Author E.K. Johnston takes readers inside the making of her latest YA novel Star Wars: Crimson Climb, which follows Qi’ra’s journey from White Worm scrumrat to Crimson Dawn mercenary.
1. Crimson Climb is the most fun I’ve ever had writing Star Wars.
Don’t get me wrong, I loved writing Ahsoka and Padmé (and company), but there was something really exciting about working with this particular cast. I think it’s that I was very free in terms of the timeline (not the case in Ahsoka where my window was super tight), and I wasn’t inevitably headed for tragedy (THAT WE KNOW OF, I’M WATCHING YOU, CHARLES SOULE). Qi’ra isn’t like any other main character I’ve built a story around. She was never going to do the nice thing or the good thing or the right thing. She was always going to do the best thing for her, and that is pretty great in terms of plot generation and character dynamics. I loved building her a nemesis and setting her up against Dryden Vos, knowing where they’re all headed. Also, I may have put in a little bit of LEGO.
2. It was really important to me that the Force artefact Qi’ra’s after had been made by a Jedi, not a Sith.
I don’t get to play around with Force shenanigans very often, so it was fun putting together something Force-related for Qi’ra to be headed after. Obviously, we see where she ends up in the comics, but it was fun to write that first treasure hunt. I came up with a holocron after thinking “What could a Jedi make that ends really badly?” It’s not a short list, but this one had to be portable, so at least that made it a bit easier. I like the idea of something made for the light side with the best of intentions, but by human(oid) error, it swerves too close to an absolute. It is, theoretically, a Palpatine-killer, but there’d be a lot of collateral damage so it has to be hidden away. I hope someone nice finds it.
3. Don’t tell anyone, but Dryden Vos might be the best character to write dialogue for.
There’s a bit in Mur Lafferty’s Solo: A Star Wars Story novelization where Han sees Dryden and thinks something along the lines of “the man acted like he had read about human emotions from a script and was doing his best to portray them.” He’s just so false, but also so MUCH. Stir in the best of Paul Bettany’s delivery, and it’s a magical combination for writing speeches. I did watch A Knight’s Tale a few times to make sure I got the tone I was after. You know, for research.
Read a couple more secrets at StarWars.com. Buy Star Wars: Crimson Climb now from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and all good book shops.
