The Asteroid Saga: Original Trilogy - A Library Of Lessons
DescriptionAn (untraditional) essay exploring the many lessons learned while writing The Asteroid Saga: Original Trilogy, which streams exclusively on WRTN.
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ImageWRTN/The Asteroid Saga
Six years ago, The Asteroid Parts came into existence. Starting as a school project, TAP was created as part of an assignment for a then ten-year-old me. Whitebooks, they were called, where you we asked to write an original narrative and paste it into the booklet, along with drawing illustrations. At the time, I hated it with a passion, the only thing making it bearable: the story. You see, I have few memories from that time, but I know one thing, and that is that I've always been in love with space adventures and sci-fi. That is exactly what TAP (2017) was, that was what I made it to be, and that's why I've always loved it. So, all this time later, when I founded WRTN, I knew that I wanted to expand my horizons in writing, and what better way than to look at the past? I've always been a creative kid, always wanted to make a world of my own, and whether it was for school projects or with stuffed animals at home, I continuously attempted to do it. And I knew that finally, with WRTN, with my slowly maturing skills, I would finally be able to do that on a scale that match my ambitions. Therefore I cracked out the old Google Drive and started searching, praying that after all this time I could find the document I was looking for. To put it simply, I did. That moment, that second I found it, suddenly opened a Pandora's Box of possibilities, as I knew exactly what to do next. And next I did, starting work on a secret project in January 2022 with a release date of March 13. Guess what that was? Yeah, it was that. On WRTN Day 2022, The Asteroid Parts (Remastered) released, being the largest project of my life and debuting one whole year after the site's launch. From there, a frenzy of imagination set in, with ideas for sequel after sequel leading me every which way. I knew that I finally struck personal gold, that my love for creativity, space, and websites had come together into something beautiful. But the journey was not over; no, it had barely started. Little did I know, when I was writing each and every one of these, small lessons came out of each; a library of them, you could say. And that, after all of this exposition, is why I am here: to tell you them. Whether I meant to or not, there was a landslide of things I learned from writing the now dubbed "Original Trilogy" of The Asteroid Saga, and I want to present them so that someone out there can see my process as I went from an objective and factual essay writer to a storytelling and fictional one. So, let's get started.The Asteroid Parts (2022) is obviously where this list of lessons starts off. I'll admit, having only three months to write a story based on a crazy narrative I made in fourth grade is an undertaking that is easier said than done. But I did it, granted with a few plot holes. Yet gave me serious value, as its 9,000-word count was revolutionary. That is almost four times longer than any essay or article I had ever written to that date. And up until August 8, that would remain true. Length was something I needed to learn to deal with. Any writer could tell you that, with more words, you need more story, meaning I had to take the under 2,000-word TAP (2017) and stretch it out. That, in many ways, was the first thing I learned. But of course, there is more, bigger stories leading to bigger lessons. That's where The Asteroid War comes in.A 10-chapter tale. A 15,000-word legend. The Asteroid War started the real learning. Funnily enough, the concept of TAW came from a school project as well, with a source you would least expect: Romeo & Juliet. No, I am not kidding. The original concept for its narrative was that two lovers would be on opposing sides of the war, one a fighter for Trimdin, the other for Quinten, and a love story would brew. And even though almost all of that was thrown out, Quinten was an aspect that stayed, of course along with the rivalry. But now, on to the lesson. To be frank, it had nothing to do with length. By that point, I was confident in the story I had in mind, and to this day, I think the length of TAW is perfect for the story it tells. Nevertheless, the thing I really got a feeling for within it was character arcs and developments, something sorely missing in TAP. Seriously, if you go back and read it, Tim, Claren, and Trimdin barely change, the biggest one supplied by Trimdin's new kingship, nothing else. Though this sequel was where I decided to learn a thing or two, as Trimdin and Quinten change heavily throughout this narrative, and I personally attribute this the most to my love for Trimdin as a character. He, his relationship to his brother, his want for freedom, his love for others, and his struggles with power are a tale far most unique than even Tim and Claren had to offer. Trimdin evolves throughout it, grows as he learns to grapple with power and understand that it corrupts, that the innocent can get hurt, that he was closer to the Queen and Quinten than to his brother. And when loyal subjects die, even just in his first battle, he takes a step back and recognizes the monster he had become. The war that this book takes its title from causes a realization, a feeling so deep in Trimdin, that he recognizes how revenge has dug him in a hole, and that only the ideals of his brother, along with understanding the importance of peace, could only get him out of. That, ultimately, is the lesson of this book: to develop your Goddamn characters. And number three did not stop this train of wisdom; it, above all of them, likely taught me the most important one: to have a multifaceted narrative.The Asteroid Home was hard to write, and that is almost directly seen in the flow of the book. I mean, it was and still is a mess of ideas and plots and characters and surprises. Unfortunately, TAW was just such a good ending to the story, yet I NEEDED a third. So, I got to work, and even though that multileveled nature of TAH was unintentional, I think it taught me a lesson on how to balance a story and introduce an audience to a world. The first two parts of the saga, along with much of what I write in general, is linear and clear, moving forward in a nice, straight line. But with Home, I decided to split the team a bit, Tim, Claren, and Kiran off on Vesta to learn about The Belt while Trimdin continued to recover from the war, desperately trying to come to terms and make things right. Things are a bit out of order, but also running in parallel, which was a new direction, and helped me personally understand how to have two concurrent storylines at once. This, coupled with the general theme of hope for the future, is what really brought the book together, regardless of its lack of planning. And though I may have regrets about some parts of it, along with the overall structure of the Original Trilogy, I think The Asteroid Home is a perfect highlight reel of everything I have learned: to write a well-paced, lesson-filled, multifaceted narrative with character arcs and worldbuilding. Speaking of worldbuilding, TAH was a leader in that, yet I have to say that it is a lesson that all three taught me together. I was creating a new world, one half based in our reality, half in a fantasy, meaning I had to make sure that the reader understood it. And though explaining EVERY aspect of the saga would make it unbearable, I knew/know that without some background info, things would fall apart. Imagine TAP without Trimdin explaining the succession or TAW without understanding why Trimdin and Quinten have a rivalry. Imagine a TAH where we never learn about Tim and Claren's backstories; where the past, present, and future of The Belt were brought into perspective. What would they be? Nothing, nothing at all.To sum things up, I came here to rant... I mean, give you all the lessons I learned from writing The Asteroid Saga: Original Trilogy. It had its ups and many, many, many downs, but I am and will always be proud of what I produced. It's a bit of a mess, yes, but all of this has been an experiment, a test, to see where things could go. Each story was meant to be a teacher, meant to give me an idea of how to have a theme, how to have characters develop, how to build a world of my own with rules. Mistakes may plague their pages, but behind them is a library of lessons, and I would honestly recommend this approach to writing. Some wait forever to write and put out their work, desperate to ensure that it is perfect, but with the saga, I have essentially more or less accepted that it is not and will not be perfect, but that each subsequent piece is an improvement on the last. WRTN and The Saga are laboratories of experiments to see where I can push my creativity, and if you are willing to understand that, either as a reader or a writer, then I think you can enjoy it. At the end of the day, I want to create an adventure like no other, where characters fight for their beliefs while unknowingly discovering the truths of the universe. This is the type of story I love, that I want to spread, and I believe that once more is revealed, The Asteroid Saga could be a tale for the ages. The ultimate question is, will you join me?
Sources
Elhilow, Jason. The Asteroid Saga: Original Trilogy. WRTN, 2023.Elhilow, Jason. The Asteroid Home. WRTN, 2022.Elhilow, Jason. The Asteroid War. WRTN, 2022.Elhilow, Jason. The Asteroid Parts. WRTN, 2022.
