all about Sophie

medieval-castle.com

Yes and no. I’m working on a story at the moment, based on my investigation of writing stories in short periods of time, referring to a number of prolific writers that we have all read about in our travels.

Sophie, the subject of the title, is a character, an infant who disappears early in the story — at this early draft point, in fact, in the first paragraph. She and her disappearance are the ‘hinge’ or triggering event in the story.

The gist is that a palace guard (this is fantasy) searches for the child as a favour to Sophie’s mother. As a result of that, the guard, Shell onSeton, ends up in a city called Fareach built and occupied by the dreams of a slave race called the Navvy.

But wait, there’s more… (sorry, I couldn’t resist that tired cliche)

The whole premise is that Fareach is located in the ak’asha (or aether), the source of all magic, which was damaged in ancient times and is now collapsing upon itself. A dragon, Lord Sumar is tapping into the Fareach dreamstate to save the ak’asha, but Fareach’s occupants, the Navvies, are now holding Sophie for ransom to force the guard’s help against the dragon.

Complicated. Not really, but I sometimes get rather convoluted in my effort to describe briefly — in other words, I start tripping over my own words.

To return to my first paragraph and writing over short periods of time, one of the problems with long stories is the difficulty of sustaining interest, enthusiasm, discipline over months or years pursuing the plot. In our modern world, it’s all about speed, fast writing, fast reading (how about flash fiction?), fast publishing, and so on.

So many intriguing new possibilities, both for authors and their readers.

Some fascinating resources in the real world:

• Fantasy Castles
• The Domesday Book
• 10,000 words a day
• Flash Fiction Online

 

Revising the Mess

I have spent the last week or so, after a breather from NaNoWriMo, reviewing my writing so far. It is so easy to step off the well-groomed path into a forest of dark forbidding, words, characters, plot lines adrift like maple keys swirling about on breezy currents.

Now, I’ve found it very useful to restate my plot lines, which go as follows:

Challenge of Editing

PLOT A — Lord Ishrian, Shell onSeton and Marlen Greenleas must install the rightful heir to the Anda duchy, then prevent or defend against, invasion by long-time enemy, Kingdom of Demler
PLOT B — Prince Brynt wants to install a Demler sympathizer to Anda duchy, then annex the duchy to the Kingdom of Demler, through his principal minions, Lord Akin, Olan Okrano, and Anders Gaelss
PLOT C — for the twin wizard brothers, Collin and Thoman, who are trapped in the ak’asha, but don’t fully realize it, they are driven to find and restore the missing kenea warrior wizard to the cadre, always in threes, as in ancient times
PLOT D — Luna, the kenea obelisk, and forgotten Ca’ancartti goddess, driven insane over millennia in the ak’asha, aims to bring her ‘kenea’ children home to the ak’asha forever

I realize now, one of the wrongful paths was to spend so much time on following the trials of the missing heir, dragging focus away from my main character and protagonist, Shell.

I’m working through some hard questions, trying to view the story so far from a reader’s eyes. Boy-oh-boy-oh-boy, now there’s a hat I’ve had to dig out of the back of a closet I found on one of those side paths. I found it in a lump of disgarded clothing. Once I’ve donned that dusty old reader’s hat, however, the questions come clearer, the answers appear sometimes as stinky as laundry, other times the thinnest of silks still waiting to be woven into the story.

All this reviewing, plus a needed break which allows me to view my work at arm’s length, has renewed my enthusiasm at just the right moment, during the long and dark days where the path never seems to end.