Backstory
(& setup)
SOMETIMES I like knowing what I’m walking into.
Other times, I like to be surprised.
STARDUST is a need-to-know project.
As in, I need to know.
The world in project STARDUST is outside my wheelhouse. So the more I knew about this project, the better.
This is not always the case.
With THE LAST PARADISE, project CANVAS, and others that I haven’t mentioned, once I get the idea, I’m in. Worldbuilding isn’t usually necessary for me until the first draft.
But project STARDUST (I will name it soon I promise) requires more planning than I’m used to. Which is fine! We’re just going to learn it together.
BACKSTORY
What I knew going into backstory:
There’s not a good relationship between the main character (MC) and the love interest (LI)
We live in a world where stardust can be caught
Idk what else I knew. There was more, but I can’t remember when I figured it out.
I don’t know what I’m doing until I do it.
I planned for this update to be worldbuilding. I was wrong! Here we are.
You will go into planning with the best intentions.
You’ll ask all the right questions.
But you’re Sisyphus. This is your curse. Because by the time you reach the top, you’re thirty minutes and an entire notebook page later.
Of course, it’s only then you realize:
I was supposed to be asking about—
How did I get on this topic—
The boulder will roll back down the hill.
The diversions can be subtle. For example, on the YT video at 0:48, I ask “are the starcatchers chosen?”
This is a worldbuilding question, and a great one to ask (subjectively, of course).
But the answer turned my WORLDBUILDING VIDEO (intended) into BACKSTORY.
The question: “Are the starcatchers chosen?”
The answer: “Yes. And they’re chosen because they’re wealthy.”
The answer led me to an image of stars funneling into a house.
The visual led me to the idea that she’s not chosen, she’s grandfathered in. She’s not a starcatcher, but the house she lives in is. It’s one-of-a-kind.
I was happy to explore this magical house idea.
It rolls back to our first video — the LI despises our MC because she’s a privileged brat. The starcatcher house’s existence, it’s uniqueness, helped me understand how and why her privilege presents itself.
If it’s a home that’s catching the stars as well, it explains why she’s upset at the LI. Because the starcutter, to be manipulating stardust, has to also be stealing from them. There is no other way to obtain the falling stars (I think?).
From there, the conversation devolved. I got caught up in her anger. (How angry would you be if someone broke into your house, sold items from your pantry on the street, and their actions resulted in your brother’s death?)
She’s furious. More so because the house is under her responsibility. The fact that a thief stole the fallen stars is “her fault.”
Exploring this rage showed me her recklessness. Everything has always worked in her favor. So she thinks the weapon will, too. She thinks since she’s grandfathered in, the chaotic, arcane magic drawn to the starcatcher house will respond to her.
She’s fatally wrong.
Her ignorance knows no bounds.
Her hubris is her undoing.
And realizing all of this is great!
I started the video to w-o-r-l-d-b-u-i-l-d.
I’m thinking now of Madeline Miller’s CIRCE. “When I was born, the name for what I was did not exist.”
I think also of Bardugo’s NINTH HOUSE, and that prologue ender: “The trouble had begun on a night in the full dark of winter, when Tara Hutchins died and Alex still thought she might get away with everything.”
You hear frequently that you should start your novels in media res (in the middle of things). No one provides examples when they say this, and that can leave you feeling that you’ve started your novel in the wrong place.
You haven’t. Maybe.
Let’s look at it with project STARDUST. In my first video, I asked “is the inciting incident her brother dying? Or is the inciting incident the weapon misfiring?”
ALRIGHT. I’m about to get info-dumpy. But stay with me. If you don’t want to, that’s fine, I put an “Info dump OVER” further down <3
The “death of the mentor” is frequently used in Hero’s Journey stories. So anyone reading a mentor death akin to a brother dying would immediately think “I know what happens next.”
This is subconscious. You cannot help it. You cannot stop it. The moment that mentor draws their final breath, the moment the main character sees blood on their hands, you know deep down how the story is going to play out. This is because of pattern recognition.
Think about it.
Her brother dies. What happens next?
She hunts the killer down.
Finds the killer.
Is probably wrong about the killer.
Gets upset when she finds out how powerful the real killer really is.
Has a Legally Blonde moment where she comes into power.
Defeats or unveils the evil.
There’s a group song and dance at the end. There are tears. Everyone is happy.
(I am obviously oversimplifying but you get the IDEA OKAY?)
These are archetypes we don’t stray from. And while archetypes and plots are different, here are a list of the Seven Basic Plots that we are sworn to understand at a soul level.
SETUP
Info dump OVER
Let’s check out what STARDUST looks like right now.
Opening scene
With her last colleagues of the day now gone, our MC commits forgery. We see the stardust splinters inside her fingertips, so we know right off the bat she’s trifling with things beyond her comprehension.
Following scene
On the street, huge introduction to the world. The sun is setting. She’s on her way to the LI’s usual haunts, but she runs into him on the street instead. They damn near take one another’s heads off. This establishes their relationship prior to inciting incident.
She practically throws the forged invitation at him, marking that in three days time, the alchemists’ school wants his help for weapons of war. She’s the only other person who knows his identity as the starcutter. She hasn’t told a soul his secret because she doesn’t want him getting credit for it.
He thinks the invitation is too good to be true, and she storms away.
She returns home
We get to see the Starcatcher house and how it works. (Do I know how it works? Of course not).
We meet the little brother and other family residing inside the house.
She tests the weapon on a pumpkin
She goes out back that night and makes more changes to the weapon, knowing she has three days left until it’s perfect.
Three days later, the door opens at the Alchemists school, and he comes in. The rest of the building is empty.
They fight, and the weapon goes off.
Easy.
Let’s look at what it could’ve been.
Opening scene
breakfast - meeting the house, establishing normal
Realizing her brother hasn’t returned, starting search for him in the house
still meeting the house, establishing normal
finding a pile of stardust and knowing what happened
flashing back to the addiction he’s been struggling with (i actually don’t think they turn into stardust. I think they’re overcome with it. so his body was shining. Sorry - that was a side-note. But I told you I’d give you everything so here it is. Anyway)
Hunting the mysterious and elusive starcutter down
she knows his drug was at fault, and she’s ready to kill him
Finding the man and vowing retribution
why wouldn’t she kill him immediately? I’m not sure. Witnesses, maybe.
She starts as an assistant at the alchemy school
She chooses instead to build her own weapon and lure him into a trap
Months pass, but the weapon is ready. They want her to put up requests begging the starcutter to come help them
She commits forgery
And there’s nothing wrong with this. But this isn’t the story we’re trying to set up. This isn’t the story we’re trying to tell.
So, we’re skipping to the forgery instead.
Ergo, starting in media res.
Starting closer than this to the inciting incident is easier in contemporary stories, where the worldbuilding has already been established. Anything closer to “in the middle of things” for project STARDUST risks the loss of vital worldbuilding and stakes
AGAIN can’t stress this enough. This is my process. This is not my instruction.
That’s an important distinction. Just because this is what I do does not mean it’s a hard-and-fast rule. Nothing is a hard-and fast rule.
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