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Boarders Writing a Novel Thread 3


Gabriele

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I have been slowly building on one book over the past 5 years. I took a break on it after some concerns over writing for about 2 years. I have written I think one manuscript back in the 90's, like a 280 page book, and a western on the late 1990's of about 260 pages. I have finished a few short stories and have about 250 pages of my current project completed. I also wrote most of a Koontz type horror book back in 1995, but had problems with the word processor and lost it by reformatting the disk.

I have started to also write up a whole group of about 10 stories dealing with some of the characters in my first manuscript. They were about 50% done before. I want to finish a few of them this year, maybe 50%, write about 100 more pages on my current manuscript, and work on two other projects.

The two other writing projects I have are a science fiction story involving intradimensional travel, and another story involving a half-orc who plays both sides of the typical fantasy universe against eachother.

I really liked reading Martin's chapter outlines and story boards. Sometimes I do this, but sometimes I just bang it out based on a few lines I figured out here and there. I would like to create a fresh manuscript someday and use his technique more closely. It seems to feel right.

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While I run through my novel again I think I'm going to try and publish some short stories I wrote years ago. The hard thing with this is finding good publications when I'm not really a magazine reader. Any ideas on how to find good ones?

Most of my short stories center on horror/dark fantasy, though I have a couple that could go to literary magazines possibly.

Ralan and Duotrope both list markets. You might want to exercise caution though, as Duotrope (at least - haven't double checked Ralan) seems to include every market with a pulse.

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I had a Shiny New Idea, inspired by Dragon Age, so I've begun another game module.

There were a few ideas that I wanted to address. The first was the common fantasy situation where one is given the choice of saving the life of a child at the expense of the world, or killing a child to save the world.

I'm writing a module that will employ this idea, and give characters that choice, but let there be actual ramifications. If you don't kill the child, the world will invariably be consumed by the force of "evil." If you do kill the child, it will be saved from that evil.

The child isn't a "Chosen One;" he's simply the son of a king who will find himself in a position where his one decision will incidentally alter the course of the world - not unlike the PC character.

The game is divided into two parts, with introduction and epilogue scenarios. Depending upon certain major in-game decisions, the two parts each have three completely different scenarios.

It was difficult to figure out how one would proceed with the idea of the end of the world coming, and the game continuing on to explore what happens next. The evil never wins in these games because where will you go from there?

This led me to borrow a few ideas from Bakker. The first is rather blatant. Later on, when the child matures into adulthood and makes the choice that will change the world, the PC becomes collateral damage and is murdered. The second part of the game continues 200 years later, and you begin as a new character, who had a dream akin to Akky's, where they saw themselves in the role of a historical figure.

The world is overrun by the forces of evil, and humankind has become a subjugated species. I want this part not to be a standard "save the world" deal, but an exploration of what evil means (contrasted by the alternate path, covered later in this post). I want to play around with the nature of human evil versus supernatural evil, and how one could influence or deter the other (so, even though humans will never emancipate themselves from the evil, that's not really the point and the plot will deal with a story completely different in tone).

The alternate path is one where the player did choose to kill the child. This starts an utterly different storyline, where the evil no longer threatens humanity - humanity threatens humanity. The child's brother is a Regal-type character, and since his brother is slain, he takes power and is a tyrant. There's a massive outbreak of civil unrest, and the PC must cope with his pariah status as the known slayer of a well-loved prince.

A third path is apart from the other two. If the PC, near the beginning randomly kills an innocent person, they are captured and institutionalized in a mental ward. There they slowly manipulate the denizens there, and start up a revolt. All the while news of the world falling into chaos occasionally comes and the PC slowly goes insane.

I'm incorporating a former idea into this part (the Coen brothers/Dark City hybrid). It makes sense too. I'm treating prophecies in this world much as they would in our world - you have to be crazy to think that a deity is speaking to you directly. And this will always be a question in the game. When the PC receives a prophecy, that prophecy turns out to be true, but does that mean that it was a valid prophecy or a bizarre coincidence? I really want this point to be ambiguous, as I would like to maintain ambiguity on whether the PC actually goes insane, or this is simply a dimension of the fantasy world that is accurate, but no one else seems to have experienced.

Anyway, I'm trying to exploit the nature of storytelling within a game. I want the theme of the story to be done through the essential vehicle of PC choice and consequence - something no other format can do.

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All the time. It's extremely frustrating.

Exactly. I was perfectly fine writing the story I talked about a few pages back, and now I have a story set in the future trying to take over the old story. I can't shake the idea out of my head, because I like the ideas.

It's set thousands of years after a nuclear holocaust, taking place primarily in a slightly geographically altered Europe ruled mostly by the Immortals (a group of cyborg-like people who can switch into different bodies before dying of old age. However, them being cyborgs, it takes a while) from Albion (Britain). The Immortals are divided into two groups (whoose names I haven't figured out yet): the ones who rule from Albion, and the ones who want to clense the human race (somewhat like Hitler), keep their magic (advanced technology) from the common people, and rule the purified world as gods.

The "bad" Immortals use religion as their weapon. Installing a computer chip in a king's brain secretly, they send him dreams claiming to be Prophets of the Dragon God (a robot that resembled a dragon during the nuclear holocaust and shortly after which was evelvated to divine status through myths and legends) who have chosen him as the fulfiller of the prophecy (which is actually the result of the Dragon God's programer turning it off shortly before his defeat, and programming it to awaken in the future. The Immortals seek to gain control of it before it awakens, using it for their purposes). He falls for it, not knowing better, and helps them find/put together the Spell of Darkness/Withering Death (a nuke), which they eventually use on Albion.

While the actual antagonist remains a mystery throughout the story, he's actually posing as a good guy who sends the other "good guys" out to find the Black Jewel (a large computer chip with which to control the Dragon God), the Spear of Light (laser weapon), and the Chant of Heaven (a signal sent out that can disarm the army of robots, which were also used in the holocaust).

EDIT: And, I must say, Poison Ivy and Scarecrow inspired some of the more nasty "magic"/tech. ;)

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Well, NaNo has been a total failure for me. I've gotten about... oh, 600 words this month. Unfortunately November is a terrible month to write a novel for college students, as I've written around 10-15k words worth of essays in the last two or three weeks.

Maybe December will be my magic month.

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I have - much to my surprise - done 7700 words on an AU version of the climax to my next book. (Probably an AU, that is. I'm vacillating over exactly how bad a time to give one of the characters; this bit I've worked up now would be the less bad one, but I probably won't incorporate it.)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Good evening!

Yes, 400,000 + words really is huge. And I do have thought of splitting it in half (at least), and then re-edit it again, and again, and again ...

Though I have a couple of suitable places in the middle of the story where I can do the actual chopping and slicing, narratively speaking, that would pretty much ruin the very theme I have for the first part.

That is, the themes over-archs the entire storyline somewhat, at least in my opinion. Part one to four is called (and this is a direct translation from Swedish): "The Golden Peace"; "The Red Dawn"; "The White Season"; and, "The Black Mercy."

A fairly simplistic and symbolic idea, I think, using colours like that. And by splitting one of these particular parts into two, say "The Golden Peace - part I" and "The Golden Peace - part II", is not that appealing. Apart from that, I'd really like the first (intact) part to end the way it does. I figured it all out during the summer of '07, down to the very last sentence. And it is a cool ending, I think, of part one.

So, could I turn a prospective "The Golden Peace - part II" into something entirely else, that is turn it into its own part in a five book-story? Hm.

Maybe I would do well and dwell upon that for a moment or three.

(The names above are my working titles, though I really like them so far, since they fit quite nicely with the over-arching name of the whole story as such (also a working title): "A Saga of Sorrow.")

Yeah, well. I'm awaiting my first judgement of my sixth draft fairly soon. A colleague from work is reading it (I feel a wee bit sorry for her, since it is a huge read and I guess she'd prefer to read A Storm of Swords instead) as we communicate here and now. I hope.

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My novel has taken a backseat as I focus on the game I'm writing. It's really fun. The character starts out as an adjunct investigator of local concerns, which is sort of a McGuffin plot as the larger picture clarifies.

This is an important method of introduction, I feel, because it allows plenty of expression in the beginning. The PC isn't confined to certain actions to satisfy the plot, but is permitted a broad degree in which to just fuck around.

For instance: If you publicly murder an innocent person, you are directly sent to an institution for the criminally insane. However, you can also be subtle about it, and serial kill your way through the introduction. With more conspicuous kills, or a larger number of kills, you'll find yourself trailed by another investigator (who you can murder as well, if you play your cards right). The longer the investigator is on your trail, and the clumsier you are about your killing, the more likely it is that you'll be apprehended. The plot proceeds just fine regardless of whether you do get apprehended or don't, so there's an element of excitement there.

Also, the manner in which you go about your investigations is pretty open for any approach; however, there will be consequences seen later on, depending upon your approach.

Since it's a McGuffin introduction, you can do an awful lot of stuff. It's cool, and fun to write. And I'm getting a kick out of shattering the silly, ego-inflating tropes of Western RPG's.

I'm a few thousand words into it so far. Haven't yet hit ten, but I'm going strong so it shouldn't be too far off.

I think this game will be a solid two hundred K, with some tough editing.

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Good evening!

Yes, 400,000 + words really is huge. And I do have thought of splitting it in half (at least), and then re-edit it again, and again, and again ...

Though I have a couple of suitable places in the middle of the story where I can do the actual chopping and slicing, narratively speaking, that would pretty much ruin the very theme I have for the first part.

That is, the themes over-archs the entire storyline somewhat, at least in my opinion. Part one to four is called (and this is a direct translation from Swedish): "The Golden Peace"; "The Red Dawn"; "The White Season"; and, "The Black Mercy."

A fairly simplistic and symbolic idea, I think, using colours like that. And by splitting one of these particular parts into two, say "The Golden Peace - part I" and "The Golden Peace - part II", is not that appealing. Apart from that, I'd really like the first (intact) part to end the way it does. I figured it all out during the summer of '07, down to the very last sentence. And it is a cool ending, I think, of part one.

So, could I turn a prospective "The Golden Peace - part II" into something entirely else, that is turn it into its own part in a five book-story? Hm.

Maybe I would do well and dwell upon that for a moment or three.

(The names above are my working titles, though I really like them so far, since they fit quite nicely with the over-arching name of the whole story as such (also a working title): "A Saga of Sorrow.")

Yeah, well. I'm awaiting my first judgement of my sixth draft fairly soon. A colleague from work is reading it (I feel a wee bit sorry for her, since it is a huge read and I guess she'd prefer to read A Storm of Swords instead) as we communicate here and now. I hope.

Is each section roughly 100k? You could split into four relatively-small novels, or two larger novels. the golden peace/the red dawn, then the white season/the black mercy.

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Fuck. I backed up and reformatted my hard drive back in August. Since then I have done a complete edit of my novel (marked it up physically then added changes in the computer), and I am halfway through another physical mark up. In addition to that I wrote 40 pages of a short novel, two short stories and began my Gitmo book.

And my hard drive died this weekend. I am SO depressed.

I mean I can fix it. I still have the physical copy of the changes I made to my novel back in August. So I can fix it. Then make the new changes. It seems really daunting staring at it from this end of the spectrum.

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gaah! That's horrid, Simon; I'm so sorry.

This is closing the stable door after the unicorn has bolted, but if you don't have external storage, you can achieve the same effect by emailing a copy from your Hotmail account to the same account. I do this all the time for off-site storage.

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Ladies and gentlemen, the next step in my life has begun...

I (and my novel Winter's Discord) have an agent!

It's a long story that I tell on my blog...

Now comes the hard part: another rewrite...

It's all very exciting!!!

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Here goes very basically:

It is a low magic fantasy in a World where young Queen is seen as to weak to rule in a time where war is looming over her realm, and 3 major lords made a pact to take over, and rule together as a triumvirate. Now civil war is weakening the realm, making it even more likely to fall into foreign hands, but there is a no way back now...

Story is about group of mercenary veterans, trying to survive, and get as much as they can in this situation.

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Eh. Almost completely finished plotting (I've been off and on, as you can tell), and the only thing I'm having trouble with is the end, but I've got loads of time to figure it out. I've already divided the tale into about five parts:

Part One: The civil war in Ahldor, which is the result of a wizard fued between Eldrin and Nelac, each playing their massive chess game using human pawns. Nelac wins, and his pawn goes insane, and becomes Emperor.

Part Two: Resistence from Ahldor journeyes into the southern Hundred Cities in an attempt to unite them against Ahldor, before the Mad King and Nelac find the Black Jewel- the Culmoril. Nelac thinks it is a new source of energy, and that he can resist the voices whispering through the cracks in the Doors of Night. This part ends with both sides ready to fight, and Nelac on the brink of finding the Culmoril.

Part Three: All hell breaks loose. The Culmoril is found, and, while Nelac may (currently) resist the voices of the Mhasa'tan, his puppet Emperor cannot. A huge war takes place, with Corim (a main character) going off to find the magic Sword (a blade that channels vast amounts of energy, and is complete with the Mark of Death, making the weilder Death's servant). Another character, Angrim, journeyes into the Lost Lands, searching for the race of Hyrym, who turned their backs on mankind long ago.

Part Four: Corim (I might change his name) becomes the Herald of Death, believing himself unstoppable. Angrim finds the lost magic of the Hyrym, and they join in for one last fight against the Dark. Did I mention the Emperor has killed Nelac, gone batshit crazy, and his slowly summoning the creatures from the Outter Dark, working his way up to setting free the Chaos Lords. Corim gets a convo with the godlike Lords of Order, sounds the Horn of Return (a device wrought in Chaos, which breaches the Lord of Death's kingdom to raise the dead to fight on the mortal plane one last time), and readies the world for the upcoming Time of Shadows and the Final Battle.

Part Five: The Final Battle *laughes like he's insane*. This is gonna be great. Once I figure it all out.

So I'd say I'm pretty well along.

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