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First crack at new novel, 1600 words today, revelations.
14 years ago
Commissions are currently OPEN! See below for more information.
Don't wait for the queue to shrink—the commission docket is rarely empty.First off, holy crap, that was easy. This is not good. :D If I take a stab at something and it is easy the first time, I inevitably set myself up for failure the very next day. So I'm going to try to convince myself that it was Very, Very Hard and refuse to write extra after I hit my limit -- they say to stop when you know what is going to happen next, so that you have something to go back to; I'd hate to write 3200 words today and have nothing left in me for tomorrow.
It's a little idea I'd tossed around a couple of years ago -- not furry, but shounen-ai sword-and-sorcery, kind of an epic journey/romance/fight-the-system tale. It features themes of an oppressive, tyrannical Church, but while it might appear my views on religion are sneaking into the plot, the only real theme that matches up is the ability of a religion to force a civilization to do what its higher-ups want them to do; this world actually does have a deity, but I wanted to play with the idea of a world where a God created things, became jaded by the behavior of her creations, then decided to go into hibernation. After that, the clergy use belief in this deity (which is fully rooted in word-of-mouth proof) to further their own ends over millenia until the entire religion has allowed the world to become an oppressive theocracy.
I like the idea of the reluctant hero falling for and protecting an unfortunate, a young, naive student of the faith who has been groomed and sheltered to sacrifice himself for his beliefs. I like the themes that come into play when the truth comes crashing down on this poor youth, from the mouth of the deity herself, encouraging him to return home to punish the wrongdoers with God actually on his side.
Plus, there are elemental-themed monster summons that are wicked cute, so there's that. You goofballs will like that part. (It has been pointed out to me that this sounds a lot like FFX! I am both flattered and reminded to go and re-play it or at least read a summary, since I never finished it; I don't wanna rip anyone off, here. :D)
So anyway -- this morning I hacked out my first couple of scenes and tried not to do too much self-editing, and it was refreshing how much came out. I didn't even have their names right -- I just started writing with placeholders, and it was really freeing.
The struggle for me came when I was writing my first couple of scenes with the hero; he is in a jail cell alongside a toothless old beggar, and the hero is hungover from whatever mischief got him into trouble the night before. At first, I didn't know where it was going, but the words kept coming, and like he was talking unbidden, the old toothless man began crying, "they'll hang us both!" and before I knew it, I realized holy shit, they really will, because this religion believes in one strike and you're out, and let God sort out the criminals, and as I kept writing I realized oh my god, I am going to kill this old man because it will piss the hero off so much that he will have to stand up and fight against this evil society and before I could blink I was done.
And I felt terrible.
It is so much harder to kill off innocent, minor characters when they flow out of you, unbidden, like that, and somehow I think I could have killed any one of my babies from Redthread so much more easily and with so much less guilt because they would get all this epic glory and a big, glamorous death scene and all this poor old man is going to get is a hanging off-camera somewhere, and I felt so badly I actually had to stop writing for a minute and go get some coffee because it really wrenched my gut.
So, now I know what that feels like. It was amazing and upsetting and kind of uplifting in a way, but it was really, really hard. .____.
That was a really long ramble, because I am suffering a weirdly rare bout of insomnia. :D Hopefully this doesn't read as one long worthless diatribe that no one but me cares about. I'd be okay if it was, but! Oh wells.
Gonna go watch some IT Crowd and try to trick my brain into wanting sleep.
-HD
It's a little idea I'd tossed around a couple of years ago -- not furry, but shounen-ai sword-and-sorcery, kind of an epic journey/romance/fight-the-system tale. It features themes of an oppressive, tyrannical Church, but while it might appear my views on religion are sneaking into the plot, the only real theme that matches up is the ability of a religion to force a civilization to do what its higher-ups want them to do; this world actually does have a deity, but I wanted to play with the idea of a world where a God created things, became jaded by the behavior of her creations, then decided to go into hibernation. After that, the clergy use belief in this deity (which is fully rooted in word-of-mouth proof) to further their own ends over millenia until the entire religion has allowed the world to become an oppressive theocracy.
I like the idea of the reluctant hero falling for and protecting an unfortunate, a young, naive student of the faith who has been groomed and sheltered to sacrifice himself for his beliefs. I like the themes that come into play when the truth comes crashing down on this poor youth, from the mouth of the deity herself, encouraging him to return home to punish the wrongdoers with God actually on his side.
Plus, there are elemental-themed monster summons that are wicked cute, so there's that. You goofballs will like that part. (It has been pointed out to me that this sounds a lot like FFX! I am both flattered and reminded to go and re-play it or at least read a summary, since I never finished it; I don't wanna rip anyone off, here. :D)
So anyway -- this morning I hacked out my first couple of scenes and tried not to do too much self-editing, and it was refreshing how much came out. I didn't even have their names right -- I just started writing with placeholders, and it was really freeing.
The struggle for me came when I was writing my first couple of scenes with the hero; he is in a jail cell alongside a toothless old beggar, and the hero is hungover from whatever mischief got him into trouble the night before. At first, I didn't know where it was going, but the words kept coming, and like he was talking unbidden, the old toothless man began crying, "they'll hang us both!" and before I knew it, I realized holy shit, they really will, because this religion believes in one strike and you're out, and let God sort out the criminals, and as I kept writing I realized oh my god, I am going to kill this old man because it will piss the hero off so much that he will have to stand up and fight against this evil society and before I could blink I was done.
And I felt terrible.
It is so much harder to kill off innocent, minor characters when they flow out of you, unbidden, like that, and somehow I think I could have killed any one of my babies from Redthread so much more easily and with so much less guilt because they would get all this epic glory and a big, glamorous death scene and all this poor old man is going to get is a hanging off-camera somewhere, and I felt so badly I actually had to stop writing for a minute and go get some coffee because it really wrenched my gut.
So, now I know what that feels like. It was amazing and upsetting and kind of uplifting in a way, but it was really, really hard. .____.
That was a really long ramble, because I am suffering a weirdly rare bout of insomnia. :D Hopefully this doesn't read as one long worthless diatribe that no one but me cares about. I'd be okay if it was, but! Oh wells.
Gonna go watch some IT Crowd and try to trick my brain into wanting sleep.
-HD
So you've done about 2, 3 pages?
I decided the real bad guy would be a lot more terrifying if it wasn't just a whole Church, but the will of the people who have followed it for centuries. That is not an easy thing to overthrow (and right now I don't even know if they'll be able to do it, even with the deity's help). But I don't really want to know, yet. :D I'm just going to keep writing til I find out.
I recall an author on NPR saying that she cried and was upset with one of her characters for falling to the Dark Side and betraying all she (the character) had ever known and loved. (It wasn't a Star Wars novel, so that's the proverbial Dark Side.)
In any case, there are those who believe in a 'clock-work' universe. Essentially, like in your novel, God created all that is, set it in motion, and is now just watching the pieces fall into place.
What you've revealed thus far of the plot reminds me of Moses and Pharaoh, so I have to ask: Is your novel's deity going to engage in some good old fashioned Old Testament ethnic cleansing?
I like the idea of the clock-work universe, as you've put it. I've read in my studies of religion and atheism that there are deists who believe in a "hands-off" God; I think, in my agnostic atheism, if I were to believe in any God, that would be the direction I would go (as far as probability); the idea is incredibly interesting to me. I like thinking of God as more human, even if it isn't very "likely". That's why the Greek and Roman gods appeal to me so much. I love that they have fatal flaws and human characteristics like jealousy and promiscuity and naivete.
As for the Old Testament reference; I don't know what my God will do at this point. I know that she's been asleep, and I know that she has tested my hero's love interest, and I know that she will be heartened by his journey and encouraged by his kindness and love and strength. But as for how they will decide to approach the matter of her people having gone astray, I don't know. I think She's going to have to reveal that to me in time.
I know she will basically be awakened and ready to continue being God at the end, but whether that will involve her sending a message to her people through Lux when he returns home or whether she will stay hands-off, I don't know. I will have to think about what She might deem best. She is a loving, quiet God, so I don't think "kill fucking everybody" is the first place she'd naturally go. She might offer Lux the opportunity to be her Prophet, and give the people a chance to come back to Her on their own. I think she believes in free will, but it's not like she can't bless the people who come back to her side and offer them protection if things get hairy.
I think, right now and this early on, I know she will probably not step in herself and intervene with a Mighty Hand, but she isn't going to continue being totally hands-off. That's where the creatures that Lux picks up throughout the story come in. They're basically like ancient and amazingly powerful little beasts that are a part of God herself. One sight of these guys in this world should be enough to convince all but the most stubborn; there shouldn't be a need to War over it.
Naturally, though, the Clergy are not going to take kindly to their power being challenged, so there might end up being a rebellion. Whether or not I'll end up writing it, though, I'll only figure out in time. <3
Hopefully you're right about the rhythm, since I failed yesterday -- but that's because I was trying to rearrange my sleeping schedule so I was exhausted all day long.