Writing Fiction

So far, I've written four books, the first three are a fantasy trilogy that I've self-published and the fourth is a modern fantasy/romance that is in the editing stage.

And because I do unnecessary multi-tasking I'm in the works of a fifth one, an adaption of some short stories I wrote from 2006-2008.

I'm currently in the process of writing a Sci-Fi novel. Here's a post I wrote for my Blog about the latest status of the project

If you've seen my description, you'll know that I've been working on a Novel. I should probably explain just what it's about to any followers. I'm a rather big fan of Sci-Fi stories, it's one of my favourite genres, and I always get these different ideas in my head so I wanted to channel that creative thinking into a written piece of work, hence where my novel has come from.

The story is set in the late 24th century in an alternate universe. In this universe, while History up to 2010 is largely the same, there is no Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus or Neptune but rather a different set of planets. Most planets in the solar System are part of an Alliance Of Planets and the solar system is largely at peace, bar the occasional incident. Earth is now the head planet of a small empire known as the Earth Empire. This comprises of several planets (Think of a similar set-up to the United Kingdom) such as Mars, Ceres, Sontrolva (Completely Fictional) and the 7 moons that occupy each planet. Getting back to the main story, there's an Elite group known as the Star Runners that's comprised of the Earth's Galactic Military's (The Dalzorn) Generals.

However, during a weapons testing mission, they are mysteriously wiped out with no traces of what happened. Attempts to find out what happen are fruitless and their back up squad, the B-Runners, also go missing, leaving the Military in crisis. Acting hastily to prevent further attacks, the Dalzorn create a new military group known as the Torvane (In respect to the missing Star Runners), comprised of the best starship fighter pilots in the military. While they come to grips with their new position, the group behind the disappearance of the Star Runners reveal themselves and want “revenge” against the Earth Empire (This is something I want to hold some mystery over) and they're first major target is one of the Empire's major planets (Haven't decided which yet).

I don't want to do a story in which the threat is completely destroyed by the main characters in one story and then bring them back in some ridiculous manner in the next story (If I do one that is) or do some sort of comic book death style resurrection. Ideally I would like to end the story in a way which works as a standalone but would leave the door open for a sequel, such as having the main characters only defeat part of the threat and then gradually build my way up to the final confrontation. Character development is key to me, so I want to take my time with the characters and not rush things. I'm probably getting way ahead of myself here but It's important to plan these things.

I don't have a name for the Novel yet, I was thinking about naming the series after the main group of pilots (These are my Main characters) starship fighters, which is currently called the Torvane. This name has been what I've called this novel since I began back in September last year but this could change in the future.

Progress has been slow up until now so I haven't written much of the actual story as of yet, rather developing the story outline first along with the universe around the story although I have been working on a prologue to the story, or chapter 0 as some may call it which I will post later on to get some impressions. However, I have mostly been developing the Universe so far. Recently, I decided to scrap a lot of the work I had done and redo everything. I began to get a bit ahead of myself, such as creating too many different planets and there's too much unnecessary stuff so I need to refocus. I also wanted to avoid some of the more common, overused plot devices which I saw that my developed work had several of so the redo is much needed.

That's all that needs to be told right now. I don't have any set deadlines for the project at this time as College work will always take priority but I hope to at least have the prologue done and ready to post by the end of the month.

My Blog

percy?!??!?

Hello I'm a writer too, but college work keeps me from giving my work the dept it needs. I have plenty of short stories (most lack of dialogs) and concepts for Anime shows. My most complete work is my principal Fantasy Novel, is the story of a girl's adventures in another world, it contemplates like 5 diferent stories, shamefully just the ideas are written (I even draw a map), but none is complete .

I've tried to write before, but nothing ever got finished. I've either lost motivation, or got stuck at transitioning between scenes. It also does not help that I've lost most of my old drafts, so it's back to square one again. I might try some really short fan fictions this summer, and see how that goes.

soaring_wings wrote:I've tried to write before, but nothing ever got finished. I've either lost motivation, or got stuck at transitioning between scenes. It also does not help that I've lost most of my old drafts, so it's back to square one again. I might try some really short fan fictions this summer, and see how that goes.

My words. You already said them.

I really want to write my Jenna/Isaac/Alex love triangle fic... that's the one that I'd want to finish above all else. After that... I'd really love to write the story of Vapor Snake. :3

Hey O_B, I wish you could help me with a little detail of the novel I'm writing. You see, my story takes place on a world of my creation that holds too many different species of intelligent creatures, like another planet. I beggin my actual story with a prison coach, pulled by Komodo Dragon like creatures, crossing through a dessert, inside the coach I introduce my first main character, btw this first chapter is actually, narrated from his point of view, so I decided to let his memories of how he ended there to explain the war situation that is ocurring. But then, with him there are a few other, I describe them as wounded soldiers, none of them are human, and actually they are very different creatures. Now besides the species that I've created for the story, I wanted to let some shapes of what you could call "extras", to the imagination of the reader, but how do I set it up, so the reader undarstands that we're entering a world where humans are scarce, and he won't "see" many?

Twilight_Crow wrote:Hey O_B, how do I set it up, so the reader undarstands that we're entering a world where humans are scarce, and he won't "see" many?

Well there are a couple of somewhat subte approaches you could take. One would be a comment from one of the non-humans to the human main character like "we don't see many of your kind around here." Another example would be when/if the main character sees another human, s/he could say something like "nice to see a face that isn't covered in scale/etc for once."

The other approach I can think of at the moment would be in the description although it still avoids spoon-feeding info to the reader like "This was a land of few humans" would. Something like "The land was run by [other species name] and their [spiky,etc] forms dotted the land as far as the eye could see, if there was in fact any life to be seen. They did not take to strangers and foreign species and so [Main Character] could feel the tension between them as they cast regretful looks back at him from time to time."

Something along those lines. Hope that helps.

I have written about 20 stories.

I have finished 0 of them.

I've decided to take a break from my novel for awhile. Got a lot of other things on my mind, such as college and driving lessons so I'll probably start again in a couple of months, should be less on my mind.

I may also take the time to look into some other ideas I've had floating around for ages, such as a couple of horror ideas or drama stories.

Made a Lot of Progress over the last couple of days. Spent 7-8 hours In total gathering up all my notes (Be it ones on paper, or across the different computers I have regular access to) redoing, removing, finishing and creating new elements to this universe, as well as developing my character's personalities (And at what pace they will develop throughout the story), the various locations the story will take place in and any history behind them.

I've also been developing my story's plotline a bit further (Not too much here yet though) an how the entire Alliance is setout, as well a variation of Euroscepticism (In European Union countries, there are political parties who's policies include ones for withdrawal from the union, which is called Euroscepticism) and in the story, groups wanting independance from the World Government (Successors to the UN) so they have free reigns to create their own laws in their own countries (Which they are free to do in most areas of law anyway in my story) and the movement will be used across the entire planet instead of just Europe (The EU will not be in my story) and this leads to more extremist variations on the standard Indepenance groups who bring violence, which has the reverse effect of their intentions and ends up setting one of the major villainous groups in my story.

There will also be themes of Devolution included, affecting all the nations of Earth, which regards granting lower levels of government more powers for their countries, tying into the independance movement. It's something we hear about a lot from the Scottish IRL across the UK, particularly as a large percentage want independance from the UK. The political tones won't be forefront to the story though, will be at the background of the story for most part and help serve as a backstory for most part.

Still haven't done too much along the lines of writing up the main thing but to me, it's a much better idea to get the whole Universe setup. I keep going over my prologue right now though. I started out with a thin plot at the beginning but as I go along with the stuff mentioned above, I keep adding more and more detail to it. At this rate, it'll probably be quite long.

Atm, I'm trying to decide whether I should keep the name for the novel as "Torvane" (If you saw above, it's the name of the main space military squad in the story) or perhaps rename it to something like "The Empire Of Earth", or just rename the military squad to something else. I'm not sure right now

Torvane: Dark Empire of the Earth.

As for me, I'm done with my trilogy, put the omnibus out earlier this month.

Aiming to have The Elf edited and done by August.

Next book: will start in the fall, target of 2011.

Adminassassin wrote:Torvane: Dark Empire of the Earth.

As for me, I'm done with my trilogy, put the omnibus out earlier this month.

Aiming to have The Elf edited and done by August.

Next book: will start in the fall, target of 2011.

I like it, but if all goes as I have in mind (I want to do a trilogy), I might save that until the last part. Would fit better, Thanks for the suggestion.
I think I'll stick to the Torvane name for the moment now as my main series title. I may just leave it at that for now and come up with a subtitle nearer the finish

Any ideas on what your next book will about?

Yeah actually quite a bit. Been loosely planning since 2008 or 2009.

Tentative title: Laissez Faire
Genre: Apocalyptic/Dark sci-fi/action

Just as the main character gets married/engaged, some major event (fire from the sky, not sure yet) happens and he is knocked out. he wakes up years later, and the world is a very different place. and so is his wife/fiance/girlfriend. and not for the better. Its a bleak place where survival is questionable and the lack of government has only sprung worse groups of people.

COMING in 2011! (maybe)

Colour me intrigued

So how exactly did you plan everything out when it came to characters, your story's "Universe" and the plot? This is something I'm trying to work on

Well, with my first four books, I was more content-driven than universe driven. To clarify, I told a story and if something needed a backstory or whatnot, it was then created.

This is in opposition with the approach I'm taking with book five, where I have a universe and am now thinking of what tale shall unfold within it.

Anyway, to help you, with what you know so far of your universe, go through a typical day in your character's life. What do they encounter? What do they think of, due to that around them and how they were brought up? How do the people interact with them, with other classes of people? Think about this and write down anything helpful that you can use to reference when you get down to the nitty-gritty: the actual writing. Which is the toughest, worst, best part.

Adminassassin wrote:This is in opposition with the approach I'm taking with book five, where I have a universe and am now thinking of what tale shall unfold within it.

This is the approach I was thinking first, get everything set into place and then develop the story within it.

.

Adminassassin wrote:Anyway, to help you, with what you know so far of your universe, go through a typical day in your character's life. What do they encounter? What do they think of, due to that around them and how they were brought up? How do the people interact with them, with other classes of people? Think about this and write down anything helpful that you can use to reference when you get down to the nitty-gritty: the actual writing. Which is the toughest, worst, best part.

I see what you're saying. I've been developing my characters a lot more lately and their personalities, their traits, so this is important stuff to consider. And yeah, agreed about the actual writing, the amount I've done so far is pretty thin. I keep going back to my prologue, like it's a test of my writing abilities and keep developing that even further. Thanks for the help

So I''m thinking about entering NaNoWriMo. My idea has been at a complete standstill for ages so it's time I got back to that, maybe try and plan out as much of the setting as possible before November 1st. We'll see how it goes, as there are other things I'm hoping to get done first (Like complete my driving lessons, find a University I'd like to apply to, get a gf, etc...)

I say go for it. It's maybe an hour a day if you do it every day.

Also, I'm back to editting book4 (The Elf) and will be planning my next project (a 2-parter) after that, and will start that in November. More details to come.

Admin, I am in awe. Every single time I try to write, I never get anywhere. Either I don't know how to start it and become unsatisfied with all I write, or I can't think of proper transitions between one scene and other and just give up.

Can't wait to offer my critique on those

Editing The Elf has begun. progress: 10%.

Finished editing Act 3, for now. Which means I'm about 2/3 done now. Ah, the things I can do when I set my mind to it (and have free time when I'm bored of video games atm.)

Finally got ahold of my 2nd beta reader and hoping I get post-Act 1 feedback froim him, too.
Goal is late this month or next month.

Ah, that's good to hear. How far are you down the editing line now?

So I was forced to go down to my local library earlier by family, my sister is involved in this thing called "Headspace" up there which was opening to the public. Thought it was going to be boring but it actually wasn't that bad.

The organizers managed to get our town's mayor involved as well as a published writer, Alexander Gordon Smith. He spoke about his experiences writing his novels, which are mainly horror stories, that included stuff like an experience shooting Cow Sh*t with a shotgun oddly enough. But overall, it was quite a good talk and it gave me a few ideas for my story (Which has pretty much become my version of Brian from Family guy's novel)