Writing • Page 16

This is awesome and I can't wait to hear more!

 

My story is set in a fantasy world where different spheres/planes exist. There is an immortal character trapped in one of these spheres, desperately trying to escape so as to seek revenge on those that banished him there. His repeated efforts to escape tear at the fabric between worlds, occasionally loosing demons into the realms of mortals as they slip through the tears. Eventually, his attempts bring about a cataclysmic event in which two of these spheres on the mortal plane collide and one consumes the other, creating a grotesque combination of the two.

That's the large-scale behind the scenes kinda stuff. There are 5 main POVs in the first book told from the mortal sphere, following the lives of 5 very different characters as they exist without the knowledge of the events unfolding in the upper spheres.

It's all been in my head for like 5 years, just gotta sit down and put pen to paper.

 

Sounds amazing. I'd read the hell out of a series like this!

 

Thanks! Now I just need to start it haha.

 

Anyone trying to fit in some writing during this holiday break? I'm not doing much and just hanging at home in NY with the fam, so I'm gonna work a goal of 10 pages this week.

Also sweet brag, my girlfriend got me for xmas a membership to The Writer's Center, a literary community in the DC area. With the membership comes discounted writing courses, (on fiction, novel-writing, poetry, publishing, etc), workshops, books, and theatre tickets. Really cool opportunity that I can't wait to start utilizing.

 

that sounds like the best gift ever

 

I’m working on too much, but trying to first get my YA fantasy out of the way.

 

So while all the crazy stuff is going on in the heavenly sphere, I've got 5 main characters in the mortal realms. They have working titles: Daughter, Zealot, Linguist, Fighter, and Hunter.

The Daughter lives in a remote city with her father. Her mother and younger sister were killed in a raid by the barbarians that roam the territories that border her city. Her father is ex-military and lost an arm in combat. Still, due to the dangers posed by raids, her father has taught her to fight so that she can protect herself if need be. In her city, there are wealthy merchants that own slaves that are beings (working title: Angels) from another sphere (long ago, their sphere collided with the human sphere and the latter consumed the former, displacing all of the Angels in the human sphere). She sees the unjust way in which these slaves are treated and feels compassion for them, and feels compelled to fight for their freedom, whatever that may look like.

The Zealot is a high ranking officer in a foreign empire that built its foundations on religion and worship of the old gods while revering a High Pontifex as the ultimate authority in the mortal realms. She rose through the ranks quickly thanks to the connections her parents have in the upper echelon of her city's society. She is tasked with her first mission, but finds it hard to gain the respect of the soldiers placed under her command due to her lack of field experience. The empire has gathered intelligence of an ancient artifact that is buried far north in the mainland of their sworn enemies. They believe that if they can get to it first, they can use whatever power it may possess to take back the lands that their ancestors lost long ago. Her mission is to recover the artifact.

The Linguist has a dark past that he is running from. He used to be a military man that received accolades for his skills with languages in addition to combat, the first in his order to do so. His superiors used his language skills to communicate with a primitive race of people in order to find the location of what they believed to be immeasurable wealth, unbeknownst to him as a mere translator. The primitives were destroyed and their treasures hoarded, to his horror. He fled the nation and took up the life of a scholar while changing his name, pledging to learn as many languages as he can and use that knowledge so that it can never be used for evil again, only good. He travels the lands with his apprentice, always learning new languages and perfecting his craft, while forever looking over his shoulder in fear of his former order finding him.

The Fighter is a draft-dodging street urchin. He drinks recklessly and dwells in the slums of a major city. He takes part in prize fights organized by the local slumlord, who receives a cut of the purse and in return, gives him refuge and immunity from the soldiers that periodically sweep through the slums for recruitment. He brings the slumlord money and the slumlord protects him. Unknown to him is that he possesses an innate power (working title: the Sight) that gives him advanced reflexes, senses, and strength. It's why he's never lost a fight.

Lastly, the Hunter is part of an order that possesses the Sight and hunts out other individuals (mostly children) with the Sight so as to recruit them to their order before they can be used by foreign operatives. She rose quickly for her age, and her branch of the order deals with seeking others like her, while the other two branches are composed of scribes and the Mavens. There are only 5 Mavens, and they are the most powerful individuals with the Sight. Their mission to is protect the Prophet-King, who is really a figurehead of the kingdom while the real power lies in a small council of elders who run things behind the scenes. The order has received details of the location of a hideout where children with the Sight are being safeguarded before they can be snatched up by her superiors. Her mission is to seek out this refuge and infiltrate it.

THIS SUMMER, THEIR WORLDS WILL COLLIDE.

Or whatever. Stuff obviously happens that force their paths to cross here and there. I don't think the Zealot makes it through the first book, and the Fighter was of the least importance initially and was actually going to be scrapped altogether, but I managed to find a purpose for him in later books.

Thoughts? Comments? Threats? Anything too trite or cliche?

 

Mine is slice of life YA fiction. I need to work on a better summary, but here’s the gist:

Ash and Liv were best friends and had plans to start a band together and get famous. When Ash’s parents divorce and her mom moves her to New York, they fall out of touch. Two years later, Liv is shocked to hear her former friend’s song on the radio. While Ash is blowing up as the Next Big Thing, Liv has been playing in basements and working at a coffee shop. She listens to the EP at her bandmates’ insistence and realizes one of the songs is about her. The girls get back in contact and realize their feelings were always more than friendship, but with Ash’s burgeoning career hanging over them, can they act on them? Or will the industry they always dreamed of being a part of tear them apart?

 

hi everyone, so this is going to be the start of a really random post but I'm hoping ~*someone*~ could help me out.

Back on AbsolutePunk I was a pretty active lurker/occasional poster (was v shy in jr high- even online) especially in the writers thread. There was one user whose poetry I LOVED but for the life of me can't remember their user name or the name of their word press (this was I want to say circa 2009-2010).

All I remember was they had a pic of this image of frank ohara as their icon (attached) and I believe was some from where in Pennsylvania.

Anywho, I read their writing all the time as a 14/15 year old in high school, and still think about their critiques sometimes. I'm 24 years old now, majored in english at penn state and would love to read their poetry again if anyone has their wordpress.

 

also, my name on absolutepunk was ApricotChick :)

 

Didnt know this thread existed but I just saw it while trying to write so I figured I'd post. For the month of December I've been writing 500 words a day of a novel I've been working on. Not a ton for some people, but really good for me and I'm pretty proud that I've almost made it all the way through.

How often do y'all generally write?

 

First day of the new year. I sat down and loosely fleshed out the complete story arc of one of my five main characters for the book I've meaning to write for 5 or so years. Just kinda wrote a couple pages of notes. I sat down with a beginning and ending to the arc in mind, but I was surprised by much of the middle that formulated.

Does that ever happen to you guys?

 

Oh, I forgot to post here the other day...

I was able to get my book compiled, and ready to publish on the 30th. However, I currently don't have a bank account set up so I wasn't able to officially publish my book through Amazon on the 30th. Once I get that sorted, I will publish it for real, but as far as I'm concerned (a lie for my OCD riddled brain) is that my book was still published on December 30th, 2018.

Also, it went from 20 poems (with 20 pictures to 32 (with 0 pictures). I guess as Thanos would say, it was "perfectly balanced" so really not much was lost.

 

If you don't mind me asking, how much attention does publishing something like this through amazon generally get? I wrote a small collection of stories last year and hadn't planned to publish it at all but seeing this post made me wonder if it would be worth it to try to put that together. If anyone has any experience with this, I'd love the input.

 

I don't know, it's my first time publishing through them.

However looking through one of the steps of putting together the book, they mentioned something about pushing the book out to physical stores. So I would imagine Amazon has a far reach when it comes to book sales when publishing through them compared to other publishing platforms.

As for the second part, I would definitely publish those collections of short stories. It would be a great way to reach out to potential readers.

 

Thanks, I'm starting to think that I will. Are you doing any push on social media or anything like that? I have very little knowledge of that sphere and have no idea if that is necessary or not.

 

I might when it gets officially published.

Although, I'm in the same boat as you when it comes to self marketing. I don't know much about it, but there are guides to follow. I just got to be careful with marketing though because being too pushy might be annoying, and might make me look like a spambot.

Still though, publishing will be very exciting, and I'll be sure to push it when it's out. I'd be too stoked not to, especially with it being my first official book.

 

Since Mondays are my days off, I'm making it a point to spend intentional time with my notes working on the story outline. Today I finished the arc for the second out of five characters in the book, and started on the third one. I'm pretty excited with how a narrative is starting to formulate. I'm also going to be tackling some pretty hefty social issues with some of my characters, which I never expected to do, but I'm looking forward to the prospects.

 

Ok kinda got on a roll and finished the third character's arc. Only two left, and one of them I planned out long ago so that one shouldn't be too hard. Then a few minor characters to fill in the gaps, and we've got an actual story.

Also this song from the new Black Mirror episode really got me in the creative mood:

 

What are some of your tips and tricks for getting inspired to write? I used to crank out 3-4 comedy sketches a week in college and now I haven't written one since November.

 

Taking a walk with rich immersive ambient or other atmospheric music. Listening to youtube clips about creativity and the power of art sounds lame, but sometimes incites motivation in me, even if i just play it while eating dinner or something. Some people like to write while drunk or stoned, but too much hurts the flow. I think you can tap into a creative headspace while high, but sometimes word recollection is hindered. Anyway, I also like to remove all distractions so I try to write away from home if i can.

 

Be creative and the writing will come. Take a drive and sing loudly. Watch a movie you love. Read a book. Enjoy nature. Put together a collage of magazine clippings. Take pictures.

It’s all the same well. You can’t write empty and you can’t refill it with writing.

 

Since I'm writing a fantasy book, before I sit down to write I'll venture over to the fantasy section of the bookstore that's next to where I like to sit and work. I'll randomly grab like 3-4 books off of the shelf, read the synopsis on the back, flip it open to a random place and read a paragraph or two, and then put it back. Sounds weird but just dipping my toes into other worlds briefly before I jump into my own helps me out.

 

Alright, completed all the story arcs for my 5 main characters. Now I just have to chronologically arrange them so that they make sense time-wise, which will be tricky. Comes out to 28 chapters, before adding in a few minor character chapters here and there.