634 replies to this topic

[Riisiing Moon]

JKK--The skeletons are not those of Drawa's friends, no, they're just bodies he finds in the desert. Interesting idea, though, I gotta consider that.

Aufaire and Drawa's home world are connected by the canyon, within which the Mist resides. The Mist visits denizens of both worlds in extremely rare cases (most of which result in death), but resides exclusively above the Inland. If you want me to paint a mental picture, basically there's a bridge atop the Inland, veiled by the Mist. I.e., the Inlanders never see the sky. Beyond the Inland there is a cavern, and on the other side is Aufaire in its entirety, or more specifically the southern desert of Aufaire. It's thematically dark, yes, but the Mist does not block out the sun. I like the way you think, but perpetual night is pretty restricting, and though it can be fascination for a good amount of time the attitude of bleakness it possesses gets old and boring to read about. Colors have a lot of impact on the reader, even though the tangible words of text are black and white.

[Jedi Knight Krazy]

[stuff]

Re: maps...
So the canyon/mist is sort of a portal? Or is Aufaire just a place that Drawa had never been to, not so much another world?

Re: the sun...
I wasn't actually picturing a perpetual night... just a sort of unearthly purplish tint to sunlight where the Mist is overhead, like you might get a green tint in a forest.
That's just me, though! Your world, your rules. I might, however, have to steal that idea (...from myself?) and work a dark purple sky into some planet in Eons...

[Riisiing Moon]

More of a portal, but a wholly physical one. The line between the divine and the mortal is sort of blurry in the book, which is one of the underlying concepts--the Mist, effectively, is a god, or a hive-minded group of gods, but it rests in the physical world. There aren't any all-powerful humanoid beings resting in intangibility beyond the clouds, and there are no anthropomorphism--the Mist has no emotion and resembles humans in zero ways of any kind.

Go for it, and lemme know when you got a plot built around that.

[RC15O5]

Hmm, advice for writing...

I haven't written anything in a long time, save for reports and such.

What used to always bring up my imagination (and still does), would be to listen to music by people such as Thomas Bergersen, or Immediate Music (Yoav Goren and Jeffery Fayman, Goren in particular).

Another thing is to find your interests, and build upon those by using them in the storyline. And don't forget that Human History is a great place to look at to get ideas, as well as other people's story's and ideas. Just don't rip things off and plagiarize.

[Jean Valjean]

I ordered the softwear with a CD, in case I want to use it on more than one computer. Better safe than sorry.

Anyway, I thought for a while before coming up with the time setting for my series. It was a decision that was years in the making, and after a while I realized that some of the plot points within my series were absurdly rushed and could only take place over the course of many cycles of history, such as a ringworld nearly 400,000 lightyears around. Besides, I had in mind a story that felt like Star Wars, being high fantasy where our world does not exist. Yet it does because many of the characters were conceived as having backgrounds in Earth cultures, while at the same time there are human characters of mine who don't come from Earth. After I decided to blow up Earth, it felt right for the feel of my series to reduce it to less than a legend, and the best way to do that was through time, time, and more time. It would take forever and a day for its existence to not only be forgotten, but difficult to prove, because hundreds of worlds were in their information ages when Earth was destroyed in an interdimensional war, and during its interdimensional age Earth had quickly rose to prominence. I also envisioned a world that was advanced enough where I could go by the philosophy "anything can happen", so it felt like science fiction but also like fantasy. In this case, high fantasy. It like how in Star Wars the universe is so old (hyperspace travel was first invented 2,000,000 BBY) that even ancient civilizations are extremely advanced by our standards.

Part of the pitch of the series is that it extends to the very end of time (or so the legend goes) because I wanted a definitive ending for the story. The major theme is "Good vs. evil", and it seemed that when that struggle ended, the story of the universe would be complete. Besides, it really says something about how frighteningly competent the immortal villain leaders are if they can maintain mainstream prominence for tens of millions of years. I always wanted to see a villain who conquered the world and actually succeeded. Besides, when villains talk of forever their plans usually indicate they usually mean thousands of years, which is an incredibly shortsighted vision of forever.

So this setting comes from major science fiction inspirations such as Star Wars, Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, and the narrative scope of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Now I just have to start that page in my notebook where I write down every technological idea I can think of.

The exact time frame of my series, by the way, is 53 million years. I got to that number because just a few million didn't seem like enough, the Tyrannosaurus rex walked the Earth about this long ago, and I just like the number 53.

[BenLuke]

I decided to blow up Earth,

To build a new hyperspace highway, I presume.

[RC15O5]

I decided to blow up Earth,

To build a new hyperspace highway, I presume.

That'll do it! xD

[TNTOS]

The exact time frame of my series, by the way, is 53 million years. I got to that number because just a few million didn't seem like enough, the Tyrannosaurus rex walked the Earth about this long ago, and I just like the number 53.

I always wondered why you chose 53 million years as the time frame of your story. Glad you explained it.

Myself, I don't think I could write a series that stretches over 53 million years. That's simply far, far too long for me. Most of my stories so far take place over a few days or at most a few weeks, which works for me.

The idea of making a series take place over 53 million years is daunting, to say the least, but if you think you can do it, more power to you.

-TNTOS-

Edited by TNTOS, Aug 23 2012 - 09:27 AM.

[Jedi Knight Krazy]

Yeah, basically what TNTOS said 53 million is a long time and you'll have difficulty keeping it realistic and not seem like zero-padding the years (like BIONICLE did), but if you pull it off, you'll have a science-high-fantasy with origins in Earth history, which I can't remember reading in any other story.

Personally, if I had to fill that gap, I'd include a few convenient wars and social collapses to keep the technology level from getting out of hand (i.e. The Greek/Roman empires were way more advanced than the Middle Ages that followed) - I can't begin to imagine what kind of technology might be invented and considered normal in 10 years, let alone 53 million.

[Riisiing Moon]

Actually, that arouses a good question. How long do your guys' full-length stories usually span?

[Despair]

My story is planned to span about 20-30 years, but the majority of it takes place within one or two, depending on how long of a "vacation" I decide to give the main character between books.

[Jedi Knight Krazy]

As a whole, a bit over 3000 years. I'll draw up a rough timeline because I haven't done that before:

-20 years: Heartbeat (it's not actually part of the main story arc)
0 years: Book 1a. The Seiakin escape from Velera and the Draconians gain their shapeshifting power
150 years: Book 2a and 3a. The Seiakin come back to Velera; the Draconians scatter and eventually disappear as a race, integrated into human society
1000 years: Book 3c. Tellur's first extraterrestrial contact - initiated by the dwarves
2980 years: Book 2c. The Sedigoan Civil War and the beginning of the New Draconian Clan.
3000 years: Book 1b, 2b, 3b. The Draconian/Elven war

As for each book... I'm not fully sure. Heartbeat is no more than a week. Book 1a might be three or more months, 2a is one month, and 1b is probably only a couple months as well. 3a, 2b, 3b, 2c, and 3c aren't well defined enough yet to put a timeframe on them, but that's not worth worrying about yet. I just need to focus on Heartbeat and Book 1 and see if I'm actually cut out to be an author

Edited by Jedi Knight Krazy, Aug 23 2012 - 06:40 PM.

[Dreadheart]

Actually, that arouses a good question. How long do your guys' full-length stories usually span?

Via the actions of the main characters? About two months. Combined with all preceding and following events? Roughly seventy years.

[Jean Valjean]

53 million is a long time and you'll have difficulty keeping it realistic and not seem like zero-padding the years (like BIONICLE did), but if you pull it off, you'll have a science-high-fantasy with origins in Earth history, which I can't remember reading in any other story.

Yep, I'm glad to see you're seeing roughly the same thing I'm seeing. Cool. Anyway, I don't plan on zero-padding the years. There are thousands of eras of history that can go down and billions of wars. I guess that I have to assume that after I pad on a few zeroes, there are enough countless changes to society. Heck, this is far enough into the future that, if Earth was still around, Africa would have merged with Europe. So basically...I guess my main inspiration will be Star Wars and its expanded universe, and I'll eventually have to complete my list of sci-fi technologies. Presumably, there will be a point in the future where technological advancement plateaus, basically like with the Star Wars universe, where lightsabers and blasters have been around since prehistory and, like the stone age, technology simply had no advancement. it also kind of reminds me of Lord of the Rings, where the sword remained the pinnacle of technology indefinitely.

You know, I realize that I have a lot of inspirations and similarities. I know I've listed them before, but in describing the elements of my science fiction, I think I'll go through a brief list again:
Star Wars - A world where advanced technology stretches back to prehistory
2001: A Space Odyssey - A story that spans from prehistory to what was then the near future. There's a Monolith that's so advanced it might as well be magic. It exists in extra dimensions, and the people who left it there have presumably evolved into the fabric of the space-time continuum itself.
Animorphs - The Ellemist is like the people from 2001, an omnipotent being who evolved past the limits of space and time. Meanwhile, the Andalites invented a morphing technology that defies our understanding of life science.
Loevcraft - I wasn't inspired by him, but I notice that, due to my inspirations from 2001 and Animorphs, some of my inventions bear a lot of similarity to Lovecraftian ideas, such as Eldritch Abominations.
Marvel Comics - I like DC comics more, but as far as creating a sci-fi universe goes, Marvel tends to invent ones that come closer to the things that I imagine, and I think a Marvel comic with Thor and Iron Man in it gave me the idea for interdimensional warfare and time irregularities in the first place. And it gave me the idea for altered laws of physics between dimensions, so this influence goes back to an early age.

But yeah, I'd say that most of my concepts can be traced back to Star Wars and 2001, and there was a reason those were the first two to come to my mind.

Anyway, I came across some writer's block while writing The Adventures of Mary and took a break a while back, but I think that now with college starting and my work ethic getting back into place, I can will myself back into my ambitions and begin writing that web serial again. Here's hoping that it's ready for publishing when my self-imposed December 25 premier piece is due.

[Jedi Knight Krazy]

So has anyone ever considered an alternate-universe story? At a certain point while planning Eons, I had an idea (what if Draconians hadn't actually disappeared and my main character was just clueless? In other words, more like Harry Potter than Luke Skywalker) and I started messing around with some ways that could go. I actually really liked one of them, but it contradicted almost all of the existing backstory, so I scrapped it because I liked the backstory more. But in an alternate universe, I could make it work and not have to give up the main story.

[Jean Valjean]

Woah. Woah. I just listened to "Hurt" by Johnny Cash yesterday and I realized how much it fits Master Legious. As in, it fits him in such a way that it inspired new complexities to the character that I didn't see until now.

Similarly, I've been listening to some nostalgic music lately, and some of the examples from Smallville have inspired me in how to depict a series with a main character that starts out as just a kid. Hopefully I can discover some archetypes for nostalgia fuel.

I actually don't listen to songs as I write, though. Mood music, sometimes, especially when I'm writing fast and I like to take myself into a scene with what I feel to be the appropriate orchestral piece. Lyrics just distract. They're much better for inspiration in between writings, because they inspire me to see myself in a new light, which in turn gives me ideas for humanizing my characters.

[Velox]

I actually don't listen to songs as I write, though. Mood music, sometimes, especially when I'm writing fast and I like to take myself into a scene with what I feel to be the appropriate orchestral piece. Lyrics just distract. They're much better for inspiration in between writings, because they inspire me to see myself in a new light, which in turn gives me ideas for humanizing my characters.

Yeah, I agree. I don't listen to music that much while writing, except the occasional soundtrack or mood music. Unless I'm writing a story inspired by a song (or writing a songfic), but otherwise I usually write in silence.

[Jedi Knight Krazy]

I don't really listen to music while I write (for me, it's too distracting, even without lyrics), but a lot of times I find myself humming some strange medley of various themes from video games and movies, as well as a few original themes that come out of nowhere and fit perfectly. *shrug* I wish I was more musically inclined so I could flesh out those themes.

[Takatu]

Man, I dunno how you guys do that, lol. I go nuts if I write in silence, I pretty much HAVE to have some kind of music playing. The vast majority of the time it's something orchestral, something that fits with the mood/speed of the scene I'm writing. Only reason I'd write without music is if that's what the scene would benefit from, and that's pretty rare (something like a super tense scene).

[Jedi Knight Krazy]

I'm thinking of jumping in on some of the Bionicle RPGs starting up soon. I've never played a text RPG before (at least not successfully - either my carefully planned character development and story arcs get ruined by the other stuff going on, or I get lost without a plan and don't know what to do) - can you you give any tips?

(RPG-ing is at least sorta relevant to writing, right?)

[BenLuke]

• Have a plan, a mutable plan, as things will never work the way you plan them originally.
• Find a group of fun people to play with.
• ???
• Profit!

[Ymper Trymon]

No plan survives contact with the RPG.

Don't obsessively plot out every detail of what's going to happen - know who the characters are, know enough of their history to know how they will react to what happens, maybe plot out your opening moves in the RPG, but don't make any rigid plans. If you want your characters to have a very specific story that you've planned out already and you know every detail of what's going to happen, don't put them in an RPG. Those are characters for a stand-alone story.

[BenLuke]

No plan survives contact with the RPG.

Heh, very true.

Siggy'ed.

Edited by BenLuke-116, Sep 28 2012 - 03:37 PM.

[Jean Valjean]

So this is new. Instead of talking about what I'd like to write, I'm getting off to actually writing. Here's hoping that my ambitions with the "The Adventures of Mary" serial turns out well, but first, I'm embarked on a few other projects. Among them, I've started "Lois and Clark Stories" and another epic called "The Immortals". Installments for both can be found on my blog. On another note, I wrote a poem called "Autumn Phantom". I would love comments!

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[TNTOS]

NaNoWriMo is starting next month. Who's going to participate?

I am again, for the fifth year running. Problem is, I haven't exactly decided what I am going to write. I have several ideas, but nothing definite yet.

I still have two weeks to decide, though, which is enough time to figure out what I am going to write, as well as to finish up my current project so it doesn't interfere with my NaNo project.

-TNTOS-

[Jedi Knight Krazy]

So this is new. Instead of talking about what I'd like to write, I'm getting off to actually writing. Here's hoping that my ambitions with the "The Adventures of Mary" serial turns out well, but first, I'm embarked on a few other projects. Among them, I've started "Lois and Clark Stories" and another epic called "The Immortals". Installments for both can be found on my blog. On another note, I wrote a poem called "Autumn Phantom". I would love comments!

24601

Actual writing? What is this sorcery?

Anyways, I posted a quick review of Immortals in a comment on your post - looking forward to seeing more!

[Velox]

NaNoWriMo is starting next month. Who's going to participate?

-TNTOS-

I'm actually planning to, for the first year. I've been meaning to for like 4 years now, but never been able to for various reasons. This year I've got an idea I like, and I have some good progress on a rough outline. I've been really busy with school and other things, though, so here's hoping I can do it. Even if I don't finish, it'll be a good experience to try.

@ Kraggh, It's awesome that you've been writing so much recently. I'll try to give a review to some things, but no promises...I'm behind on my reviews as it is. =/ Gehh I just need a break where I can review a bunch of stories I've been meaning to. XD

[Jean Valjean]

November, right? Since I've finally taken up my cross of writing something worthwhile every day, I'll consider it, especially because I can think of something around 50,000 words. Specifically, I think I will rewrite the entire pilot episode of "The Adventures of Mary" under the premise that it will be much longer than the rest of the episodes in the serial.

Meanwhile, even with all this writing lately I failed to respond to the fortnightly writing prompt. Don't worry, it wasn't because I didn't have the energy. The theme of "pathfinding" can have such a profound meaning that extended far past the 1000 word limit. On Word, it's somewhere over 6,000. I realized that I wanted a fuller story. So as not to confuse this story with other pieces that were submitted for the contest, I have withheld from publishing it and won't put it in CoT. It will be available tomorrow morning (October 25) on Kraggh's Works. I would recommend it on the basis that it is a complete adventure with a beginning and an end instead of a single impressionistic scene.

By the way, Velox, I know I've been reviewing and writing a lot, although I haven't been making claims for myself related to Ambage achievements. Maybe next weekend, though, I might figure out how to use Skype chat and participate in a write-off, although at this point I would like to clarify something: I don't write as an exercise anymore. The Ambage is meant to help improve aspiring writers, and I am aware that many people write simply as a workout. At this point, I will still try to keep in shape through your workshops where I can, but at this point I'm working a metaphorical intern. I'm not a true author, not yet, but I am still engaged in writing not for its own sake but to entertain readers and put out some serious work to represent me.

Speaking of which, I should bring up "The Adventures of Mary" again and emphasize that I truly am intending to go through with this with the primary intention of entertaining people on BZPower. Yes, on one hand it's still my pet project, but I really don't want it to feel that way. This coming Christmas, put it on your calendar to check out the Prologue.

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Edited by Jean Valjean, Oct 24 2012 - 12:10 PM.

[Velox]

Yep, NaNoWriMo is in November. But I don't see what's wrong with posting your Pathfinding story in COT -- that theme is over now, and by it's length alone it'll be obvious it's not a piece submitted for the contest. But up to you, obviously. I'm glad you wrote a story for the theme, though, even if it wasn't entered into the contest -- I definitely look forwared to reading it some time.

I'm not entirely sure what you mean, though -- the Ambage isn't simply just for aspiring writers, but for all writers. For example, many people consider Tolkien to be one of the, if not the, "best" writer(s) on BZPower, and I'd definitely agree that he's one of the best. Yet he still writes with us. Really, most of the Skype Ambage members I'd consider to be "good" writers (GSR, Grant-Sud, Aderia, Cederak, Nuile, LL, etc., etc.) The Ambage is meant to improve writers -- aspiring or not -- because every single author can improve. It's basically just supposed to bring a community of writers together, "good" or "bad", to write together, critique each other, etc. I'm not sure I'd agree that many people write simply as a workout (though I may be misinterpreting what you mean), but either way, the Ambage isn't meant to be a just place to go to learn how to write -- it's a place to go to become involved with a writing community and improve one's own writing.

On that note, I might as well shamelessly plug the Ambage here -- the Writers' Club of BZPower. As I just mentioned, it's for all writers, and is all about bringing writers together in a community and to help one another. With the various things the Ambage has to offer (Write-Offs, flash fiction contests, monthly writing prompts, achievements, and soon to come: workshops), it's a great tool to challenge oneself and improves one's own writing -- after all, every writer can improve, and even if you're not looking to exercise your writing, it's still a good practice to go out of one's comfort zone to strengthen one's writing abilities. Join today! (but remember to read through that whole topic!)

Anyway, good luck on all your writing projects, Kraggh. It's awesome that you've been writing (and reviewing) so much lately -- I'll try to reply to what I can, and I still have your Adventures of Mary on my list of "to-review", definitely before Christmas.

[Jean Valjean]

I don't want to put it on CoT because it has a certain quality that seems right in a sense more exclusively connected to the character of my blog. Also, if this short story ever makes it into the official canon of my writing (which it may), I would like to be able to more readily delete its online publication if it ever gets used in a greater work that enters a level of mainstream readership outside of BZPower.

What I meant to say with my later statements is that I don't wish for all of my writing to be affiliated with the Ambage (their affiliation being Kraggh's Works and the people who decide to enjoy my writing). I partake in it, but psychologically I make a distinction between different stories. There are simple things that aren't quite so personal, in which I will be willing to associate them with the Ambage. Then there are my projects, things that I take a bit more seriously and and work with in my fortress of solitude. These things stand on their own because they are projects that I see existing for a specific purpose. They have an identity that I just feel is removed from what the Ambage is. The focus of the Ambage is "improvement". That's nowhere in my mind when I write certain stories. I write these because I have a vision that I want to realize, and I take a leap of faith with my writing prowess. They don't come at all from my identity as a writer.

But that gets into something new completely, which is my opposition to labels. For now I think that this statement should suffice, but some day I will write an entry dedicated to explaining my thoughts here in full.

As far as applying these thoughts, I would just like to clarify that I have never officially spoken of my projects within Ambage topics and have never requested a review from a member, asides from you, but in your case I see it as peer revision for a story prior to publication. I will mention my work in this topic, as this is a place where we try to keep up with what each other is doing in-between the weeks we spend going our separate ways, each to his own solitude. Much like me. I don't know, but it has different philosophical notions, and I can only express a fraction of my thoughts here while remaining concise.

Anyway, the original point that I made, which you responded to, was that I am trying to distinguish some of my new material from minor skirmishes for the sake of writing. There are things such as writing prompts, which I still partake in from time to time, but those are all building toward something, to lead into something, to become something. There's and intention to go somewhere, and I decided that at this point I want to spend some time actually being "there". These aren't my BIG projects (someday I will publish my mega saga of the IDES, which some have joked will be larger than the Encyclopedia Britannica), but I'm now at the point where I'm working on visions.

This is going a little too far, however, because the way my thought process is going the natural step for my logic to take is to describe how writing fits into a purpose-driven life. While I would love to go on to make profound statements, I'm making this out to be far bigger than it really is.

The point still stands is that I recognize the Ambage for what it is and respect it. I will even try to participate as much as it is possible for me to participate. It brings something good to BZP, and it has been helpful in motivating me by creating a community of writers who have expectations in each other. It's great that it also recognizes the need for improvement. I approve of all these things and think highly of it, in fact enjoying it. It's just that improvement isn't central to me, and the Ambage isn't my target audience.

By the way, Velox, I might completely rewrite the Prologue I sent you to organize the scene better once NaNoWriMo starts, I which case I will send you the second draft. I'm glad for your enthusiasm and support.

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[Jedi Knight Krazy]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand narrowly saving this topic from extinction...

While reflecting on what makes endings good and bad (while trying to theorize, after playing Mass Effect 1, why so many people complain about the ending of Mass Effect 3. I could write a whole other post about the brilliant storytelling of ME1...), I realized that my first book doesn't have a very good ending. In the flashback's ending, the main character is presumed dead, his allies are scattered, and his cause is effectively lost. This flashback was originally planned to be later in the series, so you would know in advance how it would wind up (sort of like Revenge of the Sith), but after I restructured, it's the flashback for the first book and it's really a downer

Meanwhile, in the present-day timeline (which is futuristic of course), the heroes have won a couple of major defensive victories, but only with the help on an secret organization that's proven itself to be corrupt and immoral. Meanwhile, the main character's been captured and forced into service by that organization.

So for the flashback, I think I can actually get around the downer ending by cutting it off before it all goes wrong. The flashback in the next book takes place about a hundred years later, which means that you'll get some nice surprises as a new generation of characters returns to the place where it happened and they're just as surprised as the reader by what's happened in the past.

For the main timeline... I dunno. I tried to hold off the revelation of the organization's corruption to the next book, but it just doesn't work - if I hide the corruption, they're acting totally out of character and, for most of the scenes they're involved in, they're speaking to each other in private, so there's no reason to hide anything. The idea that I'm trying to make work currently is that the organization really doesn't want to ally with the heroes, and the fact that they help in the final battle of Book 1 is a victory in and of itself.

Does anyone have any other thoughts or suggestions? Unfortunately, giving more details on these scenarios would probably take a very long time (and have lots of spoilers!).

[Protohuman]

So which of the Britons on here are taking part in NaNoWriMo...?

[Jean Valjean]

I am not a Briton, but I took part and I'll be reaching 50k today. I'll continue to write, of course. Honestly, If I want to reach my goal I'm going to have to write about 7k per day for the rest of the month. The results, by the way, will be posted on my blog. As JKK put it: "What is this sorcery?"

EDIT: Well, it looks like I reached over 50k. Now I'm off to a final-lap sprint to get to my goal of 80k before it's all over.

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Edited by Jean Valjean, Nov 27 2012 - 10:55 AM.

[Jedi Knight Krazy]

(Trying to save this topic from certain death again)

So with the new COT Library, I'm rather inspired at the moment. I've actually just finished up a mental outline of Books 1a and 1b (probably need to rewrite the Heartbeat outline though), and I'll be writing that down as soon as I finish up this post Anybody else planning to post some stuff in COT Library? I'd be happy to read and review it as I'm much less busy than I have been in the past...

Edit: Oops! Looks like this topic has actually moved here: http://www.bzpower.c...=16#entry463835 I guess this one can be closed now?

Edited by Jedi Knight Krazy, Dec 22 2012 - 09:15 AM.

[-Windrider-]

Yeah, Velox and I decided to start fresh with this topic in OTC, partially because I thought that this topic was past revival already. Oops!

Anyway, the new topic is official and can be revived without consequence. Please continue over there!

 

Topic closed.