Hoo boy. I’ve not updated this series in a while. July, in fact. And stuff has changed again since then.
Pyromancer’s felt pretty dead for a little while, and I’ve had doubts about whether or not to use it for my dissertation. I’ve just felt utterly stuck with it and unsure how to make it better – with the constant worry that it’s not original enough.
In fact, the new stuff I was coming up with in the last post has kinda been scrapped too for now, though I may keep the golems idea. But one little scene has started to pave the way for where I want this novel to go.
It may have been when we were discussing character conflict in class, or maybe I just watched one too many episodes of Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares (“You can’t even make a meatball!” *cue dramatic music*) but I got on the train one morning and forced myself to start writing. Here’s a snippet:
‘She’s a freak. A fucking freak!’
Carla folded her arms. ‘So it’s not the cod you have a problem with?’
Ray threw his towel across the room, the edges of his form blurring and becoming transparent. She watched a fly zizz around the buzzing light behind his left ear. ‘You’re dangerous. I don’t care what you all say, she’s dangerous.’
‘Ray, give it a rest.’ Dhanya looked up from the chip fryer, apron splashed with grease. ‘We’ve got a shit-ton of orders and I want to go home.’
It was too hot in here. Too hot in this tiny kitchen where not even the flies would touch the food. Her magic was stifled in here. ‘Personally I think you’re a jealous arsehole Ray, but I don’t hold it against you.’
Not perfect by a long stretch, but there’s character conflict. And I ended up writing three pages. Carla isn’t a happy little photography student anymore. Now she’s working in a fish and chip shop where she’s distrusted because of her magic but it’s the only job she can get. Her Skill is registered under “dangerous magic” and she has to wear a badge proclaiming thus. The magic system’s more flexible than the standard four elements (Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children provided some unexpected inspiration).
Dhanya made it back in, hooray! She’s Carla’s friend at the shop, and Brett is now her best friend rather than someone who just shows up to provide comic relief. He’d rather Carla kept her Skill to herself instead of being determined to do some good with it.
Which plays in perfectly with a later scene: a young American woman places an order just before the shop closes, and she and Carla get talking. (Yup, Allie’s American now.) So when it turns out she’s a rebel working against a suspected Sentinel plot, Carla gets a chance to make a difference – and of course Brett has more than a few concerns for her. Miles is reinstated as the bad guy for now, and I’m planning on having Omar as a fellow rebel.
The story isn’t very clear for now. But I have something. I have character conflict, and an opening that’s far darker, more YA and less safe than the original chapter one. I already know that this is a story with something to say about discrimination, trust and facing fears. The characters have woken up and are clearing themselves of cobwebs.
It’s not much, but it’s a start. This novel is starting to find its feet again.