How Did it Come to This?
Here's why I started the story with a conflict between Kali and the mannamong Tontorus.
If you read The Mannamong up to the time of this post’s release, including my previous behind-the-scenes blogs about the original ideas I had of writing a “girl befriends creature” story, you’re probably wondering how and why Kali and Tontorus start not getting along. Why does the final draft of the comic start with hostility? If the original plan was to have them become close friends, why was he introduced as the antagonist? Well, when I finally decided to begin drawing the comic, I hit a snag that’s very common to writing fiction—starting the story.
For years, I had an idea, but not a coherent narrative with a point to it. I originally had the story start with Kali finding Tontorus in the rain alone at a park on her way home from school, looking like a lost puppy. As explained in my Tontorus post, he had amnesia. So their interactions were primarily based on exploring his forgotten past while keeping him hidden from the public. What got me stuck was understanding what KIND of relationship Kali and Tonto would share… Because it originated on a blank open slate, with Tontorus having no memory to reflect a defining personality. This also made it difficult for me to write Kali being responsive to his actions without coming across as a flat character herself. Furthermore, I didn’t know what message I was trying to tell about their relationship, which was a serious problem since it was always meant to be the heart of the story.
By the time I was graduating from college, I had studied how to write fiction through online articles or YouTube videos. I still do to this day. So I realized their first encounter had to be impactful. It needed to start whatever kind of story it was going to become. And I knew it needed to be a moment that would shape these characters’ future together. After all, good stories are about the journey from how you began the adventure compared to how you end it. That’s why Tontorus changed from being someone who forgot his identity to becoming a character heavily identified by something hard to ignore. And I believe that’s either two things: a pleasant memory or a traumatic experience. And stories are all about conflict.
So I went with the latter and gave poor Kali a hard time with her first encounter with the mannamong, which could only mean one thing for me. If I wanted Kali and Tontorus to bond like I originally planned, this had to be a redemption story. Great! I now knew my overall theme. And while I’d like to explain more about how this will come to be, I’ll leave it for now until I get there. For now, I’ll talk about the ideas that led me to how they began on the wrong foot.
Kali’s Fevers
I knew that for the relationship and story to work, whatever Tontorus does to Kali had to be something I felt was bad, but not heinous enough to make him appear irredeemable for readers. I was very conscious of this because I wanted readers to question his actions without being completely turned off by him. Especially when the time comes for his redemptive arc to begin, I decided the story would be told from Kali’s point of view, and she had to be curious about his treatment of her. So his crime against her couldn’t be too severe, but it had to be personal.
When polishing Vianne’s character and bringing more focus to her bond with Kali, I thought the conflict Tontorus delivers should come between the two. And what’s more troubling for a loving parent than having their child deal with a severe illness beyond their control to cure? Having Kali struggle with intense fevers from an unknown cause would not only leave her mother feeling helpless, but also torment her with a pain she’d long to be rid of. So when she discovers it was a spirit responsible and not a virus, she would develop a grudge. What’s more, her feelings and thoughts towards him would grow more confused when he continues to haunt her without making her sick. Writing Tontorus as a runaway hiding behind Kali became the foundation of the plot, and her dealing with it would be the journey.
So eventually, the two would have to settle their business one way or the other. Kali’s view of Tontorus starts shaky due to the contradictory nature she was told of the mannamong by her mother. This was the twist I hoped would hook readers into reading more because this attack flips her perspective on the guardians she expected them to be. Tontorus, being the source of misery between Kali and Vianne, was enough trouble, but now these mannamong tales that gave her hope are called into question.
The story now had a path to follow: Understanding Tontorus and why he goes against everything good, Vianne told Kali about the mannamong. And what would she do to escape the mess he dragged her into? That all depends on how she decides to treat him for making her sick.