This is going to be a rough adventure because I am literally going to fire things down on the page as I brainstorm, and I am going to try to guess at the suggestions you might make and the questions you might ask as I do so. In this way, I am taking you into the workshop with me, so you are very much a real part of the work I will do here today.

Before we get into it, let’s assess what we’ve got so far.

You are here!

We know that Angel Fall will be set in the far future, many generations after a massive lunar impact event pelted Planet Earth with wave after wave of fiery rocks, devastating civilisation. The survivors exist in small rival communities who often quarrel over limited resources.

A network of sentry satellites once watched over the world, and the few remaining are of religious significance to the characters. They will be part of legend and song, both of which will be important in the oral tradition of this world. There is at least one system of faith in this world, centred on the satellites, or ainjels as they are known to the people of the time. When Pac, the sky beast, took a bite out of the moon and spat it at the people on the ground below, the brave angels fought hard to protect them. Many angels were knocked down, and these fallen angels stewed in their failure, and turned to darkness. A battle between them will someday come, the people believe. Those who are good will be carried away by the good angels, while those who are bad will be tormented by the bad ones.

Our story begins in the thaw which follows the ice age into which the planet was thrust following the lunar impact event. Our first-person narrator is named Scar. His name comes from the burns on his left arm and face which he suffered as a baby. Because of his injuries, our boy is not held in high regard, and is not a full member of his community. He fancies a young clairvoyant girl named Clarity, but she has no time for him. We also have Nope, an elder of the community. He will be central to the tale. One other character who may be significant is Prophet. His job is to watch for the day of Angel Fall, when the sky angels will come to Earth to battle with their former kin. Scar is perhaps learning the ropes from him, so he can take over when Prophet’s time is up.

We decided that Angel Fall will be a story of trust and betrayal, and an allegory of our times.

Being set in the far future, we decided that the novel should have its own unique language, which will be a patois of modern and made-up words and phrases.

We’ve come a distance but there’s a long way to go before we start writing this novel, and even further to go before we have the first draft. I’m chomping at the bit, to be honest, but a little patience and care now will pay dividends later.

First brainstorm

Let’s get straight into this brainstorming session!

These are stray thoughts, and in no particular order. I’m letting my mind go wherever it wants, and allowing inspiration to find me. Later, we’ll put shape on the ideas we come up with.

Okay, here goes!

• A sense of location - Ireland / England/ the States?

• England, I think

• What stories from the old days remain?

• Shakespearian tales, perhaps, but in a greatly distorted form

• Tales of kings and princes and intrigue

• Old stories adapted to fit the angels

• Central metaphor/symbol? Has to be the angels, they offer both hope and damnation

• Angels - legend, faith, doctrine, dogma

• Fire from above; guardians

• Blasphemy?

• How important is their faith? Fundamental? For some, yes, others not so much.

• Language

What about our characters so far?

• Scar

• Nope (could he be a traitor to his people?)

• Clarity (could she posses some power e.g. be a natural clairvoyant?)

• Prophet (aging, redundant?)

• Princess (leader of another faction)

What initial questions do we need to ask of them?

• What do they want/need/fear/hate/lack?

• What drives them as individuals? Belonging, faith, prejudice.

• What drives them as a society? Survival!

• What unites them? Survival!

• What separates them? Also survival!

There’s a lot to unpack there, but let’s allow our minds to drift again:

• Tyrant; I have in mind a powerful and shadowy antagonist who will be the driving force behind the story. He will light the fuse, though this may not be known to the reader at the start of the novel.

• Bedlam, where the tyrant is, or it could be his name

• Song and story

• Bad guys singing as they take Scar’s people away

• Feudal society?

• Tribute, what’s owed to whom

• Driving emotion? Belonging!

• Secrets, lost knowledge

• Motivation

• How old is Scar?

• Mother

• Power

• Wisdom, value of

• What sort of housing do they have?

• Any remnants of the old world?

• Livestock?

• Crops?

• Hunter/gatherer society?

• Nomadic?

• Who makes the clothes, shoes, other essentials?

• Barefoot? Perhaps Scar prefers this

• Communal eating?

• Housing structures - old underground silos, or above-ground huts?

• Adaptations

• Evolution

• Mutation

• Ghost stories, stories to make children behave

Is your mind buzzing as much as mine? We could continue but let’s take a breather and review, starting from the start.

England feels like the right setting for the story, though the characters might not call it by that name. To them it will simply be the land they live on. If they are seasonally nomadic, anywhere they live will be a temporary home. Might they move according to the weather or the prey they hunt? It could also be that they are moving according to where the melt is taking place. There could also be a survival benefit to having a small footprint. Say they are few in number, so choose to move when threatened rather than face a fight. Any alliances they make would then be transitory. They might for instance hitch their wagon to a strong faction from time to time, and might have a lasting bond with one or two other nomadic peoples.

Let’s say there are some established settlements. Might the novel start as Scar’s people settle for a time near one of them? There could be a reason for doing so, a religious festival where Prophet’s attendance is required, or a tribute that needs to be paid to a local leader - I’m definitely thinking the society should be in some way feudal.

I’m liking this so far, and what I’m doing here is literally streaming this onto the page with no preparation. And all this comes purely from considering the setting for the novel. This is raw creation!

Let’s dig into one more aspect of the above brainstorm before we wrap up for today. Looking back, what catches my eye is the idea that Nope might betray his people. He would need strong motivation to do so. What motivates people? Money, power, sex, prestige. Money doesn’t apply but power and prestige might. Perhaps turning traitor is the price of admission into the good graces of the tyrant, whose name for now we’ll assume to be Bedlam. This might centre on Clarity, the girl Scar is attracted to. I wondered about mutation and whether she has some sort of clairvoyant powers. That would make her valuable to Bedlam, and would make Nope valuable for a time, but ultimatelty dispensible. Scar, whom Nope discovers in the woods because the boy isn’t allowed to attend the religious festival, throws a spanner in the works. Nope could kill him, and perhaps prepares himself to do so, but something stays his hand. I can’t yet say what that might be.

I feel I can now define a basic premise for the novel, to give us a sense of direction:

Angel Fall - Premise

A young boy travels across a devastated far-future world in the company of a reluctant wise elder to rescue his people from slavery, and to ensure that a young clairvoyant girl does not fall into the hands of a tyrant.

I’m going to stop there for today. We’ve covered a lot of ground, and the story is taking on a shape I like.

Watch out for the next Plot post, in which we’ll discuss the first act of the three-act structure. After that, we’ll get right back to developing more ideas for Angel Fall from this brainstorming session.

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When at the start of developing a major project, I find it useful to look ahead to the final stages, the end game if you will, to get a clear picture of where I want to end up. I’m not talking here in terms of story, more in terms of the deliverables for the project. Not much point letting it sit sad and lonely on my hard drive, right? It has to get out into the world in some form, and for me as an agented writer, that means delivering the final product to my agent for his review.

I felt the shivers of endless writers when I used the word product to describe the art of producing a novel. But that’s what it is. Angel Fall will hopefully be on a shelf in a bookstore someday, and people will exchange money for it. A small proportion of that money will go into my bank account, some will go to my agent, some to the distributor, some to the cover artist, and so one. Everyone involved deserves, and gets, a piece of the action, because it takes a team of dedicated professionals to get a book out to the public, and few outside of beta readers will work for free.

The publishing business is just that, a business, and as a professional writer, the creator and inventor of the work, it is my job to deliver a good product to my agent so that he and all the others involved can get it to market, and we can all get paid.

There, I’ve said it.

Viewing Angel Fall as a product, then, and its production as being a project which must be executed in a professional manner, what components must I deliver to my agent?

The Manuscript

I provide an editing service, and have seen manuscripts presented in all sorts of ways. Some have been neat and consistent, while others have been all over the place, having no regard for the fact that someone other than the author is going read them.

Presentation matters in novels as well as everything else, and a professionally presented manuscript speaks well of the writer. It shows their care for their work, and communicates an appreciation for those who will read it. It should be carefully edited, as free from typos as humanly possible, have consistent chapter headings and page numbers, and use a font that is easy to read. These are easy things to do, and if the writer cannot take the time and make the effort to avoid a sloppy presentation then one would have to wonder how much care they took with the story.

I have a novel template document - in fact, I have a novel template folder which contains everything I need to start a new project, including templates for the manuscript, planning documents, character profiles, and so on. I highly recommend taking the time to set up something like this for yourself. It not only ensures consistency but also saves time, because you won’t have to reinvent the wheel every time you start a new project.

So, for Angel Fall, my primary deliverable will be a meticulously edited and well-presented manuscript, and within its pages will lie our story.

The Synopsis

I’m a bit of an oddity when it comes to writing a synopsis for a novel. Most writers don’t like doing them, but I relish the challenge of condensing a major story down to 300-500 words. I’ll be including one in my submission package to my agent. It is an essential document for him to get an overview of the story and character arcs, and is just as essential for me, because it can act as a compass in the development of a novel.

For this reason, I like to write a draft synopsis before I start writing a novel.

You can of course choose to wing it, see where the characters take you, and sort out any issues in the second draft. I have often done this myself, both for long and short form fiction, and it’s an equally valid process. However, given the potential complexities of Angel Fall, I feel a synopsis will be of benefit, and we will draft one very soon.

It won’t be a perfect and immutable one, it might be nothing like the finished work, but it will give me a sense of structure and direction, and clarify what the character arcs will look like.

Think of it as the proving ground for the story.

If I can define the shape of it on one page, if all the bits fit together and the niggly parts can be ironed out, then I have a working - cringe all you like, but I’m going to use another business term here - protocol to guide me in my writing.

For now, it’s enough to be aware that I will definitely need to include one in my submission package.

The Pitch

My agent and I have got to know each other well, so my cover letter to him will take the form of an informal email. I will tell him what I’m sending him, which he will no doubt be expecting anyway, will tell him what documents are attached, and will remind him of the pitch for the novel.

You know what a pitch is, right? You want to sell me on an idea, so you pitch it to me short and sweet, and grab my attention. In the case of this novel, the purpose is to interest and intrigue my agent enough for him to open up my synopsis and manuscript, and commit his valuable time to reading them.

Considering a possible pitch during the early stages of development can be as useful as an early synopsis. It can give the writer a very clear definition of what the novel is about, and what they really want it to say. As such, it can act as another aid to navigation as they trawl through the narrative shoals of the novel.

I hope you can appreciate the value of looking ahead to the end game, and what we will ultimately deliver to an agent or publisher. The above are not essential elements in a novel’s development, but they are tools we can use if we wish.

If you’re still cringing about this business view of the craft of writing, fear not. Taking a professional attitude to what we do does not detract from the art of it. We are still writers who are producing a work of art. It’s just better if we don’t go hungry as a result!

In my experience, it can be most helpful in the development of a novel if I keep the end game in mind. It keeps my focus on what I want to deliver, and gives me a clear picture of what the end result will look like.

Watch out for the next post, in which we’ll discuss the intersection of character and story.

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The worlds we create for our stories and novels will nearly always have some form of rules and constraints, which may determine and/or limit what our characters can do. Some rules may be self-imposed, others may be imposed by law or circumstance, while still others may arise from the beliefs our characters hold. In this post, I’m concerned with the latter and how this applies to Scar and his contemporaries in Angel Fall.

By beliefs, I mean both the prejudices a character develops as a result of their life experience (see my posts I know what I know and Them and us for more on this), and their system of faith (see A time of angels for more).

We might consider prejudices as being a character’s personal value system, because whatever we may think of their views, and no matter how abysmally awful they are, they will regard them as perfectly justifiable, and essential identifiers of who they are. Often, their value system will determine who they will identify and associate with, and who they will despise.

Turning to faith systems; religions tend to be rife with rules, and as much as they can be supportive of individuals and build community, they can also be corrupt, controlling, and devisive. Thou shalt not steal, they shalt not kill, don’t eat meat on a Friday, don’t eat swine flesh, pray at certain times of the day. The Ten Commandments are a great example of faith-based rules, as are those set down in the Old Testament books of Levitcus and Deuteronomy (we won’t get into their supposed legitimacy in this post, nor the rights or wrongs of what they espouse).

Both types of systems will naturally colour a character’s worldview, and constrain them from within and without by means of what is acceptable and/or permitted according to their status, who they are, where they are, and who they are with. In other words, their beliefs may determine how they behave in any given situation, what they might say, do, think, feel.

As I wrote the above paragraphs, I imagined Scar as being a prejudiced young boy, and complicit in injustice as a result. Now, I feel it would be better if he is the victim of prejudice. Let’s brainstorm this idea, and see where it takes us, always bearing in mind that we can rip it up later and start afresh.

In my post In the beginning, we learned that Scar got his name from the burns he suffered as a child to his face and left arm. I can imagine the value of perfection and beauty in an ugly world where humans are an endangered species. Being flawed, then (which for our purposes is useful), Scar might suffer discrimination due the prejudices of his contemporaries. They might make a sign as he passes to ward off evil. They might make up stories about him, laugh at him or bully him. The rules of their faith could restrict his freedom, and forbid him from taking part in certain activities, ceremonies or practices stipulated by their faith.

What effect might this have on Scar? He would be hurt, of course, but I also see him as being defiant and resilient. As much as his people don’t care for him, he still cares for them, and wants their unattainable approval. As a result, he may try to please and appease them, thus making himself vulnerable to being used. It would be satisfying to end his character arc with him growing out of the need for the approval of other, and for those who shunned him to finally come to value him for his true worth and beauty as a fellow human.

I can now envision a possible pivotal event in the opening chapters of the novel, based on what we have so far posited about the story:

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Language is a living thing, mutable, growing, breeding. Over 4,000 new words are added every year to the Oxford English Dictionary. Some recent examples are:

• Cosplay

• Frontlash

• Speedrun

We don’t speak like people from the 17th or 18th centuries, and if we did, it would be regarded as quaint, if not a little weird. Verily and forsooth, I thusly declare it to be… thus!

It is only reasonable then that over the span of generations that have passed since the lunar impact event, language will have morphed into a new form. It would retain some vestiges of the modern English language, and incorporate words and terms that are commonplace to us today, but they might take on a different meaning for Scar. Also, some literary skills will have been abandoned in favour of survival, so spelling and punctuation would naturally suffer, and alter over time.

The resulting language still needs to be understandable to anyone who reads the novel, but the human brain does pattern recognition really well, so we can stretch how the text is presented to a large degree.

Okay, let’s get down to specifics!

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If you recall from my last post, Scar’s world is emerging from an effective ice age following a major lunar impact event. The residual debris from the event settled into unstable orbit, and is still a threat to the planet.

Today, I’ll explain why I chose Angel Fall as a working title.

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The View From Down Here

What would Scar see when he stands outside on a clear night and gazes up at the heavens?

For one thing, the full moon isn’t as full as it used to be, and though it would still be recognisable to people of our time, we would spot the difference in an instant. The interstellar object impacted the lunar surface near Mare Crisium, which is on the right side of the moon as we look at it, and just above the lunar equator. Such was the velocity of the object that it knocked a massive chunk out of the surface, and it appears to Scar as if a bite was taken from it by a giant beast.

Also visible in the night sky, though not as bright as Luna, is the ring of lunar debris. It appears as no more than a narrow and hazy band, and is best viewed with an averted gaze. To Scar, it has always been there, and always will be. No reason it should change, right? Because in this world, and to a young boy, what exists now shall ever be, amen.

Except it won’t.

A flash; Scar trains his eyes on it. Fast moving, a single point of light. Another flash, then another. A stellar guardian watches over the world, and he does not do so alone, for this angel is but one of a network of sentry satellites. Few survived the dire consequences of the lunar impact event, and the network was entirely overwhelmed when the resulting debris blasted its way towards Earth. The remaining angels have the same sort of significance for the characters populating the novel as the constellations had for ancient peoples the world over. They will be part of legend and song, both of which should be important in Scar’s world, where a strong oral tradition is likely to prevail.

This strange, devastated world will consist of small rival communities who often fight each other over limited resources such as food and water. They have no technologies, though one person in a particular community - possibly Scar’s one - might have the ability to communicate with the angels. Let’s call him Prophet, and though he may be an ancilliary character in the first act, I feel he will be a pivotal one at the end.

Let’s dig into oral tradition, and discover what Scar might be thinking.

I want to take us back to Scar gazing up at the night sky. We have an idea now of what he sees, but what might he think?

Assuming what I said above about an oral tradition, he would know the legend of the fall. Remember, the events of the novel take place far in the future, generations after the impact event, so there will be no records of what actually took place, and even if there were, who could read or understand them? No, what Scar and his people know is the legend of the fall, and that something up there in the sky is watching over them.

Let’s do a real-time brainstorm on this!

I mentioned a beast taking a bite out of Luna, so let’s give it a name:

Karven has a nice ring to it, sort of dark-godly. Too close to Kraven, though, and might not fit with the language of the time, which will be a patois and a hodge-podge of terms. Does that suggest anything?

Groth. Derived from Goth. I like that.

Maybe play with some other possibilities. What does it mean to take a bite?

Nibble. Chomp.

What chomps? Pac-Man!

Pac!

I like it! It will fit with what I have in mind for the contemporary lingo (we’ll talk about the language of the novel in the next Angel Fall post), which will very simply say what a thing is, and will often call back to the language of our time, residual images of which will remain in the prevailing tongue.

Okay, Pac, the sky beast, took a bite out of the moon and spat it at the people on the ground below. The brave angels fought hard to protect them, and many angels were knocked down. Those fallen angels stewed in their failure, and turned to darkness.

So we have dark angels on Earth, and protective angels in the sky. A battle between them will someday come, the people believe. Those who are good will be carried away by the good angels, while those who are bad will be tormented by the bad ones.

Now we have the basis not only of a legend but also a system of faith. There’s a reward for being good, and punishment for being bad - though what might constitute good or bad in such a morally ambiguous world is questionable, and is unlikely to match our current value system.

The character Prophet can play a pivotal role in this faith system, I feel. Perhaps it’s his job to watch for the day of Angel Fall, when the sky angels come to Earth to battle with their former comrades. And what if Scar is learning the ropes from him, so he can take over when Prophet’s time is up? This would give Scar a purpose and some degree of significance in his world, and it’s almost inevitable that he will lose his place at the start of the novel.

My imagination is seriously buzzing, but that’s probably enough for this post. We’ve generated some great ideas, and have opened up a lot of possibilities for Scar and his people. A picture is starting to form of this world, of its culture and creed, and of the type of people who live in this narrative environment.

In the next Angel Fall post, we’ll explore these ideas a bit further, and discuss the language of Angel Fall. Before then, I’ll send out a World Building post about the role prejudice plays in forming a character’s world view.

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This is a brief post to welcome you to Into The Workshop!

My name is Jennifer McMahon. I’m an Irish writer, not to be confused with the American author of the same name. You might know me best as the joint Editor-in-Chief of Frazzled Lit, which I run with my friend and colleague Laura Cooney. You can find out more about me in my About page.

It’ll look a little sparse around here to begin with, but give it a couple of weeks and I’ll have some serious content for you.

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What is Into The Workshop?

Into The Workshop is a rare opportunity to observe and interact with a working writer in a near-realtime workshop environment as she develops various types of works-in-progress from inception through writing the first and subsequent drafts, including the full editing process, all the way up to and including submission. You’ll gain insights into my process, and will learn with me as I develop various projects from inception to final draft.

I will send out one post every week; we all get more than enough emails in our inboxes every day, and I don’t want to add more than necessary. I’ll keep the posts short, informative and to the point, because we’re all busy people.

Our first project will be a literary dystopian novel, with the working title Angel Fall, which I hope to have submission-ready within the next eighteen months. We’ll also work on short stories and flash fiction from time to time, to take a break from the longer work, and will take a deep-dive into many aspects of the craft of writing. Every so often, assuming enough people are interested, I’ll host write-along sessions on Zoom. I also hope to feature occasional guest posts from writers I admire.

There will be free content and paid content; I hope you will become a paid subscriber and support me in my work. If you do, I will be forever grateful, and can promise you some worthwhile bonus content as we develop Angel Fall together. What I want to give you, beyond Angel Fall, is a set of resources that can inform your own craft and process.

In today’s bonus post, I Know What I Know, I discuss how a character’s life experience naturally affects their view of the narrative world.

Let’s talk about the novel!

Our first task, beginning with the next post, will be the initial stages of development of the aforementioned literary dystopian novel.

Angel Fall will be set in the far future, many generations after our moon suffered a massive impact event from an interstallar object. The impact created a vast debris field. Wave after wave of fiery rocks pelted the world below, devastating human civilisation. While the remaining debris settled into decaying orbit around the Earth, a long winter descended on the decimated population below. Our story begins in the thaw which follows, and concerns a boy named Scar (our first-person narrator - his name comes from the burn scars on his left arm and face, which he suffered as a baby), a girl named Clarity, and an old fellow called Nope, who is the purported wise man of their community (or burb, as it is called in the parlance of the day).

Angel Fall is a story of trust and betrayal, loss and savage vengeance, and unrequited love. It involves a journey, a panoply of characters, and great danger. It is an adventure, a lesson, a mystery. Most of all, I hope it will be a relevant and important work.

But why call it Angel Fall, you might ask?

We’ll find out in the next post, so make sure you subscribe to keep up to date with developments. In upcoming posts, we’ll discuss angels and a legend of the fall, get into the language of Scar and his people, develop the initial premise for the novel, create some mind mapping diagrams - one of my favourite tools, and useful in all stages of a project, whether big or small - and start building the world and creating the characters who’ll populate it. I’ll also have related posts about world building, character development, plotting and story.

Lots to do then, and a lot to look forward to!

Are you ready for this?

Great, then come into the workshop, but make sure you put on your hard hat. The debris field I mentioned earlier, the stuff in decaying orbit around the planet? Well, it’s starting to drag on the atmosphere, and any minute now, it’s going to rain fire.

In the next post, we’ll explore some of the history and backstory for Angel Fall, and in a follow-up post, we’ll talk about the role prejudice can play in a character’s worldview.

Subscribe to keep up with the latest developments, and please feel free to drop a comment below!

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