It’s tomorrow!

This day has gone like a mere breeze, and only now do I realize that… NaNo starts tomorrow!

Aaaaand I’m feeling like I’m NOT ready at all, which is both exciting and somewhat frightening as well, especially when taking into account the fact that the holiday that is Nov. 1st here will be kept (well, half of it) for college work. I seriously need to get my ass into gear by 7 am or something (I don’t plan on staying up past midnight today to write, unless it just happens–I know I’d probably be too tired already to be very productive), and write my first chapter to fully start to grasp my story. I’ve stacked on sencha green tea for the week, and I have spare coffee if I need it. Things should be good.

Well, no more planning for tonight, I guess. Now if only I could decide on what software to use to write! yWriter was great for typing a bit of an outline, but I don’t really feel like writing the actual novel with it. PowerWriter is great for the Wall of Silence, but since I don’t have that much planning and character designing done for Over Yonder, it’d be using a truck to go to the bakery 100 meters from home. RoughDraft… why not–I can organize my files in a better way than with OpenOffice anyway, and it’s light. TexNote Pro… is okay as well, and I had pleasure using it last year for Unsung Heroes. So it’ll probably be a tie between the latter two.

I’ll get to decide tomorrow early morning. Joy!

Enters Nessa

I just finished a one-page long phonetics transcription (which IS long, at my level, given it’s about the second time in my life I do this!), so I deserve a break. *breathes*

I thought it’d soon be time to introduce a character I hadn’t developed at much at first, but who’s starting to grow on me in the past days: Nessa, Althea’s mother. Granted, she wasn’t meant to be much at first, not even a bit of an antagonistic persona. Later on, I considered sending her along the path of either the mother proud of her mage child, or of the one who is totally against her daughter going to Hogwarts the Academy. It’s probably a bit cliché in itself, but fantasy as a whole is a genre full of clichés anyway, so I don’t care.

In the end, I have to thank my friend Johan for introducing me to that wonderful song from the Talented Mr Ripley OST, namely the Lullaby For Cain, which made me peruse the road of “and what if Nessa was so against magic, not only because it’s used in the war, but because she also lost family to it in the past”? It could fit very well, and explain why she fears Althea will be doomed as well. I’m even toying with the idea of an elder son of hers awakening as a mage, when Althea was a very young child, and ending up accidentally killing the second brother through it. Now let’s just hope I’m not going to name him Cain, because I swear this is what this song is pushing me to do.

In any case, I’ll have Nessa appear during the story. There’s no way I can leave her outside after she’s revealed all of that to me.

Tags: characters | nanowrimo | planning | writing

A couple of ideas

Jotting down a few things here before heading to class.

Magic:

- Given to men by one of the Gods. The restrictions were added by one of his younger siblings (why not a Goddess), less powerful, who couldn’t undo it, but managed to temper it through regulations (the price to pay).

- A period of non-use of magic (perhaps due to a temporary cult’s beliefs) –> mages gradually forgot what the price was, and now that they’re pushed to use their skills way too much, it reappears with full strength.

- Using the Power for war purposes had always been forbidden (men themselves said that, given the high price to pay when too much magic was used), but this also has become more of a tale than a real rule. Lots of mages still remember it. Lots also don’t care that much anymore.

The Gods:

- No intervention from them. They have abandoned the world. (Note to self: magic =/= kaaru. Leave genetic manipulations out of it this time, m’kay? =D)

- Why did they departed? Did the cult forbidding magic have also forbidden their worshipping (since the Gods gave it to men)?

- Is that so important to have the Gods often mentioned, since it’s Althea’s story that matters anyway?

The War:

- Must be long and important enough to have ‘justified’ the need for magic again. A war of dynasty? A century-long vendetta? Must not be religious, because of the magic involved.

- For quite some time, the war has been quite a stalemate, hence the use of magic to get the upper hand and put an end to it.

- Why did King Aubrey didn’t crush down his opponents at once? How come they had mages to stand up against him as well? –> Something fishy going on here, perhaps simply a traitor or spy in the palace who brought the ‘news’ back to the enemy, so that both sides could train their troops at the same time.

Tags: nanowrimo | planning | writing

2006 NaNovel Profiling

I’m going to reuse here the “novel profiling sheet” I had gathered for NaNo 2005; it was posted on the sci-fi forum, but I doubt one would absolutely need to write sci-fi to be able to summarize her NaNovel with this sheet. Little tweaks here and there were enough to turn it into an appropriate one.

Novel Title: Over Yonder / The Price to Pay (can’t decide at the moment, although Over Yonder seems to stick to me more)
Estimated length: 50k at the very least, of course.
Your writing experience: Short stories (a few published in fanzines), blog articles, technical manuals (it is writing!), the huge project of creating a whole world to host the Wall of Silence trilogy I’ve been working on, and, of course, NaNo 2005!
New genre? Or old favorite?: Fantasy. Both new genre and old favorite. I generally like fantasy, but so far all my attempts at writing it have turned to sci-fi, or at the least science-fantasy.
Any sub-Genres?: Magic Realism, combined to High Fantasy.
Gonna publish?: Who knows! This year again, it’ll all depend on the final first draft, and if I deem it worth editing.
Cliches/archetypes you’re including (not necessarily a bad thing!): Mages. Battlefields. Love story. Sword fights.
Cliches/archetypes you’re avoiding: Quest to save the world. Prophecy. Heroes travelling during a good chunk of the novel. Dragons.
Theme(s): Coming of age. Young love blossoming. What it takes to become a mage.
What we (the readers) will learn: That there’s a price to pay for everything, especially for the highest powers. That what one does for the good of the nation may very well become what will cause its doom. That abusing magic will only result in the sacrifice of one’s loved ones.
Main character(s): Althea, Idan, Lady Amaryllis.
Secondary characters: The Archmage, Taran, King Aubrey.
Protagonist(s): Althea, Idan.
Antagonist(s): Magic itself. War in general. The King and his mad goals, to a lesser extent.
Setting: (names undecided yet) An imaginary world… it hasn’t yet come back to me to reveal me more about how it’s shaped! All I know is that I’m going to name all my cities and villages Providence, Mercy, Perdition, and stuff like that. I just happen to like it–at the moment. Maybe this will change by November. I’m also fiddling with the idea of having it be a cursed world, cursed by the Gods perhaps, and condemned to reenact the same conflicts over and over.
Rough geography: Focus placed on two countries at war, and more specifically on Providence, the capital of one of them, harbouring an Academy of magics where the heroine will be sent.
Races/inhabitants: Humans. Mostly. If there’s something else in it, I’m not sure I’m going to make much use of it anyway. Perhaps only as legends and old folkstales.
Fantasy aspects: Medieval-like setting. Magic (and magic duels and fights). Brutal wars and cunning rulers. Curses. Ancient, absent, half-forgotten Gods.
Conflict: The heroine vs. those who want to mold her into their views. Impossible and condemned love. Hurting the one she loves–the more the love, the more the hurt.
Obstacles in the journey: An odd curse hitting people and causing them to go ‘over yonder’, meaning losing their minds (emotions and memories, and finally the sheer will to live). The old rule of the mages to never get involved in relationships. The ongoing war that won’t seem to stop.
Expected resolution: Nothing good can get out of this. I’m not sure yet of whom I’ll kill, but I’m toying with the idea that there are fates worse than death, and going ‘over yonder’ is one of them, at least for the victim’s relatives. Althea will find her answers, but to get them, she’ll have to pay the price first. Again, it’s not a nice price.

Tags: nanowrimo | novel profiling | planning | writing

Magna Carta for 2006

I’ve had a look at the Magnae Cartae I posted on this blog last year, and I’ve realized that they haven’t changed, so I’m not going to repost them here… However, it’s the perfect moment for a reminder of what my Cartae were, so feel free to have a look at them (again).

Tags: magna carta | nanowrimo | writing