A Lumen Ripple | An Elemental Story

Behind A Lumen Ripple

Just when you thought it was all over... we're back!

I thought, given this book's relative success, I'd write up a little BTS chapter explaining how the book was made, where it stemmed from, etc. Enjoy!

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So we begin way back when I first saw Elemental on a whim. As someone who works at a theatre, I get cheap tickets, so it was a no-brainer. And, to my genuine surprise... It was awesome.

I went in expecting a good movie, but somehow, the stars aligned, and the right place & time came. Bahaha! Just goes to show what happens if you take chances, right?

So then I thought "Why not?" and I saw it a second time, then a third... then a fourth... then got to the 13th watch and still wanted to go see it again. So, as someone who enjoys writing, there was absolutely no doubt that I'd love to write with this world.

Why ALR?

My original intention with writing A Lumen Ripple was to deliver a sequel that builds upon the first whilst having its own character, and if I'm being honest... I think it kicks ash doing just that! A Lumen Ripple feels like something I could pitch to Peter Sohn and Pixar and get good results. It feels true to the Elemental lore, whilst building upon it spectacularly.

Maybe I should start a petition or something? Bahaha!

Quips aside, I knew I had my work cut out for me with this...

My first order of business was to ask myself - what made it worth pursuing this to the fullest extent? Knowing me, it's all or nothing. I thought "This is a chance to push my writing skills further."

Down to the nitty gritty

Unlike every other book I've done, I sat down planning the book for a while before writing a single word. I researched various methods and ended up sticking with the 6-act method - look it up. Interesting stuff!  

I believe more preparation (than what I was used to) contributed to the quality of A Lumen Ripple, as it's easily my best work to date.

Early on, I had some rather startling ideas that I'm sure you all would have loved. One of them went as far as unplanned pregnancy and a commentary on ab*rtion! Quips aside, the main intent of this story was to send a message relevant to Elemental. Over time, it evolved into something that rings true for me in my life... 

Expression.

Both Ember, but moreso Wade, have character arcs in A Lumen Ripple that relate to the idea of expression and advocating mental health. Wade - who we know in Elemental to be a compassionate, kind and caring character - isn't given much time to have a character arc, bar a couple of scenes. As a result, I knew early on that I wanted Wade to have an arc exploring just that. What if he opened up about how he felt his work life was going? I would go as far as saying I wanted him to be the primary focus of the book, as Ember had already gone through her own arc in the movie.

I like layers! Layers are good.

As somebody who saw multiple levels of enjoyment in Elemental, I knew I wanted the same kind of thing applicable to A Lumen Ripple, which ended up coming to fruition.

For example; Wade's struggle with expressing himself about work to Ember can be seen as a commentary on men's mental health, and about how rough it can be for a man to express himself without the fear of being seen as "weak" or "unworthy".

Furthermore; Embers struggle with expectations. Being told that you're so good at something, but not feeling like you could ever do it, or that it's not up to your standards, and learning to build the confidence to realise your skills and improve.

Damn you, writer's block!

While writing this, I experienced many bouts of writer's block in wanting to keep up with reader (you!) expectations, but mainly my own. So, I tried multiple strategies to break it up, including;

- changing locale for writing (e.g. going to a park with a notebook / my laptop),

- changing the writing style - i.e. experimenting with first-person writing (see Chapter 1),

- seamless perspective bounces (see Chapters 19-21), 

- dialogue-less scenes (see Chapter 17), 

- perspective shifts (e.g. having one character see something imaginary, whilst another sees them in reality, see Chapters 23, 30-31, 34).

A soundtrack too?!

Yes - you read that right. Partly through the making of the book, I decided to make an accompanying soundtrack as well. Every single chapter gets its own song, encapsulating the mood of the chapter sonically. As it's something I've never done, it's just as much of a learning curve as writing this book was! It's shaping up to be a doozy, too - 3 hours of brilliance (if I say so myself).

The soundtrack will be available soon (on streaming services!!) under my electronica project, TheSweetestDaze.

And to conclude...

Elemental is a massive movie - it's Disney, for Flame's sake -  which was bound to generate thousands of fanfictions on Wattpad alone. I'm so grateful to have A Lumen Ripple be a part of that crowd - a nurturing, safe space filled with passionate writers for Pixar's best film (yeah - I said it!)

Now that A Lumen Ripple is over (and trust me, I'm glad. It broke me towards the end.) It's time to look to the future!

Yes, that involves a sequel. Yes, that involves epilogues and oneshot chapters. Just give me a moment after this - because it was a lot of work!

Thank you <3