The Saga of Alex - Analysis #1 - Story Arc Structure

I recently finished a multi-part serial in the Worldbuilding community. It was a space opera which I called "The Saga of Alex", telling the story of a key adventure in Admiral Alexandra Deroma's career.

Now it's finished, I thought I'd write a couple of posts analysing what I wrote. It's mostly for my own benefit, a series of working notes, if you like. The idea is to be able to refer back to them to help improve my writing in future.

I'm guessing this will be a series of 3 posts;
#1 (this one) covering the actual structure of the story arc.
#2 covering Alex's development as a character
#3 identifying some of the limitations of the medium of writing in Hive, and how to overcome them.

Initial Structure

By deciding at the start to base the story on the prompts from the Worldbuilding community, I knew I was taking a risk.

Normally, I like to plot a story out in my head from start to finish, then put it down in writing. In this case, I decided to step out of my comfort zone. All I'd have would be the start point and a rough idea of the mission Alex would be sent on.

The start point was events affecting Alex immediately after the apocalyptic Battle of Tharwell at the end of Fedric's Tale (the previous story arc). The setting is one I've had running on and off for literally decades, which helps because I can usually know on an instinctive level how the two rival militaries will behave.

Allied Imperiae and Confederacy would both be frantically trying to re-assemble and re-organise their space fleets after the crippling losses both sides had suffered in the battle. I also knew that with the Empire having come out best (but only just !), they'd be looking to take advantage of the situation while they could, but would need to make some unusually rapid promotions to do so.

I also knew who some of the key characters would be. Apart from Alex herself, there would be her X.O., Trass Yalandri, and a few others from either previous posts I'd made on Hive or from the wider setting.

I had no particular ending scripted, just a few ideas, but didn't want to force them into the story this early on. With this very bare-bones outline, it was time to write an epic galaxy-spanning story !

The Use of Prompts

One of my initial goals was to use the writing prompts from the Worldbuilding community to help steer the story. I'd done it in the previous series set in the same universe, where Alex had made a few brief appearances and rapidly turned into a character who I felt deserved her own arc.

The way I use prompts is a bit idiosyncratic; I don't always use them as literally intended, I allow myself to twist them a bit so that the story fits them, and they fit the story. It's fun !

I had originally thought to use the prompts in strict numerical order as they were posted, but that soon fell apart ! Some prompts just couldn't be worked into the story without taking it so far off course as to be irrecoverable. That's not the fault of the prompts, it's a mix of a failure of imagination on my part, and that some prompts just wouldn't easily fit into a space opera.

But I was mostly able to stick to very recent prompts. There was one exception, which is the final one; it was posted shortly before I started writing, and I knew right away that it should be the final post.

Writing Process

When I wrote, I deliberately allowed my mind to wander a bit and take the story in unexpected directions. So it was like stream-of-consciousness writing, which I then tidied up into an actual narrative once I'd put it all down.

For some posts, the prompt led in a clear direction and I knew at the start where it was ending up. Others veered off in ways I hadn't planned at all, as my subconscious grabbed ideas and ran with them.

In retrospect they were some of the best bits, although there were a couple of times when I thought to myself "okay, how do I get Alex out of that scrape ?" But I'd deliberately allowed myself the possibility that the final episode could be Alex not getting out of a scrape and having a suitably dramatic and heroic death.

I also didn't have a pre-conceived idea of how many posts long the story would be. Recognising that it was possible some of the tangents could lead to long plot detours I just had to hope it would come to a natural ending. I'd kind of envisaged maybe half a dozen or so posts, I had no idea at that stage about the whole slave rebellion storyline !

Summary

Stepping completely out of my normal very ordered comfort zone was a fascinating and fun experience. Even though it was scary at times, I think I ended up with a story arc that made sense - at least I hope it did, I'd welcome feedback on that !

Letting my brain work in a more chaotic than usual fashion led to some ideas popping up that I could never have thought of if I'd used my usual method. But then my usual method is mostly used for D&D lore and player briefings rather than pure fiction.

Overall, I've ended up with characters I like and a storyline I'm happy with. It's got some rough edges because I know I need to improve my basic writing skills, but this freeform technique is one I'd definitely use again.

I'd welcome your thoughts on whether you think the technique worked, and how I can do better !

My next post will deal with Alex herself and her character development.....

Image created by AI in Wombo.art - this is the insignia for Alexandra's Avengers, from Worldbuilding Prompt #558 - New Wings - Alex's Saga #4