NaNoWriMo is getting closer... I'm getting more and more excited, and hope to meet up with London NaNoers when things are more settled in my flat and I have functional internet again!
The plot for Krystal is bubbling slowly at the back of my mind - it's going to tell the story of how she came to join Lerrix's army, the civil war, and her relationship with Derryn. It's going to span a much, much longer period of time than Exile did (that covered only a year or so) and be a challenge to write. I can't wait to get started!
Friday, 15 October 2010
Sunday, 3 October 2010
Updates, news and general musings
So, I'm now back in England. It's rainy. I got married 2 weeks ago and am still getting used to having a husband. And being a wife. I relaunched my jewellery website.
These three events are not unrelated to the recent lack of posts. This will be remedied shortly, since it's nearly NaNoWriMo! I'm really excited about this - last year, NaNo led to the first draft of Exile, and this year, I'm hoping to be similarly productive and driven and produce a prequel, telling the story of Krystal, one of the main characters in Exile. I'd never written a long piece of fiction before, never even really thought of myself as being someone who could write a book, but I did and I'm fascinated by the way it's changed my perspective of myself and the world around me.
You will no doubt hear more about this new story than you ever wanted to, in the coming weeks. If you're NaNoing too, let me know what you're writing about in the comments - Id love to follow your journeys too!
(I haven't forgotten about Emperor's Assassin; it's sitting here waiting to be drafted. But NaNo takes priority for now, in amongst flat-hunting and pesky things like employment, so EA is shelved for the minute...)
These three events are not unrelated to the recent lack of posts. This will be remedied shortly, since it's nearly NaNoWriMo! I'm really excited about this - last year, NaNo led to the first draft of Exile, and this year, I'm hoping to be similarly productive and driven and produce a prequel, telling the story of Krystal, one of the main characters in Exile. I'd never written a long piece of fiction before, never even really thought of myself as being someone who could write a book, but I did and I'm fascinated by the way it's changed my perspective of myself and the world around me.
You will no doubt hear more about this new story than you ever wanted to, in the coming weeks. If you're NaNoing too, let me know what you're writing about in the comments - Id love to follow your journeys too!
(I haven't forgotten about Emperor's Assassin; it's sitting here waiting to be drafted. But NaNo takes priority for now, in amongst flat-hunting and pesky things like employment, so EA is shelved for the minute...)
Friday, 10 September 2010
Emperor's Assassin
OK, so I've only written another thousand words in the last week. I have cleaned my flat twice though, and even gone to the supermarket a couple of times. I rock at domesticity, clearly.
This story I'm writing is a fantasy story about an assassin, called Juri. (At least I think it's a fantasy story, we might change this as it actually gets written. But for now, a fantasy story.) It's set on a made-up world, with 3 moons. Which is great because it means I get to play with tides and all sorts of things. (Unless that gets to be too much of a hassle, then I'll just delete the idea.) Juri works for the Emperor of Ertia, who is engaged in a low-key civil war with his younger brother; they each go round killing each others supporters, and decrying these terrible crimes afterwards. Ertia has recently emerged from a proper civil war, and not everyone is happy with the way in which the Emperor has managed the aftermath; his brother isn't lacking in supporters.
The Emperor has a daughter, Taris, who Juri is assigned to guard from her uncle's own assassins. Taris and Juri fall in love, obviously, but their relationship is interrupted when Taris meets and falls in love with the Prince Kalim, of A-Land-I've-Not-Yet-Named, who she marries. When she goes to live with him, Juri accompanies her. The Emperor is slain, and his brother takes over the ruling of Ertia, declaring Taris to be a traitor to the nation.
Prophecy tells of a hero that will arise to save the nation. Juri, in addition to being an assassin, is also - unbeknownst to him - that hero. The hero has a magic weapon, as is so often the case, which is death to anyone else to touch. In this case, the whole story came from this knife, and it's based on a real knife I saw in Italy:
There are relationship twists for Taris, Kalim and Juri, and there are frequent flashbacks to Juri's youth in training as an assassin. (Brutal training, social services should be called...) And, of course, the climactic battle to save Ertia from its new increasingly tyrannical ruler.
So, that's pretty much the summary of my new story - now there just remains to flesh it out into a novel-length piece of work. Easy!
This story I'm writing is a fantasy story about an assassin, called Juri. (At least I think it's a fantasy story, we might change this as it actually gets written. But for now, a fantasy story.) It's set on a made-up world, with 3 moons. Which is great because it means I get to play with tides and all sorts of things. (Unless that gets to be too much of a hassle, then I'll just delete the idea.) Juri works for the Emperor of Ertia, who is engaged in a low-key civil war with his younger brother; they each go round killing each others supporters, and decrying these terrible crimes afterwards. Ertia has recently emerged from a proper civil war, and not everyone is happy with the way in which the Emperor has managed the aftermath; his brother isn't lacking in supporters.
The Emperor has a daughter, Taris, who Juri is assigned to guard from her uncle's own assassins. Taris and Juri fall in love, obviously, but their relationship is interrupted when Taris meets and falls in love with the Prince Kalim, of A-Land-I've-Not-Yet-Named, who she marries. When she goes to live with him, Juri accompanies her. The Emperor is slain, and his brother takes over the ruling of Ertia, declaring Taris to be a traitor to the nation.
Prophecy tells of a hero that will arise to save the nation. Juri, in addition to being an assassin, is also - unbeknownst to him - that hero. The hero has a magic weapon, as is so often the case, which is death to anyone else to touch. In this case, the whole story came from this knife, and it's based on a real knife I saw in Italy:
There are relationship twists for Taris, Kalim and Juri, and there are frequent flashbacks to Juri's youth in training as an assassin. (Brutal training, social services should be called...) And, of course, the climactic battle to save Ertia from its new increasingly tyrannical ruler.
So, that's pretty much the summary of my new story - now there just remains to flesh it out into a novel-length piece of work. Easy!
Friday, 3 September 2010
Progress: 9k words!
I've decided a weekly progress update will keep me actually doing something on this story, even if no one else is reading these posts ;-) (If you are reading this, do drop in and say hi in the comments...)
So far, I've got the rough structure for the first 7 chapters worked out, and I've got 9k words written - although a lot of those are just notes now for scenes I haven't got to, and half-started scenes like Taris' wedding. But they count!
I also have managed to work out some of the Lieroi storyline for Juri - Juri-as-hero - which is good; I know how that starts and how that ends, I just need some middle now. And I get to work out some different peace-keeping and post-conflict reconstruction scenarios - one of which (increasing authoritarianism and power vested in the army) doesn't work for Taris' uncle, one of which (as yet undetermined) does work for Taris. Or at least, will work, since the book isn't going to go long enough to see its success. I need to do some more research into successful post-conflict reconstruction theory and practice; I knew that MA degree would come in useful one day!
So far, I've got the rough structure for the first 7 chapters worked out, and I've got 9k words written - although a lot of those are just notes now for scenes I haven't got to, and half-started scenes like Taris' wedding. But they count!
I also have managed to work out some of the Lieroi storyline for Juri - Juri-as-hero - which is good; I know how that starts and how that ends, I just need some middle now. And I get to work out some different peace-keeping and post-conflict reconstruction scenarios - one of which (increasing authoritarianism and power vested in the army) doesn't work for Taris' uncle, one of which (as yet undetermined) does work for Taris. Or at least, will work, since the book isn't going to go long enough to see its success. I need to do some more research into successful post-conflict reconstruction theory and practice; I knew that MA degree would come in useful one day!
Tuesday, 17 August 2010
Point of View
So, still struggling with this. I think I've decided to write it 3rd person, but from Juri's point of view, the main male character. Though there are scenes I need/want to have, to deepen the other characters, at which Juri isn't going to be present, which might complicate this slightly. OK, a lot. Maybe I can get someone to tell him about it afterwards...
Also, sex. Not just useful for google searches, but an issue I hadn't thought about when writing from a male characters point of view. I'm not a man, I obviously have never had sex as a man, and I don't know what sex feels like to a man. Nor what having an erection feels like. The rest of writing as a male character, I reckon I can make up as I go along, but this is proving an odd sticking point. If anyone has any suggestions, do shout!
Also, sex. Not just useful for google searches, but an issue I hadn't thought about when writing from a male characters point of view. I'm not a man, I obviously have never had sex as a man, and I don't know what sex feels like to a man. Nor what having an erection feels like. The rest of writing as a male character, I reckon I can make up as I go along, but this is proving an odd sticking point. If anyone has any suggestions, do shout!
Friday, 13 August 2010
Today's achievement: limited
Well, ok, so it's not been a spectacular writing week. But I've got much more of my outline done, I'm thinking about the story when I'm not writing, and I got 850 words done this morning. It's not been a waste of a day, after all.
The sticking point is that it's so complicated, my brain gets distracted and goes off on tangents about the other storylines, which while useful, doesn't help with the scene I'm supposed to be writing.
I think what I'm going to do with this story - unlike Exile - is to write each scene as a standalone, in chronological order, then rearrange them to where I want them to be. I'm struggling with the differing view points though. Assassin is narrated in the third person, and most of it is from the POV of the main male character, Juri. But there are scenes I want to have where he isn't going to be present, and I like the idea of having both him and the main female character as POV characters. It's just not easy, and I keep falling back into Juri's POV. Maybe I should just scrap the idea of multiple POVs?
Bah. Back to writing...
The sticking point is that it's so complicated, my brain gets distracted and goes off on tangents about the other storylines, which while useful, doesn't help with the scene I'm supposed to be writing.
I think what I'm going to do with this story - unlike Exile - is to write each scene as a standalone, in chronological order, then rearrange them to where I want them to be. I'm struggling with the differing view points though. Assassin is narrated in the third person, and most of it is from the POV of the main male character, Juri. But there are scenes I want to have where he isn't going to be present, and I like the idea of having both him and the main female character as POV characters. It's just not easy, and I keep falling back into Juri's POV. Maybe I should just scrap the idea of multiple POVs?
Bah. Back to writing...
Tuesday, 10 August 2010
I'm back...
Back from holiday, refreshed and raring to go! Or something - it's tempting to just sleep in the sun... But! I have plans!
I have a new novel growing in my head - its working title is the Emperor's Assassin, and it's got a fairly complicated plotline, with intertwined timelines, flashbacks and multicharacter points of view. It's going to be fun to write, if I can pull it off without my brain exploding!
The old novel is sitting gently stewing while I decide whether it needs to be gutted or not. My first brave beta reader has finished it and apparently not got so bored her eyes have started to bleed, so that's encouraging, and her suggestions have been very helpful. Her eye for detail is second to none!
I still think it needs a new opening scene, and a better-written ending. But, while I'm pondering that, if anyone would desperately like to read it, let me know. (Anyone who's coming to my wedding is ineligible, on the grounds that if you're that close to me, I'd be too embarrassed to know you've read my warped imaginings. Not because I don't like you, or trust your opinions. It's all about me, obviously.)
I have a new novel growing in my head - its working title is the Emperor's Assassin, and it's got a fairly complicated plotline, with intertwined timelines, flashbacks and multicharacter points of view. It's going to be fun to write, if I can pull it off without my brain exploding!
The old novel is sitting gently stewing while I decide whether it needs to be gutted or not. My first brave beta reader has finished it and apparently not got so bored her eyes have started to bleed, so that's encouraging, and her suggestions have been very helpful. Her eye for detail is second to none!
I still think it needs a new opening scene, and a better-written ending. But, while I'm pondering that, if anyone would desperately like to read it, let me know. (Anyone who's coming to my wedding is ineligible, on the grounds that if you're that close to me, I'd be too embarrassed to know you've read my warped imaginings. Not because I don't like you, or trust your opinions. It's all about me, obviously.)
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