Classroom X

afterword

Before I start there are a couple of questions I'd like to ask about the story.

1) what do you think the story could have done better?

2) does it have any plot holes that need addressing? Is there a question I'd missed to answer?

3) did the story meet expectations? (Like, what did you think would happen in the story when you first read about the premise? Did you like the direction the story took? Or do you feel this wasn't what you'd wanted?)

Okay, so that's the most important questions that I can think of for now. So let's begin talking about the story.

I'm not sure how exactly I came up with the concept for Classroom X. Back then I'd had a couple other ideas in my head that I wanted to write about, but when I got the idea for this particular story, I decided to write this first, mostly because I wanted to write a story with a large number of characters. In all my previous stories I'd only worked with a bare minimum of characters that I thought was required to keep the story going. I wanted to learn how to handle a huge cast.

Also, when I started out on this story, I think I might gave been fairly influenced by the movie Battle Royale. I remember watching it and thinking it was better than The Hunger Games.

In Hunger Games you hardly care about the deaths of characters, especially the characters that are Katniss's competition in the Games. Battle Royale works with nearly the same concept as the The Hunger Games; the only difference was, I cared for every character's death in the former, even though the death toll was kinda shocking. And this was what I'd liked about the movie. That it made me care about characters that I'd only gotten to know briefly. At least the movie made me think that I didn't want to treat the deaths of characters in my own story merely as an elimination of competition.

Several things about Classroom X surprised me. When I started I thought I was going to write a story that was all mind-gamey and backstabey, something a manga might do. Soon I realised I didn't have the brain capacity for it, not with the speed at which I was writing (this is honestly the fastest novel I'd ever written). I thought I was going to write a story in which the smartest survive, but it turned out to be one in which good people die. Maybe this is how it would have worked out anyway. Maybe they are right when they say good people die early.

Then about characters. Like I said, I'd  never written a story before with such a huge cast of characters (at least not one in which most of these characters actively participate). And I suppose, among all the characters, the one that surprised me the most was Siward.

In the initial planning of the story Siward wasn't supposed to have such a huge role. In fact he didn't exist at all until I wrote the first sentence about him. In the first chapter I thought James was going to be the protagonist. At this point I only had a vague idea about how the story would end. I just had to think of a way in which James could take part in that ending. And when Siward showed up I thought I'd use him as a mouthpiece for a class that would otherwise be too cowed to confront the soldiers. I liked writing Siward. And the more I wrote about him the bigger his role grew, and in the end Siward was everywhere.

The other characters were just as precious to me. And this is the first story in which I'd killed characters and then wished I didn't have to. But some points had to be made. Emryse stood for the stigma against migrants from a rival country. Eliot proved that some people were willing to die than survive on someone else's blood. August stood for artists who can't figure themselves out, and are judged based on their work. In fact, I believe there has not been a meaningless death in this story.

Next, about the Angel of Death. Sure I knew who the Angel of Death was from the very beginning. But writing Phineas was the tough part. I had to figure out a way so that Phineas wouldn't appear suspicious when plenty of others would be. But I also had to make sure when revelation time came his identity wouldn't seem improbable.

So I focused on the little things. Like how Siward, who was obviously becoming important character kept giving Phineas too much attention. Like how Phineas seemed to be never hungry, and like how we hardly ever get to hear him being described by other characters. Then I put the flashback scenes right after the chapters in which Phineas had some important role. There was also that one time when August, who could only paint dark concepts was able to paint Phineas. But in the end I'm still worried if Phineas being the Angel of Death is convincing enough.

So. That's most of my thoughts about Classroom X. And right now I'm having a bit of an August-crisis. I wonder why I keep writing such dark themes into my stories. But whatever.

Okay, so. I'd love to get some feedback about areas in which I need to improve as a writer. I'm all ears for constructive criticism, so please bless me with some. 🤲

And if you loved the story, feel free to leave votes and comments. Those things are encouraging.

That's it.

Love,
winnoww