Jaycee Woods

Usually, when I first draft a story, I do not have a specific view about the location or superficial identity attributes of characters unless it is material to the story such as one set in Japan for particular cultural or marketing reasons. This allows some flexibility later as the story develops its own identity. For example, moving a princess story from medieval Germany to Tuscany as it better suited the character names that I preferred. Such details become integrated during editing as I seek to add immersive details.

Recently I had a new realization about the rebel army in _Boudica and The Butcher_, one of the novels that I am developing.

I already have a Marxist element to the urban rebels in characters like Comrade Thumper (an obese green haired feminist political officer in the besieged city) and Cleaver (the rebel commander in the besieged city of Pilgerruh).

I have the rebels conscripting women into the army to make up for more men supporting the Union. There are many examples in the draft including important characters like Boudica, Olga, Aesclepia, Juicy, and Ella.

I realized that a large contingent of the men in the rebel army should be conscripted urban illegal aliens. Thus, they should apply fighting tactics of their violent countries of origin. For the Haitians, I can add eating cats before rebels descend into eating rats and pigeons; also, dirt cakes like their mom used to make.

I have one instance of this already in the draft as The Butcher’s wife and child were killed by a terrorist car bomb at the start of the war (so that hints at a Palestinian, Afghan, or Lebanese origin for that element of the rebels).

Meanwhile the Union policy towards POWs does come from Nigeria’s Boko Haram.

The rebels are already dependent on smuggling from Canada & Mexico so maybe I will make Tessa the smuggler (and undercover Union spy) of Mexican ancestry. Her code name could then be Pescado. Also, Tessa will be short for Teresa (Spanish origin).

As the city descends, the rebel army should probably have a problem of splinter factions breaking off into ethnic gangs fighting each other for dwindling resources like food and ammo.

I don’t want this new aspect to be anti-immigrant, so I will need to have legal immigrant elements on the Union side. In addition to Tess the spy, maybe Cyrus (The Butcher’s XO and major supporting character) can be Persian as that already goes with the name.

The addition of the illegal immigrants fighting for the rebels is naturalistic world building without intending a broader message in the story which is why I only thought of it when wearing my second pass editor hat. Although the idea of the rebel army fracturing into country-of-origin gangs does add another element to the horror of war.

How does The Butcher respond to this factionalism within the rebel army? Does he seek to bring some into an alliance? Does he have compassion for the conscripted migrants by offering to return them home? No, he remains in character. He celebrates it as a fulfillment of his strategy to destroy Pilgerruh as a warning to other rebel cities, so they surrender without a fight. Meanwhile, propaganda related to the factionalism will create divisions and conflicts in other rebel cities even before they are besieged. Rebels killing other rebels serves his goal while saving his own men. Overall, its barbarity accelerates the coming end to the war as he planned.