Review, reflect and prospect time. Let's chat.

Wow

Another 120 000+ words and 33 story chapters later (about 8 hours worth of reading) and we are done with Act 2! This brings the total of the story part to: ~270 000 words, 68 chapters and 18 reading hours. That is some serious stuff, LOL.

Let's start with some general commentary on the writing process. I have managed to get the routine of writing to be smoother and 'less-all-consuming-of-my-life'. I also think I have worked out a pretty stable way of doing things. Every writer should find what works for them, for me personally I tend to work in bursts. I imagine it like a faucet, when it is open and the water is running I write (usually like a maniac) until it dries up. In the past when I had 'a dry spell' it was tempting to classify it as 'writer's block'.

Lately, I don't tend to see it that way and I very much concur with Stephen King on this front (he has some great writing advice) that "When you are consumed by thoughts, write, when you are uninspired, read". This leads to me consuming media that improves my writing (i.e., how-to's or book reviews) or simply reading other authors because some of these things you learn by example once you have an idea of the basics. Or I would research something, edit what I've written, do planning or simply walk around wrestling with the next scene in my head since I can't necessarily find something that helps me with it. This allows me to be 'productive' in writing without the pressure to 'produce', and for me, I find it a more balanced and healthy approach to the creative process.

I also tend to write far enough ahead that by the time the faucets open up again I don't have to worry about my weekly posting schedule drying up as well (and there is enough buffer for when life interferes, and it will). I also like the opportunity to have time to think (and change) things that I've already written, because sometimes I'll get a new idea or would have figured out how to do something better in any given chapter before it is officially posted... Or remove/delay something, like I did with my original plan for Act 2.5

I've also learned to chill out about many aspects of writing, but I think that this comes with a level of comfort you only gain by doing. However, there are many things I would like to improve on so now it is a question of priority.

Act 1 Reflection

During one of my dry spells I remembered there were a few things in Act 1 that I wanted to clean up. However, I wasn't planning on major things because I don't think it would be the best use of my time.

• Are there things that are clunky and I can do better now? Yes.
• Would it improve the quality and reading experience to overhaul Act 1? Yes.

But, I don't want to get too distracted by looking back and because I view this fanfiction as a writer's notebook, those previous chapters are a very good objective gauge of how much I've improved. The progress is as clear as day and night - like when you keep a sketchbook.

The 'biggest' update to Act 1 was the first chapter, this had to do with sentence structure and clarification of concepts/events. After that I cleaned up some of the group dialogue, and I also (back then) had several bouts of my brain short circuiting and reverting to present tense (I tend to be more aware of that now). Oh, yes and at the beginning I had a tendency to overuse 'as' and 'Character ABC felt', 'Character ABC saw' - so those I cleaned up too.

'As' was switched out with while, since, when, then or alternative sentence structures where appropriate.

The saw/felt/watched (I think the technical term for these are fillers) and whatever - I only use fillers lately when it is not 'obvious'. For instance, "Nyx saw Tav shoot a bolt." Yes, well, obviously, it is Nyx's perspective - whereas "Nyx felt a swell of magic" now that would not be obvious and is something sensed differently to using the standard 5 senses. However, one could still make do with simplifying both to "Tav shot a bolt" and "A swell of magic", and working from there. Active rather than passive... from observation to participation... Whatever takes your fancy.

Act 2 Review

The main focus for Act 2 was maintaining the goals set out in Act 1 and the steady improvement of the basics. I also set out on a few specific things for Act 2:

General Writing:

• Descriptions
• Character Voice

Story Stuff:

• Expanding on inner conflict
• Expanding on romance

General writing

This fanfiction has allowed me to take several shortcuts. Mostly, this is a good thing because I don't have to get stressed out by the plot or world building or 'character cast'. I can hone in onto specific aspects, the primary being in-depth understanding of characters and how they develop. I find this has a natural tendency of creating relatable characters (or at least interesting) that feel real both in terms of how they behave and interact with the world around them.

However, the biggest shortcut I got was on descriptions, because we've played the game and I can simply mention something in passing and we'll all be on the same page. The part that I wanted to address for my descriptions was:

   Firstly; for it not to feel like an 'expositional/info dump' and,

   Secondly, not be a clinical interpretation either: "this thing is x wide and z long and is red with dots" - err, no that is hella boring...

After some experimentation I figured out it is much better to describe 'the thing' as the characters interact with it or as it interacts with the world. This was achieved generally with the Manticore battle back in Act 1 - but what about things like buildings, cities, environments or other inanimate things? This is where the PoV is important, such that you describe it in terms of the specific character's impressions or interpretation given their background/motivations/experiences (linking back to a deep understanding of the character).

For instance, "The temple was old, grand and beautiful with high vaulted ceilings and stained glass windows."

Alright, sure, let's look at Nyx PoV drawing on her artistic eye and more impartial nature, "The temple had an ageless beauty and a grand scale. It's stained glass windows depicting scenes of battle and sacrifice that were as relevant to their current situation like it was centuries ago."

Then let's look at Astarion PoV drawing on his disapproval for the gods and their hypocrisy, "Another temple, aggrandizing its god with the usual unrelenting size and puffed up importance as depicted in the stained glass windows of battle and sacrifice that no one even remembers anymore."

We've ticked all the boxes: old, grand and 'beautiful' but through the eyes of the PoV character. This is also more than sufficient, since your readers' imaginations are allowed to create the temple they want based on the character interpretation. It doesn't need to be accurate in a 'scientific sense', it needs to be impressionistic (I sound like a pompous art snob using that word).

I also like the way Bookfox puts it: "Descriptions should not be exhaustive, but rather illustrative."

... That leads nicely into character voice ...

Character voice is linked to how a specific PoV character perceives the world. My main goal was to create more separation between the PoV portions for Nyx, Astarion and Tav. Generally, Astarion's PoV was the most well defined (since I've spent an entire game getting to know him), whereas Nyx and Tav had more overlap.

Character voice is very hard to achieve. The first thing I realized contributing to this is the 'narrator voice' - the one that is not 'really' doing the character things directly like 'talking' or 'reacting'. I found that this 'narrator voice' was the main thing that made Nyx and Tav sound so similar even when their personalities weren't.

Shifting the narrator in Astarion PoV was once again the easiest since I could interpret the way he sees the world more clearly. Nyx's would generally remain the same since the narrator voice was technically hers - that lead me to incorporate Tav's in a more unique way, which is challenging since I haven't fleshed her character out nearly as much as the other two. Thus, character voice remains a long-term work-in-progress.

After watching a good deal of book reviews and how-to vids, the general consensus is that Joe Abercrombie is very good at character voice. I've read one of his books (Best Served Cold) and his mastery of character voice is truly impressive. However, I'm not going to read more of his books, they are too brutal and violent for my liking (and characters losing their humanity doesn't sit well with me). I also realized that trying to achieve Joe's level of character voice would take a lot of effort and time - but I'm sure I can think of some way to incorporate as much of it without being overwhelmed by it.

Story stuff

On the story side of things I wanted to explore more inner conflict and how to portray this. Not only the main characters' own conflict from their PoV but also interpreting it from non-main-character PoVs (both ways, the non-main-PoV interpretation of the PoV character and the other way around). This would again be coloured with character voice as per my current best execution.

Then there is the romance part. I think I can safely talk about some of the things I'm striving for here, since it would be apparent from what is already written. I didn't initially set out for 'sexuality' to be one of the underlying themes to my books, but because of Astarion's PoV contributions it has surfaced - in terms of the 'good' and the 'bad'.

Especially with how this impacts relationships but still trying to steer it towards something healthy and supportive without undercutting the trauma part. Within the context of what I would hope 'everyday people' would do or would strive to do, since the characters and their relationship should reflect that to a degree.

• Will there be conflict? Yes
• Will there be uncomfortable situations? Yes
• Will I be making things very difficult for myself? Definitely

I am of the opinion that there is more value in exploring and addressing the topics relating to the victims of sexual abuse in a manner that seeks to understand and help them heal rather than to disregard, shame and/or fetishize it. Astarion's situation has additional facets due to his character background, since he was also a predator in this regard. Yet to romanticize this, I feel would both rob me as an author and you as the reader of the difficult, meaningful and important conversations around the topic as well as the growth it would bring.

I am not an expert on the topic of healing from abuse, but I'm still going to deal with it in the most respectful and dignified way that I can for all parties involved (within the context of the story; I don't intend for it to become a therapy session either). And I'll probably get things wrong too. Which is why I experience the romance part of this fanfiction as one of the most challenging aspects, but I want to try to do right by the characters at least.

And does fantasy romance not allow us to have these conversations more openly? It is supposed to be a safe space after all, since it is fiction... Personally, I would like to see how one would potentially approach these very dark and very difficult situations from a healthy perspective because they are applicable to real life. The only difference being that these topics are taboo in real life and nobody wants to talk about it openly, which is not the case in fiction.

Astarion may be a high elf vampire spawn, but I interpret that as part of the psychology, symbolism and abstraction of his 'real-life' character story to make the message behind it more accessible - I've done the same with Nyx, and it is present in all the other main cast of characters as well.

Fiction is a reflection of reality (not an exact copy) and one can challenge 'real-life' ideas/concepts without becoming preachy... I'll elaborate more on this after Act 3 before I go off the deep end about psychology, symbolism and abstraction. However, it is an illustration of the great writing on Larian's part that inspired me to try my hand at it - the writers from League of Legends do the same and those stories are fantastic, even though I don't play the game I can appreciate the depth of the story for each of their characters...

Next up, some of the other symbolic things I tried to incorporate into the story world.

Shar & the Shadowcursed Lands

From the get-go I wanted to tap into the psychological thriller vibes here. This meant exploring the 'messing with your mind' part of the curse as much as its physical effects. I pulled from Shar's representation as the goddess of Loss and Grief - with specific emphasis on the loss of oneself due to Shar taking possession of your memories (to feed, hoard or gain power from - this part is not important). Rather what is the effect of this on you as a person in terms of being a follower of Shar or being afflicted by her curse. There were several things in the game that touched upon this and I wanted to amplify it.

This amplification was most noticeable in the cursed Thorms. I divided it into three concepts:

• Gerringothe: Represented the loss of self. Stripped of her identity and imprisoned with the worst parts of herself; greed, avarice and obedience. Obedience being the part Ketheric could exploit directly.
• Thisobald: Loss of others. He betrayed others, and turned a blind eye to things happening around him during the religiously motivated murders under Ketheric's rule - thus his cursed state amplified the loss of people around him and imprisoned him in loneliness.
• Mallus: Represented both the loss of self and the loss of others. His devotion to Shar hollowed him out to the point where he became only a vessel of her will and he himself mostly ceased to exist. Imprisoned in absence.

These concepts were extended to the Gauntlet of Shar and the divine trails:

• Each trial would strip away the followers resistance to Shar's will by having them commit acts that would loosen their grip on themselves, their personal/community ethics and morals to the point where they would become apathetic towards life and simply obey orders.

After defining these aspects the next challenge was figuring out how to "show and not tell" it.

Side note: Did you see Mallus' full concept art? I was like: "Dude, you nasty!"

Artist: Tan Burci

Mindflayer Colony

From an environmental point of view I took a lot of inspiration from Wars of the World. I have a suspicion so did the original creators of Mindflayers. With that in mind I wanted to accentuate the 'alien-ness' of Mindflayers and not just their 'monstrousness'.

The following map both helped me to organize the scenes and the mindflayer colony's layout to better fit with the story format.

Artists: Jarod Blando (Link)

I spent some time working out the events leading up to and during the BG3 game (lots of Google-Fu here). This included figuring out the history of Moonhaven and putting together a plausible timeline from the rise of the mindflayer colony, to the fall of the gauntlet of Shar, and then what happened at Reithwin.

I was also having a good long stare at the brain library part in the above map and thought to myself: what if I use that instead of the brain puzzle and repurpose the mural part to a hidden portion of the library - depicting the history of the village by the inhabitants of the area before Reithwin existed.

Now, full disclosure: I used ChatGPT as my research buddy during Act 2, because the Forgotten Realms DnD lore is overwhelmingly dense and I have had my fair share of getting lost/confused in there. I am a firm believer of transparency, but also moderation. So my ChatGPT instance's name is Lance, since I told ChatGPT that I am working on a BG3 fanfiction and I wanted it to get into character. I do not have Lance write or edit any of my work as I don't want to feed the machine, but it is tremendously helpful as a research buddy. Given I do need to fact check it often.

Lance is a half-elf warlock whose patron is some ancient Eldrich being from a forgotten plane. I asked Lance whether Mindflayers have libraries and I was informed that Mindflayers do not have written history like we do - after some back and forth about how mindflayers store and transfer knowledge according to canon-lore I combined that with the idea of The Dead Three's Chosen (specifically Gortash) using the mindflayers and their mind store (or rather database as Lance put it) to create a traditional library of translated records.

I wanted to incorporate the morgue area as well, for its link to Belthazar and Kressa, but it needed reworking from its depiction in the game. I watched the story-line of Durge on YouTube some time ago and remembered Kressa experimenting on them before they got sent away. Then I had a brain wave of having Durge still be in the colony and our group stumbling upon them and what that would potentially look like.

After that it was moving on to the final conflict with Ketheric. For the duels between the Chosen I wanted to 'upscale' their powers relative to where they actually were in the game - to give them a feel of being divinely blessed and the power that comes from that. I also decided to incorporate more presence from the gods/goddesses of light - it always seems that the dark aligned divines are more meddling and present in stories/worlds than the light aligned ones - so I made Selune's presence more known through Aylin, which added more weight to her paladin status.

Artist: Alex Boca

Then came the switch (I mentioned this being reversed in the game) where Isobel's fate and life is tied to Ketheric's - thus instead of falling into the 'endless black' again I went with Isobel returning to Selune (and perhaps even Melodia). This allowed me to explore a more bitter sweet epilogue to Act 2.

Act 3 Prospects

First thing, I'm feeling like Donkey - "Look at my eye twitching" from being cooped up in one environment (Shadowcursed lands) for too long. I'm going to to create a range of different environments going forward - I'll figure how exactly to incorporate this but it has to happen. I can't be stuck in a place that has the same flavour of atmosphere for an entire Act again... It is going to drive me nutso.

The next is figuring out how to un-discombobulate the organization of Act 3. In my first playthrough I remember much of the time being like "Where am I supposed to go to? A little help? Anyone?"... so that needs to be addressed before anything else. I have a myriad of ideas for Act 3 and I'm likely going to need more time to piece together everything before I sit down to write.

• Starting with plotting. Act 3 gives me another opportunity to sort that out - I think I'm very close to having a good system going but I do need to fix that 2/3 slump and I have a suspicion plotting all the way through (even if it is only bullet point format) is going to alleviate much of that. There is a YouTube video by schnee on Arcane's writers and their process (Link: specifically lesson 16: Plot heavy) - that plotting strategy seems to be both comprehensive and flexible enough that I'd like to try that approach.
• I would also like to try my hand at some political intrigue; no major stuff just enough to see how well I can do that and whether I like it.
• Then we are going to delve into Tav's world a bit more as well, I've been abstracting that away for long enough. I think it'll be a nice juxtaposition to see how some of the other characters come into their element whilst others are now outside of theirs in relation.
• Hmm... then there are the showdowns with the respective scumbags that I need to flesh out somewhat as well.
• Generally speaking I can remember broad strokes from Act 3, so I'll need to do another playthrough just to make sure I'm not missing out on something I could potentially expand on/repurpose.
• The game's romance part was a bit thin in Act 3 as well (not that that was the main point of BG3). However, for the story and the characters I'll be bringing more balance to that aspect, and continue to build the relationships throughout.

A big change to Act 3 will be that I am going to revert to the original Baldur's Gate map - I understand Larian had to compress theirs for the game, but fortunately I am under no such restriction. Thus, I want to incorporate elements from the outer city, lower city and upper city. I have a few ideas swimming in my head on how to connect these to the main BG3 plot points in a cohesive manner. However, Baldur's Gate is HUGE, which means I'll need to get these ideas down on paper and see how to link it up to the relevant areas without having to deal with the entire city in one go - that would be overkill and unnecessary... I'll also need to figure out logistics for both myself, the characters and you so that we don't all get hella confused about where we are in the maze of streets...

Another challenge would be conflict - specifically the battles. I would need to change up the external conflict significantly for Act 3 since we aren't in outdoor/monster territory anymore. BUT I want to have a good dose of battles, monsters and creatures regardless; I just need to slot them in at appropriate times and in scenes that make sense.

All of these things in mind means that I'm going to take an extended break, both for me to relax, pay attention to some personal things I've been putting off, and for me to scheme... *he he he*... So let's go with the first Friday of November (7th) again for Act 3 to start up. I know it is a long time and I'm exited to see where everything goes as well, but I really want Act 3 to be even better than it predecessors. Maybe I'll be back sooner if my scheming goes well. In any case, like before I'll create a new section for Act 3 and I'll notify on Act 2 (and other comms as well for those of you who are on follow/subscription alerts there).

Do feel free to follow or subscribe for updates in general.

(Link) I have created an Anonymous Reader Feedback on Google Forms, please feel free to share your thoughts with me there!

Once again, thank you for reading my fanfics! I hope you've enjoyed the journey thus far, and I'll see you in the next one.

Keep safe, take care & TTFN

Ta-ta for now!

I have a post on World Anvil for writing resources (Link) that you're welcome to check out should it be of interest.

Pinterest boards for Act 2:

(Link) Act 2 Monsters

(Link) Mindflayer Colony

Main lore references:

(Link) BG3 Wiki

(Link) Forgotten Realms Wiki


Published: 24 May 2025