Re: WHO WANTS TO TALK ABOUT NANOWRIMO????

by **Areada** Fri Nov 02, 2012 10:49 pm

DON'T LOOK BACK. DON'T EDIT. *spazz*

Just think of Dory from Finding Nemo. Just sing the song. "Just keep writing, just keep writing, just keep writing writing writing..."

by Nayaby Fri Nov 02, 2012 10:54 pm

But I wasn't totally certain what I was doing! Now that I am, I won't be editing much (I hope xP) until the end of the month.

by Nayaby Sat Nov 03, 2012 1:15 am

I have to admit, Legitimate Businesspeople is the weirdest crime syndicate I've ever come up with. They seem to be very... friendly. And much less ruthless that you'd expect. They're kind of like Robin Hood, except they give to themselves. Basically, their one rule is not to steal from anyone poorer than you. Also, killing is discouraged. They're headquarters is Port Nowhere, a travelling space station that's never at the same coordinates twice.

by **Areada** Sat Nov 03, 2012 12:00 pm

That's kind of awesome! I love the idea...

Speaking of, this year I'm also working with some strange antagonists. I've got an empire that prefers as few casualties as possible when they conquer other countries. They genuinely believe that by uniting the world they can help people...

by Nayaby Sat Nov 03, 2012 12:38 pm

Antagonists that are questionable in their "evilness" are great! As are protagonists that are questionable in their "goodness." And of course, your empire reminds me of something analogous in the real world but... I'll hold my political beliefs to myself.

by **Areada** Sat Nov 03, 2012 12:44 pm

Quite honestly, when I was developing this idea, I thought of several governments, past and present that felt...similar. I felt it was an idea that would feel...almost pretentious. I wanted that as a setup. Because honestly, they're not that questionable in their evilness about halfway into the book. xD and any similarity to almost every government ever will be completely and thoroughly decimated.

EDIT: Actually, that's just what this story is about. Decimating things. Lots of things.

by Nayaby Sat Nov 03, 2012 2:46 pm

I've found I'm most productive between 1am and 3am... hmm.

And yay for reducing things by one tenth of their mass!

by Nayaby Sat Nov 03, 2012 3:58 pm

What's something funny to smuggle? I don't think drugs would fit the context of the story. In Firefly they smuggle cattle, but I don't think there's a meat shortage. Water would be really awesome in another setting, but it doesn't work in my sci-fi setting because there are plenty of alien worlds with water (and then its too serious, since a water shortage would become a main factor on the story).

Ideally it should be a valuable resource that's kind of silly. Like strawberries or coffee. Something the Commonwealth would put a restriction on, likely due to limited supplies, but is wanted all over the place.

by **Areada** Sat Nov 03, 2012 5:24 pm

CHOCOLATE

Maybe vanilla extract?

by Nayaby Sat Nov 03, 2012 5:32 pm

Cocoa beans isn't a bad idea.

Actually, you gave me a great idea!

A whole plethora of different types of chocolate. Milk, white, dark, caramel-filled...

There's a whole black-market chocolate scandal going on ^_^

It works because, for some strange reason, chocolate only grows on Earth. Attempts to cultivate it elsewhere have all failed miserably. But chocolate is enjoyed by all sorts of species. With the spread of humans around the universe, the entire equatorial area of Earth is covered in cocoa fields. The sale of chocolate is strictly monitored by the Commonwealth.

I should mention that the Commonwealth is actually a resurgent British Empire. My story takes place in the real world, thousands of years in the future. Humans are the rabbits of the universe...

Earth may or may not be renamed Britannia. That's either a great idea or extremely obvious and lame.

by **Areada** Sat Nov 03, 2012 5:46 pm

xD Hilarious! chocolatey hilariousness!

I love it

I have a kind of weird character musing question.

When it comes to betrayal, what do you think is...like...interesting/unique. Like, characters 'switch sides' all the time, but what would make a betrayal really unique and fresh?

by Nayaby Sat Nov 03, 2012 5:55 pm

Hmm, that's a good question.

I'd say you'd want it to be a shock to the reader. Play up on the future betrayer's relationships to the characters they're going to betray. If you're writing in first person, make your narrator come across as respecting or even admiring the character that will betray him/her. Drop a hint here and there, but nothing that will make the reader suspect a betrayal will occur, just things that will make the reader think "so that's why that happened!" when it finally does occur.

It doesn't count as a spoiler any more, since everyone knows it, so I'll talk about Snape from Harry Potter. It was shocking when he killed Dumbledore. I didn't particularly like him (as a person, I loved him as a character!), but I had a firm belief that he was a good guy. Of course, why he killed Dumbledore is explained later, but at the time it looked like a betrayal. It was really... intense.

by Elfie Sat Nov 03, 2012 6:00 pm

Nayaby wrote:Hmm, that's a good question.

I'd say you'd want it to be a shock to the reader. Play up on the future betrayer's relationships to the characters they're going to betray. If you're writing in first person, make your narrator come across as respecting or even admiring the character that will betray him/her. Drop a hint here and there, but nothing that will make the reader suspect a betrayal will occur, just things that will make the reader think "so that's why that happened!" when it finally does occur.

It doesn't count as a spoiler any more, since everyone knows it, so I'll talk about Snape from Harry Potter. It was shocking when he killed Dumbledore. I didn't particularly like him (as a person, I loved him as a character!), but I had a firm belief that he was a good guy. Of course, why he killed Dumbledore is explained later, but at the time it looked like a betrayal. It was really... intense.

Well you said everything I was about to post but better. Not knowing itÄs going to happen makes it much more interesting. And I think making the person seem incapable of doing such a thing helps, too. With hints, of course, so people can figure out why it happened after it happens, if/when they go back to re-read it. But not so obvious that if I pick it up again years later and re-read, that it is THAT obvious, like I should have known the first time. No big hints, you know?

by **Areada** Sat Nov 03, 2012 6:01 pm

Yeah. I'm sort of working with a very...unique situation right now. Or at least I hope it is. But I'm really worried I'm not going to be able to do justice to my idea. It's a very ambitious character choice. Because, as you all bring up, you don't want your foreshadowing to kill the surprise. But for my character, the betrayal would be an absolute spur of the moment thing. So what I need to do is reinforce their position before so much that when it comes time for a decision, it's shocking when they go against their former situation. I don't know. But then I need to be able to foreshadow the parts of them that enable them to make that controversial choice.

Argh. This is like 'the big thing' for this book. I'm so terrified it won't work out, or it will end up a cliche or everyone will see it coming.

by Nayaby Sat Nov 03, 2012 11:24 pm

To quote Miss Frizzle, "Take chances! Make mistakes! Get messy!" Areada, do your stuff! I'm certain you of all people will be able to pull something like this off. If you're terrified that it won't work, your indecisiveness will show in your writing. Put everything you've got into it and don't worry about cliches. There are so many countless million stories that everything is a trope. That doesn't make it cliche though Smile

That reminds me, is The Unmentionable Black Hole of Time.com still censored? Testing, testing, one, two, three.

At the rate I'm going, I know I won't finish by the end of November. I take quality over quantity too seriously. I am giving myself a deadline though. My rough draft must be complete by the end of the year or else I'm going to leave my gaming laptop at home next semester as well.

It's not the most important thing right now, but I'm stuck on the title. It should either be Elation, the name of the ship Tobias and company fly in, or Starborn, the name of one of the main characters. Both titles work...

I also need some way to properly describe my aliens. The format of my story is this: Tobias, the captain, is being interrogated by Katherine, some sort of special agent (I'm not clear on the details yet...), about the events of the story. The story is told through first-person narration by Toby, and at the end of every chapter he stops telling the story and Katherine asks some questions. I'm actually really enjoying the format I've set out for the story. it's something pretty refreshing and enjoyable for me to write.

Buuut, my problem is this: Katherine isn't some uneducated and untraveled cocoa farmer on Earth. She knows all about alien species, and doesn't need Toby to describe them to her. I've tried to work around this in ways like this:

"Ta bolted in on us, eyes beaming with excitement. I'd hazard a guess that she was smiling too, but I've always had trouble with Phiell faces. Those beaks are tough to read."

I've established that she has a beak. That's all. I don't know how to explain that the beak takes up a rather large portion of her face, and her eyes are forward-facing despite her avian form. Her beak is most similar to a parrot or a lovebird, but not as sharp. And after that I don't know how to describe her plumage, which is primarily a light blue, with a tinge of green on the ends of her tail-feathers and fingers, and some orange and red around her face. And her hands are similar to birds' feet, scaled and taloned, but she trims her talons so they aren't long and curved, but more like fingernails, and she regularly applies lotion to her hands to keep her scales from getting really dry.

Then there's Moosh. I have such a clear image in my mind of what he looks like, but it's difficult to describe him using my format. He's a very skinny lizard-humanoid with spindly limbs. His hands each have three fingers and a thumb, all the same length with a little sucker on the tip. He has a chameleon-like head, complete with googly eyes, and his tail is totally prehensile and as tall as he is. His neck is kind of long and bendy, enough to see around corners without having to move much of his body.

Is anybody an artist? xD I would be so ever grateful if somebody could sketch my aliens, since my drawing skills could be mistaken for an ancient archaeological find...

by Nayaby Sun Nov 04, 2012 12:49 am

I'm a horrible, horrible, horrible artist. Anyway, this is kind of a rough idea of what Ta's face looks like. Those are feathers on her forehead, by the way. Not chicken-skin-flap-things. (And after this abomination, I don't think I'll even attempt to draw Moosh...)

WHO WANTS TO TALK ABOUT NANOWRIMO???? - Page 4 Photo10

WHO WANTS TO TALK ABOUT NANOWRIMO???? - Page 4 Photo10

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by Lycanthrope Sun Nov 04, 2012 5:11 am

Hmmmm. I'm not much of a long-term writer - cannot see myself actually writing a novel. First year college life is really hectic for me - just survived my first 2 of 3 mid-terms. But I'll be more than obliged to critique your stories - not edit, I have horrible grammar.

by **Areada** Mon Nov 05, 2012 12:47 am

Hey Lycan! Critiques are very much welcome. : D

Ergh, college. Hang in there. The second semester isn't as bad as the first, but then the third one has potential to be nasty.

by **Areada** Tue Nov 13, 2012 12:13 pm

I need some opinions.

I have a character. They aren't that important. Should I have them be a nice person and die, or a bad person and try to sell someone to slavers? Either way, something bad happens.

by Nayaby Tue Nov 13, 2012 2:11 pm

Without context, I can't really say what your story needs more. Does your story already have innocent people dying? If so, one more may not be necessary. Making this character into a despicable human trafficker may be a better choice. I'd say the decision should probably come to whether or not enough nice people die over the course of your story. Also, whether or not you'd like the audience to empathize with or dislike the character.

by **Areada** Tue Nov 20, 2012 11:26 pm

The guy will just die. I figured out a different way for this plot to go. Also, I just killed another guy in my head. I thought of a kind of cool and edgy new thing for Yylande...

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I just had this idea for the story that starts to make a lot of sense regarding the world. The most expensive resource in this world is this crystal substance that is mined very few places, and difficult to locate. There is a lot of it in Arachania (so much so that there are actually ancient pieces of architecture built from it), and I was trying to think why it was so precious. Originally it just meant wealth but then I realized that maybe...it was made into lamps. Maybe it magnified the firelight inside a crystal lamp to be much brighter than normal glass. In a world that is blacker than black at night and dusky during the day, LIGHT would be an incredibly precious resource. So the demand for the crystal is really stemming from the need for light.

by Nayaby Sun Nov 25, 2012 9:08 pm

Ah Unobtainium! One of the coolest tropes Very Happy

I approve.

So, I've been working on both my sci-fi story and genie story. You see, I have what I have coined as "Writer's ADD" so I've been switching back and forth between the two stories. It's actually a great idea for me!

Anyway, as much as I like my genie story, I have trouble writing in a modern context :/ It's just not as fun as medieval or sci-fi. But the whole idea of the story is that it takes place in modern times.

by **Areada** Sun Nov 25, 2012 9:29 pm

I had this idea for a semi surreal road trip story. I can't quite decide what is up with it, though. The circumstances surrounding the road trip are supposed to be vague, but I need to know them, you know? There needs to be a point, and even if the character's aren't sure, I NEED TO BE.

Is it enough to simply deem something 'important' ? I kind of want the readers to guess or elaborate on the purpose themselves. It's part quest, part odyssey, part personal and psychological, part 'great purpose' and spiritual. I want it to be calm, somewhat, but also important. It's not a race against time, but it's still very important. You know? Quiet. Character-driven. Great purpose.

Dunno. It's just a thought at this point. It's all founded on one character relationship gimmick, so I'm kind of excited.

by Nayaby Sun Nov 25, 2012 9:37 pm

They're Soviet Union sleeper agents that have been activated. They don't know it, but they're going to assassinate somebody. Maybe?

by **Areada** Sun Nov 25, 2012 9:58 pm

Nah, it's more a character-relationship driven story, with a spiritual frame story. I think they need to deliver a package, actually.

This begs the question, what is the point of the character gimmick though... why would they need to exchange something for the means to take the journey? The price is actually quite cruel, so WHY? *sighs*

I have homework to do...

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