I think I'm going to go with Incarnation. It has seniority, and I have a lot of plotting and backstory done for it. And now I'm going to copy Itsy and blabber on about it, mostly for my own purposes, probably.I'm thinking about cutting Aydarin out of it, or at least changing her character completely. I'm very fond of her, but she's just not working in with some of the new changes in my head. Maybe I should try to go at this chronologically.
Approximately 500 years before the story begins, the empire of Galamere fell to the armies of Andran. The continent of Seranayeng breaks into countries (I have pages of notes on them on my other computer). There are 4 languages spoken--Gallen throughout the west, Anterre in the east (think German and French, loosely), Haltaini on the northern islands, and a Holy Language used in religious functions (think Latin). Anyway, a lot of legends spring out of this time. There was supposedly a love affair between Andran, the champion of the god Andrael, and Brizin, princess of Galamere. Andran does her in. Ow.
What was all the fighting about? There are two gods, Andrael (creation) and Korundrael (destruction). Before the war, they were both worshipped. However, there's a rivalry between them, and Andrael created Andran to carry out his will--eradicate the worship of Korundrael. Andran goes to the capital of Galamere and demands that Korundraelic worship be outlawed. Emperor says, "not gonna happen." Big, bloody magical war ensues. Galamere falls. Andran outlaws all Korundraelic worship, and all non-Andraelic magic. Most new nations just adhere to the new Andraelic order, led by the Andral in the Andral states in the south. The exceptions are Faldier-Weyn, a country that decides to outlaw all magic, and the Myar people, who follow their own rules and practice whatever kind of magic they want. They're disliked, and pushed into the desert and mountains no one else wants, but so long as they don't bother the Andral they're left alone.
Okay, about 500 years later, we have a man from Faldier-Weyn named Lerron. Originally, his sole purpose in the story was to be Aydarin's father and then die, but he's too interesting. I think I could write a book just about him. Anyway, Lerron is not a happy camper. He became a great fighter to earn the respect of his family, but when they do accept him as a hero, it just feels empty to him. He leaves in disillusionment, and eventually reaches Cebyk (southern mountain country). To make a very long story short, he meets a (Myar) girl and later marries her, they have a daughter, his wife disappears, he goes to look for her, he gets the help of the prince of Cebyk, the prince marries a Myar girl....
Gah. I don't think I can save him. And it's just not fair. Lerron had such a sucky life, I want him to be happy. I want him and Ritsu (wife) and Aydarin (daughter) to be a nice happy little family together. I'm horrible when it comes to stuff like this--I want my characters to be happy. I can make them suffer, so long as everything turns out all right in the end.
Even Andran and Brizin get reborn in this age. But that's just part of the fun.
That's another problem with this story--the question of "whose story is it?" I think Aydarin, Zarric, or Krissen could carry this story, but there are plusses and minuses to telling it from each point of view. If I make it Aydarin's story, we get a lot of her and Zarric, but Krissen gets pushed into the background, and vice-versa with Krissen. I'm not sure how convincingly I can write from Zarric's point of view, and if I write all three of them, I think I'm going to have a massively bloated story. Aydarin and Krissen overlap in too many ways--both fighters who are forced to learn magic--but not enough to combine their characters. I want to perhaps cut Aydarin out, but she's too much a part of the story...
Hmm...what if I set time back about 10 years? Rather than having Aydarin an angsty teenager raised by her Faldieri relatives, I can make her a 5-year-old traveling with her father in search of her mother. Then, when she grows up, I can tell her story. Maybe 5 is too young, but I can make her a kid. I can deal with the events in Cebyk in the novel, rather than having it backstory, and that's how I can introduce Krissen--she's a mercenary from Cebyk, after all. She meets Lerron and Aydarin before things go totally crazy...
So the starting situation would be a brewing civil war in Cebyk, fueled by a lot of anti-Myar sentiment. The rest I'm going to outline somewhere else, so it's not up for everyone to see. Grr...I feel like I'm ready to write now, but on the other hand, there's no way I'm going to write 50,000 words next month, no matter how enthusiastic I am now. But I will do my best to crash and burn in a most glorious fashion.
Not like anyone gives a hoot.
...at least, according to Rei Helen Spencer at9:24 PM
More Novel Ideas:There are too damn many. The last couple days I've been leaning towards one I've been outlining in a little notebook I got in Japan, but I'm getting frustrated with that one. Now I'm thinking about doing the story that has been swirling around in my head for years, snowballing as it picks up ideas from other places. It's a sort of epic fantasy monster, but it has a spot in my heart and probably just the right amount of pretention for such a project.
Speaking of projects, I need to work more on Ocean of Dreams, ne...
Okay, I'm going to do similar things like I did for the first, but in less detail.
Idea #2: Separation Story
World: Indifferent Gods
There's a country with a big magic school. There are a couple of super powerful magic users. They get married. They have a baby. Then the husband has to go to another country on a mission and ends up being separated from his family for somwhere between 12 and 15 years (I haven't decided yet.) He adopts a daughter there and becomes leader of the country (civil wars and stuff). Then he and adopted daughter go home. Adopted daughter has adventures with original couple's son and cloistered girl. Leader of the magic school is evil. Cloistered girl is supposed to have some connection with the gods. The gods in this world don't care what happens to the people. This is the story I've been outlining lately, but I'm reaching a big block after father & adopted daughter come home. I think it needs more time to steep.Idea #3: Half Angel (Mairen's story)
World: same as #1
Mairen Leare is 14, lives with her wealthy father and eccentric grandmother, and attends a fancy private school for girls. Think of a setting sort of like Victorian England. She meets a strange boy (god that's cliche) who calls her a "Tanda," but she has no clue what that means. Eventually we find out he's from the continent (the place Mairen lives is a bunch of islands), the mother that she never knew is an Atan (race of people with wings from the continent, where there is magic), and she and the strange boy go back to the continent to do stuff. She ends up getting trained by some important master. Once again, the problem is that I have a situation without an external conflict. It shouldn't be hard to whip one up. I really like the characters.Idea #4: Incarnation (big huge epic thingie)
World: Seranayeng
This story has sort of been the catch-all for the best parts of a few stories I wrote during high school. Most of them were basically generic fantasy ripoffs, but there were a few things worth saving and they've all ended up here. Krissen and "Zarric" from my Tamora Pierce fanfiction, Aydarin from a rather pathetic Mary Sue sort of universe, Mallen and Jedrick from a story a friend and I wrote trying using characters based, of all things, off the Negaverse Generals, D'ariel was originally a character in a strange science fiction story, Surian loosely based off Asuka from the Tamora Pierce fanfic, Lerron Roslain, Aydarin's father, whose character I adapted from a Rurouni Kenshin fanfic idea I had, Aydarin's mother Ritsu, from the same fanfic...God, that's fuggin' big and confusing. On the bright side, though, it has a plot, it's not just a collection of characters. However, it's not a very deep plot; as in, it's not the sort of thing that's going to keep you up late at night pondering. Krissen and Surian are goddesses who live in the human ring of incarnation. Eep, gotta go. More later.
...at least, according to Rei Helen Spencer at11:59 AM
Idea #1:Working Title: Apprenticeship Sucks
World: Still unnamed...Mairen's world. Society is like that of the 1800s, so for now I'll call it Victoria.Characters:
Marya: 14-year-old female, about to begin an apprenticeship to become a mage.
Saene: 14-year-old male, paired with Marya for the apprenticeship
Mairen: 20~25 (appears in previous [but unwritten] story) gets stuck teaching Marya and Saene
Cantilena: (adapted from RPG char) Black AngelStory Info:
Marya is good, but not great, at magic...she doesn't stand out like her best friend Sonmay (like the cheap CD company); Mairen is studying magic under a great master, but he decides it would be better for her to have to teach and signs her up to take on apprentices. Mairen is pissed about this--she wanted to go after the [As-yet-undefined Great Evil] with her teacher.Pros of writing this story:
characters are fun to write, story is more upbeat than some others
world is not just typical fantasy world
opportunity to turn it into whatever I wantCons of writing this story:
plans don't go far beyond initial situation
Marya and Mairen are too similar as names, but they're both in my head with those names, and I'm reluctant to change them
Other name problems...Saene is kinda a sucky name, too
Too many pairings & too much romance
...at least, according to Rei Helen Spencer at1:08 AM
Hmmm....which story shall I write for NaNoWrMo? I can probably go with one of the 3 I came up with in Japan...okay, 2 of those got combined into one, so it's really two choices, and it's the other one that sounds more interesting to me at the moment. I have some other ideas, too...maybe I can get some input on which one(s) sound the most interesting from...um...all 2 people who read this.But maybe tomorrow morning. It's late now. Or I'll post them from my laptop, or something, but I'm going to bed.
...at least, according to Rei Helen Spencer at12:40 AM
I think I will do National Novel Writing Month this year. It's November, isn't it?Meanwhile, I think I want to do a sort of closed-group mini-RPG/communal story of some sort. It sounds like fun, I have a sort-of concept in mind.
...at least, according to Rei Helen Spencer at2:54 PM
Poor Lucine. I never realized how much shit she has to go through.Note: Major Spoilers for Ocean of Dreams.
I was thinking about the suffering of characters, inspired by Itsy's latest post of torturing one of her boys and the conversation about Job in my World Literature class, and I got to thinking that Lucine's really got it worse than anyone else. When she's born, she's stolen away by Kaelor, who puts her in a situation where she will be miserable. Then he "gives" her beauty and magic to put her in his debt, even though he was the one who stole those away from her in the first place. She finds some happiness when Jeremy accepts her, but then she's forced to betray him and screws that up. Then she finds out just what has happened to her when she meets up with Tallaerie again, and is given back memories and uncursed. So yeah, life has sucked, but now she's got her mother figure back, at least Adrin has forgiven her, and the sprites respect her--things are looking up.
Then things go to hell again. Tallaerie is kidnapped, Jeremy won't forgive her, and Tallaerie gets killed. Of course she only wants to curl up in a ball and hide after that. She's alone, has power but doesn't know what to do with it, and nothing else has turned out right for her. It sucks to be Lucine. Jeremy realizes that, but he can't be gentle with her about it. She tries to sacrifice herself for him...
Hmm...would it be better if I let her die in that ending scene? No...I just can't do it. I could, perhaps, have her release her own lucinayam as she lies there, thinking she's going to die. It might be more dramatic if she died, but I don't think it's cheap to have Merene save her at the last moment--that's the turning point of the battle (which will have to be much cooler in the rewrite, of course), when things start to look up, and the seeming resurrection of Lucine is a dramatic way to show that. She won't get away unscathed, though-- maybe she's horribly burned. Yeah, disfigured, probably...so she's lost the beauty that she gave up everything for. And she has to deal with the new goddess that has been born, so she's got new difficulties to face. But that's another story (or two other stories, the movie and season 3 I'm planning).
It's not smooth sailing for her and Jeremy, either. A confession of love before seeming death isn't going to smooth things over for the two of them, either. Jeremy's still not sure how he feels about her. Again, it's fodder for the movie.
...at least, according to Rei Helen Spencer at5:56 PM
Well, I've been sucked in by the call of a CHANCE to WIN MONEY!
Tokyopop's manga contestYeah...I think I have a decent chance of making the top ten, if I get my act together and make a friggin' manga. At least I've got the story idea and some character sketches:
Yeah...the one with short hair is a girl, and the one with long hair is a guy. That's just the way it is, okay?
...at least, according to Rei Helen Spencer at4:41 PM
Why is writing so stressful, sometimes? I have enough problems of my own, I don't need to start taking on the problems of every character I come up with. What's worse is that every time I say something I think is remotely clever, I think, ooh, I should use that in a story--and thus, I mix my real and fictional lives. Which means that the stresses of reality bleed into my writing, and the stresses of my stories bleed into real life.You might think this would be a good thing--it helps me put more emotion into my stories, blah blah--but I think it has to do with a lot of my emotional issues. I worry about things that I don't need to worry about, and the real worries in my writing don't make it an enjoyable escape, but a stressful chore.
I'm tired. I have a headache. I'm going to bed, so the thought will remain unfinished.
...at least, according to Rei Helen Spencer at11:26 PM
I am in a flattered mood--Char complimented my website & OoD on her livejournal, and I feel like posting an excerpt from the Ocean of Dreams novel project. Here's a scene that's not perfect, but I like it pretty well; this is where Merene understands some Elorhan, and Lainnys goes ballistic, and then they talk about stuff--episode 3 of the original draft. I think I handle the characterizations better here, though there are still some wordings I'm not happy with.**************************
Asima Herane Darel
**************************
The next morning dawned gray and dismal, and though no rain had yet fallen it looked as if the skies might break open at any moment. The travelers fixed their breakfast and packed up without much conversation. Adrin was caught up in his own thoughts, Merene was afraid to speak for fear of annoying someone, and both Lainnys and Jeremy looked like ticking bombs just waiting for something to set them off.“Asima herane darel.” Adrin’s voice was dull as he polished the sword that was usually belted at his waist.
“Don’t say that here!” Lainnys scolded. Adrin continued polishing.
“Why shouldn’t I?”
“Because the holiest of languages shouldn’t be spoken in the presence of humans!”
“Love before honor,” Merene said, breaking her silence tentatively. “What does it mean?”
Lainnys and Adrin turned to stare at her. “What did you just say?”
Merene paled. There I go again...I need to keep my mouth shut. “I just asked what…what it meant. Why you said it.”
“Before that.” Adrin’s eyes met hers, and Merene swallowed nervously.
“Love before honor. It’s what you said, right? Before honor, love?”
Adrin looked to Lainnys for a second, then back to Merene. “It’s a saying, I guess you’d say,” he explained cautiously. Lainnys sulked. “It means that honor is important, but true love more so. Honor is meaningless without love. Love for mankind, love for your family and friends, and love for…” he drifted off, blushing.
“The one,” Merene finished for him. “Romantic love.”
“Yeah. But how did you understand that? You’re human.”
“I don’t know, I just did. Maybe I’ve heard it somewhere. Or saw it, written there on your sword.”
“You can read that?!” Adrin and Lainnys gasped as one. Merene winced nervously, and took on an apologetic tone.
“Um...I don’t know why, but I can. I don’t think I’ve seen the like of it anywhere, but I can still read it. Asima herane darel.”
“You should not be able to do that!” Lainnys shouted. Magic sprung from her to wrap itself around Merene, lifting her off the ground, immobilized. The human girl let out a shriek, struggling against her bonds to no avail. It hurt—what had she done to deserve this? “Who taught you? Who did it? Who’s controlling you? I should have known humans were behind the opening of the gate! Who’s your boss? Tell me!”
“Lainnys—please, I don’t know what you’re talking about, Lainnys—” Merene stuttered, tears rolling down her cheeks. Please don’t kill me, she begged silently. I don’t want to die... Adrin stood.
“Let her down, Lainnys,” he commanded.
“Not until she gives me an answer! She knows too much! She—”
Adrin groaned and swiftly drew his sword, and Merene flinched. He used it to slice through the air between Lainnys and Merene, and the latter fell to the floor, breathing heavily and crying. “I won’t stand for this nonsense,” he said, glaring at Lainnys. She crossed her arms.
“Look, if we wanted to kill you two, we’d have done it a long time ago,” Jeremy put in. “All I want is for you to get me home. We don’t have a choice but to trust you two, and I won’t do anything to you unless you deserve it.”
“I don’t know what’s going on,” Merene gasped, shaking, still on her hands and knees on the floor. “Please, tell us, why are we here?”
“You’re here because you were stupid enough to follow us through a collapsing transdimentional portal!” Lainnys replied. “I should have known. You must have been told to follow us, or you wouldn’t have done something so incredibly stupid!”
“No...” Merene whispered. “I didn’t know...”
“Lainnys, that’s enough,” Adrin said. “Jeremy’s right. If they wanted to hurt us, they’d have done it by now. We’re wasting time that could be spent looking for our real enemy.”
“But—but—they’re humans!” Lainnys sputtered.
“What do you expect us to do about it?” Jeremy replied. “Is it our fault that we were born different from you? Are we personally responsible for whatever humans you knew that you dislike so much?”
“Jeremy,” Merene began, a hint of surprise in her tone. He’s standing up for us?
“Have you ever met humans other than us?” Jeremy continued. Lainnys shook her head, but she wasn’t about to give up just yet.
“But it was human greed that caused the worlds to be separated in the first place! All the stories say—”
“On Earth,” Merene said quietly, “when we hear about elves, they’re diminutive little creatures, tricksters, sometimes, who use magic and appear in fairy tales. Sometimes they make shoes. They are not much like Elorhans—other than your ears, of course. We may not be able to do magic like you, and I admit that humans can be stupid, but I think we’re no more fundamentally evil or stupid than you Elorhans.”
Lainnys looked to the Prince of Dreams for assistance. “Adrin—”
“If we do not get past this, we’ll end up killing each other before we can get them home, and we’ll lose sephlim in the process,” he said, wondering silently why all the judgment calls fell upon him. “We talked about the legends last night...you put far too much faith in them, Lainnys. All this fighting isn’t worth it. It is better to make allies than enemies—we’ve already got too many of the latter, and too few of the former.”
“I’m willing to help you, if you’ll let me,” Merene said. “I don’t know what I can do, but there’s gotta be something...”
“I still don’t understand,” Adrin said, wrapping his hand around the hilt of his sword self-consciously. “How can you understand our language—the language of the Elorhan blood?”
“I don’t know,” Merene replied helplessly. “I...I guess it could be a coincidence...”
“She could have a tiny bit of Elorhan blood,” Lainnys said thoughtfully. “When the worlds were one, there was some intermarriage between humans and Elorhans. I think.”
Adrin frowned. “I don’t know,” he said. “That’s...very, very far back. Though I guess it’s not impossible.”
“What do you mean, when the worlds were one?” Merene asked.
“Your world and ours used to be one in the same,” Lainnys continued. “So, you humans have even forgotten that...I guess I’m not surprised. You were so bent on destroying everything, on fighting your stupid wars...” The princess looked to Adrin. “That much is true, right?”
Adrin looked away. “Yes.”
“So how come they’re not one world now?” Jeremy asked.
“Because we split it, stupid,” Lainnys said. “We kicked you out. And now some idiot wants to merge the worlds back together again, and we’ve got to stop them.”
“Well, that wouldn’t be all bad, would it?” asked Merene. “There’s things you could learn from us, and us from you. And if they were together before...”
Lainnys looked thoughtful—Merene wasn’t sure she’d ever seen the princess look so thoughtful before. “There would be too much bloodshed,” she said. “Everyone has been trained to think of humans the way I have. They’re the villain or the idiot of every folktale, and your people obviously wouldn’t know what to think of mine. The worlds have been separated for too long, and separate they should stay.”
“I’m sure it can be done,” Merene replied.
“So...this key...is what’s keeping someone from joining the worlds,” Jeremy said, looking down at the small piece of metal in his hands. There wasn’t anything special about its appearance, but its ordinary exterior concealed powerful secrets. “But you think we would’ve noticed on Earth if someone was trying to merge another world with it...I mean, if that’s even possible—”
“King Gerimon—that’s Lainnys’s father—sacrificed himself to use his life energy and that of the Ocean to stop the rending, but someone needed to venture into your world to close it completely,” Adrin said.
“And that’s where you two came in,” Merene finished, and Adrin nodded and smiled at her. Her heart fluttered, and she looked away, blushing and cursing her crush on this Elorhan. As if the situation were not complicated enough...
“I’m sorry...about your father, Lainnys,” Jeremy said. His voice was almost gentle—the tension in the room seemed to be fading.
“He was a brave man and he went bravely,” she replied stubbornly, too proud to show her sorrow. “He was a good king, like Adrin will be.”
“I hope so,” Adrin replied uncomfortably.
“So, who picked you to be the next king, anyway?” Jeremy asked. “I mean, Lainnys’s is a princess ‘cause she’s the daughter of the king, I can follow that, but you…”
“The Ocean chose me,” Adrin replied. “It’s the way that it’s always been, here. The Ocean of Dreams chooses the next king.”
“Weird,” Jeremy said.
“The Ocean of Dreams?” echoed Merene.
“It’s an ordeal. I’m not supposed to talk much about what happens, but it decides whether or not you’re worthy of the position. If you are, there’s a presence there that lets you breathe underwater. If you’re not, you can’t, and you have to leave.”
Jeremy raised an eyebrow. “And you're telling me this works?”
“Why do you think we’ve had nothing but peace ever since the humans left?” Lainnys replied. “Because of the Ocean, Elorhans never have a leader that they can’t trust. The Ocean of Dreams is our guardian, the force that guides and protects us all.”
“The mother of our world,” Adrin added.
“A goddess,” Merene said, captivated by the idea. “I want to see this Ocean of Dreams.”
“You will, if we make it to Thaliron,” Adrin told her.
“What do you mean, ‘if we make it to Thaliron’? Of course we’re going to make it to Thaliron!” Lainnys said. “Have a little faith, Mr. Pessimistic.”
“Well, right now, we’re not getting anywhere.”
“What’s put you in this mood?”
“I don’t like talking about the Ocean, all right?” he said. “Come on, let’s go. We can talk and walk at the same time, can’t we?” Thunder rumbled in the distance as he spoke, and Merene looked up at the sky through the trees.
“It’s going to rain,” she said.
“Well, anyone can see that! It’s been like this all morning,” Lainnys began, as the sound of raindrops hitting the ground grew closer and closer, and rain began to fall through the gaps between trees.
“Aw, crap,” Jeremy muttered.
“This is better,” Adrin said. “Dralions don’t like to come out in the rain. Now, are we ready, or aren’t we?” He started leading the way, and the others followed.
“What’s his problem?” Jeremy muttered.
“Adrin’s got a lot on his mind,” Lainnys replied. “He took the test of the Ocean right before my father died, and everything since then has been overwhelming for him...”
Poor Adrin, thought Merene. He really does have everyone depending on him. It’s gotta be hard, to have everything thrown on you so suddenly. I don’t think I could handle it half as well as he does, but I wish there were something I could do...
“Are you all right?” she asked him.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Adrin replied. “I don’t need you to worry about me...”
“I just...I’d like to help you...” Merene said.
Adrin didn’t look back at her. Is Lainnys right, to be jealous of this girl? he wondered. “Thank you,” he said aloud. “I’ll let you know if there’s anything you can do.” No. No matter what, nothing can change the fact that we come from different worlds. She will return to hers, and I’ll get married to Lainnys, and that’ll be that.
...at least, according to Rei Helen Spencer at11:35 AM
My brain seems to work as a sort of idea blender. I take ideas from other things and mix them up and turn them into stories...for instance, I had a dream the other night that I was reading a book by Diana Wynne Jones, and I thought the story was really cool. It was about some boy with magic powers that had to escape from the people who wanted to get rid of him...can't remember exactly why, something like a witch hunt. I can remember other really pointless details, but it seemed like a cool story in my dream, and I wished I'd thought of it. When I woke up, I was all happy--yes! It wasn't someone else's idea, it was mine, since I had dreamed it, and I could use it in a story. However, there really wasn't enough content for a story there, and it followed a lot of themes in Ms. Jones's books.Then I watched Spirited Away for the second time last night--this time with subtitles, so I actually understood all of what was going on. I considered writing a fanfic for that--because I liked the characters, and other stuff, but I shouldn't spoil the movie. But then I realized I could combine some of the ideas I had for a continuation story of that with the story from my dream, and actually have enough content to tell a story that wasn't just a derivative of either source.
So now I end up with yet another story idea. Damn. I like it, but I don't have time to finish the ideas I do have...I'm averaging one new story every couple weeks, and nothing ever gets DONE. Maybe the workshop I'm taking next semester will help.
...at least, according to Rei Helen Spencer at10:59 AM
