Monday, May 16, 2011

Things I'd Some Day Like To Write

So far, all of my non-fanfiction (well, and one fanfiction...) stories have had some basis in a dream.

+I was originally Michael and Silvermin had kidnapped me, and I was forced to make him chocolate ice cream almost constantly. I was eventually rescued when I killed him with the Rook.

+I was Sonya and Nathan and I went out into this ruined, wasted city and fought bad guys. Nivedidus was even included! We rescued a bunch of small child-like things, putting some sort of not-nivedidus on their heads to put them into a sort of stasis, and then put them on a hover-cart to transport them. We fought the bad guys over these carts.

+I was Alter, and I was a little street urchin. I wanted to become a hero, though. Apparently they were special. I managed to get taken in for training by one, and we fought stuff! There was a talking fox, and this huge monster, and I couldn't step in the water otherwise the water snakes would smell me...


I feel as if I should put a quick disclaimer in here: I'm all for getting story ideas from dreams! BUT FOR GODS' SAKES. Edit them. Add to them. Create basic logic in them. Use 5% dream content and 95% (conscious) imagination, coherent plot, new characters, and tweaking. So much tweaking. As you can see above, the stories have changed drastically. Some of the characters are the same, even the plot could be similar.

I also actually have a document that's just for story ideas. I think I'm in the twenties right now. Some of them are completely ridiculous, and some of them have already been borrowed from (heavily) to go into other stories (Emil, for example!), but they're nice to write down and remember. Protip: Write down your dreams! Even if they're ridiculously crazy, and even if I'm the only one who has weird dreams like this, do it anyway! You'd be surprised by what inspires you and what you can use later.

Anyway, I digress.

Current projects and casts aside (whom I love dearly), there are some things that I would love to write at some abstract point in the future. Some of these ideas are more fleshed out than others; a couple have already been "started".

+"Crystal Rain". Crystals with "magical" abilities suddenly fall from the sky one day, and the world falls into chaos because of it. Governments scramble for these powerful gems, the black market and underground flourishes, and the population is reduced because of casualties of the initial fall as well as increased crime. The story itself follows one Annabelle Lee, a relatively innocent ranch girl who, after the murder of her cousin in front of her, resolves to kill the woman responsible. This entails joining a rival gang - think twenties gangsters. And all of the characters are named after obscure literary references! (Annabel Lee = Edgar Allen Poe poem.)

+Alter story! Alter, a beggar boy with no home or family to speak of, resolves to become a hero and help save the world. Or something. You know how kids are. The difference between him and every other ragamuffin on the street is that he actually does. He gets taken in by an old hero and mentored, learning magic and swordsmanship and all sorts of heroic things! This one is less planned out than Crystal Rain.

+A random fantasy story. Inspired a bit by Pan's Labyrinth in the fact that there's fantasy stuff all over but none of it's explained. It's just there. Our hero is going through a massive labyrinth, questing for... something! Monsters, heroes, villains, all sorts of shit will appear. No world explaining required! (I tend to explain too much. I just want to do something in which I can say "here's a monster. don't question what it is or how it came to be. it's just going to be here, kay?".)

+"Emerald". This one's fairly fleshed out (and was originally going to be titled "Emma", until I realized that there's kinda sorta a classic by that name. derp.) and stands a chance of actually being written if my imagination stops vomiting at me in my sleep. The story follows a relatively young girl, originally from the eighteenth century or so. Father dead, mother poor, she's become a thief and a beggar to help out at home. With the "Hundred Year's Party" going on in the mysterious manor that only opens every century, she figures that there HAS to be some treasure in there. Plus, rich people. Can't go wrong there. The problem is that it DOES. Long story short, she gets trapped in the mansion and becomes the new guardian of the emerald. If it ever leaves the mansion by foreign hands, she dies. Pretty good initiative for guarding it. Centuries and parties pass, and she keeps protecting it. In the future, however, things are harder. Eventually, someone manages to break in and leads her on a merry chase. It is only by virtue of bursting out into tears that allows her to exploit the loophole - he escorts her out of the mansion, and SHE is the one carrying the emerald. (It's huge. Like, the size of someone's head.) The man who commissioned the thief to steal it instead finds interest in the girl. After some tests, they discover that she can ONLY die by parting with the emerald - at least not through a lot of normal means. An emerald necklace later, the crime lord has a new mercenary. The bulk of the story would follow that.

+"those without souls". I would just really, really like to write this at some point. It started out as a failed autobiographical webcomic, but the story is still near and dear to my heart. (Double fail for the fact that "I" didn't even appear in it yet and would be a fairly minor character.) The story follows a teenager named Rhona, who, after a run in with a somewhat questionable blonde in a park while she was angsting, ends up with her soul nearly torn away. Souls, you see, are actual things. Only those without souls can see them, though, and they're constantly craving them. The problem is that those without souls cannot simply steal someone else's - but if someone's soul is picked up and carried away by someone else, then that person loses their soul as well. Rhona manages to stop the girl, but since her soul had been picked up and held by a stranger, she is never quite the same. She can see and interact with her own soul, and she becomes aware of other peoples - those closest to her, anyway. She also starts noticing... trends. Some people act different, look different, and they don't have souls. They want them, though. So badly. Soon enough, all but a war springs up. Possibly the most stylistic of my story ideas, since I have IDEAS. Like the fact that the soulless ones don't capitalize anything and almost always have light eyes and yeah. In some ways, it would have been better as some sort of graphic novel.

+"Naive"! OMG YAY. I love this idea. It stars this girl, Penelope, and this alien, Baxter. Basically, every year, they must race. If Penelope wins, then the earth becomes trading partners with his race. If he wins, then he just comes back next year for another try - although, of course, there ARE only so many chances they get. The catch is that Penelope wasn't supposed to be the racer for earth. (She's only nine when it starts.) Unfortunately, Baxter is very insistent on the fact that she cannot back out. Basically, an alien love story!


I'm not sure when my schedule will ever free up, haha. I have two more books to go for The Rook series, and WHIPLASH!. I'm not sure what's in store after that! But one day...

Saturday, May 14, 2011

On Ree's Story And DeviantArt's Continued Vendetta Against Writers

HAY SUP GUYS.

School's been out for about a week now, but past that, I decide to upload the first chapter of Ree Majors' Wonderful Journey to the internet as a celebration! Only on deviantArt, though; the fanfiction.net version will go up as planned (after Pedestal officially ends).

The problem is that deviantArt apparently has a text limit. This, in itself, is not surprising and is expected. The problem is that it was smaller than the chapter. Granted, the first chapter is fairly large - just over 12k words - but still. It was annoying as fuck to have to split up the chapter into two parts. At least ff.net has no such problems...

Anyway, here we go!

First half of Chapter One: Ree Majors' Wonderful Journey Of Failed Tests:
here
Second half of Chapter One: Ree Majors' Wonderful Journey Of Failed Tests:
here

(Each chapter will start with a similar title. Ree Majors' Wonderful Journey Of _____. Each chapter will also have a preview, of sorts, for the next chapter at the end. Each chapter will also not be nearly as long as 12k words...)

WOO I'M EXCITED. DON'T JUDGE ME.

On a couple other notes: I hope for Pedestal to be done by the end of May, even if that's a little crazy and highly unlikely. June will be devoted to finishing up The Ram, and July will be donated to the rewrite of WHIPLASH!, which will stay as one (long) novel instead of becoming a series. I'm not good with subplots and overarching plots. After that, who knows?

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