Blood & Chlorophyll Ch. 01 - Reflection

It's finally time for a brand new story! I always knew this day would come, and if I'm being honest, I'm a little surprised by how it turned out. I have a long list of ideas for books I want to write, and Blood & Chlorophyll is not on that list. The idea snuck into my head while reading another story set in this universe (I'm Blue by OtterlyMindblowing), and once I had the idea I couldn't shake it loose.

I wish I could share the full scope of that idea, but you'll have to wait a few chapters for the story to really kick into gear.

It's been an absolute blast working with another author and stepping into a pre-existing world. It comes with it's own unique challenges, the biggest being that most things in the Becoming Monsters setting are quantifiable. Class abilities, Racial abilities, Stats, everything is out in the open, which is very different to how I'm writing Suddenly A Succubus. What Level is Katrina? What are her Stats? I put in quite a bit of time trying to internalize the many different rules and systems at play here, and once I had them set, the actual writing came quite easily.

One benefit that worked in my favor was writing Races that hadn't been depicted yet. I had a lot of freedom in deciding what Vampires would look like in the Becoming Monsters universe, and it was really fun putting them together. My other main character is a... well, let's not spoil that one quite yet :P

I decided pretty early on that I wanted Katrina to be a bard, and I think it's a really great narrative device. Not only do I love Bards as a general rule of thumb, but pairing a support class with her Vampire Race felt like a great way to introduce some narrative juxtaposition, which is always a great tool for building tension.

I've been very open about my love for quiet, slice-of-life style writing, and that's on full display here. Very little happens in this chapter, which was a very purposely choice for a number of reasons. One, I'm aware that some of my readers might not be familiar with the world, and I wanted to make sure that I spent time introducing the setting. Two, Katrina is facing some rather specific character conflicts, and I wanted to spend as much time as possible setting those up.

One idea I had a lot of fun with was holding back on officially saying she was a Vampire for as long as possible. Otterly, and some of the other writers working in this setting, have known the Races of my characters for a while, but I've been keeping my lips sealed everywhere else. This let me have a lot of fun writing small details and hoping the readers would be able to make that guess for themselves.

I had so much fun putting Katrina's life together. The video-mirror, the free clinic, the trains, everything helped me flesh out her day-to-day life while also painting a picture of what Chicago looks like in this universe. If you're someone who's particularly interesting in the setting, I promise we'll be exploring it more as the book continues. Plus, if you're really interested, don't forget there are quite a few other stories that already exist!

I also realized when writing this chapter that my preferences as an author are on full display. Katrina is struggling to cope with the nature of her Race after suddenly turning into a non-human, and she's scared she might end up hurting other people. Sound familiar? I guess I have a type XD

In the meantime, I couldn't be happier with this first chapter. I think it does a great job of setting up who Katrina is, what her problems are, and what kind of story we might be able to expect from her moving forward. The one big thing that got slightly left out in this chapter was Katrina's class. I barely bring it up, as it's not immediately relevant, but I really want to stress that music is important to her.

That being said, I'm quite pleased with my sneaky workaround I put at the end of the chapter. As a general rule of thumb, I'm not very fond of breaking the forth wall. However, in this context, it's happening outside of the story, and that feels very different than doing it 'on-camera'. I partially wanted to do this because, well, it's a lot of fun, but it also gave me a great way to illustrate the kind of musician Katrina is. I'm planning on continuing this in future chapters, and I hope it adds a unique flair to this series.

(Also, barely related, but I love when people draw comics or write stories where the 'Main story"' is depicted as a TV show that's being filmed. Like, mock behind-the-scenes footage where characters talk about how certain scenes were filmed, or set drama, stuff like this. I'm not doing that exactly here, but it's kind of the vibe that was in my head when I wrote the last section. I hope it's enjoyable!)

Next chapter, we'll get a chance to meet out other protagonist, and I think you're really going to like her!

Nyx <3