No post yesterday (counting this day as finished when I go to sleep) and no substantive post today, but I have an excuse - I've been writing the short story of Jemma and her unhappy adventures. I meant to post it to the workshop page today, but alas, my connection makes these things difficult. It is the roughest draft I have submitted to the group, and so I am more than a little nervous to put it out for their collectively keen and critical eye. But these things must be done, and I do embellish the critique for dramatic effect. It's invaluable criticism, even when I disagree with one point or another.
The story took a couple unexpected turns, but I was generally able to keep it within the very rough outline I had envisioned. I am least happy with the ending, but I cannot see how to change it without drastically altering the story - and adding far more to the end than I like. Not only does the ending make me nervous, but the style is much different from what I'm comfortable with. I'm trying to write suspense, and suspense does not come naturally to me.
Rough draft, I'll tell myself through gritted teeth as I smile through my flensing. Rough draft.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
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.
Monday, January 26, 2009
World Building - architecture
I know, the substantive posts have been lacking of late. Luckily I had a burst of inspiration about something to add to the UFPE universe. A certain somebody recently returned from a vacation to Egypt and mentioned that there was a temple where the light shone directly onto a sacred statue twice a year. This made me think of Stonehenge and the like, where edifices are erected to coincide with certain cosmic occurrences. For a culture like that of the UFPE, where astrology more or less plays the role of religion (I shall have to flesh that out more), this would be a perfect addition to the landscape.
I just started reading a fantasy novel recommended to me by a friend as classic fantasy. It's very engaging so far, and I'm struck by the depth and breadth of the world just eighty pages in. This is what I shall try to find out about the UFPE world - all the details and history and cultural elements that make a society come alive. Perhaps I should try writing one of the scenes from a perspective like mine and see what little cultural things appear. But not today.
Today is for plotting this architecture business and how it coincides with the astrology. I was thinking about this yesterday, and I like the idea of the sun streaming in at just the right angle on just the right day for some purpose or another. As I picture it, there is somewhere a temple with two walls: an outer wall with six precise slits, all carved at various angles, studded with mirrors on the inward-facing side and an inner wall with six stained glass windows. On (what else?) the summer solstice, the six rays of light reflect off the mirrors and shine in through the small stained glass chamber.
Inside this chamber? That's a good question. I will eventually send MC in there, and she will shine in the rainbow light, as is her way. Right now there's a depiction of the famous astrology chart on the floor, but I can't decide what else is in there - what was the point of building this in the first place? The Secret Society probably meets in there, though I do not think they were the ones to build in. In fact, they may be the only (or so they think) ones who still know about this place.
On the Big Day, I think they all venture inside the chamber, wearing pure white robes, to gaze in awe at the perfection of the astrology and of the skill of those who created the temple. On other days, they just hang around in the space between the two walls. Now I'm tempted to go a Da Vinci Code direction with this - is there something about the chamber, besides that it shows MC's shininess, that the Secret Society doesn't know/has forgotten?
Maybe there is more after all. I can't decide whether these things are already there, or whether they must be found. Anyway, there are six sacred objects, for the six cusps where both the sectarcs and the triarcs meet. On the Topaz/Ruby cusp, there is a diamond which, when set perfectly on the triarc cusp on the proper days, illuminates the chamber ceiling with a prophecy about MC (or two prophecies?). On the Ruby/Amethyst cusp is a piece of charcoal (which gets changed fairly often) which catches on fire on the proper days, by which Secret Society (and formerly everyone else?) keeps an exact calender. On the Amethyst/Sapphire cusp lies a scroll which shows a map of UFPE continent (with a mysterious star, whatever could it mean?) on the proper days. On the Sapphire/Emerald cusp is a porcelain cup of water which can be used on the proper days as a scrying mirror, for anyone who still knows how to scry. On the Emerald/Opal cusp, oddly enough, there is nothing but a faintly worn indentation. From that viewpoint, on the proper days (or really, on most sunny days), one can get a heart-stopping view of the surrounding valley. On the Opal/Topaz cusp is the most challenging object of all - a large-ish piece of amber that shows four faces on the proper day.
It's a mystery among Secret Society members because all the other ones, except arguably the Emerald/Opal view, do something productive. The amber actually does something productive, but no one knows how to use it anymore. Someone among all four sentient species has one of those, and if they all held it on the proper day, they would actually be able to communicate with one another. Magic!
So that post took more time and effort than usual, but it was very much worth it. I like the idea of this great bejeweled, be-windowed, be-mirrored temple with these random objects on the floor.
I just started reading a fantasy novel recommended to me by a friend as classic fantasy. It's very engaging so far, and I'm struck by the depth and breadth of the world just eighty pages in. This is what I shall try to find out about the UFPE world - all the details and history and cultural elements that make a society come alive. Perhaps I should try writing one of the scenes from a perspective like mine and see what little cultural things appear. But not today.
Today is for plotting this architecture business and how it coincides with the astrology. I was thinking about this yesterday, and I like the idea of the sun streaming in at just the right angle on just the right day for some purpose or another. As I picture it, there is somewhere a temple with two walls: an outer wall with six precise slits, all carved at various angles, studded with mirrors on the inward-facing side and an inner wall with six stained glass windows. On (what else?) the summer solstice, the six rays of light reflect off the mirrors and shine in through the small stained glass chamber.
Inside this chamber? That's a good question. I will eventually send MC in there, and she will shine in the rainbow light, as is her way. Right now there's a depiction of the famous astrology chart on the floor, but I can't decide what else is in there - what was the point of building this in the first place? The Secret Society probably meets in there, though I do not think they were the ones to build in. In fact, they may be the only (or so they think) ones who still know about this place.
On the Big Day, I think they all venture inside the chamber, wearing pure white robes, to gaze in awe at the perfection of the astrology and of the skill of those who created the temple. On other days, they just hang around in the space between the two walls. Now I'm tempted to go a Da Vinci Code direction with this - is there something about the chamber, besides that it shows MC's shininess, that the Secret Society doesn't know/has forgotten?
Maybe there is more after all. I can't decide whether these things are already there, or whether they must be found. Anyway, there are six sacred objects, for the six cusps where both the sectarcs and the triarcs meet. On the Topaz/Ruby cusp, there is a diamond which, when set perfectly on the triarc cusp on the proper days, illuminates the chamber ceiling with a prophecy about MC (or two prophecies?). On the Ruby/Amethyst cusp is a piece of charcoal (which gets changed fairly often) which catches on fire on the proper days, by which Secret Society (and formerly everyone else?) keeps an exact calender. On the Amethyst/Sapphire cusp lies a scroll which shows a map of UFPE continent (with a mysterious star, whatever could it mean?) on the proper days. On the Sapphire/Emerald cusp is a porcelain cup of water which can be used on the proper days as a scrying mirror, for anyone who still knows how to scry. On the Emerald/Opal cusp, oddly enough, there is nothing but a faintly worn indentation. From that viewpoint, on the proper days (or really, on most sunny days), one can get a heart-stopping view of the surrounding valley. On the Opal/Topaz cusp is the most challenging object of all - a large-ish piece of amber that shows four faces on the proper day.
It's a mystery among Secret Society members because all the other ones, except arguably the Emerald/Opal view, do something productive. The amber actually does something productive, but no one knows how to use it anymore. Someone among all four sentient species has one of those, and if they all held it on the proper day, they would actually be able to communicate with one another. Magic!
So that post took more time and effort than usual, but it was very much worth it. I like the idea of this great bejeweled, be-windowed, be-mirrored temple with these random objects on the floor.
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!
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Game - If
Yesterday I said I would write a more substantive post today, but I had an unexpected opportunity for a free (and what turned out to be lovely) dinner tonight, and as lovely dinners so often do, it went very long.
Instead of any updates on the rapidly expanding world of the UPFE or other stories, I've decided to open a book I received for Christmas and answer a few of the questions. It's at the outer bounds of what this blog is for, but I believe that thinking in new directions counts as creativity. The book is called "If... (Questions for the Game of Life)."
If you could become famous for doing something that you don't currently do, what would it be?
Finish full-length novels? That was a joke. Work in the field I'm studying for? Another joke. This is proving challenging! I suppose I would like to be famous as someone in the Obama administration of twenty years in the future, but in a relatively minor role. I'd still get my name in the papers, and I'd be smeared in political blogs of the future, so that must count for famous.
If you could choose the very last thing you see before death, what would it be?
This question cuts a little closer to home than is completely comfortable, but I'll go with it. The softly smiling face of my beloved is the most obvious answer. But if I don't have a beloved then, maybe my giant collection of penguins. If I could be cuddling one of them, that would be nice. What a morbid fancy.
If you could solve one unsolved crime, what would it be?
I'm afraid I'm not up on my crime history. It would be fun to solve one that occurred here in NYC - I'm sure there are millions of them. The closer to home the better, for the sake of the historical curiosity, but not TOO close to home.
if you had to have your mate get a part of their body pierced, exactly where would you want it to be?
I wonder if this question is aimed at my future theoretical spouse or just anybody I happen to be romantically involved with at the moment. Either way, I think men look dashing with a tiny sparkly stone stud in one ear. I don't care which one.
If you could eliminate one thing you do each day in the bathroom so that you never had to do it again, what would it be?
How funny. My mind immediately went to brushing my teeth because I generally have to drag myself to the bathroom to do it, morning and night. I suppose I could eliminate, ah, eliminating, but it would be weird to be the person who never eliminates.
Good enough for today. Tomorrow night I have plans, so I might not make a substantive post then, but I should be back with something worthwhile (for me, at least), this weekend.
This was fun. Until next time!
Instead of any updates on the rapidly expanding world of the UPFE or other stories, I've decided to open a book I received for Christmas and answer a few of the questions. It's at the outer bounds of what this blog is for, but I believe that thinking in new directions counts as creativity. The book is called "If... (Questions for the Game of Life)."
If you could become famous for doing something that you don't currently do, what would it be?
Finish full-length novels? That was a joke. Work in the field I'm studying for? Another joke. This is proving challenging! I suppose I would like to be famous as someone in the Obama administration of twenty years in the future, but in a relatively minor role. I'd still get my name in the papers, and I'd be smeared in political blogs of the future, so that must count for famous.
If you could choose the very last thing you see before death, what would it be?
This question cuts a little closer to home than is completely comfortable, but I'll go with it. The softly smiling face of my beloved is the most obvious answer. But if I don't have a beloved then, maybe my giant collection of penguins. If I could be cuddling one of them, that would be nice. What a morbid fancy.
If you could solve one unsolved crime, what would it be?
I'm afraid I'm not up on my crime history. It would be fun to solve one that occurred here in NYC - I'm sure there are millions of them. The closer to home the better, for the sake of the historical curiosity, but not TOO close to home.
if you had to have your mate get a part of their body pierced, exactly where would you want it to be?
I wonder if this question is aimed at my future theoretical spouse or just anybody I happen to be romantically involved with at the moment. Either way, I think men look dashing with a tiny sparkly stone stud in one ear. I don't care which one.
If you could eliminate one thing you do each day in the bathroom so that you never had to do it again, what would it be?
How funny. My mind immediately went to brushing my teeth because I generally have to drag myself to the bathroom to do it, morning and night. I suppose I could eliminate, ah, eliminating, but it would be weird to be the person who never eliminates.
Good enough for today. Tomorrow night I have plans, so I might not make a substantive post then, but I should be back with something worthwhile (for me, at least), this weekend.
This was fun. Until next time!
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.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Story Building - Outlining
Outlining is a tool I have found useful in academic writing, but I have resisted using it to plot out creative writing. I especially resist the idea when it comes to that (semi) annual writing craze, NaNoWriMo, where my philosophy tends toward "the crazier the better." The Ultimate Fantasy Parody Epic was written in such a spirit, and while I generally approve of the direction it's taken, it could definitely do with a written-out structure. It cries out for structure.
I know where the story of Volume I ends, but I'm not sure how to write the middle part in a way that even approaches compelling. There's no drama in the middle; she's just toodling along with her bard caravan, happy to be not fending off the advances of the guy she thought was her uncle. And there's no real villain in Volume I, or at least the villainry is so far behind the scenes that it's hard to weave into the narrative, which is a limited third person perspective, close on the MC.
The plots goes approximately as follows:
MC runs away from evil fake family
MC has run-in with Royal Prince (subject of a previous post)
MC is rescued by nymph, gets a new name and a clue to her Significant Heritage
MC stumbles into a quaint village, makes friends with innkeeper, gets dress
MC is discovered by traveling bard company
- I didn't write this in the original, but I thought about it, and I may add it in, to create some drama: MC is nearly chased out of the village when villagers know of her nymph-consorting ways
MC has Unresolved Sexual Tension with one of the performers
... (middle part as of yet unplotted)
MC is kidnapped by two of the performers and brought to Bad Guy Nation, where Bad Guy L (subject of a previous post or two) welcomes her home in a dramatic cliffhanger.
The nymph is a significant character later on, and her rescue of MC is an important plot point. The prince will have a role to play later on, though I'd like to get him back into the story sooner. As I have it written, the nymph helpfully blurs his recollection of the run-in with MC, but it might help the plot along if the nymph doesn't do so - or if it wears off at some point.
It could even be tied into the larger villainry to have the prince become fixated on finding MC; in fact, that would be a great way to spur the villainry. I've wondered so far how the Secret Society finds MC and discovers her Significant Heritage, and this would be a fantastic vehicle for that.
The nymph's charm might wear off sooner if the prince came upon the village shortly after they chased out MC and if they described MC to him in loving detail. Then he would become enraged, but because he's a Responsible Guy and has Duties to Attend, he can't go haring after a bard caravan to avenge his fallen companion. Instead, he shall hire his best artists to create essentially Wanted posters of her and send them to all four corners of the kingdom. I could even get MC's evil fake family involved, which is how Secret Society knows her Significant Heritage.
So I like this - as MC and her caravan travel and perform, they get word that Prince is after MC. At first caravan guy swears to protect her, but as her posters reach far and wide, it gets to be a strain on them, and she recognizes it. She feels guilty and doesn't know what to do. So - revelation! - maybe the triplets don't have to abduct her after all. I'd have to go back and change a good deal of the first chapters of Volume II, but that would be more satisfying than for her to be abducted JUST as things start to get hard. And I think I'd like her a little more this way.
So! Time to write this out in a somewhat organized form for myself. Another productive post, creative blog! If I ever have the opportunity to write one of these uninterrupted by instant messaging, email, cats, and whatever else, who knows what I could get done.
I know where the story of Volume I ends, but I'm not sure how to write the middle part in a way that even approaches compelling. There's no drama in the middle; she's just toodling along with her bard caravan, happy to be not fending off the advances of the guy she thought was her uncle. And there's no real villain in Volume I, or at least the villainry is so far behind the scenes that it's hard to weave into the narrative, which is a limited third person perspective, close on the MC.
The plots goes approximately as follows:
MC runs away from evil fake family
MC has run-in with Royal Prince (subject of a previous post)
MC is rescued by nymph, gets a new name and a clue to her Significant Heritage
MC stumbles into a quaint village, makes friends with innkeeper, gets dress
MC is discovered by traveling bard company
- I didn't write this in the original, but I thought about it, and I may add it in, to create some drama: MC is nearly chased out of the village when villagers know of her nymph-consorting ways
MC has Unresolved Sexual Tension with one of the performers
... (middle part as of yet unplotted)
MC is kidnapped by two of the performers and brought to Bad Guy Nation, where Bad Guy L (subject of a previous post or two) welcomes her home in a dramatic cliffhanger.
The nymph is a significant character later on, and her rescue of MC is an important plot point. The prince will have a role to play later on, though I'd like to get him back into the story sooner. As I have it written, the nymph helpfully blurs his recollection of the run-in with MC, but it might help the plot along if the nymph doesn't do so - or if it wears off at some point.
It could even be tied into the larger villainry to have the prince become fixated on finding MC; in fact, that would be a great way to spur the villainry. I've wondered so far how the Secret Society finds MC and discovers her Significant Heritage, and this would be a fantastic vehicle for that.
The nymph's charm might wear off sooner if the prince came upon the village shortly after they chased out MC and if they described MC to him in loving detail. Then he would become enraged, but because he's a Responsible Guy and has Duties to Attend, he can't go haring after a bard caravan to avenge his fallen companion. Instead, he shall hire his best artists to create essentially Wanted posters of her and send them to all four corners of the kingdom. I could even get MC's evil fake family involved, which is how Secret Society knows her Significant Heritage.
So I like this - as MC and her caravan travel and perform, they get word that Prince is after MC. At first caravan guy swears to protect her, but as her posters reach far and wide, it gets to be a strain on them, and she recognizes it. She feels guilty and doesn't know what to do. So - revelation! - maybe the triplets don't have to abduct her after all. I'd have to go back and change a good deal of the first chapters of Volume II, but that would be more satisfying than for her to be abducted JUST as things start to get hard. And I think I'd like her a little more this way.
So! Time to write this out in a somewhat organized form for myself. Another productive post, creative blog! If I ever have the opportunity to write one of these uninterrupted by instant messaging, email, cats, and whatever else, who knows what I could get done.
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