Wednesday, November 12, 2014

A Little too Crazy.

As promised, this is an entry about the book I wrote last month.  Said book doesn't have a title, which is oddly appropriate, since one of the characters is the one whose name took me forever to find.

The story is, essentially, a godpunk portal fantasy.  The world is littered with dead gods, most trapped in stone or similar.  People from all across the multiverse fall into the world, and there's no way back, so it's a bizarre place filled with all kinds of beings.  The story starts with one of the main characters, a guy from Earth, having his surfboard disappear from under him.  He then realizes that he's in a different ocean, one that actively hates him.  He's quickly captured by the Evil Empire, who finds people as soon as they show up and forces them to bond with the dead gods so they can serve as power sources.

Much of the rest of the book is spent freeing people from the Evil Empire and gathering them together, leading up to a final conflict at an ancient elven city, complete with one of the ancient elves newly awakened by the presence of people bonded to the dead gods.  It was fun to write, quite crazy at times, and deliberately over the top - one of my goals on this one was to turn everything Up To Eleven as much as I could.  In some ways I succeeded, as shown by the flying motorcycle, fifty-vs-three battle, and the aforementioned character who showed up in the ocean that hates everyone deciding that the best course of action against the thing trying to capture him is to kick it in what he thinks is its crotch.

I'm sure I could make things more ridiculous in editing.  But I'm not sure if I ever will.

Here's the thing: the world I've created for this book is bizarre, but in a more subtle way than this story conveys.  There's more to it than anyone in this story suspects, a greater purpose behind the place that could take half a dozen books to truly explore and figure out.  Granted, most of this is in my notes in extremely vague terms, but I know I can get a lot more out of it.

In other words, I'd be better off with a story that's not deliberately crazy.  The empire's machinations have to be more subtle and hidden for it to truly work - less Borg, more 1984.  A story about people within the empire figuring out the secrets behind both the empire itself and the world could work very well, as there's a lot of room for espionage and trickery in a setting where no one but those at the very top truly know how things work.

Also, I'd like to see some dark reflections of the characters.  A character who can exist as three of herself would make an incredibly good spy and infiltrator.  A man bonded with a god of the hunt would make an impossibly good sniper.  The sheer amount of personal manipulation you can do with someone bonded to a goddess of love is ridiculous.  And while brainwashing someone to use them as a weapon is cliched, I really think I need to do that with the raging berserker elven princess.

As I said last entry, I don't hate this book after finishing it, which is a minor miracle.  I had fun writing it.  I needed to clear my head by working on other things, and it did the trick.  But I don't think I'll go back to this specific tale.  This world is worthy of so much more than a fun, violent romp that ends with our heroes triumphant.

Besides, writing someone with a god-granted power based on Cupcake Ipsum was just a little too silly.  Though clearing a hallway of guards with a wave of marshmallow creme was fun.

I've already begun taking down notes on how to make a new story work.  Part of that will involve better-defining the parts of the world where the story takes place, so that I know all the wheres and whys and hows of it right from the start.  There's a great deal more I can do with this, and it's time to figure all that out.

...eventually.  I'll add it to the other dozen plots-in-progress.  I really need to win the lottery or something so I can do this full-time...

16 comments:

  1. Sooooo, you're saying that after finishing the first draft, you're not going to revise the story? (But that's the fun part!!!!) You're going to analyze the elements of the story and devise a totally different story to take place in this universe and with some of these characters? You're keeping everything but the plot? Is that what you're saying? Interesting!

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    1. Yes, that's what I'm saying. I did a lot of world-building in my notes, and most of it got thrown to the wayside during this mad adventure. I want to write a story where this world matters, one that couldn't take place anywhere else.

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  2. =) I love it when you read over the thing afterwards and still love it. That's magic. Pure magic.

    Unleashing the Dreamworld

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  3. Sounds like you could take this book and make many with the right editing.
    Always aim for eleven. It's one higher than ten.

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    1. It's possible, yeah, but it's not what I want to do for this world. This book is kind of like an action movie. I want to write in this world something more like an intrigue/suspense TV series.

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  4. Your brain is a fascinating place (I mean this as a compliment!) I read your ideas and concepts and think, "OMG TOO COMPLICATED CANNOT KEEP IT ALL STRAIGHT BRAIN ABOUT TO IMPLODE", and you think, "Fun, but NOT COMPLICATED ENOUGH." Seriously, I don't know how you do it, but I thank the gods (dead or otherwise- love that concept, btw) that brains like yours exist, because I do love to read what these brains create! I think I appreciate, respect, and enjoy them even more because I know I couldn't do it.

    Crazy, yes, but the idea sounds like crazy fun. I hope you do make something else of it :)

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    1. Oh, thank you so much. Your entire comment has me grinning and laughing like crazy over here. ^_^ And I fully plan to make something more of this, someday. My current plot project is the new Shiloh & Alexi story, though, and I'll probably be bugging you about that someday if it goes well.

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  5. You know, when I finish a novel, I stick it in the drawer. I don't even consider it for months. I don't know if that helps it or not, but it helps me not hate it when I start working on it again. Also, I sort of write all the time. I have two modes: full ahead and off (otherwise known as open fire and I need to reload). Things don't always work out, but I'm always working. I tell you this because I find that having different projects to work on gives me an opportunity to view my old projects objectively. I hope this helps.

    Also, I'm currently pitching a portal fantasy, and it is hell out there. So make sure that it's really strong in the why the character chooses to go down the rabbit hole. You know, when you get there.

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    1. I planned to do the same with this one when I was writing it, not look at it until at least next year because of all the plotting I'm doing. I'm pretty sure I'll go with the plan I outlined here, but I probably will take another look at the book, just to be sure. And a new story in this world will probably deal with people who've been on the world for a long time or were born there, so the portal aspect won't be much of a thing.

      And it's good to see that the Seventy Maxims of Highly Effective Mercenaries still seem to be highly effective metaphors as well. ^_^ I'm always working too, on one thing or another.

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  6. Holy cow, what a premise! You must finish this one! :D

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    1. Thank you! ^_^ I like the idea too much to just set it aside, so one way or another, I'll be working in this world. Eventually.

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  7. It sounds like you have enough material for twenty books! Congrats on finishing the book and if you decide to edit, good luck. I totally love the idea of an ocean that hates everybody. That sounds like it could be a novel all own its own!

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    1. Trust me, I'd need to live to be five hundred or so to write everything that's in my head. ^_^ But thanks. And the ocean is more of a side note than anything - I came up with a bunch of bizarre locations when building the world, and that's not one I thought would have story significance down the line, so I decided to throw it in.

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  8. I never hate my work after I finish it. I hate it while I'm editing it. Then, eventually, I grow to love Big Brother.

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    1. I don't think I've ever hated something while editing it, though I've had more than a few headdesk moments and wondered how the hell I wrote something in the first place. ^_^

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