WIP Big Bang

I signed up to the wipbigbang challenge last year in the optimistic hope of finally doing the sequel to the Diane Duane Young Wizards fic that I wrote >10 years ago (An Unwilling Heart - this was about a third of my original outline), but although I managed a few bits I couldn't get it to cohere, and dropped out. This year I signed up again, this time for Star Wars: Rogue One, because when I'd got the chocolateboxcomm assignment at the beginning of the year I'd had another idea, but had to stop because it was too long for the time available (a not uncommon theme in all my writing, see above).

I'd thought of it as a story that starts with a reveal, then goes into extended flashback, so by the time you get to that reveal (two-thirds to three-quarters of the way through the story) you know how they got there and what it means, and then take the characters on from that; it's a format I like a lot (The Secret History does this amazingly well, and Strawberries for Dessert is a good romance example). Conversely I hate stories if it you just end up back at the reveal with no or minimal aftermath. Anyway. I wrote the reveal, went back, and then, as time progressed, realised a) it wasn't working and b) getting to the reveal was going to take considerably more words that I had time for. I was also having a lot of trouble with Chirrut's point of view. I ended up reworking the outline into three parts, of which this story is the first, and then rewriting Chirrut until he was neither passive nor totally evil, and inflicting each new version on my long-suffering betas (thanks very much!).

This is the end result. It is the first part, there will be more (as hope springs eternal I am hoping to have the next part out before Yuletide. This year), and if anyone out there is familiar with the Clone Wars period of Star Wars and wants to help me structure the next bit in accordance with the not all that helpful canonical timeline I'd be thrilled.

Empty Spaces (15072 words) by Cyphomandra
Chapters: 5/5
Fandom: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Chirrut Îmwe/Baze Malbus
Characters: Chirrut Îmwe, Baze Malbus
Additional Tags: Slow Build, cliffhanger ending, Science Fiction, Original Characters - Freeform, Get Together
Series: Part 1 of The Long Haul
Summary:

"Only the best and most dedicated can serve as Guardians." Chirrut and Baze took very different paths to the Temple.