My debut novel, Jagged Emerald City, is not the first book I‘be written. I actually wrote 2 1/2 books before that; a portal-fantasy series about a girl who discovers she’s a dragon who’s been locked in human form her whole life (not wishful thinking on my part AT ALL).
(I did try to traditionally publish this series, around 5 or 6 years ago. At that point I was focused only on traditional publishing, and querying… didn’t go anywhere. But I did learn a lot about querying!)
Now, I’ve talked about choosing to self-publish my debut novel and how I came to that decision. But today I’d like to talk about the inception of Jagged Emerald City. It has a particular story of how it came to be, why it came to be, and what I learned while doing so.
How It Began
Jagged Emerald City started as me (at 15 years of age) writing two characters (Fairian and Daimyn) falling in love after becoming friends. It was set in an urban fantasy world with all our typical lovely fantasy creatures, but the concept wasn’t fully formed yet. It all started as fragments of interactions as I explored their characters and world. It was fun. No pressure. A delightful playground.
When I decided to focus on this story and actually turn it into a novel, my intentions changed. I reframed what I wanted from Fairian and Daimyn, and when considering my skills as a writer, I focused on improving one thing in particular: not info-dumping.
The Ever-Problematic Info-Dump
I’ve joked before that my dragon series taught me how to write characters, and Jagged Emerald City taught me to plot. I focused on this with a specific idea: don’t reveal information to the reader until it’s absolutely necessary. This included everything from character background information to world description and characterization. (And to my utter delight, the reviews I have gotten reflect this. More on that later.)
The reason this is so important to writing is that info-dumping can bore or take a reader out of a story. A slow reveal (done right, of course) can be much more interesting and satisfying. It also adds an element of suspense and mystery that I think also really engages readers.
Connection (Romantic and Otherwise)
With the spark of this story beginning with the connections between people (and romance), that is still a foundational element. Fairian and Daimyn are definitely involved in a love-affair that burns slow. But unlike my initial teen writings, I deepened and added complexity; not only from actual personal knowledge now (ha), and much better skills as a writer, but also being intentional about what I’m trying to show.
The relationship between these two continue throughout the whole series, but especially starting in book 2, there is another element of connection that I’m exploring: friendship and community.
I really want to show the healthy building of community and friends. Romantic love is not the only that exists, and relying on it for all socialization needs can actually be really harmful. Friendship can be one of the most healing and beneficial connections we have. I want Fairian’s journey to be full of meaningful connections, because I honestly believe that true healing comes through community.
Surprise: The Mental Health Element
The newest addition to this story, which came as a surprise, were the mental health themes. It shouldn’t have come a surprise, considering the experiences I’ve had. But it did take me a while to figure out that I’d been working through my own trauma through Fairian. Once I realized this, and where I could go with it, I intentionally expanded and focused on this element.
My journey with trauma and healing has given me insight into issues surrounding mental health, including a decent understanding of how badly this is often portrayed in literature. It’s become very important to me, both personally and professionally, to have positive mental health representation in the stories we read. Not only because of the devastating impact that some of these stories have on people struggling with these issues. Not only just to help inform and create empathy for those who don’t understand. But because hopeful stories that show people dealing with these issues in real ways can have an incredible impact.
All of this applies to the Obsidian Divide Series, which, of course, begins with Jagged Emerald City. I’ve got big plans on how these themes will progress with each book in the series. Positive mental health representation, in a way that is genuine and hopeful, is something I want to do for the rest of my career.
The Obsidian Divide Series itself will mainly focus on the effects of childhood trauma, betrayal trauma, anxiety, and depression. In other words, you’ll see Fairian heal from the affects of long and short lasting trauma, learn to trust herself and what she needs, form genuine and healthy attachments, and thrive. Even after having gone through hell. I get gritty and harsh in my stories, but they end hopeful.
Not Forgetting the World-Building
World-building is what I would currently call my weakest writing skill. (It’s not going to stay that way.) With my first novels, the dragon ones, it was set in a world of pretty much our own, with a portal fantasy element of dragons living in a pre-industrial environmental paradise. The world-building didn’t require a lot of heavy lifting on my part.
With Jagged Emerald City, I wanted to push my skills in this manner too—and I got to play with my environmentalist instincts and my growing understanding of social justice. I took several concepts that fascinated me and built the history and world. I worry that this method (smashing unrelated characters and world together) has made things a bit disjointed, as far as the world should influence character and vise-versa, but alas.
I have a sneaking suspicion that the duology I have planned (after Book 2 and 3 of Obsidian Divide of course) is going to be the thing that teaches me world-building. Or maybe more specifically writing compelling and believable culture within the world.
But back to JEC. In Book 2, I’m still discovering world-building to develop further, which makes me feel a bit like I’m building the car as I’m driving it. It’s both exciting and intimidating… and sometimes makes me feel like I have no idea how to write a book. But! We know that’s not true, eh?
Conclusion
There we have it, folks. The main pillars on how Jagged Emerald City came to be and the themes thereinto. I’m actually going to do an Instagram series over the next few weeks showing how reviewers have seen these themes come to life, so if you’d like to go check that out, please do!
