out this draft. An entire Universe built around these characters. A story of war, power and political intrigue with a little bit of love on the side formed.

Aleksander was now addicted to a substance called R6 he was using to keep himself alive, ideally immortal. The new players took their place: loyal Lucretia, fastidious Bjork, pragmatic Orion, passionate Annias, wise Adonias, stoic Emma, noble Ahmed, ambitious Viktor. Above all, Jakob and Aisha, the future of their Houses and foils to Aleksander, unified against him.

Then it was a process of many drafts. Many edits. Clear feedback. Significant structural changes. Refining. World Building.

Let’s talk about how the world building evolved, because it started off quite basic. It was more important when I was starting out to get the story down or I would get too bogged down in the world building and forget to actually tell a story.

After draft three, I really changed the world building up, creating new terms and titles, naming planets and drawing maps. It’s important to note here that this was on the back of a consultation with an experienced publisher who gave me some great advice and some things to watch out for when world building. The idea of splitting the universe into four provinces and having a hierarchy in these provinces formed. With Aleksander at the top of that hierarchy of course.

As for characters, I poured so much into them. I poured what I was seeing in the real world into them. As a social worker, I get to see and meet a vast array of people and behaviours. My characters got the best and worst of what I saw.

The political landscape also helped. We live in a tumultuous time: a time of war, genocide, corruption, world leaders sowing division, big corporations backing the people who will allow them to keep their monopolies and money, poverty, protest, and public opinion swaying both ways.

If you’re after escapism this isn’t the book for you.

But if what you want is:

• Characters who are very strongly developed, real and all exist in their own right even if they aren’t a POV character.

• Characters who all have a clear place.

• If you want a story with clear stakes

• Moments where you might feel genuinely confused on who to root for because everyone has a compelling reason for you to vote for them.

• Moments that make you feel warm, sad, angry and enraged.

• Compelling politics and dramatic climaxes

• Feeling like no one is safe until the very end.

Then The Barren Peace might just be your cup of tea. Or rather, your vial of R6 laced formula which will either keep you alive, turn you mad, or both.