What was The Time Warden like in its early stages?
There are a thousand steps I went through to get from beginning to end while publishing this book. Believe it or not, I was almost done with writing the first draft by the time I came up with the idea that there should be sunmarks and ranks! Every part they're mentioned at the beginning of the book - and the entire first chapter - were actually rewritten after I finished the initial draft.
So, basically, here's how it went down: It was early December in 2020. I had finished my very first NaNoWriMo a few days before (the first book in a series) and was pondering my goal of publishing a book, realizing that I didn't actually have a book written that I wanted to publish yet. I turned to my amazing friend, General Rainstorm (yes. we have awesome nicknames like that) and said "My first book can't be a series - that's too big of a commitment for a seventh grader, and besides, what if no one likes it? I need a standalone." (this was a big step for me. I am notorious for making things way longer and more complicated than they need to be. Ask all of my "standalone" stories that just happened to turn into five-part sagas)
The General and I put our heads together that day, and by the time the 3:15 bell rang, we had it - Kirt, Luke, and the Time Warden. At first, the Warden was a wizard with a pocketwatch that transported you back in time, and Luke was the villain/anti-hero of the story.
See, we started with the feel and concept of the book. For me, I loved the concept of "Okay, the epic battle climax happened. What now?" I wanted to begin at the end, per se, and explore what would happen if the hero actually messed up their epic climax - and someone close to the defeated villain decided to have revenge. General Rain came up with the point that there were very few books written for people over the age of ten whose main girl-and-boy protagonists didn't fall in love. We agreed that the dynamic between the two main characters should be platonic - even better, the classic "I hate you but I love you" sibling relationship. We thought it would be refreshing to lots of readers, including ourselves.
The General and I put our heads together that day, and by the time the 3:15 bell rang, we had it - Kirt, Luke, and the Time Warden. At first, the Warden was a wizard with a pocketwatch that transported you back in time, and Luke was the villain/anti-hero of the story.
See, we started with the feel and concept of the book. For me, I loved the concept of "Okay, the epic battle climax happened. What now?" I wanted to begin at the end, per se, and explore what would happen if the hero actually messed up their epic climax - and someone close to the defeated villain decided to have revenge. General Rain came up with the point that there were very few books written for people over the age of ten whose main girl-and-boy protagonists didn't fall in love. We agreed that the dynamic between the two main characters should be platonic - even better, the classic "I hate you but I love you" sibling relationship. We thought it would be refreshing to lots of readers, including ourselves.