The Origins of Coalescent

Coalescent began with just a trope: enemies to lovers. It’s a trope I’m rather fond of, and I wanted to tell my own story with it. I love the idea of character relationships changing so drastically over time, and one benefit of enemies to lovers is that the characters start by knowing the other’s worst side. It can only go up from there. I love to watch the progression of the relationship: enemies to reluctant allies to friends to lovers. That is what I wanted to portray in my story, and everything else was built around that concept.

When I first sat down to outline this story, I divided it into three sections: his story, her story, and their story. The first two sections would show what happened when they first met in Bryn and follow them (individually) until their reunion in Wen. The third section would be their journey together. This was done to explore their individual characters and provide a foundation for their future relationship.

Since I wanted them to become reluctant allies, I needed a reason why they would work together. That drove the overarching conflict, character creation, and world building. I had to explain 1) what stakes would lead them to agree to this, 2) why they believed cooperation was necessary, and 3) why it had to be them specifically. After that, I started filling in details, and after debating a lot of plot points, I finally found a rough outline I was happy with.

Initially, I planned to leave this story on hold for the moment. I’ve been working on another project, so I thought I should focus on that. Then, Amazon announced a Kindle Vella competition. I wanted to enter, and this story was already outlined and ready to write. I needed only ten chapters, and that wouldn’t have even finished Alec’s side of the story. As much as I wanted to write about his growth, I decided to jump ahead to their reunion in Bryn. I figured that would be the most compelling storyline. Still, I would love to go back one day and write their individual stories.

As I wrote Coalescent, I ended up changing a lot (as usual). Some sections were lengthened, and scenes were added. My rough drafts also tend to be quite sparse in detail, so as I edit, I often add descriptions. I’m not good at estimating, and what was originally anticipated to be about 20 chapters ended up at 30. I also never expected it to reach 50,000 words either. It may not be a perfect story, but I’m happy with it. I wrote a story that I wanted to read, and I hope others enjoy it as well.