Through Smoke and Bitter Distance, Prologue, Special Features

  Prologue

References:

*The opening excerpt comes from Emily Pauline Johnson's poem, "Through Time and Bitter Distance". I wanted a title (albeit changed slightly to reflect the story's core) and quote that would express the story's mood, and this quote did that: it captured confusion and losing one's way, the need of a reconnection to humanity, and the distance that one can experience in many forms. It also signified how far Dave would need to go to get out of the fire that would built up at the crash site and make his way out despite the dangerous distance that came with it. I didn't want to go with a standard Henry Stickmin title for this reason. 

General:

*This short story was the first plot in my "Sticks, Stones, Possibilities and Bones" series - a fanfiction collection dedicated to exploring the 'what-ifs' and alternate scenarios of The Henry Stickmin Collection. In the instance of TSABD, the goal was to write a story about Dave's survival and his escape from the Toppats. Dave is a character I like and it didn't sit right with me to have his character expire in Revenged, so I made him one of the leading actors to give him a happy (well, as happy as a former prisoner of a criminal organization can get) ending.   

*While writing this prologue, I wanted to make this an opportunity to push my writing skills. I was new to the HS fandom at the time of this story's conception, and I wasn't always liking what fan content was pumped out there. And before anyone assumes I'm talking about their fan stories, I'm not; I'm just speaking in general. But also, as this was the start of the SSPAB series, I knew that this was a story that needed more of a serious and poignant air, so I turned to one of my writing/media influences: 1959's The Twilight Zone series. The writing was so sharp and excellent across many episodes and I wanted to evolve my style based on that. The Twilight Zone's writing was quite eloquent and could beautifully paint pictures that could take readers to another place and time. Hence the descriptions of the airship and main description of the story. 

*I also wanted to evoke a sense of lyrical poetry to the writing, to make it feel more dramatic and powerful in emotion and stakes. Hence the callback to the aforementioned poem. Writing things in poetical form gives me life and honestly, I feel it makes the world I'm writing for a little more magical and alive. 

Random Facts:

*None.

Wanderer out!