"With how big this story is getting, it's in danger of becoming my Chronicles of Riddick."
Nine months ago, I said that in jest to a friend who had never seen the Chronicles of Riddick or the much stronger original flick, Pitch Black. So, as far as jokes go, that one fell flat.
The idea nagged at me, stuck with me, and eventually scared me. It was an eerily apt comparison.
Spacewalker, like Pitch Black, was a tight story in a constrained setting that hinted at a much larger world beyond the hull of a malfunctioning spaceship (or rocky, desolate world upon which they are nearly stranded).
Skybreaker is a continuation of that story that aims to expand the world and progress the main characters into the next phase of their arcs. Almost by necessity, the story had to get bigger to pay off the hints and suggestions of the original with a new planet, a new civilization, and an escalation of the original conflict. Chronicles did that too, but uh, while entertaining, it's not exactly lauded as a great movie, probably because it leapt too far from the original material.
So, with fear in my heart, I wrote myself in circles, following subplot threads and character moments that all led to story corners and dead ends in the third quartile. Delete. Repeat. Delete. Repeat.
As usual, this was completely a problem of my own design--or lack of design. I had holes, hand-waves, and at least two incomplete set-pieces in my outline.
How will my two forlorn lovers reunite on the eve of a planet-shattering conflict?
Which orbital station will host the final confrontation?
How will my characters make their daring escape?
To unstick myself, I fell back on an old trick. I wrote the ending first. But I didn't just write a chapter, I wrote the whole fourth quartile, from the lowest moment, through the climax, to the epilogue. Even with an incomplete outline, I was able to make assumptions and feel more than plan my to the final chapter that has been rattling around my head for over a year now.
Those messy sub-plots and dead ends almost fell away like magic. Cleaning up the third quartile and plugging the gaps was fairly frictionless.
And now, the first draft is done. Start to finish, Skybreaker, my Chronicles of Riddick is complete. I'm immensely proud of it and yeah, still a little scared. I shot for the moon. Will I make it? Or land among the stars? Or end up a smoldering crater back on planet Earth?
I'll find out soon. It's in the hands of my beta readers now.