My writing project is a novel. I've never written a novel before - this should be fun.

Something I slammed together last night in my current re-do is this:



(I had upwards of 8000 words down when I realized I had done way too little pre-planning - I like the ideas I've had, but I'm not keeping any of my writings; doing a lot more pre-planning now, and then will start in the first scene, and work my way through my first draft - 2 hours a night, 7 nights a week).

Heh I always lose myself by not planning ahead! I get a great idea, run with and then I'm all "erm...right..this is not going to work".

I have been writing actively for over five years now. Both professionally, and as a hobby. Now you know why so few wannabe authors actually make it. But then again, like I said before, you can have a good idea, but writing isnt a math equasion, but an art form. You have to have a feel for what you are writing and who you are writing about. You have to be able to see through your various characters eyes, as if you yourself are the character.

Stories also need to be vastly diverse. I never liked the Shanarra series, because every book was the same as the first. Hero leaves home, hero finds talisman, hero beats bad guy. The truely good authors are the pioneers, the ones who think outside of the generalized fantasy box (elves, trolls, ogres, dwarves). Any given dozen fantasy novels use these things, the ones who are revered are the ones who break away from that, and create something truely orgional.

And as for my grammar, you try being hospitalized for a seven day migraine and see if you can keep your spelling correct

Well... the originality of my story lies in its characters. For one... my hero is not necessarily a good guy

However, I've been making a note of several 'made' authors, and it is rather interesting how several of them go about doing it. is a great glimpse into the writer's life. She's a mid-list author who's been full time for what, 13 years now? Her latest novel had a first run of 175k copies - I'd say that's decent.

And - the 'math equations' can be part of the drive to completion. One can say writing is an art form, etc., but in reality, it is also a business. Those full-time writers, if they don't put out because it isn't 'art', don't just suffer for their art - they starve.

I have a calendar in my work room, and it has a diagram -

QUOTE

The Ring of the Dead

100,000 words at completion
200 words per page
500 pages at completion

1000 words per day
100 work days to end of first draft. Start by February 1st, 2005, end by May 11th, 2005.

Note: I am not sticking with this as dogma - if I see a better route to take, that's the way I'm going. Just, I won't be satisfied with just writing and sitting on it - this is something I'd enjoy pursuing full-time.

mmmm........ dogma..... -drools-

I actually was seriously considering this sentiment earlier - and you know what? I have to disagree, to a degree.

What is originality?

Let me give an example (and I'm talking movies, not the original books/comics/etc.):

Fight Club
A Clockwork Orange
American Beauty
Jurassic Park
Spiderman
Daredevil

First three movies are three of my favorites. They are generally hailed by audiences and critics as rather original.

Fourth and fifth are not necessarily hailed as 'great cinema', but you know what? I liked them. Not loved them. Liked them. Spiderman, while a superhero story (which is becoming a dime a dozen) is told in a very refreshing way (no one can ever say Raimi isn't an original director). Jurassic Park is a rather good sci-fi piece. Not super-original, but not a bad movie.

Daredevil, I thought sucked. Bad. But I haven't qualified why yet. I'll let the whole superhero bit vs. Spiderman explain that.

Or, for Fantasy - LotR movies, GOOD, the Princess Bride, GOOD, 'Dungeons and Dragons', BAD.

None of these ideas is inherently original, but all the good ones tend to work rather well.

Now, for an explanation. Firstly, let me introduce 'Dragons of Autumn Twilight'. The quest. The group of heroes. Dragons. Final climactic battle.

Not really original. Read it - it's quite original enough for me .

Fantasy has its own conventions, and generally you need a hero, or hero and his friends, or group of heroes. You need a villain/villains. You need a quest - what drives the hero and/or group of heroes? What IS the story/plot? Heroes sitting around being heroic is merely episodic writing - not a novel.

There are exceptions. There are GREAT exceptions (George R. R. Martin gets rid of many hero vs. villain conventions, it seems). But there are also a hell of a lot of good books that don't break any conventions too much.

Originality = overrated. Nothing truly unoriginal gets published. If it does, it's called plagiarism, and is illegal.


My plot is rather conventional in the long run, it seems (granted, not un-original, just conventional for the genre of fantasy). It's my first novel, and I'm not going to break too many rules until/unless I have some experience with which to back it up. There's the quest, which the hero and his company pursue, through perilous lands, fighting monsters, etc., until the final climactic battle, in which the hero emerges victorious. That's the plot.

The -story- is the hero's journey - the journey of himself. No 'fights, kills orc' scene can do that for you. I haven't figured out my mode of transformation, but I know where he's going to start, and I know where he's going to end. I think it'll be a fun ride.


As to my hero, he has a small resemblance to the way I play Rexali - his view of 'honor' is rather similar, anyway.

('Honor is what the weak use to delude themselves with their own self-superiority' was a quote I used for Rexali once).

I currently have 39 of the 50-60 scenes I'm wanting for my 'road map' (something that I can sit down, aha, that's the scene I'm on, start writing). If the road map changes, because I think scene 14 isn't going to work, and cut it, or I think of a great set of scenes to insert between scenes 35 and 36, so be it.

And I -really- know my main character, and am learning about his two main companions. I've known one of his future companions for years. The 'guide' character is going to be awesome - his motivations, although they won't be revealed in this book (that'd be for the third book ), are rather involved. Think Gandalf... with ulterior motives (although LotR would have been rather short - Gandalf would have grabbed the ring ASAP if my character had been in his place).

heh, apparently I wrote my last comment in the wrong thread. Nothing is really original, because you can break down any story and link it to a story in the bible.

However, what I think makes these various books and movies stand out, is not the originality in the content and plot, but rather the originality in the structure and format. LOTR for example was an original movie because they used real sets and real props as often as they could but in a way tha was not possible in the 50s. The book was very orginial because of its use of song and language inherent in the story.

While George R R Martin appears to remove the Hero/villan aspect of the story and be original, his true originality is in the way he structures the chapters AND combines that with an ambigous Hero. To go back to my first point, King Solomon and King David are two charachters in the bible that break a lot of perceived hero/villan cliches.

So yes, an original plot can be overated, as its probabbly not truly originial, but an orginial form and method of communication is amazing.

Lusternia for example, I think should get a reward for using Historical Minutes and multiple persepective historical journal entries to entice the player base before the game came out, instead of informing us of all the "cool features" that would exist.

I'd say LotR is -VERY- original. Why?

To the best of my knowledge, Tolkien invented Middle-Earth - not as a canvas for a simple epic fantasy story (Lord of the Rings), but as a rich and diverse continent, with evolving cultures, languages, etc.

Take a look at the elves - taught one language by the angels, they split into various groups, and over ages, evolved into separate cultural identities with different languages (much as real life has evolved - it's very likely that the Japanese can be tied directly to Africans, and common ancestors). Every culture also had its own mythology, and the Silmarillion is a collection of this mythology.

What makes LotR fantasy? Tolkien takes this -mythology- and shows it as being real (such as if one took Greek Mythology, pure Greek Mythology, such as the Labors of Hercules, and wrote a novel with that plot).

293 words down, approximately 119707 left... ahem.

But, I have most of my plot line developed (some of the scenes in the latter half are still very vague), I have a fair grasp of the three cultures that will be appearing in this story (if there's a sequel, MANY more cultures will be in that... the world is fairly well developed, and I could already see an extensive series in it - I just hope I'm a decent writer )

Scene one (more of a prequel scene - getting to know the characters) is under way. Scene two's ending melding into scene three's beginning will have the guide character entering the story - oh, and he's MUCH more important in the long run than a mere guide (a la Fizban, Gandalf, etc.). I really like the way this is flowing.

Tomorrow night, I commence scene one with full force. 1000 words minimum, although I'm going to try for 1700+ words (to make up for my lack of words tonight). I'd really like to have the scene done in 2000 words, and not drag on too long, but I'll see how it develops.

Tolkien took all of his races from pre existing myths and mythologies, He did create new languages for each of them. Well more accuratly, he made up languages and found known mythologies and cultures to fit those languages. If you wanted to compare it to a story in the bible, you have the story of spies that basically is the same overarching structure, mixed in with various battles and wars from Judges.

My dad has been working on the same book for 6 years now I think. It started off as one book, its now 3 books with plans for a prequal trilogy and a 1000 year later trilogy. My roomate is having the same experience. I wish you much luck and hope you get more people around you to look at what you write more than my roomate and father get.

Yeah, I'm sticking with the here and now first - Let's see if I can write one before I worry about anything else - but there is a clear possibility of a trilogy, or even more, in the short run of things (a period of a few years in the storyline). I was also thinking of eventually running with it, and if I decide to write sci-fi, have the world evolve through its own industrial age, and see what I come up with.

This is all assuming that what I write is actually worth anything in the first place .

I'm sticking at 1000 words a day minimum, starting tomorrow - 6000 words a week minimum, makes 20 weeks maximum for rough draft.