Posts Tagged ‘fantasy’

NaNoWriMo Day Two

Posted: November 3, 2010 in fantasy, Sharael, writing update
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And we have completed day two of NaNoWriMo. The total word count to date stands at 4433, which is ahead of schedule to hit the 50,000 word mark.

Of course there will be days when life gets in the way and you can’t get much or anything done and so a buffer is needed.

So far that word counts includes the prologue, chapter one and part of chapter three. Yes, the chapters aren’t very long – yet. My plan for NaNoWriMo is to write the rough first draft of the novel and not worry about the polish or the like. I’ll do that later. For me I find it much easier to do a rough draft that is about half the length of the story and when I do the polishing and rewriting I fill the story out. Rewrites seem to double the length of my stories by adding all the detail and descriptions that were missing in the rough draft.

The rough draft is a skeleton – it may mention that there is a small town by the sea and that is about it. The rewrite adds flavour to it, mentioning any notable landmarks, styles of buildings, hints of people living there and what they do and things like that. The village may turn out to be build on cliffs overlooking the sea, the houses wood and thatch and exist by farming. Or it may be on a bay with stone buildings and gets by on fishing and trade.

Normally until rewrite I don’t know details like that.

NaNoWriMo Day 1

Posted: November 2, 2010 in fantasy, Sharael, writing update
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Day One of NaNoWriMo is done. Total output 1759 words.

Should have done more, but at least I hit the average needed to make 50,000 words over 30 days.

To date I’ve been working on the prologue and chapter three – skipped right over chapter one and two. The reason for that is chapter three was one of the earliest scenes that I had in my head from many years ago so I want to get it done first and then move back to older scenes.

NaNoWriMo Update

Posted: October 23, 2010 in fantasy, Sharael, writing update
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Only a week until NaNoWriMo kicks off.

I’ve now got the plan for the novel written up – around 2000 words of plot details and the order it all happens in.

Getting excited about getting this done.

Planning for NaNoWriMo

Posted: October 7, 2010 in fantasy, Sharael, writing update
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NaNoWriMo may still be a few weeks off but I’ve start on making plans for it and am actually having a go at it this year.

For it I’m going to have a go at a story that has been floating around in my head for at least ten years and though I’ve always wanted to write it I wasn’t sure if I was up to doing it justice yet. But now with a couple of novels and over two dozen short stories and novellas done I think it is time to give it a shot.

I found an old notebook that held plot idea for it; next step is to rewrite them taking into account various changes. I want the plot all figured out before I start the challenge.

Just a quick blurb on the story.

Alone and wounded, a warrior stumbles through the forest of Vačec hill country. He does not know who he is or where he came from; all he knows is that he has to protect the girl-child he carries. Friend and foe alike are hunting for her. Some want her dead, others have more sinister plans.

The child is no ordinary girl though. Hungry, she feeds on the wounded warriors strength and with each day he grows weaker. There is just one goal he has in mind before the end, to get the child to a foreboding mountain of sinister reputation where it is said the dead linger…

Coming Soon

Posted: October 6, 2010 in fantasy, Pure Escapism, writing update
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Just a quick update of what is in the works – besides the work on the website.

Secondly, and possibly more importantly, I need to complete Wisdom from the Ashes, the forth story in the Nhaqosa series, The Chronicles of the White Bull. The sooner the better, so that I can update the compilation for Smashwords and make it premium.

I also need once last look over Tears of the Mountain and to start approaching agents to see if I get any interest.

Plenty Of Minotaur Fans Out There

Posted: September 21, 2010 in Pure Escapism, writing update
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Since I started this blog almost two years ago I have made some 300 posts. Of them one post – simply entitled The Minotaur – has been responsible for more hits from search engines than any other. By a massive amount. Minotaur has resulted in almost 7 times as many hits as the next highest term, which is ‘fantasy clichés’. In fact seven of the top 10 hits from search engines have to do with minotaurs, and even the Cyrillic spelling of minotaur rates a mention on the list.

Maybe most of my posts haven’t been interesting or maybe there is a bigger pool of Minotaur fans than I realised.

I’d like to think it is the second, and if it is so then it would seem a good idea to expand on the stories of Nhaqosa the Minotaur, of which three have been written so far.

So with that in mind I shall work hard on completing the next in the series and ponder further stories beyond that.

A New Idea

Posted: August 24, 2010 in fantasy, Pure Escapism
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I’m midway through the rough draft for the new Nhaqosa the minotaur short story, untitled as yet. The very first story I put on this website – The Pit – was about him (though it wasn’t initially meant to be so) and is still one of my favourites.

I’ve just rewatched Gladiator, and doing so reminded me of what it was the inspired The Pit – that and the D&D Dark Sun setting (which at the time hadn’t even been announced as being re-released.)

It got me thinking about Nhaqosa and his story and a few ideas sprung to mind, mostly to do with how he ended up a gladiator to start with, and his life – and fights – in the world, especially about how he came to command such respect amongst the other gladiators. So at some stage I plan to write about that, and explore more the grim nature of the setting he is in.

The End, Of A Sort

Posted: July 20, 2010 in Tears of the Mountain, writing update
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I’ve just done something I’ve never managed in all my years as a writer before – write The End on a full length novel.  Yup, after 90,012 words and a long time deciding just which novel to work on I have finally completed the first full draft of Tears of the Mountain.  It’s a big step forward, helped out by doing the last 20,000 words in the last seven days.

Of course it still needs much work, such as organising into chapter, spell checking, polishing and correcting details in the early parts of the story that got changed in the later part.

And then once that is done there starts the look hunt for rejections, I mean an agent and the possibility of getting it in print.

Still its a big thrill just to have gotten it to where it is now.

Here Be Dragons

Posted: July 17, 2010 in fantasy, Tears of the Mountain, World Building, writing update
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Dragons are a ubiquitous element of fantasy. They are one of the first things most people would think about when the word fantasy is said to them and it is quicker to list fantasy series without dragons than it is to list those with them in it.

Dragons are also rather varied, with many authors putting their own take on it. TVTropes says it best in their Our Dragons Are Different entry – this trope deals with big (maybe) strong (possibly) scaly (sometimes) flying (perhaps) fire-breathing (at times) lizard (usually) monsters (traditionally).

Normally I’m one to buck typical fantasy elements but I have to admit that there are dragons in my setting, though as with others I’ve put my own spin on them. Dragons in Sharael are vast and powerful and ancient. And seldom seen. They also don’t have to deal with knights, their traditional foe, as knights never have (and never will) exist in my world. They also appear a little different than your standard dragons. While the fit the large scaly reptilian clause, they are based on a lizard native to Australia – the Thorny Devil, also sometimes called the Thorny Dragon. As the name suggested they are covered in thorns and coloured in shades that help camouflage them in the desert.

This is what one looks like.

Imagine one of them much, much larger and with wings and you have an idea what they look like.  If only I was a decent artist I’d give one a go….

Being Sick Is A Pain

Posted: July 10, 2010 in Tears of the Mountain, World Building
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Of late I’ve been making good progress with the rewrite of Tears of the Mountain, averaging two to three thousand words a day. Until last week, when I got sick.

Nothing terribly major, just the latest head cold that was going around. Unfortunately it stuffed my head up good and proper so that my brain decided it was a good idea not to do any thinking and my work rate plummeted putting my schedule way behind. Even after recovering enough to get back to writing it took me a while to get towards being back to speed again.

Writing for me is a bit like driving a car. Once you get out on the highway you cruise along smoothly and keeping up a good output isn’t that hard. However when you stop for whatever reason, you have to work to get back up to speed again.

It did get me thinking about sickness though in stories, especially fantasy stories. It does crop up now and then but is not really nearly as prevalent as it should be in a pseudo-medieval setting. Health was not all that good back then – medicine was as much superstition as anything. Plagues and diseases regularly swept through regions as things like causes and hygiene were unknown. Sailors got scurvy. Soldiers were more likely to die of diseases and sickness than in battle. Modern problems like obesity weren’t as common, being more restricted to the nobility who did have plenty to eat.

Of course the standard answer is that ‘magic did it’ in response to health issues. There would have to be a lot of magic healers on hand to deal with everything though, and it is more likely only the nobility would see them.

It does bare thinking about in terms of my world, that more people should get sick in the stories.

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