Category Archives: The Dragon Knights

All news concerning the Dragon Knight series

Christina Weigand: On Writing Part 2

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So once I have the big stuff, I start writing. That doesn’t mean I am done researching, though. Now that the characters have a place to live, other smaller details are needed. What food and drink were prevalent? What clothes did Samaritans, Jews and Romans wear? And for a little added spice, if the language is different from my English I will pick a few words from the language of the period and/or locale and sprinkle them in for flavor. An example of this: when Chana and Isaac argue about why he hasn’t approached Chana’s father regarding a marriage proposal, Isaac declares his love by saying \”agape mou\” which translates from Hebrew to English is \”my love.\”

And while I am on the subject of marriage proposals, I did some research on the Samaritan cultures traditions and used the Hebrew words: Kiddushin (striking an agreement between the groom and the family of the bride), Erusin (the actual betrothal), and Nissu’in (the wedding ceremony). Using these terms helped put the reader in the time, place and culture of the story.

Amazon Buy Link: https://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Disciples-Resurrection-Christina-Weigand/dp/B0CSYX6PN7

Dragon Disciples: Resurrection ; On Writing

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This week I decided to share a little bit about my writing process for Dragon Disciples: Resurrection. I’m often asked what the inspiration for my books is, and most of the time it is hard to pin down. But with Dragon Disciples: Resurrection there was a distinct point when I felt the inspiration hit. In this and part two I will discuss that inspiration and how it went from inspiration to a written story.

So what was my inspiration? One Sunday morning I was sitting at mass listening to the Gospel proclaimed by our priest. This particular Gospel story: Jesus feeding the 5000 with bread and fish supplied by a boy in the crowd. My wheels started turning. What if that boy was a Samaritan? Now I have a character and the beginnings of a conflict for him.

With that information I now take a deep dive into my process. I’m not a plotter. I let the characters dictate the story for me. But that doesn’t mean I don’t have some work to do, in the form of research. With this book there were a lot of little and big details needed to set the scene, to give the characters life, to provide the ambiance necessary to flesh out the story. My process: do enough research to get the story rolling, continue through writing the first draft and then a few jewels for the final draft to make the story shine.

What kind of things do I research? I tend to start big. In the case of Resurrection two details were important to nail down; A timeline of Jesus’s ministry and the relationship between Jews and Samaritans. I had to ensure that the story timeline lined up with Jesus’s ministry. In spite of the fact this is fantasy I still wanted to keep things as close to real as possible. To accomplish that I started big and worked to the small. City layouts in first century Israel, what buildings looked like, how they were constructed. And while I am still on the big stuff what were the relationships with and between the groups of people that have a part in the story.

This sets up the framework or the skeleton of the story. In Part 2 I will dive deeper into fleshing out the skeleton by adding muscles and skin.