I Finished the First Draft of Becoming the Body Thief (+ P.1 of the Q&A)

      

On September 17th, I finished the first draft of Becoming the Body Thief! It was a novel I worked on during Camp NaNoWriMo, and it feels good to have the first draft done so that I can move onto the second. In this post I will also be including a Q&A about my novel. Thank you to everyone who submitted questions. Like my last Q&A, this is going to be divided up into two parts. I did this because some of my answers were quite long. So, if I don't answer your question(s) in this part I will in the next, and if you didn't get a chance to leave a question for this part, you can leave one for the next part here. 

The reason I decided to do a Q&A along with this celebration post was that I realized readers would probably want to know a bit more about the story, or about what it is like to be a criminal in my Fantasy world. So, I decided to make a post asking for questions about that. This post will answer those questions, as well as talking about what I will be doing next drafting-wise. 

Synopsis

(Images used from Pixabay. The paintings are: "The Soul's Prison House" by Evelyn De Morgen, "The Shadow" by Edmund Blair Leighton, and "God Speed!" by Edmund Blair Leighton. The lyrics quoted are from the song "Over the Hills and Faraway". The template I used to make this mood-board was made by Ayzrules). 

Genres: Fantasy | Crime | Adventure Series: Second book in the Princess Arisias Mystery series 

After Arisias is framed for a crime that she did not commit, she finds herself having to work amongst criminals. In order to bring the one who wronged her to justice, that is "The Body Thief," Arisias finds she will have to blend into her new surroundings by acting like a criminal. In doing so, she has to enlist the help of two thieves and a con-artist. But as all of this is happening, Arisias fears that she will become the very thing she is pretending to be. Will she become a criminal like The Body Thief? 

What's Next For Becoming the Body Thief? 

The next phase for this novel is to work on the second draft. In the first draft I worked to get down what happens in the story, but I did not focus much on the prose. So, I will now be focusing more on the style and the world-building. While I already built a lot of the world (though there is still more to work on--such as the pantheon of gods, and the magic system), I didn't include as much of it as I would like to do in the first draft. 

With this in mind, I will be focusing more on what the criminal world is like. In world-building for this book, criminals' relationship with the gods is different from that of law abiding citizens. Some gods will refuse to give criminals magic, but other gods are more willing to, or perhaps they just do not care about the background of the person. Karleon, the god of mischief, is one of these less careful gods. This is because he is a trickster god, and tricksters tend not to care about legality of most things. (Also, Karleon stole magic from the king and queen of the gods. I don't think he has a leg to stand on when judging criminals.)

Speaking of criminals who have magic, I have a con-artist character who was given magic by the god of music. But then, I also have a character who has no powers whatsoever, but his abilities as a thief seem magical even though they aren't. 

I also want to develop the locations of the story more. For example, I made some versions of one of the taverns that appear in the book in a virtual world. I did this because I generally have trouble figuring out the layout of a room in writing: visualizing it is just hard for me. I want the readers to feel as if they are there and could visit the taverns that appear in it. 

This was also one of the few books where I actually have written a fight scene. Most of my books didn't focus on fighting, but instead on solving a mystery. So, because fight scenes are important in Becoming the Body Thief, I want to make sure they are well written. For instance, I don't have my characters instantly defeat an opponent or monster with magic or weapons. 

So, that is my plan for the second draft of Becoming the Body Thief. Now on to the Q&A!

* * * * * * * * *  

Q&A 

In order to make this more fulfilling and to ensure that I give you the information you want about the novel (but not enough that it spoils the story), I asked for questions for my novel in the previous post. Here are my answers to some of the questions. 

The first wasn't really a question, but I want to talk about it anyway. Someone left a comment about fantasy stories involving heists and criminals, mentioning Six of Crows. I find this interesting, because it was only this year that I read Six of Crows. The Fantasy writing group I am running voted for it as one of the books to read for our book club. This really led me to think about the inspiration for my own story...

My inspiration was the TV show, Leverage (which is not Fantasy, but is a show focusing on heists). This was the first crime show I ever watched, and it also definitely inspired elements and characters of my story. However, I should say that, unlike the characters from Leverage, my thieves and my con-artist (who all work for Arisias) are completely unaware that they are doing something good (or at most, a pale shade of gray).  

But let's get started with the actual questions: 

Questions from Greg at Book Haven :

I love fantasy cities. Will Arisias be working with a thieves guild or anything like that? 

The thieves that Arisias works with are loners. They work for themselves and don't like being tied down to a guild. (There are thieves who join guilds in this world, just not these thieves.) Nevertheless, they were persuaded to work for Arisias.

I also enjoy Fantasy cities: my characters visit several throughout the story. Some are shader than the others, like the one where Venus (the con-artist) lives. However, to visitors the city appears to be safe, People ignore what is going on beneath the surface and generally come there to have a good time (with or without later regrets). 

I like the idea of Arisias having to work with criminals. I wonder if they'll be hardened ruthless types or more heart-of-gold types. :) 

I'd say the criminals are in the middle between these two. I will say they lean more toward hardened-and-ruthless than heart-of-gold since they have been in the criminal world for years and years. However, a lot of my sympathetic characters have backgrounds that are...bad or questionable. Despite their ruthlessness you, the reader, will eventually be able to relate to them on some level...even if you disagree with their (past) actions. 

Question from Anonymous: 

How long will your novel be, and how long do you think you will need to complete it? Good luck!

Thank you for wishing me luck. 😃 The first draft was 32,520 words in length. My best guess is that the second draft is going to be twice as long or longer--in the first draft I was outlining more than focusing on the prose. I really don't know for sure, but my best answer is, longer than 32,520 words. 

As for when I am going to complete it, it has really no exact date at the moment. It depends on other projects of mine-- given that I have to take into account details like world-building, character-building and naming certain characters and places. 

I believe I am going to finish (and publish) Dolls of Wax, Eyes of Glass first, and then The Mystery of the Body Thief, and then this one. As I answer this, though, I also have to take into account that I've been working on The Mystery of the Body Thief since 2018. My writing was very different in 2018, so I had to do a lot of work to get it to my current writing style. For Becoming the Body Thief, it will be far easier to rewrite. But since Becoming the Body Thief is the second book in the series, the first book will have to be completed first.  

Questions from Debra at She Who Seeks: 

I'm interested in the justice system in your novel's world. Is it fair? Are judges/lawyers corrupt and bribable? Is the justice system excessively punitive?

(Image from wiki commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_william_waterhouse_fair_rosamund.jpg)

It really depends on what judge/lawyer you get and the situation as a whole.

 If the crime is related to royalty then there can be meddling and bias in the court (as in if the person who was attacked was royalty not the accused). Judges will be on the side of royalty for the most part and rule in favor of them. But, if a royal is accused of a crime, there will be different opinions.

 It is believed that if a king, queen, prince, or princess commit a crime, that they have gone against the gods, since they were chosen by the gods to be royalty. But others will assume that the royal is innocent and try their hardest to prove this, even if the evidence is pointing in the opposite direction.  

So overall, for Royalty the legal system is complicated and sometimes can be corrupted. I should also say this applies to priestesses/priests, because they the same power as royalty. 

All that being said when a crime involves only common citizens, the legal system in this world is quite fair. Nevertheless, other biases can arise in the court (such as people avoiding angering the god(s) they're devoted to, political biases, biases based on species, etc.) 

Penalties for some crimes are quite extreme. But once again it really depends on the situation. Some people are not eager to give out penalties that are irreversible for petty crimes such as theft. Instead people will be confined to prisons for a certain amount of time. But for murder, it depends: some people believe in the death penalty, while others have argued that a life sentence is better.

(Keep in mind that a "lifetime" to a certain species might be different. For the Fair Folk that is hundreds if not thousands of years, to a human it would be shorter). 

Will Arisias face the death penalty for any crimes she may commit or be framed for?

The death penalty is a thing some criminals face in Dragons' Province for committing crimes, and public executions are held (this is something some kingdoms ruled by elves find primitive, so don't do it, but since Dragons' Province has had both elvish and human rulers at different points that it is why it happens). In this case-- without spoiling anything, the crime Arisias was framed for would usually have the death penalty, but, they were unable to do it. (This is for reasons that will be revealed in the book. I'll let you, the readers, speculate for now on what those reasons are.) But regardless, her punishment is far from being pleasant and is very traumatic, even if not that extreme. 

What are the prisons like? Warehouses or hellholes or both?

It depends on the prison you're sent to as a prisoner. Most are far from pleasant and quite hard to escape from (whether it was made by humans, dwarves, or the Fair Folk--that is the elves or fairies). They're all different, and they have different ways of messing with a prisoner's mind. This is not illegal to do in their world. (It would be illegal in our world.) 

(A typical made by the Fair Folk, prisoner at the front an illusion appearing at the back). 

A prison made by the fair folk (the elves and fairies) would seem beautiful upon entering. It would even be hard to tell that it was a prison because of its sheer beauty. However, upon staying there for a long time, one will begin to feel like the prison is playing tricks on their mind. They will see visions of different things that happened in their prior life and of their greatest fears. At times, it will seem possible to escape the prison-- the prisoner will have false hope and only later will find out it was all a trick. And sometimes when walking around the prison, they may feel as if they are getting lost in it. Time will feel as if it either going too quickly or too slowly, depending on what the prisoner is used to.  

(A fay and a human prisoner in a prison made by humans) 

A prison made by the humans is mostly like a warehouse. Prisoners are allowed to leave their cells periodically and wander around-- but only at certain times. Prisoners usually keep to themselves. Even though it is periodic isolation, this kind of isolation eventually begins to mess with the minds of the prisoners confined there. 

(An elvish prisoner in a typical dwarf prison). 

In a dwarfish prison, one is confined in a completely underground prison. There are cells for different prisoners like in human prisons, but prisoners are not allowed out. The cells have the feeling of a collapsed mine: no sunlight is allowed in, and prisoners can feel as if they are stuck unground for ages and ages. It does not help that they are not able to wander about. 

The state of the prisons makes criminals (and people in general) want to avoid getting arrested. Some authorities believe that the harsh nature of the prisons makes crime-rate lower, but in reality the prisons are not the issue. It just makes criminals try to avoid getting caught at all costs. And for those who are framed for crimes, it is a very scarring punishment when they didn't do anything wrong. 

 Are there a lot of criminals in this world? Are people forced into criminality in order to survive?

There are a lot--enough that I'd say that the crime rate is high in Dragons' Province. Generally, people are forced into being criminals in order to make ends meet. Though, people's reasons also depend on the  crime committed. For murder, there can be sympathetic reasons (such as self defense), but it can also be done for horrible reasons...

Theft or conning someone, is something most people do to survive, at least something they are forced into doing. There are others, who do it for greedy reasons or because of the fun of it. But, mostly people do it because they have to or are forced to. It really depends on the criminal whom you're talking about. 

...This is the end of part one of the Q&A. If you would like to get a question or questions in for part two, you can ask them here or comment them down below.  

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Which prison from my Fantasy world would you least like to be confined in? And, do you have a favorite Fantasy story that involves criminals or crime? 

-Quinley