Note: This post will have spoilers for the rest of Nightlight Blues!

Now that all four of the chapters of Nightlight Blues has been released, I wanted to write about the technical process behind writing Nightlight Blues. There are a few purposes behind this. The first is that I wanted to reflect upon my own writing process and potential ways to improve it. The second is that I know that there are at least a few writers who are in the Discord server, and I thought they might be interested in seeing my process in order to use it to improve their own processes. Something I don't want to do is use this in order to showboat or boast about myself. I've found that in the end, no one actually cares how hard you work, or how much you write; all that matters is what do acutally do. Everyone works hard, it's the one universal resource that everyone has. Expect this blog post to get quite technical.

Pre-writing

All writing projects start with what I call the pre-write. The goal here is simple; figure out whether I actually want to write the project, or if there's not enough meat on those bones. Often, I'll have interesting ideas that don't link into interesting stories, or individual scenes that don't fit into the scope of a project that I'd be able to take on at the moment. It happens often when I'm thinking about things outside of the narrow scope of the von Karma family and Darkholm, so I was glad that I found myself in a position to take on Nightlight Blues when I came up with it.

For anyone wondering, inspiration is a strange and wonderful creature. I've found that inspiration seems to work only when it wants to, and never you. It also usually mixes in strange ways that you don't expect, until something original comes out. Nightlight Blues started as a riff on rick and morty, with Keelia being Rick with all the magic systems and knowledge about the settings, and Hamlet being the Morty being dragged along because they're a von Karma and being very confused. I then emphasised more on Hamlet's side of the narrative, gave him some imposter syndrome, and before I knew it, it became what it is now. I think that writing, creativity, and inspiration are all a big iterative process in that way, and the pre-write is when I let myself just sit and think about these types of things and make those sorts of connections.

I also worldbuild during this time, though the process for doing that seems to change every time. On one hand, I sometimes wish that worldbuilding was a simpler, more consistent process, but on the other hand, I recognise that it's one of the most volatile aspects of my creativity, and the one I seem to have the least control over. The details of how I worldbuild is probably a topic left for another blog post.

In this phase, I'll usually have a google doc where I list out all of the specifications of my project; what the setting, characters, and main story are, the themes I want to explore, how many chapters or installments I think there will be. All of this is to answer two crucial question: how long will this project take, and what will be the word count once its done. Only once I have the design specifications will I move onto the next phase.

One of the last things that I do during this phase is the chapter breakdown, where I'll list out the main events of each chapter in detail. This is the most important thing I do in the entire pre-write; for me, I can't write without a chapter breakdown to refer back to, guiding me to the next step forward in the plot.

During this time, I also try to minimise how much I editorialize my decisions and suppress the economic part of my brain as much as possible. The pre-write is a time for full artistic discipline and creativity, not hyperfixation. I also walk into the pre-write knowing that most of what I write here will end up being abandoned in the end, or changed in some way. Perfectionsim is not allowed in the pre-write.

First Draft

In the first draft, I emphasise writing quantity far more than writing quality . I find that focusing on writing quality in the first draft only slows down the writing process and hurts me in the long run; I'm sure we've all heard the stories of people who can't get past their fourth or fifth chapter because they become so fixated on the rewrite. If something gets put down, I'm keeping it, no matter how unhappy I feel with it; I've rewritten major scenes in every chapter of Nightlight Blues. I suspect some of that is because I didn't do as thorough of a pre-write as I usually like to do. There are generally two types of writers, being "architects" who prefer planning out an extensive first draft, and "gardeners", who simply write first and edit down whatever comes out after the fact. I lean harder towards being an architect in that regard.

Often during the first draft I'll realize something that I could have done better. When those thoughts come, I simply write them down on another google doc, and come back to it in the future drafts. On the inverse, I'll also get ideas for better plot threads, or new characters, or different resolutions to previous scenes that could affect the scene I'm writing then. When that happens, I'll simply write as if I'd always been writing with that in mind, and so the first draft occasionally becomes completely unreadable to anyone that isn't myself. New characters will appear or disappear randomly, while some characters will die or come back to life, while other characters still act completely differently then they did a chapter ago. Personally, I consider it all a part of the creative process.

Once the first draft is complete, I read back on my own work as a whole, then each individual chapter separately. Then, I start redrafting.

Similar to the pre-write, perfectionism is forbidden in the first draft, and so are what I like to call "marketing decisions", which are things that I write specifically because I think it'll be more palatable to the reading audience. Consistency is also important during the first draft; a first draft which is riddled with side-projects and inconsistency (such as Monroe) either needs to go back to the pre-write, needs to be scrapped, or otherwise is proof that there's something wrong with the concept.

Chapter 1 | Dirty Little Animals

I ended up being very satisfied with chapter 1, even though it took a few drafts to accomplish. The opening sequence in the club was only written on the third draft, for example. It was the chapter where I learned the most that there is a massive difference between the first and second draft, which helps with the nagging voice in the back of my mind that wants to be a perfectionist.

The first chapter also has one massive change; the addition of Ophelia as a character. Originally, Ophelia was going to be a background character, who acts as "the lover" that destroyed Hamlet's ability to have a love life, and be a contributing factor to his many, many problems. That ended up sympathising with Hamlet far, far too much however, and I think introducing her as a main character helped significantly with having a character to call Hamlet out on his toxic behaviours later in the story, as well as hint at what the relationship between Hamlet and Keelia might become (or already look like).

Lazarus Supreme is an interesting addition to the chapter as well. He's one of the many personal additions to Nightlight Blues, references that only I understand. He's a character I've written a decent amount of lore for, but never showed to anyone else. Perhaps one day, he'll get the full book that he deserves, but given that his story is set outside of the main Darkholm universe, it might be a while.

In general, I wrote Nightlight Blues as a personal project; the fact that it became the entry point to my writing for many of the people around me is a coincidence. Because of that, I wrote with the assumption that the reader would already understand all of the subtext and references, similar to Brandon Sanderson's secret project novels. The main goal of Nightlight Blues from the beginning was to something that I wanted to read, first and foremost. To that extent, I think chapter 1, and the other chapters, were a success.

The final thing I wanted to mention in this section was the KeeliaWiki, the thing at the start of the chapter that explains one of the magic systems in Darkholm. I submitted each chapter individually to the Monash Creative Writers weekly meeting, which came with some constraints on my writing. I originally wanted to write the KeeliaWiki at the end of Nightlight Blues, in reference to the Ars Arcanum from Sanderson's novels (in fact, there are many references to Sanderson's writing style throughout Nightlight Blues, though I'll leave that as an exercise for a Cosmere fan to figure out), but it wouldn't have worked in a weekly submission format. I enjoy how it ended up, though.

Chapter 2 | Dynasties and Dystopia

Interestingly, chapter 2 was the hardest chapter to write, and it went through the most rewrites. Chapter 2 has the least amount of surviving content from the first draft in the final draft, and I think I changed literally every single scene except for the final meeting between the UCC and Hamlet/Keelia.

I like to try experiment with a new magic system with each new series I write. For my first novel, I developed the current iteration of bloodcraft, while my scrapped project Washington (which had Lazarus as the main character) developed the current iteration of god powder. There's also a metal-based magic system I developed for a novella I wrote in Janurary, but I'll leave the conversation behind that for another time...

Nevertheless, for Nightlight Blues, I created the current iteration of cerathysia, or mindshaping. I'm mostly quite happy with how it turned out; I think it does everything that I would want a memory-based magic system to do. I was fascinated at the time with the idea of being able to "replay" memories in reality, which you sometimes see in sci-fi through computer simulations and microchips and whatnot.

I'm not quite happy with the ending of chapter 2, which is another remnant of the Monash Creative Writers word count limitation. It has two major problems; first, I don't think I choreographed it properly, and when I read it back I think the action is a little messy. Second, it establishes something that shouldn't be possible, and something that also isn't foreshadowed in the story at all; Keelia being a magic user. She's the only person in the entire series who is able to use more than one astromantic art, and she can use every single one. That, combined with the fact that she only uses it for the first time here, makes a really confusing fight scene. It was a good reminder to me of why I can only use Keelia sparingly as a main character.

Chapter 3 | Heavy is the Crown

Ophelia quickly became my favourite character when writing this chapter. She has the perfect mixture of someone who has been hurt in the past, but has moved on. I think she exemplifies the main theme of Nightlight Blues; scars that don't heal, but don't hurt. Especially since she was a character I added on a whim, rather than someone I had planned to include from the start, creative flashes of inspiration like these are what make my life as an author so magical at times.

The argument between Hamlet and Ophelia in this chapter was the core idea that made me want to write Nightlight Blues. In particular, the idea for the exchange at the very end ("Are you telling me not to idolise a god?" "I'm telling you not to objectify a woman") was the exact moment I realized there was a story to be told here. When I'm first coming up with ideas for a novel, or any sort of writing project, these kinds of scenes and moments are what I build my story around.

Another interesting factoid is that originally, the chapter titles for chapter 2 and chapter 3 were switched. I don't remember why exactly they were swapped, but I do know that the current orientation of the chapter titles fits much better. It was a little awkward, because at the time I already had the commissioned art. It was wonderful to be able to work with an artist to bring Nightlight Blues to life, and it's something I hope to do more often in the future. I learned a lot about commissioning artists for projects through Nightlight Blues, though I think the details for that might have to be its own blog post one day.

Oh, and if you're an artist who wants some work, feel free to email me with your portfolio at darkholmproject@gmail.com. I seem to always be in need of more art.

Chapter 4 | What Could Have Been

At one point in the pre-write, this chapter was called "To Ashes and Blood", and was incredibly generic. Keelia would be kidnapped by the UCC, and Hamlet would have to try to save her. In doing so, he has to fight against a UCC bloodhound using bloodcraft using his mindshaping, hence the title "Ashes and Blood". I'm glad I didn't stick with that.

As of writing this, I haven't seen the reactions for this chapter yet, but I think it'll probably be a little divisive. There's a very good argument for why Keelia should not be back with Hamlet, and the final admission of love to one another in particular almost feels like they're backpedaling. But I think that's about right. I didn't want the ending to Nightlight Blues to resolve every piece of their characters completely. First, it's because while writing, I realized that one day I want to turn Nightlight Blues into a complete novel, meaning that Hamlet and Keelia's story isn't over yet. Second, I think Hamlet and Keelia have been through a lot. And it would be disingenuous to say that they'd suddenly be a perfectly healthy couple just because Hamlet took some drugs. This is the first step in their journey to healing, not the last. Chapter 3 says it the best: the scar hasn't healed, but it doesn't hurt them anymore, either.

I think there's a world where Keelia leaves Hamlet for good, a bittersweet farewell from a toxic relationship. Although that would be more accurate to how you should deal with toxic relationships in real life (that is, to get out as quickly as you can), it just didn't feel right for Hamlet and Keelia. As stated above, I knew this wasn't the end of their story, but I also think it wouldn't be right for Hamlet to be trapped in Nightlight with Ophelia, or for Ophelia to have to deal with Hamlet instead.

And honestly, I don't think I could write that story. I don't enjoy writing hopeless, depressing stories that much. It's why I'm not a fan of the grimdark genre. I just don't see the point.

The Editing Process and Other Facts

Knowing that this short story will have my largest audience yet, Nightlight Blues is the first big project that I wrote multiple drafts and edits, which is a first in my writing process. This project was unique in that I only knew that I'd have as large of an audience as I did once chapter 1 came out, meaning that most of the changes I made to the finished work happened in the editing process.

The biggest change was what I call the "marketing decisions". Nightlight Blues was the first project where I found myself making artistic choices not because I necessarily thought they would be the one I thought contributed to the artform the most, but because I knew that I wanted to write something that was entertaining to read for a wider audience. There are countless little subtle examples of this, and most of it has to do with things I chose not to do, rather than did.

One big thing I learned from this process however is that for me personally, I consider dialogue to be sacred. It was the one thing that didn't get affected by the "marketing decision" process. Character don't work unless they are allowed to act like characters, and those kinds of decisions hurt every draft that included them.

I probably did four or five drafts for each chapter of Nightlight Blues. Coming into it, I always imagined that editing would take far less time than the first draft, but I realize that I was completely wrong. I think I spent far more time editing than I did writing the first draft. But, I think each draft did make the piece substantially better than the last draft, which was another interesting thing to see. It's made me put significantly less stock into the importance of the first draft; sometimes you just need to get something out.

Conclusion

I hope that reading this somewhat incoherent rambling made any level of sense. Or at the very least, was any level of entertaining. If you've read Nightlight Blues and enjoyed it, I'm truly grateful, and I hope the short story was interesting enough to keep you around. With final exams around the corner, I won't be starting a new series quite yet, but you can still expect me to be writing something to be read on this website every week; I'm working on the first draft of I&G, and I think now that my audience has expanded beyond people who already know what Darkholm is, it'd be prudent to write a few scenes that encapsulate what Darkholm is like.

I truly love the craft of writing. I'm glad that through Nightlight Blues, and the Darkholm Project, I've had an opportunity to share it with you.