I've come to something of a decision. After much deliberation, I've decided to give up this life of wanton materialism and whoring to join a Tibetan monastery and embrace a culture of spirituality and devotion.
Okay, no, that's not the decision. But that'd be cool, too.
I'm splitting the story in two.
I should have done it ages ago but when I planned the thing out (insofar as I planned it, I mean), I put these two ideas together and have been reluctant to tear them apart. They seemed to belong together, and I thought that if the two storylines met in the third act, I could pull it off. I thought I could make it work. I can't. What I've noticed (all too belatedly, I'll admit), is that these are two completely different stories. The only things they have in common, besides the spunky hero, is that they're in the same genre, and frankly, that's not enough. Even if it was, even if they weren't so different, putting them together inflates the story to an insane degree; there was no way it would work as one novel, which is what I want Out of Tadara to remain. And even if I didn't, even if I thought serialization was okay (I seriously considered, for a short while, slitting the story into six considerably shorter novels, but have since gotten over it), the SEY storyline is by fall a smaller story. It would, in these six novels, have remained the ghostly storyline, showing up only to remind you it wasn't completely over, yet. Unfinished business, and all.
ELKN tracks a a journey that spans a continent by foot; SEY hardly ever leaves the (albeit immense) city; ELKN deals in discovery, both inner and outer, and although SEY is set in a city that can be reasonably explored to a great measure, it's not that story. It's not a tourist's guide to Deo Nazaar. The characters (most of them, at least) know who and where they are (literally and figuratively), and they know on which side of the main conflict they'll fall.
However, even if I were willing to overlook all that, all the differences between the two, the greatest reason for the split is simply this: Out of Tadara is a story about the struggle of a small group (points for originality, I think) in getting out of Tadara. It has to be a monumental, nigh impossible task, or it wouldn't be interesting, and taking a reader out of there in the second chapter (when SEY is introduced) would diminish the weight of the mission.
So, SEY's chucked. I'm turning it into its own (albeit shorter) novel, and frankly, I'm looking forward to it; now I don't have to harangue myself over when and how the two stories will converge. Honestly, getting ELKN to Deo Nazaar was such a Deus Ex Machina, I'm surprised I didn't do this sooner.
Also, given that I don't really like single-focus stories (I like jumping around, a bit, not always staying with the same group), I'll have to come up with something to fill the gap. For both stories.
Well, it's a work in progress.
-- Cris
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Friday, September 7, 2007
The Second Post (or, "On Writing")
I'm having a hard time finding the right environment for writing.
Sometimes, my room suffices. Others, it's too small, cramped, claustrophobic, cluttered, dark... essentially, just no good. Sometimes, I'll write outside, using pen and paper (I've tried moving my entire PC to the backyard deck; it doesn't work); others, though admittedly not for a while, the loud clacking of my electronic typewriter is just the thing. I have notebooks up to my gills, note pads, and sometimes, I'll sketch to get the juices flowing. Outline. Don't outline. Maps. No maps. Write scenes where your characters meet at a coffee shop, using only dialogue, to get a better grip on their unique idiosyncrasies. I can never find a system I'm happy with for long.
Sometimes, I think Writer's Block is a weakness of the mind; others, it's as insurmountable as Everest (for me; yes, Everest has been summited, but let's get real: it'll never be done by me). Sometimes, my mood is such that nothing can deter me; others, I get in funks so deep writing doesn't even make sense, let alone feel like a genuine pursuit. I snap out of it. I always do. But those are hours, or even days, lost during which I could have produced something. Maybe not something great, or even something that would have lasted ("kill your darlings" says Stephen King, meaning you should never fall so in love with a word, a phrase, a whole passage or chapter that you can't afford to cut it if necessary), but something, nonetheless.
The story evolves. Originally, it was about Ethan, a magical boy who has to get himself home. The main milieu, Voyoo, was a medieval kingdom, the likes of which you've seen a dozen times in fantasy story. Also, he was a vampire. (That didn't last long). I'm happy with where the story has gone, and I'm eager to see where it will lead, but sometimes I fear I'll never be satisfied with what I have, that the story will continue to evolve, ever changing, never settling long enough to stay a single book. This, my greatest fear. I'll never stop writing it, because it'll never be done.
Well.
That's enough for now, I suppose.
I should probably get to writing.
-- Cris
Sometimes, my room suffices. Others, it's too small, cramped, claustrophobic, cluttered, dark... essentially, just no good. Sometimes, I'll write outside, using pen and paper (I've tried moving my entire PC to the backyard deck; it doesn't work); others, though admittedly not for a while, the loud clacking of my electronic typewriter is just the thing. I have notebooks up to my gills, note pads, and sometimes, I'll sketch to get the juices flowing. Outline. Don't outline. Maps. No maps. Write scenes where your characters meet at a coffee shop, using only dialogue, to get a better grip on their unique idiosyncrasies. I can never find a system I'm happy with for long.
Sometimes, I think Writer's Block is a weakness of the mind; others, it's as insurmountable as Everest (for me; yes, Everest has been summited, but let's get real: it'll never be done by me). Sometimes, my mood is such that nothing can deter me; others, I get in funks so deep writing doesn't even make sense, let alone feel like a genuine pursuit. I snap out of it. I always do. But those are hours, or even days, lost during which I could have produced something. Maybe not something great, or even something that would have lasted ("kill your darlings" says Stephen King, meaning you should never fall so in love with a word, a phrase, a whole passage or chapter that you can't afford to cut it if necessary), but something, nonetheless.
The story evolves. Originally, it was about Ethan, a magical boy who has to get himself home. The main milieu, Voyoo, was a medieval kingdom, the likes of which you've seen a dozen times in fantasy story. Also, he was a vampire. (That didn't last long). I'm happy with where the story has gone, and I'm eager to see where it will lead, but sometimes I fear I'll never be satisfied with what I have, that the story will continue to evolve, ever changing, never settling long enough to stay a single book. This, my greatest fear. I'll never stop writing it, because it'll never be done.
Well.
That's enough for now, I suppose.
I should probably get to writing.
-- Cris
Thursday, September 6, 2007
The First Post
I've decided to keep a story journal, tracking the progress of my novel, Out of Tadara. I've done this before, but never with a great deal of regularity. Now, my hope is that keeping a record of what I've done and when will push me to write more than I do.
The story, a fantasy novel I've been tinkering with for something like two years (in its current incarnation; including previous drafts, it's been more like five years), tracks a group of people on their journey through new and wondrous lands fraught with magic and magical creatures, as well as fantastic perils, and ultimately, an ancient evil that threatens to destroy their very world. Yes, I know; it's frighteningly original. Don't be intimidated.
Out of Tadara follows, mainly, a young amnesiac who awoke on a river island in the middle of a vast, untamed continent. This is Tadara. (I don't much like the name, but nothing better has so far come to mind.) Four years later (present day) the boy is running along the southern shore of his island (well, I say "island", but really, it's the land formed when a river splits, runs for several miles, then converges again) when he finds a gravely injured girl, unconscious and washed up on shore. The girl, he will find out, is the last survivor of a party of travelers making their way across the ocean; they came too close to the forbidden continent and were attacked. The title, "Out of Tadara", refers to the boy's undertaking, wherein he tries, at the behest of gods or demons or his own insanity (don't misunderstand: he doesn't know who's talking to him. I do), to take the girl home. On the way, wackiness ensues. (I'd like to further detail the story, but for it to make much sense, it would entail a full-story synopsis, which I don't really feel like getting into.)
That's the main storyline (the "ELKN" storyline, named for the first initial of the four main characters, Ethan (the boy), Laran (the girl), Kara, and Nalyn, two natives they meet along the way); a secondary storyline (the "SEY" storyline, for Scamper, Errti, and Yui) follows a young boy, Scamper, as he tries to ensure that his friend, Errti, an unhatched dragon, won't be born into the life of servitude under which dragons currently suffer. Yui, a dragon rider, will be convinced to help.
Honestly, these are two vastly different stories which share only the world in which they take place; it's been suggested to me that I split them into two separate novels, and develop them thusly. I'd like to do that, and can see it working, but right now, I want to see if I can't make it work as one novel, albeit one really long novel. If I include every storyline I wanted (7 and counting, I think), I can't imagine the whole thing would be any shorter than 300,000 words, but realistically speaking, that won't happen. As it is, I'm cutting characters and storylines left and right, and it sucks. (One character, Caladora, had been around for two years when I gave her the axe.) But you do what you must, right?
Well. I could stay here and talk about the story for ages, but recently, I've found I spend more time talking about the story than I spend actually writing it. I'm hoping this blog will help remedy that.
My deadline for the first draft is Dec. 31st, 2007.
Wish me luck.
-- Cris
The story, a fantasy novel I've been tinkering with for something like two years (in its current incarnation; including previous drafts, it's been more like five years), tracks a group of people on their journey through new and wondrous lands fraught with magic and magical creatures, as well as fantastic perils, and ultimately, an ancient evil that threatens to destroy their very world. Yes, I know; it's frighteningly original. Don't be intimidated.
Out of Tadara follows, mainly, a young amnesiac who awoke on a river island in the middle of a vast, untamed continent. This is Tadara. (I don't much like the name, but nothing better has so far come to mind.) Four years later (present day) the boy is running along the southern shore of his island (well, I say "island", but really, it's the land formed when a river splits, runs for several miles, then converges again) when he finds a gravely injured girl, unconscious and washed up on shore. The girl, he will find out, is the last survivor of a party of travelers making their way across the ocean; they came too close to the forbidden continent and were attacked. The title, "Out of Tadara", refers to the boy's undertaking, wherein he tries, at the behest of gods or demons or his own insanity (don't misunderstand: he doesn't know who's talking to him. I do), to take the girl home. On the way, wackiness ensues. (I'd like to further detail the story, but for it to make much sense, it would entail a full-story synopsis, which I don't really feel like getting into.)
That's the main storyline (the "ELKN" storyline, named for the first initial of the four main characters, Ethan (the boy), Laran (the girl), Kara, and Nalyn, two natives they meet along the way); a secondary storyline (the "SEY" storyline, for Scamper, Errti, and Yui) follows a young boy, Scamper, as he tries to ensure that his friend, Errti, an unhatched dragon, won't be born into the life of servitude under which dragons currently suffer. Yui, a dragon rider, will be convinced to help.
Honestly, these are two vastly different stories which share only the world in which they take place; it's been suggested to me that I split them into two separate novels, and develop them thusly. I'd like to do that, and can see it working, but right now, I want to see if I can't make it work as one novel, albeit one really long novel. If I include every storyline I wanted (7 and counting, I think), I can't imagine the whole thing would be any shorter than 300,000 words, but realistically speaking, that won't happen. As it is, I'm cutting characters and storylines left and right, and it sucks. (One character, Caladora, had been around for two years when I gave her the axe.) But you do what you must, right?
Well. I could stay here and talk about the story for ages, but recently, I've found I spend more time talking about the story than I spend actually writing it. I'm hoping this blog will help remedy that.
My deadline for the first draft is Dec. 31st, 2007.
Wish me luck.
-- Cris
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