Hello, everyone!
It’s been quite some time since I last posted anything on my blog. Despite that, I’ve been doing my best to keep playing around with my writing and working on it as much as I can. Whether or not I’ve made any progress since then, however, is another story, and it’s that reason that I am making this post.
For starters, I am not giving up on the story. Let me get that out of the way. I have every intention of continuing the story, though admittedly I have been doing a lot of world-building more than writing the book. Which I consider being both good and bad. Good in the sense that I am setting up boundaries for what is possible in the world and what isn’t, and bad because I am not getting any writing done.
This does, however, lead me to my second point.
For those who don’t remember, I specified there were seven individuals that will have their own stories. Each one detailed how each person caused an event to occur in the story while showcasing their side of events. I even made a shortlist of characters to introduce what kind of people were in each of the stories and what their roles were.
Looking back on it, I realized that it was pointless to make a list without specifying which character is going to be the main character in each of the seven books. It may have been a bit too obvious who was going to be in them, or that’s where my mind went to regarding it. Not only that, but it might be easier for me and others to know who they are and what they did that lead up to the same event occurring. As much as I wanted to keep it all a secret, people were eventually going to find out, and keeping it a secret now was making it much harder on myself and, in general, kind of pointless.
With that said, the characters that are involved in this particular event and the people who will be the protagonists in each book are as follows: Cecilia (whom I already confirmed some time ago), Dante, Genevieve, Kane, Eloise, Edgar, and Gulliver.
If you would like to learn more about them, click here to see the official list. However, this list will be updated soon not only to introduce more characters but to also alter some existing characters too.
Speaking of altering existing characters, there is more to disclosing which characters are going to have their stories told. Not only did I want to showcase it and keep it from being a secret, but I hit an unfortunate roadblock while writing the next chapter for Cecilia’s story. While I already have Cecilia’s story planned from beginning to end, it’s Dante’s character that has caused the roadblock.
If you read the official character list, I stated that Dante was a human-elf hybrid (or halfling, which may be subject to change) who is a servant to Queen Cecilia. He is someone who sees Cecilia in a different light compared to what everyone else sees her as, and the two are close. That has been my plan since I started piecing the story many years ago. Over time, I made some changes to both the story and the characters not only for the sake of making a fascinating story but to also bring more inclusivity and diversity to the cast as a whole.
As a result of these changes, I ran into one such roadblock.
You see, my impression of Dante as a character was that he was compassionate and kind, even a bit charismatic and goofy when the situation called for it. However, he was also lazy. He did not like having to do hard labor, and he would often slack in his duties without punishments from Cecilia. However, if he was ordered by Cecilia to do something, he would do it without question. I had a good reason for it, but after taking a step back and looking at it objectively, it just doesn’t sit well with me now.
Which led me to ask the most important question: How exactly is Dante responsible, directly or indirectly, for the events in question?
If you couldn’t tell, Dante is supposed to embody the sin of Sloth, and I wanted to emphasize the idea that his laziness was responsible for what transpires. He doesn’t like to do a lot of work, he’d rather sleep in, you name it. However, one aspect of the story that I want to make clear is that, while he is stricken with this sin, it is possible for him and people like him to combat this by following the virtue opposite their sin. In the case of Dante, the virtue that combats Sloth is Diligence. I want his story to showcase his struggles with combating his sin, and I believed having him be particular with who he listens to be a sign of this. Unfortunately, looking back on it, it came off as him being a lost puppy following his master instead of someone genuinely struggling. Not only that, but I haven’t pieced together a story that would best showcase that, while also failing to succeed in this endeavor time and time again.
This was just the tip of the iceberg, however.
Another change that was made was Dante’s appearance. My original idea was to have him be a light-skinned, brown-haired servant. Because I realized that I wanted to change up the cast and bring more diversity, along with other more secretive reasons that I won’t get into, I decided to change it so that Dante would have some melanin but remained generally the same in status and personality. My best description of him now would be half-Black, half-Polynesian.
It wasn’t until I went through what his story was going to be that I came to a rather unfortunate circumstance. I created a Black character and made him a servant. Or, in other words, a slave.
While this isn’t necessarily the first thing a person is going to think of when they see Dante, if it’s something I personally can see and be uncomfortable with, then other people – particularly the BIPOC community – would feel the same. This forced me back to the drawing board with him. Even though my goal first and foremost is to tell a story, I want to tell a story that doesn’t consistently place certain characters into stereotypical roles, and I especially don’t want to give in to telling a story about a particular group’s trauma when they are more than that. I don’t intend to succeed every time, but I don’t want to look back and say I didn’t try. Admittedly, this gives me another chance to put him into a different position and try a different perspective in terms of describing this world. What that would be, however, is something I am still considering.
And if you’re wondering, yes, this does directly affect Cecilia’s story too. He’s an important piece to Cecilia’s development as a character, and I don’t want to wash him down to being the servant who likes to suck up to the Queen. I want it to be more than that. It’s just a matter of what his role will be now that I am altering it to create a better narrative, both for Dante and Cecilia.
If you read up to this point, I greatly appreciate it. And if you have any questions or even suggestions about what ideas I could try for Dante, feel free to ask them. I will do my best to answer them to the best of my ability!
Julisa Trinidad 