I did not post as much as I ideally would have liked in 2009, but it was still more creativity-oriented effort than I've ever engaged in before except perhaps the headiest days of my fanfic-writing days. I did write more non-NaNo original fiction than ever - two connected short stories, some more UFPE, and some RP with an original character of mine I've had in the back of mine for forever now. I've got a much better handle on her now that I've been forced to write her interacting with people and doing things. I may have written other things too, but those are what stand out - again, aside from my two fanfiction pieces, one revived and one started for a friend's birthday.
So overall, I count this blog a success! I'm not going to make a formal resolution on the subject because that's probably the best way to make me procrastinate, but I'm going to try very hard to write more in this blog and more in my Creativity folder in My Documents. My main ideas for this year are: more UFPE and a new story, which is currently called "Alien UN story" in my head.
UFPE: There's so much to do! Perhaps my most important goal is to figure out exactly what tone to take with this burgeoning epic. I have enough genuinely cool things that I want to write it as at least a halfway serious story, but the whole point of the UFPE originally was to indulge in the kind of overwrought prose I do so love writing. That has been a lot of fun! If UFPE were too serious, I might have to spend a few less paragraphs (that is mild exaggeration) describing A's color-changing eyes and Z's long-winded affections. That would be a tragedy.
I want to re-write the first volume. I have to re-write it at least to add a lot more punch to the opening scenes and to improve the pace of the story generally, and I might have to re-think the story extensively because I want a posse for A to travel with, at least for awhile. There's just too much internal monologue, even for a Parody Epic. I should sketch the other characters more fully - I know A and L pretty well, I know Z less than I should, and the others (aside from the Prince I interviewed on this blog) remain foggy figures. In fact, I should sketch more characters period, especially a posse for A. She does have that nymph who appears periodically, but she's too flighty and alien. Hmmm.
I also want to write some short stories set in the Ten Free Cities. I had a wonderful time naming and describing the Ten Free Cities in a notebook, along with the central character in each city that the short stories will revolve around. Each is based extremely loosely on an existing city. I have to say, my excitement for writing fantasy has jumped with my reading of the latest "Wheel of Time" volume, which encompasses both the excellent and the meh in fantasy.
Alien UN: this story was first inspired by my viewing of the first season of "Babylon 5." I want to create something like a United Nations of aliens, except it's completely useless. Okay, more useless than its critics today say. They're purely a figurehead so the powerful races can wreak havoc and the weak races can feel like they aren't total chumps. Except one day, for reasons I've not yet fully comprehended, they suddenly are forced to become relevant. Do I know where this is going? Not really. But I love the idea, and I really want to try my hand at some original science fiction. I also have a character, the RP character I mentioned earlier, who's been in my head for years but unable to find her own story. She would not be one of the diplomats; I think she would be first mate on a spaceship run by a shady bounty hunter. I think there's going to be a huge disaster, natural or otherwise, that wipes out a LOT of the races' leadership, and the Alien UN are so desperate for info/communication/travel/whatever that they basically commandeer this bounty ship. Wacky antics ensue! I don't even know where the focus of the story will be; it could even be several interconnected tales.
So those are my goals! I'm not sure which is my priority, but I should poke myself to post something here once a week or so and to write... well... more often than I do now.
Showing posts with label characters. Show all posts
Showing posts with label characters. Show all posts
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Plotting - NaNo 09
Only 8k words in, and I began despairing of making word count. This isn't because I don't have sufficiently rich fodder for my fictional non-fiction account of a made-up cult but because I have a hard time organizing it and keeping the passages different from one another and interesting to write. I can only say "Cthulhu loves us" in so many ways, so many times.
But then I had a revelation: if I ever am desperate for words, I can re-write various Bible stories according to my modified Cthulhu mythos. The most fun of these will of course be Cthulhu Genesis and Cthulhu Revelation (in which we actually are eaten, but in being eaten, we are transported to a dimension of pure love and union and wisdom), but the more I think about it, the more I think that any Bible story can be re-written as a Cthulhu story. One of the founders claims to be the illegitimate son of African dictator Jean-Bedel Bokassa. I forgot which country he dictated, but the important thing is that he claimed to be the 13th Apostle secretly anointed by the Pope. Admirably crazy. This is a great way for this character to claim that he is a prophet and so has visions of the way various Biblical stories REALLY went.
Jonah and the whale? Jonah and the tentacle monster (who just ate him because he wanted to enlighten him). Dude on the road to Damascus? Dude on a sea voyage where he meets Cthulhu. Tower of Babel? Big tower that gets destroyed by the evil winged creatures because people were working together too much. I think there's definitely 50K worth of material there if I can't think of anything else. But I draw the line at the begats. Oh, and I also have arbitrary rules to make up. Woohoo!
But then I had a revelation: if I ever am desperate for words, I can re-write various Bible stories according to my modified Cthulhu mythos. The most fun of these will of course be Cthulhu Genesis and Cthulhu Revelation (in which we actually are eaten, but in being eaten, we are transported to a dimension of pure love and union and wisdom), but the more I think about it, the more I think that any Bible story can be re-written as a Cthulhu story. One of the founders claims to be the illegitimate son of African dictator Jean-Bedel Bokassa. I forgot which country he dictated, but the important thing is that he claimed to be the 13th Apostle secretly anointed by the Pope. Admirably crazy. This is a great way for this character to claim that he is a prophet and so has visions of the way various Biblical stories REALLY went.
Jonah and the whale? Jonah and the tentacle monster (who just ate him because he wanted to enlighten him). Dude on the road to Damascus? Dude on a sea voyage where he meets Cthulhu. Tower of Babel? Big tower that gets destroyed by the evil winged creatures because people were working together too much. I think there's definitely 50K worth of material there if I can't think of anything else. But I draw the line at the begats. Oh, and I also have arbitrary rules to make up. Woohoo!
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Brainstorming - NaNo 09
My vast and varied body of readers knows of my plan for NaNo 09, so I'll recap very briefly: made-up religion. Actually, that's exactly how it started in my head after I read a wiki article on one of those cult religions. I've been thinking about it ever since that fateful wiki surf, and I've had some more ideas elaborating the story.
For one thing, it will be written like a non-fiction documentation of the religion, with both narrative passages by the author describing the founders and practices, as well as pamphlets and things written by them. I'm not sure who the narrator will be; actually, this is the first time I've even thought to wonder about that. Hmm.
There are four founders, who my brain insists on associating with the Hogwarts founders. I may change the genders of some of them. Slytherin = the sleazy businessman who engineers the profit-making part of the enterprise. Hufflepuff = the clueless, obscure daughter of minor royalty who finances everything. Ravenclaw = the hardline fanatic who believes passionately in the religion. Gryffindor = the classic insane demagogue personality who attracts all the attention. I think he's the one who made it up in the first place. He's so self-deluded that he may actually believe in it.
The basic tenet of the religion is that Cthulhu loves us all. He wants us to be happy and to enjoy our full potential as his equals, which means accessing our collective magic. He sleeps under the sea and rules it through his disciples, but he's happy to give us the land. His enemies are the cloud-dwelling beings (sometimes mistaken for angels) who want complete dominion over the earth, including the land and the sea. The cloud-dwelling beings have been working all throughout human history to divide us and to pit us against each other so we don't learn to use our communal magic. They've also been working to give Cthulhu a bad name, and as you probably know, they succeeded pretty well on both counts.
So there are some points I need to ponder further, perhaps even outline. These are:
The backgrounds of the Founders, especially Hufflepuff's (supposed) lineage
The history of the cloud-dwelling beings
The history of Cthulhu
However, one of the best part of this project is that the details are completely allowed to be contradictory. The factual parts, the biographies, should be fairly consistent (though differing reports would be fun), but I imagine that some contradictions would not only be realistic for a made-up religion but also present a lot of fodder for pamphleteering and speechifying.
I'm very excited about this. It's an ultimate parody epic in its own right!
For one thing, it will be written like a non-fiction documentation of the religion, with both narrative passages by the author describing the founders and practices, as well as pamphlets and things written by them. I'm not sure who the narrator will be; actually, this is the first time I've even thought to wonder about that. Hmm.
There are four founders, who my brain insists on associating with the Hogwarts founders. I may change the genders of some of them. Slytherin = the sleazy businessman who engineers the profit-making part of the enterprise. Hufflepuff = the clueless, obscure daughter of minor royalty who finances everything. Ravenclaw = the hardline fanatic who believes passionately in the religion. Gryffindor = the classic insane demagogue personality who attracts all the attention. I think he's the one who made it up in the first place. He's so self-deluded that he may actually believe in it.
The basic tenet of the religion is that Cthulhu loves us all. He wants us to be happy and to enjoy our full potential as his equals, which means accessing our collective magic. He sleeps under the sea and rules it through his disciples, but he's happy to give us the land. His enemies are the cloud-dwelling beings (sometimes mistaken for angels) who want complete dominion over the earth, including the land and the sea. The cloud-dwelling beings have been working all throughout human history to divide us and to pit us against each other so we don't learn to use our communal magic. They've also been working to give Cthulhu a bad name, and as you probably know, they succeeded pretty well on both counts.
So there are some points I need to ponder further, perhaps even outline. These are:
The backgrounds of the Founders, especially Hufflepuff's (supposed) lineage
The history of the cloud-dwelling beings
The history of Cthulhu
However, one of the best part of this project is that the details are completely allowed to be contradictory. The factual parts, the biographies, should be fairly consistent (though differing reports would be fun), but I imagine that some contradictions would not only be realistic for a made-up religion but also present a lot of fodder for pamphleteering and speechifying.
I'm very excited about this. It's an ultimate parody epic in its own right!
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Short Story - CannRomCom
For the livejournal writing community of which I'm a member, I wrote this short story in the CannRomCom-verse. Sadly, I finished a day after the challenge ended, but I should be able to post it this weekend. I had no idea what to do with the prompts for the longest time, but suddenly, just a couple days ago, I started writing something--and it turned out to be from the POV of CannRomCom MC. Fun!
My prompts were: abide, pitch, "What part of my subconscious do you hail from?" This is the first entry I've put behind a cut, I think. It's longer than what I usually post here
My prompts were: abide, pitch, "What part of my subconscious do you hail from?" This is the first entry I've put behind a cut, I think. It's longer than what I usually post here
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Brainstorming - CannRomCom
CannRomCom is the nickname I just made up for my cannibal romantic comedy. I'm not sure that's entirely accurate; the cannibal in question may not actually be a human being. I haven't decided.
I was despairing of thinking up a good premise for this story and doubting whether it was even worth trying to brainstorm until last night. A vigorous 30-ish block walk got my brain working, as 30 block walks often do, and I decided that the MC should be a flesh-eating monster, along the lines of an X-Files critter I vaguely remember. That was a very helpful revelation for me; I still don't have a lot of the plot or any of the ending down, but I feel like I might actually be able to write this.
So. X-Files flesh-eating monster. I was debating telling the story from a neutral third-person perspective, first person of the MC, or possibly first person her best friend, who gets bits and pieces of the story at a time. I'm thinking I might go with the third option because I have in mind a funny (well, to my reckoning) opener where the narrator is confiding to MC that she's thinking of going to therapy.
It goes something like... "For what it's worth," she told me, "the decade I spent in therapy taught me two things. One, as a flesh-eating monster, I was just as entitled to my life and my happiness as anybody else. Two, everybody else is entitled to their lives as well." MC stopped going to therapy shortly after she had these two revelations because, as you might suspect, her therapist was trying to get at the root of her delusion that she's a flesh-eating monster. Considering that she really is a flesh-eating monster, clearly their relationship was doomed to stagnate.
MC's thing is that her cannibalism (or whatever it is) is only roused during sexual ecstasy. That's fortunate for most of the people in the world, but, since she had her revelation that she can't eat people without their full, informed consent, it's unfortunate for her sex life. Where it goes from there, I haven't quite decided, but I really like the premise. And I think I like the narrative I'm leaning toward, that of her friend. We'll see what comes of this! If I ever get it on paper (after which I'll immediately hate it), I'll even try to muster up the courage to workshop it.
I was despairing of thinking up a good premise for this story and doubting whether it was even worth trying to brainstorm until last night. A vigorous 30-ish block walk got my brain working, as 30 block walks often do, and I decided that the MC should be a flesh-eating monster, along the lines of an X-Files critter I vaguely remember. That was a very helpful revelation for me; I still don't have a lot of the plot or any of the ending down, but I feel like I might actually be able to write this.
So. X-Files flesh-eating monster. I was debating telling the story from a neutral third-person perspective, first person of the MC, or possibly first person her best friend, who gets bits and pieces of the story at a time. I'm thinking I might go with the third option because I have in mind a funny (well, to my reckoning) opener where the narrator is confiding to MC that she's thinking of going to therapy.
It goes something like... "For what it's worth," she told me, "the decade I spent in therapy taught me two things. One, as a flesh-eating monster, I was just as entitled to my life and my happiness as anybody else. Two, everybody else is entitled to their lives as well." MC stopped going to therapy shortly after she had these two revelations because, as you might suspect, her therapist was trying to get at the root of her delusion that she's a flesh-eating monster. Considering that she really is a flesh-eating monster, clearly their relationship was doomed to stagnate.
MC's thing is that her cannibalism (or whatever it is) is only roused during sexual ecstasy. That's fortunate for most of the people in the world, but, since she had her revelation that she can't eat people without their full, informed consent, it's unfortunate for her sex life. Where it goes from there, I haven't quite decided, but I really like the premise. And I think I like the narrative I'm leaning toward, that of her friend. We'll see what comes of this! If I ever get it on paper (after which I'll immediately hate it), I'll even try to muster up the courage to workshop it.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Brainstorming - UFPE
The UFPE has been neglected, as I had hoped it would not be but feared it would. But as I've started reading a fantasy saga (or so it bills itself) I picked up on the sidewalk one day, I've been shamelessly stealing ideas for my own fantasy epic. These have to do with the religion, which I realize needs a name (if only to identify believers from non-believers). I only have a few minutes to post today, so I'll postpone that for later.
Basically, the astrology of UFPE-verse is centered around three divisions of the sky, which adherents determines both their personalities and their destinies. The divisions are: six jewel tones, three metallic tones, and sunrise/sunset. For the humans of the UFPE, the most important (for many, the only one they know about) is the six jewel tones. I'm thinking of re-arranging the others so that they don't line up cleanly with the six, but we'll see.
Anyway, the mages are divided into houses or something based on those tones. My main idea was that once upon a time the mages had different steadfasts for each house, but when the kingdom and free cities combined to drive back the power of the mages, they exiled them to one of the steadfasts. Nobody thought of this, but this has created an imbalance in the... something... which is behind the corruption of the mages, who I already knew were conspiring to drag Ayrisella kicking and screaming into the destiny of their choosing. Even better, I think that her One True Love is a member of this house (Amethyst, I believe) who is struggling to right the balance but has to leave the mages before he accomplishes this task.
And now I must away to class. Elorna's story has been posted to the writers group, and I am trying very hard not to think about it until flaying commences.
Basically, the astrology of UFPE-verse is centered around three divisions of the sky, which adherents determines both their personalities and their destinies. The divisions are: six jewel tones, three metallic tones, and sunrise/sunset. For the humans of the UFPE, the most important (for many, the only one they know about) is the six jewel tones. I'm thinking of re-arranging the others so that they don't line up cleanly with the six, but we'll see.
Anyway, the mages are divided into houses or something based on those tones. My main idea was that once upon a time the mages had different steadfasts for each house, but when the kingdom and free cities combined to drive back the power of the mages, they exiled them to one of the steadfasts. Nobody thought of this, but this has created an imbalance in the... something... which is behind the corruption of the mages, who I already knew were conspiring to drag Ayrisella kicking and screaming into the destiny of their choosing. Even better, I think that her One True Love is a member of this house (Amethyst, I believe) who is struggling to right the balance but has to leave the mages before he accomplishes this task.
And now I must away to class. Elorna's story has been posted to the writers group, and I am trying very hard not to think about it until flaying commences.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Contest - New Story
I think I've settled on a vague idea - but no more than that - for the story I want to write for the legal fiction competition I posted about a day or two ago. I want to set it in the Jemma universe and have it be from the POV of the Grienyte family lawyer (or one of them), whose mundane practice is turned upside down by her murder/disappearance/whatever. I already started writing bits of it in my head, and besides the plot, which remains a mystery to me, my main challenge is to make the protagonist a distinct character from Jemma. Actually, she could sound exactly like Jemma from the perspective of the judges, but I don't want to have One Stock Character I bring out whenever I write something original.
I'm thinking that Unnamed Lawyer is an intellectual property lawyer who specializes in magic business (which has a fancier name, after suggestions of critique group). This sounds awfully close to my own interests, but I promise that it actually works within the Jemma story. I'm thinking that Jemma pulled something along the very cliche lines of, "Send this story to the papers if I'm killed," but left something with her family's magic-specializing lawyer instead.
I already have a short tangent in mind about how the incorporation of magic into the legal codes and things finally spurred Congress or whomever to pass a law officially striking down the law against perpetuities. Okay, that might have to go, but the idea tickled me as I was thinking of it. The RAP is basically evil and complicated and stupid.
Anyway, the poor lawyer is bewildered by the wackiness that ensues, and I think that's where Unnamed Lawyer is going to differ from Jemma. Jemma was always pretty hyped up about what was going on, the point that my critique group mentioned several times that she's on the verge of a heart attack, and Unnamed Lawyer is going to be the opposite - bewildered but really laid back about it. Hey, you don't put in your obligatory three years in BigLaw in magical law only to jump out of your skin every time you get a death threat.
So that's all I have for now. Plot still needs to be figured out, but I have a character I like and a universe I vaguely know, which is pretty good progress.
EDITED to add: Check this out! Etymology of the word "prestigious": 1546, "practicing illusion or magic, deceptive," from L. præstigious "full of tricks," from præstigiæ "juggler's tricks..." Oh, that's going in there.
I'm thinking that Unnamed Lawyer is an intellectual property lawyer who specializes in magic business (which has a fancier name, after suggestions of critique group). This sounds awfully close to my own interests, but I promise that it actually works within the Jemma story. I'm thinking that Jemma pulled something along the very cliche lines of, "Send this story to the papers if I'm killed," but left something with her family's magic-specializing lawyer instead.
I already have a short tangent in mind about how the incorporation of magic into the legal codes and things finally spurred Congress or whomever to pass a law officially striking down the law against perpetuities. Okay, that might have to go, but the idea tickled me as I was thinking of it. The RAP is basically evil and complicated and stupid.
Anyway, the poor lawyer is bewildered by the wackiness that ensues, and I think that's where Unnamed Lawyer is going to differ from Jemma. Jemma was always pretty hyped up about what was going on, the point that my critique group mentioned several times that she's on the verge of a heart attack, and Unnamed Lawyer is going to be the opposite - bewildered but really laid back about it. Hey, you don't put in your obligatory three years in BigLaw in magical law only to jump out of your skin every time you get a death threat.
So that's all I have for now. Plot still needs to be figured out, but I have a character I like and a universe I vaguely know, which is pretty good progress.
EDITED to add: Check this out! Etymology of the word "prestigious": 1546, "practicing illusion or magic, deceptive," from L. præstigious "full of tricks," from præstigiæ "juggler's tricks..." Oh, that's going in there.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Writing Prompt - Paradise Falls
Another day, another neat picture, another writing prompt. This one comes from one of my two readers, an article about the inspiration for Paradise Falls in the movie "Up."
I love the looming hunk of rock in the distance, and the clouds hovering over top of it (or they're just way in the background, hard to say). It looks very much to me like the place where the Mage Towers (working name) of the UFPE would be! So let's see, brainstorming or spate o' writing today?
It occurs to me that MC's love interest is a pretty under-developed character. I wrote a short scene with him once, but I wasn't quite happy with it. I think I fundamentally don't have as good a grasp on him as I have on MC and Bad Guy, so... character interview it is! Questions are copied and pasted from past interviews. I'm going to set this when UFPE v. 1 begins.
1. What do you do for a living?
I am a Quisan of the Amethyst.
2. Are any other people living with you? Who are they?
I have many fellow Quisans and Quisenes who inhabit the Teuirs. We are by and large solitary, and there are often days where I never exchange a word with one of them.
3. Tell me about your parents. How well do/did you get along with them
No Quis knows their parents for long. As soon as our talent is discovered, we are hurried off to the Teuirs. I remember one scene: my mother was returning from a long and fruitless day of fishing to find that my aunts had cleaned the house, cleaned me, and prepared a fragrant supper. I do not know they chose this occasion to act so generously toward us, but I have never smelled anything as aromatic as that food. I sometimes wonder where my father was during this scene, for I also remember hoping that he would not miss the delectable odor that wafted through our home.
4. What was your birth order? How many siblings did you have? Older? Younger?
When I left, I had no siblings, but I suspect that my parents had more children after I was gone.
5. Who else was in your family while you were growing up? How did you get along with them?
My mother's sisters frequently visited us in the evenings and on holidays. I remember them but dimly as a chattering, perfumed bunch who liked to sweep me into their midst for pillowy embraces that left me a little dizzy from the clash of scents they wore.
6. What were three things you liked to do when you were a child?
I liked to attend my mother as she fished, though I never had the patience to stay for long. I liked to be swept up by my aunts into a communal embrace. Once I arrived at the Teuirs, I liked to scramble to the bottom of the Great Table in order to gaze upward at the sight. It never fails to leave me in awe. The climb back up, and the amount of time the entire expedition takes, severely limited the amount of times I could partake in such a delight when I was fairly young. At that age, I could rarely maintain my enthusiasm long enough to reach the bottom, especially knowing how difficult the climb is. Still, I was now and then seized by the urge, and I never regretted it.
7. What were you afraid of when you were a child?
When I was first taken, I was so afraid that my parents would replace me with another child and forget about me that I often wept at the idea.
8. How did you respond to the physiological and psychological changes in your life as a teenager?
The Quis, especially with Quisans, counsel great meditation for the inner and outer turmoil of that period. Lessons with young Quis during that transition are very carefully monitored for dangerous outbursts. When one becomes flushed with tumultuous sensations, heavy exercise is also recommended. During this period, I descended and ascended the Grand Table dozens of times. The final ascent was always sufficient to cure me of whatever strange ardor had seized me.
9. What makes you happy now?
I enjoy my work with the young Quis. It is astonishing to watch them progress from lost children to peers, and it is astonishing to think that I too underwent such a change. The bulk of my time is taken up with teaching specialized courses of the Amethyst tradition, but I have also been appointed Special Counsellor to half a dozen Quisans who require additional guidance.
10. What is your greatest fear?
The appropriate Quis answer would invoke the Wars and the harbinger that ever lingers of another Rupture, but frankness is preferable to a facade of propriety. My first instinct is to say that my greatest fear is that I shall never discover anything more about the death of my dearest friend, but I realize that I have a fear greater than that - that one day I shall no longer care.
11. What would you change about yourself if you could?
The Quis always seek to better themselves, but they must also honor their creation. Another appropriate Quis response here, if that did not satisfy, would be - I would change the stubbornness that prevents me from knowing harmony. But so much I have I seen of the dangers of self-delusion that I shall attempt another honest answer, painful though it might be.
I would change... my dedication to my duties at the Great Table. I dream of haring away to seek the truth of (name)'s death, but even my dreams are shackled by a sense of duty heavier than iron.
12. What is it that you have never told anyone?
I have never told anyone that I dream of leaving here, but in the interests of an original response, I shall say that I have never told anyone the true circumstances surrounding the death of my dear professor, nor of the thought-link that existed between one of the Amethyst and myself. The Great Table and its quiet people harbor many secrets, without doubt to our detriment.
13. What do you want?
I want to find the truth, and I want to see the girl whose face appeared in a secret room.
I do have a better handle on Love Interest now though I couldn't remember any of the names of the characters he mentions. Oh well. I do like my names for the various Mage Tower aspects: "Quis" is the name of either the collective of mages or a hypothetical individual (a bit like "on" in French); "Quisan" is a male mage; "Quisene" is a female mage; "Teuirs" is the Towers built upon the tepui, and the Great Table is the name of the hunk of rock itself. "Quisan" and "quisene" I got from the French words for male and female cousins; I wanted the mages to have familial names for each other, but I wanted something a little different from the typical brother/sister, son/daughter convention. "Teuirs" is a twisting of the French word for tower. It turns out that foreign languages are wonderful for these kinds of made-up words!
So it's getting late, and if I want my eight hours of sleep, I must away. Good night!
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Story idea - revelation!
As I am writing the next scene of the much neglected UFPE vol. 1, I had a revelation. The fellow leading the troupe of performers FMC is about to join is going to be the same guy who inspired MMC all those years ago at the carnival. This is just too delightful. I'll have to write that guy younger than I had originally intended, but that's okay. Or maybe he's one of those fantasy old men who is born at age sixty and never ages from there.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Short Post - character idea
Now that school is winding down for the semester, I'm hoping to get back into this blog more regularly. I'll especially try to keep updates coming about the status of my UFPE "Book of Might Have Beens" scheme; I've never tried to write in the comic script form before, so it's more than a little daunting. But it'll be a long time before I have three months of evenings free again, so I'm determined to make the most of it!
Briefly, I just finished reading a wonderful book, The Remains of the Day, about an English butler reminiscing about his career and things. It made so much of an impression on me that I'd like to include a character like that in the Book of Might Have Beens. He (or she, I suppose) would appear in the MHB where FMC lives in Prince Seaton's palace as part of his harem. Of course, for the purposes of the UFPE, the butler character's stiff-upper-lipness has to be exaggerated for comic effect, and I feel almost guilty about transforming such a well-done, touching character into a parody. Not too guilty, though; it really is a testament to how marvelously the author developed the character in a pretty short book.
So, the butler! This person will appear at first as a very stiff, almost heartless sort of person, but s/he will probably end up perfoming some very valuable service for FMC along the way, rather like the innkeeper (whose name I've forgotten) in UFPE Volume I. As I think about it, this could be another theme of the UFPE - love is already an important theme, so why not expand it to include charity toward our fellow human beings? It's the kind of thing the Secret Society would never count on, certainly not something as toweringly monumental as Destiny.
This has been a more productive post than I had imagined when I started. I have a new character and a new theme!
Briefly, I just finished reading a wonderful book, The Remains of the Day, about an English butler reminiscing about his career and things. It made so much of an impression on me that I'd like to include a character like that in the Book of Might Have Beens. He (or she, I suppose) would appear in the MHB where FMC lives in Prince Seaton's palace as part of his harem. Of course, for the purposes of the UFPE, the butler character's stiff-upper-lipness has to be exaggerated for comic effect, and I feel almost guilty about transforming such a well-done, touching character into a parody. Not too guilty, though; it really is a testament to how marvelously the author developed the character in a pretty short book.
So, the butler! This person will appear at first as a very stiff, almost heartless sort of person, but s/he will probably end up perfoming some very valuable service for FMC along the way, rather like the innkeeper (whose name I've forgotten) in UFPE Volume I. As I think about it, this could be another theme of the UFPE - love is already an important theme, so why not expand it to include charity toward our fellow human beings? It's the kind of thing the Secret Society would never count on, certainly not something as toweringly monumental as Destiny.
This has been a more productive post than I had imagined when I started. I have a new character and a new theme!
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Prompt - sleep deprivation
Another day, another topic from another reader. That's a total of two readers, which is more than I had envisioned when starting this out.
The prompt is "sleep deprivation." My mind jumps immediately to Dastardly Human Experimentation because of my sci-fi bent. Does this return us to Illunova of post past? It feels like destiny to me.
So, Illunova continued. Was she subject to sleep deprivation as a malleable youth? How did they know, if they did at all, how much was safe in order to maintain her physical and mental integrity (as much as the latter IS maintained). Ah, this brings me back to her nemesis, who remains nameless for now. I imagine that a lot of academic papers and horrific human experimentation occurred before they (the notorious they) decided to test out their theories on their own subjects. They had it pretty good by then, considering that they had never tried to create a soldier like this before - and they fortunately (for them) avoided the Dark Angel trap of creating a whole generation of subjects who can band together and overthrow their masters.
This suggests that this is a very long-term project; a mature researcher can only expect to witness a couple of generations, and as noted, they did not have very many of these subjects. I imagine they told themselves they were being safe, but it was probably money more than anything that prevented them from beginning with a bigger test batch. Isn't it always the key? They belong to a department that's been relegated to the back burner for longer than any of the present personnel have been alive, but hope springs eternal when weapons are needed.
And this begs the question, why are weapons needed? Is the department out of favor because they're looking to create human weapons instead of the latest model bomb? Why should society at large favor bombs (or whatever it is) while this group of stalwarts prefer the human touch for destruction? What keeps them going in their long-term project? Do they have supporters, perhaps highers-up in Defense who secretly funnel funds to them? Do they even know of their supporters? Could there perhaps be a conspiracy? What speculative fiction novel is complete without a conspiracy?
I think Nova needs a plot walk. It's too late and too cold right now, but sometime during the next few days I should be able to spare an hour or two for just such a scheme. She's such an interesting character to me - extremely capable physically, a keen strategist if not quite a genius, and completely oblivious to the ebbs and flows of the social human animal. Having just read Watchmen in preparation for the movie, it occurs to me that she's quite a comic book sort of character. Interesting.
The prompt is "sleep deprivation." My mind jumps immediately to Dastardly Human Experimentation because of my sci-fi bent. Does this return us to Illunova of post past? It feels like destiny to me.
So, Illunova continued. Was she subject to sleep deprivation as a malleable youth? How did they know, if they did at all, how much was safe in order to maintain her physical and mental integrity (as much as the latter IS maintained). Ah, this brings me back to her nemesis, who remains nameless for now. I imagine that a lot of academic papers and horrific human experimentation occurred before they (the notorious they) decided to test out their theories on their own subjects. They had it pretty good by then, considering that they had never tried to create a soldier like this before - and they fortunately (for them) avoided the Dark Angel trap of creating a whole generation of subjects who can band together and overthrow their masters.
This suggests that this is a very long-term project; a mature researcher can only expect to witness a couple of generations, and as noted, they did not have very many of these subjects. I imagine they told themselves they were being safe, but it was probably money more than anything that prevented them from beginning with a bigger test batch. Isn't it always the key? They belong to a department that's been relegated to the back burner for longer than any of the present personnel have been alive, but hope springs eternal when weapons are needed.
And this begs the question, why are weapons needed? Is the department out of favor because they're looking to create human weapons instead of the latest model bomb? Why should society at large favor bombs (or whatever it is) while this group of stalwarts prefer the human touch for destruction? What keeps them going in their long-term project? Do they have supporters, perhaps highers-up in Defense who secretly funnel funds to them? Do they even know of their supporters? Could there perhaps be a conspiracy? What speculative fiction novel is complete without a conspiracy?
I think Nova needs a plot walk. It's too late and too cold right now, but sometime during the next few days I should be able to spare an hour or two for just such a scheme. She's such an interesting character to me - extremely capable physically, a keen strategist if not quite a genius, and completely oblivious to the ebbs and flows of the social human animal. Having just read Watchmen in preparation for the movie, it occurs to me that she's quite a comic book sort of character. Interesting.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Story Building - character
Alas, I have absolutely no excuse for my dearth of posting lately. I have spent the free periods of my evening catching up with my reader and only remembering this blog, if at all, when I've been headed off to bed. And it's a shame, too, because I've known for several days what I want to post about next. Or I should say, whom - Illunova, whose surname I've forgotten, if I ever gave her one.
Illunova is a character without a setting. I did try to create a story around her once, one I had planned to write for NaNo, but the story never quite hung together and held my attention the way a NaNo story must. For one thing, it was sci-fi, and I always want to get too far into the scientific and technical details of a story, even when they're completely unnecessary. As a wise author once said, we don't need to know the functioning and history of the combustion engine when a character takes a ride in a car. And I was able to ignore the science for the recent short story I wrote enough to get the story itself out; that choice was not roundly approved, but it's all a lot of hand-waving anyway.
So Illunova. She's a favorite character of mine, and once upon a time I wrote a character interview with her. But it wasn't in the format of the interviews I've been posting here; I just showed up as myself in a dream of hers and started asking questions. She is by far the most intimidating character I have; if it were in any possible, I'm sure she would leap off the page and demand to know what I was planning to do with her. If she didn't like the answer, she would take drastic measures.
Illunova is a very defective human being (if fully human she is), almost completely lacking in human empathy. Part of the reason I had such a difficult time with her was that I was not sure what story I wanted to tell around her; I don't want to write a story where she finally learns to open up and make friends and fall in love. It would not be true to her. Instead, I want to write something where the story is fundamentally about her relationship with her own self and her own damaged psyche.
Illunova was raised to be a soldier - not the stereotypical "perfect soldier" because she could not carry out the subtler functions of war and international strife, but a weapon on the battlefield. She is an exceedingly efficient person, and she has very little concept of the dignity or value of human life. She is wholly loyal to her country even as she's aware of all they have done to make her life what it is. She is not an extremely intelligent person, but she's adept at finding patterns in apparent chaos and thinking quickly. She has very little ability to read people, and she's aware of this lack. This obviously cuts against her ability to see patterns in social situations - ah, now here's an idea.
She was created as part of an experiment, the details of which remain unclear to me. But I'm realizing that the experiment is continuing, and this time the big bad masters are trying to create someone who is as clever and loyal and skilled a fighter as Illunova, while also being able to read people. Illunova could never be a spy or diplomat, and there's a good possibility that she stands to be phased out. And, ah! There's another soldier created in the same experiment as she, who's turned out even worse, and he is very angry at this development. The They in charger keep him around for now because he is a true genius, but in age of the kind of tech they have, genius is over-rated. They would rather have people they can send into the field.
And so it is not the people looking to replace Nova (as I affectionately call her) who become her enemy in this still-unclear story of hers; it's this fellow who wants to wreak deranged vengeance on the powers that be. Is this perhaps her last mission? Does she think it will be? How does she come to terms with her inevitable termination? I fear this is a story too big for me to write, but better to try than not.
Illunova is a character without a setting. I did try to create a story around her once, one I had planned to write for NaNo, but the story never quite hung together and held my attention the way a NaNo story must. For one thing, it was sci-fi, and I always want to get too far into the scientific and technical details of a story, even when they're completely unnecessary. As a wise author once said, we don't need to know the functioning and history of the combustion engine when a character takes a ride in a car. And I was able to ignore the science for the recent short story I wrote enough to get the story itself out; that choice was not roundly approved, but it's all a lot of hand-waving anyway.
So Illunova. She's a favorite character of mine, and once upon a time I wrote a character interview with her. But it wasn't in the format of the interviews I've been posting here; I just showed up as myself in a dream of hers and started asking questions. She is by far the most intimidating character I have; if it were in any possible, I'm sure she would leap off the page and demand to know what I was planning to do with her. If she didn't like the answer, she would take drastic measures.
Illunova is a very defective human being (if fully human she is), almost completely lacking in human empathy. Part of the reason I had such a difficult time with her was that I was not sure what story I wanted to tell around her; I don't want to write a story where she finally learns to open up and make friends and fall in love. It would not be true to her. Instead, I want to write something where the story is fundamentally about her relationship with her own self and her own damaged psyche.
Illunova was raised to be a soldier - not the stereotypical "perfect soldier" because she could not carry out the subtler functions of war and international strife, but a weapon on the battlefield. She is an exceedingly efficient person, and she has very little concept of the dignity or value of human life. She is wholly loyal to her country even as she's aware of all they have done to make her life what it is. She is not an extremely intelligent person, but she's adept at finding patterns in apparent chaos and thinking quickly. She has very little ability to read people, and she's aware of this lack. This obviously cuts against her ability to see patterns in social situations - ah, now here's an idea.
She was created as part of an experiment, the details of which remain unclear to me. But I'm realizing that the experiment is continuing, and this time the big bad masters are trying to create someone who is as clever and loyal and skilled a fighter as Illunova, while also being able to read people. Illunova could never be a spy or diplomat, and there's a good possibility that she stands to be phased out. And, ah! There's another soldier created in the same experiment as she, who's turned out even worse, and he is very angry at this development. The They in charger keep him around for now because he is a true genius, but in age of the kind of tech they have, genius is over-rated. They would rather have people they can send into the field.
And so it is not the people looking to replace Nova (as I affectionately call her) who become her enemy in this still-unclear story of hers; it's this fellow who wants to wreak deranged vengeance on the powers that be. Is this perhaps her last mission? Does she think it will be? How does she come to terms with her inevitable termination? I fear this is a story too big for me to write, but better to try than not.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Story Building - character interview
I'm coming down to the final couple days before posting the story I want to workshop. I'm still torn between a short story I already have written, which I must extensively revise and one of the stories I mentioned here. So in order to flesh out the latter story a bit more, it's time for another character interview! Same questions as last time.
The character is Jemma Grienyte, of the to-be-named short story where science meets magic and all goes horribly wrong.
1. What do you do for a living?
I'm a PhD student working on my thesis in magiphysic cosmology, and I get by on the pittance paid to me by the university laboratory for working as a petty rune smith. It's a little embarrassing.
2. Are any other people living with you? Who are they?
I have a roommate, another graduate student. She and I hardly see each other, but she seems nice. We've gone out for drinks a couple times, and we usually order take-out a couple times a month while we unwind for just enough time to watch a movie. She's a grad student in linguistics, so her field is as unintelligible to me as mine is to hers.
3. Tell me about your parents. How well do/did you get along with them
I get along fine with my parents, but I think they're eternally bewildered by my choice of occupation. They are both renowned grand rune smiths, and while they're proud of me for the degree I'm aiming for, they don't really know what to say to me. I guess we've grown apart.
4. What was your birth order? How many siblings did you have? Older? Younger?
I have younger twin sisters who are both in the family business. Every Grienyte is in the family business.
5. Who else was in your family while you were growing up? How did you get along with them?
Just my parents and my sisters. My extended family is almost exclusively made up of more rune smiths, though it becomes a bit awkward when certain households are much farther up in the professional hierarchy. It was a world that always surrounded me growing up, and I never wanted to stay in it.
6. What were three things you liked to do when you were a child?
I liked to get out of the house above anything, especially to go play by myself. I liked asking "why" questions to the point of irritating the adults around me. When I was a little bit older, I liked horrifying my parents by smoking.
7. What were you afraid of when you were a child?
I was afraid of ending up in the same world as my parents, where everything revolves around runes and magic and professional rivalries that get really dangerous. But on a more normal note, I was really afraid of my closet at night.
8. How did you respond to the physiological and psychological changes in your life as a teenager?
I did stupid teenage things - I smoked, I went to parties with friends where we smoked illegal substances, I drank with the same friends, I drove too fast. Looking back, I'm not sure if I did these things to horrify my parents, to spur them to kick me out of the house, or just to get their attention. It might have been all of them.
9. What makes you happy now?
I love getting first crack at the test results.
10. What is your greatest fear?
That the whole of my contribution to magiphysic cosmology will be my petty rune work.
11. What would you change about yourself if you could?
If I excised my affinity with runes, I suppose I wouldn't have this job. I guess I would stop worrying about the future and my place in it so much and enjoy the opportunities I have.
12. What is it that you have never told anyone?
I only took magiphysics so I could retain some link with my parents and the rest of my family. I was a little bit vexed when it turned out to be so interesting.
13. What do you want?
To finish my thesis! To understand the test results! To explain the interaction between magic and science with one grand sweeping theory. And I want my parents to ask about what I'm doing.
Hmm, this was not quite as revelatory as my prior interview was, though I suspect that's because I knew far more about Jemma going into this than I knew about Seaton prior to that interview. Still, I'm excited for this story. If I could bang out the whole thing in two days, I would post it a biiiit later than I should, but it would be thrilling to have a whole new story.
The character is Jemma Grienyte, of the to-be-named short story where science meets magic and all goes horribly wrong.
1. What do you do for a living?
I'm a PhD student working on my thesis in magiphysic cosmology, and I get by on the pittance paid to me by the university laboratory for working as a petty rune smith. It's a little embarrassing.
2. Are any other people living with you? Who are they?
I have a roommate, another graduate student. She and I hardly see each other, but she seems nice. We've gone out for drinks a couple times, and we usually order take-out a couple times a month while we unwind for just enough time to watch a movie. She's a grad student in linguistics, so her field is as unintelligible to me as mine is to hers.
3. Tell me about your parents. How well do/did you get along with them
I get along fine with my parents, but I think they're eternally bewildered by my choice of occupation. They are both renowned grand rune smiths, and while they're proud of me for the degree I'm aiming for, they don't really know what to say to me. I guess we've grown apart.
4. What was your birth order? How many siblings did you have? Older? Younger?
I have younger twin sisters who are both in the family business. Every Grienyte is in the family business.
5. Who else was in your family while you were growing up? How did you get along with them?
Just my parents and my sisters. My extended family is almost exclusively made up of more rune smiths, though it becomes a bit awkward when certain households are much farther up in the professional hierarchy. It was a world that always surrounded me growing up, and I never wanted to stay in it.
6. What were three things you liked to do when you were a child?
I liked to get out of the house above anything, especially to go play by myself. I liked asking "why" questions to the point of irritating the adults around me. When I was a little bit older, I liked horrifying my parents by smoking.
7. What were you afraid of when you were a child?
I was afraid of ending up in the same world as my parents, where everything revolves around runes and magic and professional rivalries that get really dangerous. But on a more normal note, I was really afraid of my closet at night.
8. How did you respond to the physiological and psychological changes in your life as a teenager?
I did stupid teenage things - I smoked, I went to parties with friends where we smoked illegal substances, I drank with the same friends, I drove too fast. Looking back, I'm not sure if I did these things to horrify my parents, to spur them to kick me out of the house, or just to get their attention. It might have been all of them.
9. What makes you happy now?
I love getting first crack at the test results.
10. What is your greatest fear?
That the whole of my contribution to magiphysic cosmology will be my petty rune work.
11. What would you change about yourself if you could?
If I excised my affinity with runes, I suppose I wouldn't have this job. I guess I would stop worrying about the future and my place in it so much and enjoy the opportunities I have.
12. What is it that you have never told anyone?
I only took magiphysics so I could retain some link with my parents and the rest of my family. I was a little bit vexed when it turned out to be so interesting.
13. What do you want?
To finish my thesis! To understand the test results! To explain the interaction between magic and science with one grand sweeping theory. And I want my parents to ask about what I'm doing.
Hmm, this was not quite as revelatory as my prior interview was, though I suspect that's because I knew far more about Jemma going into this than I knew about Seaton prior to that interview. Still, I'm excited for this story. If I could bang out the whole thing in two days, I would post it a biiiit later than I should, but it would be thrilling to have a whole new story.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Short Story - Filling in the Blanks
I have two short stories on my mind tonight: the science/magic one, and one I have agreed to workshop for the writers group I belong to. I have a tendency to focus on the style of my writing and less on the plot, but the latter story was looked over by an actual professional editor and drastic changes were made at his request. He liked the finished product, but he couldn't use it after all because it did not fit with the tone of the rest of the stories in the anthology. I'll be very interested what the group has to say about it. I suppose I should submit the final version of it, even though I and a friend of mine prefer the first version.
Anyway, that shall be re-visited, but that would not make for an interesting entry, and I did mean to write something interesting tonight. Tonight I shall be fleshing out the science/magic story, and I was thinking about this as I was walking home from a bookstore. Sometimes on these walks I focus on the big picture, but sometimes I get stuck on little details. Tonight, it was little details.
The MC, whom I've tentatively named Jemma Grienyte, is working on her PhD magiphysic cosmology, known among the grad set as "astral physics." The working title of her thesis is "Angels on the Head of a String: the New Approach of Magiphysic Cosmology to the Age, Size and Composition of the Universe." While she's attempting to write this very ambitious work, she's working as an intern at something like the Large Hadron Collider of this Earth AU. It's rather more boring than the LHC, though - no chance of blowing up the planet. They're doing something scientific with lasers and such, except they're shooting the lasers through the center of a very simple but fairly powerful magical artifact.
Jemma wanted to work there so she could get the measurements as soon as they came out, but LHC wanted her because she has done a little bit of work in rune-smithing. Runes are what magical artifacts generally are called; no one actually draws runes on things anymore. They were found to be far too unstable, compared to actually cutting the artifacts and using more natural designs. That is, if you want to call for strength, for example, it's much more reliable to draw a simple tree than to draw the rune for it and hope your source is good.
Anyway, that's not important. See, all these details ensnare me, and I wanted to have something substantive in this post! Oh well, maybe I'll change gears and go with the detail flow tonight. I like to think that this rune v. picture (the technical term is hieroglyphics) debate raged on for centuries until scientists, doing something very similar to what LHC is doing now, proved that hieroglyphics yielded stabler runes than... well, runes.
So everyday, Jemma actually gets to go up to the LHC and touch (!!) the simple silver cube with the hole cut through the center to make sure the spell is holding steady. It's a very simple spell, just the charm all graduate students have somewhere in their rooms to encourage the flow of knowledge and creativity. The point isn't to measure the effects of a particular spell; it's to see how the lasers act differently, if they do at all, when run through this low-level but steady magical field. If the spell feels like it's waning - it wears out quickly because of the nature of the experiment - she takes her trusty little stylus and writes the spell on the cube again. The hiero is sort of a head and sort of a sun.
Her trusty stylus is just a piece of sharpened wood, about the size of a big novelty pen, with the sharpened end all charred. She renews it by wrapping the tip in the special herb blend, touching the whole thing to a special oil mix, and burning it just for a minute or so. She gets teased on occasion for carrying around a magic wand, and that is probably why her subconscious seized on the charred stick as her rune-smithing tool of choice.
Okay, this entry is getting to be quite long enough. Maybe I'll interview Jemma Grienyte for my next one!
Anyway, that shall be re-visited, but that would not make for an interesting entry, and I did mean to write something interesting tonight. Tonight I shall be fleshing out the science/magic story, and I was thinking about this as I was walking home from a bookstore. Sometimes on these walks I focus on the big picture, but sometimes I get stuck on little details. Tonight, it was little details.
The MC, whom I've tentatively named Jemma Grienyte, is working on her PhD magiphysic cosmology, known among the grad set as "astral physics." The working title of her thesis is "Angels on the Head of a String: the New Approach of Magiphysic Cosmology to the Age, Size and Composition of the Universe." While she's attempting to write this very ambitious work, she's working as an intern at something like the Large Hadron Collider of this Earth AU. It's rather more boring than the LHC, though - no chance of blowing up the planet. They're doing something scientific with lasers and such, except they're shooting the lasers through the center of a very simple but fairly powerful magical artifact.
Jemma wanted to work there so she could get the measurements as soon as they came out, but LHC wanted her because she has done a little bit of work in rune-smithing. Runes are what magical artifacts generally are called; no one actually draws runes on things anymore. They were found to be far too unstable, compared to actually cutting the artifacts and using more natural designs. That is, if you want to call for strength, for example, it's much more reliable to draw a simple tree than to draw the rune for it and hope your source is good.
Anyway, that's not important. See, all these details ensnare me, and I wanted to have something substantive in this post! Oh well, maybe I'll change gears and go with the detail flow tonight. I like to think that this rune v. picture (the technical term is hieroglyphics) debate raged on for centuries until scientists, doing something very similar to what LHC is doing now, proved that hieroglyphics yielded stabler runes than... well, runes.
So everyday, Jemma actually gets to go up to the LHC and touch (!!) the simple silver cube with the hole cut through the center to make sure the spell is holding steady. It's a very simple spell, just the charm all graduate students have somewhere in their rooms to encourage the flow of knowledge and creativity. The point isn't to measure the effects of a particular spell; it's to see how the lasers act differently, if they do at all, when run through this low-level but steady magical field. If the spell feels like it's waning - it wears out quickly because of the nature of the experiment - she takes her trusty little stylus and writes the spell on the cube again. The hiero is sort of a head and sort of a sun.
Her trusty stylus is just a piece of sharpened wood, about the size of a big novelty pen, with the sharpened end all charred. She renews it by wrapping the tip in the special herb blend, touching the whole thing to a special oil mix, and burning it just for a minute or so. She gets teased on occasion for carrying around a magic wand, and that is probably why her subconscious seized on the charred stick as her rune-smithing tool of choice.
Okay, this entry is getting to be quite long enough. Maybe I'll interview Jemma Grienyte for my next one!
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Character Building - Plot Walk
Tonight's is a short post, partly because I must retire soon and partly because I got my daily dose of creativity on a walk I from which I just returned. I have very good luck with walks and inspiration - the best plot twists and world building ideas I ever have come from walks and conversations. Getting my body moving gets my brain moving in new ways, I think.
The story was again the Ultimate Fantasy Parody Epic, and the MC again was Bad Guy L. I thought up the rough outline of his flight from home (which ties into the larger story) and his first experience with human beings. It's almost completely a positive experience too except for one tiny sour note, and that little bit of rejection is enough to eventually convince him to wage war on all of humanity - not just the guilty parties who may have destroyed his kin.
He also learns the human tongue along the way, and yes, all the people in this land do speak the same language. For some reason, in my head he sounds a little bit like the Japanese international students in some of my classes, and for equally unfathomable reasons, the people he meets up with have southern accents. It's all inexplicable but made for very amusing exchanges in my head.
And now - to bed. I plan on a more substantive post tomorrow.
The story was again the Ultimate Fantasy Parody Epic, and the MC again was Bad Guy L. I thought up the rough outline of his flight from home (which ties into the larger story) and his first experience with human beings. It's almost completely a positive experience too except for one tiny sour note, and that little bit of rejection is enough to eventually convince him to wage war on all of humanity - not just the guilty parties who may have destroyed his kin.
He also learns the human tongue along the way, and yes, all the people in this land do speak the same language. For some reason, in my head he sounds a little bit like the Japanese international students in some of my classes, and for equally unfathomable reasons, the people he meets up with have southern accents. It's all inexplicable but made for very amusing exchanges in my head.
And now - to bed. I plan on a more substantive post tomorrow.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Character Building - Short Story
Partly as a result of having started a book of short stories I received for Christmas, partly as a result of feeling guilty for not having anything to show to my writers group, and partly to dive back into this universe, I have decided that I want to write a short story in the UFPE world.
The MC is going to be the Bad Guy of the story, who is one of my favorite characters. During Volume II, he explains to Our Heroine that when he was younger, he left Bad Guy Nation and spent some time traveling. It strikes me that this is probably a formative period of his life and his development as a villain; as someone who is doomed by his bloodline to never be quite good enough for Bad Guy Nation (unless his plot comes to fruition), I have a hard time understanding why he turned around and chose to embrace them as fiercely as he does. Why not settle down with a nice girl who has no idea who he is, in a nice village (or city!) where he can have nice neighbors who don't care what sort of scandals a great-great-great ancestor of his got caught up in so long ago?
For that matter, how did Bad Guy Nation come to listen to him? Now that he's solidified his reputation as a leader - just not quite as powerful as he'd like - who is poised to bring Bad Guy Nation into total world domination, his compatriots are willing to overlook his bad blood, as long he doesn't try to claim supreme leadership. But why would anyone listen to him in the first place? As I think about it, I am becoming convinced that he pulled a Talented Mr. Ripley or similarly devious scheme, to arise to his preeminent position.
Like any despot, though, L did not begin life twirling a mustache. His family life was fairly normal, but their blood taint cut them off from society at large. He was not one of those children who tore the wings off flies; he just spent a lot of time alone and understood from a very young age why his family was politely shunned. He never heard any suggestion that this was unjust. I like the idea that, at some point, he or his parents expressed a hope that one day, their descendants might be accepted back into society.
In something of an ironic twist, it might be his sojourn into the outside world that convinces him that this is possible; ironic because his quest later on is to Destroy All Humans or something of the sort. When he leaves his home, he may believe he is leaving for good, but he returns with a renewed vigor. Is it a sense of self-confidence he never had? A learned skill for oration and the power of hawkish rhetoric? Does he learn something about his people that he can use to sway them? I think all of the above - and as he's conducting his research into the history of Bad Guy Nation, the Secret Society who plays a major role in this story learns about him and his special snowflake astrology that makes him their perfect tool.
So - a story of a young man who leaves his home with the idea of never returning there again, of starting life anew as an anonymous farmer in a faraway land. Something convinces him to return home and lead his people to the greatest glory they have ever known. I suppose that could almost be a novel in itself. I have an image of my head of this story beginning at a carnival in one of the great cities. L is almost swept up in the mad whirling chaos of the place when he comes across a charlatan, doing something to swindle people out of their money. It immediately jolts him out of the magic of the event, and he thinks sniffily that his people may be extraordinarily bigoted in their way but they would never cheat one another.
It's a good beginning. I'm not sure where to take it from there, though I have an idea or two. Someone is going to tell him that at events like that, everyone knows something like that will happen. It's human nature.
Yes, that's the key there.
"They come to these carnivals, knowing that they'll be cheated?"
Laughter. "Most people like to think that they are too smart to be swindled, but yes. It's the price we pay for our pleasures."
He doesn't understand. "It's exciting, but surely someone must see what that man really is. Why allow him to continue to ply his trade?"
"Everyone knows what he is. Everyone knows what Carnival is - watered-down drink, meat pies spiced heavily to cover the taste of spoilage, and woman rouged to look ten years younger. We know them, but really, they know us better than we know ourselves. They understand human nature intuitively. They know just how far they can go. When they call to us, we are helpless." More laughter. "If I could do it, boy, I can't say I wouldn't join them."
From this, L has the idea to learn about the nature of his own people, and how he can call to them.
Excellent! Another productive entry!
The MC is going to be the Bad Guy of the story, who is one of my favorite characters. During Volume II, he explains to Our Heroine that when he was younger, he left Bad Guy Nation and spent some time traveling. It strikes me that this is probably a formative period of his life and his development as a villain; as someone who is doomed by his bloodline to never be quite good enough for Bad Guy Nation (unless his plot comes to fruition), I have a hard time understanding why he turned around and chose to embrace them as fiercely as he does. Why not settle down with a nice girl who has no idea who he is, in a nice village (or city!) where he can have nice neighbors who don't care what sort of scandals a great-great-great ancestor of his got caught up in so long ago?
For that matter, how did Bad Guy Nation come to listen to him? Now that he's solidified his reputation as a leader - just not quite as powerful as he'd like - who is poised to bring Bad Guy Nation into total world domination, his compatriots are willing to overlook his bad blood, as long he doesn't try to claim supreme leadership. But why would anyone listen to him in the first place? As I think about it, I am becoming convinced that he pulled a Talented Mr. Ripley or similarly devious scheme, to arise to his preeminent position.
Like any despot, though, L did not begin life twirling a mustache. His family life was fairly normal, but their blood taint cut them off from society at large. He was not one of those children who tore the wings off flies; he just spent a lot of time alone and understood from a very young age why his family was politely shunned. He never heard any suggestion that this was unjust. I like the idea that, at some point, he or his parents expressed a hope that one day, their descendants might be accepted back into society.
In something of an ironic twist, it might be his sojourn into the outside world that convinces him that this is possible; ironic because his quest later on is to Destroy All Humans or something of the sort. When he leaves his home, he may believe he is leaving for good, but he returns with a renewed vigor. Is it a sense of self-confidence he never had? A learned skill for oration and the power of hawkish rhetoric? Does he learn something about his people that he can use to sway them? I think all of the above - and as he's conducting his research into the history of Bad Guy Nation, the Secret Society who plays a major role in this story learns about him and his special snowflake astrology that makes him their perfect tool.
So - a story of a young man who leaves his home with the idea of never returning there again, of starting life anew as an anonymous farmer in a faraway land. Something convinces him to return home and lead his people to the greatest glory they have ever known. I suppose that could almost be a novel in itself. I have an image of my head of this story beginning at a carnival in one of the great cities. L is almost swept up in the mad whirling chaos of the place when he comes across a charlatan, doing something to swindle people out of their money. It immediately jolts him out of the magic of the event, and he thinks sniffily that his people may be extraordinarily bigoted in their way but they would never cheat one another.
It's a good beginning. I'm not sure where to take it from there, though I have an idea or two. Someone is going to tell him that at events like that, everyone knows something like that will happen. It's human nature.
Yes, that's the key there.
"They come to these carnivals, knowing that they'll be cheated?"
Laughter. "Most people like to think that they are too smart to be swindled, but yes. It's the price we pay for our pleasures."
He doesn't understand. "It's exciting, but surely someone must see what that man really is. Why allow him to continue to ply his trade?"
"Everyone knows what he is. Everyone knows what Carnival is - watered-down drink, meat pies spiced heavily to cover the taste of spoilage, and woman rouged to look ten years younger. We know them, but really, they know us better than we know ourselves. They understand human nature intuitively. They know just how far they can go. When they call to us, we are helpless." More laughter. "If I could do it, boy, I can't say I wouldn't join them."
From this, L has the idea to learn about the nature of his own people, and how he can call to them.
Excellent! Another productive entry!
Friday, January 16, 2009
Story Building - Recurring Symbols
A friend and I were watching a very silly fantasy movie tonight (because it starred one of our favorite actors), and it had just about every element I'm looking to include in the Ultimate Fantasy Parody epic. The feature it worked to an especially brutal death was the recurring symbol - in this case, a vaguely Celtic swirl and a cross.
UPFE already includes a Chosen One, an ancient order of allies (though this remains very fuzzy and may be the subject of another entry), prophecies, a Bad Guy who at first seems like a Good Guy, and historical roots of the climactic conflict (which is related to the allies and remains similarly fuzzy). And what of the Significant Recurring Symbols? There is at least one thing that pops up every now and then, but it is mostly absent from the earlier parts of the Epic.
It's a rainbow, and it has several important places in the plot: it's the way the magic-wielders are ordered; it's the basis of the astrology; and our gorgeous heroine gets a name that means 'rainbow' because she shows under rainbows, which she's never seen, having grown up in a desert. But it needs to occur more often. Epics don't just drop subtle hints and hope the clever reader picks up on it; these things must be hammered in. Dead horses must be beaten. Etc.
I'm thinking of giving MC a little token from her parents (who died when she was very young, of course) with something of a rainbow on it - and in everything she sews or embroiders, a domestic activity she despises - she works that design in somewhere, no matter how tiny. Because I'm cruel, I might have her lose it at some point, and her first priority when she realizes this will be to re-create the symbol. This may even have to do with how she is recognized by the minions of the Bad Guy - and possibly by the Good Guys, when the time comes.
When she ventures out into the real world, she might get to see some rainbow-like bursts of color, too - in wildflowers, perhaps even in a spray of water. At one point, she is walking to and from a waterfall, and when light refracts through water, it makes a prism. In the wares of merchants selling threads. Excellent, all excellent.
Early on, she has something of an emotional connection with roses. This is shamelessly borrowed from one of my favorite authors; I may change the plant, but I'd like to do something with that. Or perhaps a kind of tree. Later, when we meet the Nation of Bad Guys, one of the reasons she finds them creepy is that they aren't very respectful of their trees. One of the first people she meets in the great outside world gives her a green dress, and it would be very natural (ha) for there to be that exact tree embroidered on it. She gets some of her first food, after she leaves her abusive childhood home, from a tree. When she meets the Good Guy, she's up in an alpine sort of setting, feeling all out of place and out of sorts. What would make her feel better than to see one of her favorite trees in that unexpected place?
Now that I've thought this out a little, I'm starting to see a pattern I could make from this. I fairly recently decided that the main tension in the Epic, as it is in so many epics, is between Destiny and Free Will. It'll be a philosophical point, but it was also play out in some fairly literal ways.The rainbows represent her crazy fantastical destiny, so whenever I decide to inform or remind the readers of MC's Incredible Sparkly Destiny, I'll shove the rainbows into the forefront. Whenever I want to show MC resisting the siren call of fate or generally engaging in some independent thought - damn the consequences! - it'll be trees, trees, trees.
The more I ponder this, the more I like it. Rainbows are ethereal, beautiful creations of light and dancing drops of water, suspended in the sky and eternally out of grasp. They're rare, airy visions with religious overtones - perfect to stand in for destiny! Trees, on the other hand, have a much more lively kind of beauty, and in addition to decorating the landscape, they also serve some pragmatic functions, and they can weather a lot of abuse. They're literally down to earth (groan), fitting for Free Will and Independence. I still have to consider whether I want to do a particular tree or trees in general; both approaches have their own charms.
I'm happy to report that this was another productive post. Until next time, creative blog.
UPFE already includes a Chosen One, an ancient order of allies (though this remains very fuzzy and may be the subject of another entry), prophecies, a Bad Guy who at first seems like a Good Guy, and historical roots of the climactic conflict (which is related to the allies and remains similarly fuzzy). And what of the Significant Recurring Symbols? There is at least one thing that pops up every now and then, but it is mostly absent from the earlier parts of the Epic.
It's a rainbow, and it has several important places in the plot: it's the way the magic-wielders are ordered; it's the basis of the astrology; and our gorgeous heroine gets a name that means 'rainbow' because she shows under rainbows, which she's never seen, having grown up in a desert. But it needs to occur more often. Epics don't just drop subtle hints and hope the clever reader picks up on it; these things must be hammered in. Dead horses must be beaten. Etc.
I'm thinking of giving MC a little token from her parents (who died when she was very young, of course) with something of a rainbow on it - and in everything she sews or embroiders, a domestic activity she despises - she works that design in somewhere, no matter how tiny. Because I'm cruel, I might have her lose it at some point, and her first priority when she realizes this will be to re-create the symbol. This may even have to do with how she is recognized by the minions of the Bad Guy - and possibly by the Good Guys, when the time comes.
When she ventures out into the real world, she might get to see some rainbow-like bursts of color, too - in wildflowers, perhaps even in a spray of water. At one point, she is walking to and from a waterfall, and when light refracts through water, it makes a prism. In the wares of merchants selling threads. Excellent, all excellent.
Early on, she has something of an emotional connection with roses. This is shamelessly borrowed from one of my favorite authors; I may change the plant, but I'd like to do something with that. Or perhaps a kind of tree. Later, when we meet the Nation of Bad Guys, one of the reasons she finds them creepy is that they aren't very respectful of their trees. One of the first people she meets in the great outside world gives her a green dress, and it would be very natural (ha) for there to be that exact tree embroidered on it. She gets some of her first food, after she leaves her abusive childhood home, from a tree. When she meets the Good Guy, she's up in an alpine sort of setting, feeling all out of place and out of sorts. What would make her feel better than to see one of her favorite trees in that unexpected place?
Now that I've thought this out a little, I'm starting to see a pattern I could make from this. I fairly recently decided that the main tension in the Epic, as it is in so many epics, is between Destiny and Free Will. It'll be a philosophical point, but it was also play out in some fairly literal ways.The rainbows represent her crazy fantastical destiny, so whenever I decide to inform or remind the readers of MC's Incredible Sparkly Destiny, I'll shove the rainbows into the forefront. Whenever I want to show MC resisting the siren call of fate or generally engaging in some independent thought - damn the consequences! - it'll be trees, trees, trees.
The more I ponder this, the more I like it. Rainbows are ethereal, beautiful creations of light and dancing drops of water, suspended in the sky and eternally out of grasp. They're rare, airy visions with religious overtones - perfect to stand in for destiny! Trees, on the other hand, have a much more lively kind of beauty, and in addition to decorating the landscape, they also serve some pragmatic functions, and they can weather a lot of abuse. They're literally down to earth (groan), fitting for Free Will and Independence. I still have to consider whether I want to do a particular tree or trees in general; both approaches have their own charms.
I'm happy to report that this was another productive post. Until next time, creative blog.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Character Building - Character Interview
No post yesterday - I was slacking online when I should have been reading Hobbes, so I had to read Hobbes while I should have been writing a post. One might think that, in the grander scheme of things, writing a post should take precedence over slacking online; while they're both online, the one is active and the other passive. Ah well - I'm posting now.
Last post was just sort of fun, seat of the pants story-writing. Some days I'll do something like that, and others I'll focus more on one aspect of a story. This might spur me to create tags for this journal, but that's another matter. Today's aspect is characters, and today's tool for exploring characters is the character interview.
My character is Prince Seaton (I don't even know if this is his first or last name) from my in-progress Ultimate Fantasy Parody Epic. He appeared only briefly to harass the MC and to give one of her allies a reason to show up, but he struck me as an interesting and complex character, despite his boorish behavior.
I googled "character interview," and chose this particular set of questions (from this site):
Interestingly, this also helped me establish some world-building points as well. The kingdom is ruled by two people, always a married couple (yes, I suspect this is a very heteronormative monarchy... duoarchy?). The Royal Prince, when he reaches the age of majority and before his marriage, has a harem, for reasons I have not quite thought out yet (this was part of his plot point); while I'm not certain if a Royal Princess would have a similar arrangement, I'm thinking the purpose of this is partly to give him incentives to remain the Heir Apparent and partly to make sure that he's into women and that he can produce children. The hierarchy among siblings is based on age, but if the eldest is clearly incompetent, it may pass to others.
Excellent! A most productive post!
Last post was just sort of fun, seat of the pants story-writing. Some days I'll do something like that, and others I'll focus more on one aspect of a story. This might spur me to create tags for this journal, but that's another matter. Today's aspect is characters, and today's tool for exploring characters is the character interview.
My character is Prince Seaton (I don't even know if this is his first or last name) from my in-progress Ultimate Fantasy Parody Epic. He appeared only briefly to harass the MC and to give one of her allies a reason to show up, but he struck me as an interesting and complex character, despite his boorish behavior.
I googled "character interview," and chose this particular set of questions (from this site):
- What do you do for a living?
Rule the lands of my parents from the desert territory, along peaks to the West and the edge of the plains to the East, North to the great city Du'latha. I spend much of my days traveling this land, consulting with local village chiefs and the lesser nobility, and relaying the laws of our king. Perhaps I do not travel as far as I should, for I know that there are some at the edges of civilization who do not even recognize the name of our capital. - Are any other people living with you? Who are they?
I travel with my Royal Huntsman, who protect my person. When I am at home in Du'latha, which is not often, I am surrounded by servants, any family of mine who might be at home, and of course the greater nobility, always scheming at court. - Tell me about your parents. How well do/did you get along with them?
My parents rule the entirety of our lands together, dividing the territories between my siblings and me. They are eminently wise and skilled in different areas; my father is an adept diplomat, and my mother can cow the greatest of the nobility with a single word. They're both excellent teachers. I do not see them with much frequency, but I have always been grateful and admiring of them. - What was your birth order? How many siblings did you have? Older? Younger?
I am the eldest child; I have a younger sister and two younger brothers. - Who else was in your family while you were growing up? How did you get along with them?
The greatest of the nobles are those with the closest blood relationship to my worthy parents. I suppose of those, about half a dozen could be called family - the siblings of my parents. They are all people of above average intelligence and charm, but neither my parents, my siblings, nor I have ever trusted them. My mother's youngest sister was my favorite of all of them, if I had to choose. She was not unambitious, but she recognized skill where it lay and so never sought to take on more for herself and her husband than they could manage. I do not think she wishes to be Queen. - What were three things you liked to do when you were a child?
It is hard to say that I was ever truly a child. I enjoyed riding horses, as I still do, and I enjoyed attending court more than I do now. I also enjoyed the rare quiet day when my parents could attend us children in private. - What were you afraid of when you were a child?
I should never have admitted to fear after the age of four or five, but if I must say something, I was afraid of both my parents losing the throne and of developing the wary relationship with my siblings that my parents' siblings have with the royal persons. - How did you respond to the physiological and psychological changes in your life as a teenager?
Having observed the growing children at court for my entire life, I was not wholly unprepared for these changes. I responded to them by pushing myself harder, as I became more and more acutely aware of the responsibility I was soon to shoulder. That is not to say it all went easily; even the harem that is the right of an unmarried Royal Prince used to intimidate me. I sought advice from my father and mother when I could, and I spent more time than necessary training out of doors, to chase away some of my hazy fears. - What makes you happy now?
Serving my able parents, contemplating my own future rule (though this is not an unqualified happiness), hunting, traveling through a particularly beautiful domain, securing relations with the lesser nobility and village chiefs. - What is your greatest fear?
Again, I should not like to admit this, but I do sometimes despair of the day that my brothers and sister turn against me, as they must when I assume the throne. The alternative does not bear consideration, of course. I fear as well strange rumors I hear from people at the outer edges and from the traveling peoples, about activities among the other Sensitive Peoples. But these are far too vague at present to cause much concern. - What would you change about yourself if you could?
I can think of nothing substantial I would like to change. Perhaps I would have greater natural strength of arm, as my brother Reinart does. But this is a trifling thing; on the whole I am quite contented with my person, and I strive to improve in all things. - What is it that you have never told anyone?
Along the road to [forgot village name], there was an accident with one of my Huntsman. He was the youngest and newest of them, a young fellow named Mallory. The events immediately leading up to his violent death remain hazy in the memory of myself and of all the men. This much we have discussed amongst ourselves, but there is one frightening aspect of the situation which I never shared. When I came to myself and discovered the young man slain, I found also sticky blood drying on my sword. - What do you want? (This is the key to your story!)
I want to be a worthy ruler, when I find my bride and assume the throne. I want to do well by my people, even when it means measures they find unpleasant. I wish to defend my throne as well, both from my siblings and from enemies farther afield.
Interestingly, this also helped me establish some world-building points as well. The kingdom is ruled by two people, always a married couple (yes, I suspect this is a very heteronormative monarchy... duoarchy?). The Royal Prince, when he reaches the age of majority and before his marriage, has a harem, for reasons I have not quite thought out yet (this was part of his plot point); while I'm not certain if a Royal Princess would have a similar arrangement, I'm thinking the purpose of this is partly to give him incentives to remain the Heir Apparent and partly to make sure that he's into women and that he can produce children. The hierarchy among siblings is based on age, but if the eldest is clearly incompetent, it may pass to others.
Excellent! A most productive post!
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