Who has the power when the power goes out?

Five years ago the power went out.  Those without the currency to buy a generator live in the dark, surviving in the shadows, even more forgotten than they were before, until one family’s encounter with the power-rich changes everything.

 

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Writing Process

(Nanowrimo 2018)

Inspiration

I’ve always wondered how quickly civilization would disintegrate if the power suddenly went out. Even though humans have survived for centuries before electricity, so much knowledge is no longer passed down.

Of course, I ended up reading a book with just that premise, but this story turned out quite differently.

I gave myself a few challenges while writing this book. First, I wanted to write a story about sisters, since I had realized that many of my other characters had little brothers but no little sisters. Second, I wanted my main characters to be POC.

Soundtrack

Because I needed ambient noise and sounds to remind myself that the characters did not have access to music or television, I made a soundtrack of nature sounds, like crickets chirping, fire crackling, rain, and other forest sounds. You can listen to it over on Spotify.

Drafts

Draft 1 (Nanowrimo Dump Draft, 50,063 words, incomplete, November 2018): During Nanowrimo I went back and started rewriting scenes with different outcomes.

Draft 2 (First Final Draft, 45,000 words, complete, March 2019): I finally rewrote the scenes that were duplicated and the ending.