Honestly, when initially creating this piece I had no idea what the story was going to be about or the message that I was trying to convey. For months on end the only ideas I had either revolved around the black community or Game of Thrones. Both extremely separate ideas, but ideas none the less. It wasn’t until our first writing activity had I come up with anything. The phrase, “ Burn them all,” kept ringing in my head, so I went with it. It started out with simply the idea of fire and destruction, then I combined it with a religious element. When writing this I didn’t want to write anything I was comfortable with. I wanted to test my creative boundaries.

 

After my first draft, I didn’t realize what I had created. It ended up becoming basically a village cult, all worshipping a God by the name of ZaBath. who they give sacrifices of boys to. This is only the overview but, the message I eventually wanted to convey was a new method in boys going into manhood and the very physical effects this process is. I wanted to bring a harsher reality of this stage of life, within this cult. As far as the language used throughout my story, I am currently in love with the Old Modern English dialect. I’m pretty sure it is a combination of other dialects as well but  I felt that for this kind of story it would match perfectly with it.

 

Through the editing process, after my second draft for the story and meeting, I decided to elaborate the role of ZaBath in the story as well as key moments in the story like the role of the mother.Initially , I was playing with the idea of turning this society into a matriarchy. However, as read my story over I felt it would lose the overall message I was trying to convey. Which now was, choosing to die and be praised or to live and be abandoned at a time where you don’t understand your choices.

 

Also, I am not a huge fan of dialogue and whenever I do use it, they are key statements that either is essential to the plot or are meant for the reader to think or react to. I prefer to tell a story from a single character’s point of view and that was one thing I kept throughout my revisions. Separate from my own (joking), the single story that I personally thought was most successful was Kadijah’s. I loved the combination of English text with French dialogue. It played so well with each other and added a very unique element to the story overall.