Summer Writing Project: Opinions?After I finish my geometry course this Friday, I plan to embark on a fiction writing project somewhat like a low-key NaNoWriMo. I’m planning take the time to write each day and establish a word count which I will update to my new blog ([link]). The story-related content on the blog will also contain things like relevant art, random musings about writing, the story, inspiration, and progress on the novel in general. This has been something I’ve been wanting to do for a while but never really had the discipline to work on until after participating in NaNoWriMo this past year.
My predicament comes from the fact that I’m not completely sure which of the various stories floating in my head I should pursue. I need to make up my mind and focus on a single concrete idea so I can really be successful in my task of realizing that idea through prose. In the past, even when I settled on one idea, the story ended up absorbing elements of other things along the way and became lost within its own complexity. Thus, I have narrowed down my choices for ideas and have considered long and hard the focus I will take for each of the stories. The result is a list of three plot ideas. These ideas are fairly old, between 7 months and 3 years in the making. I’ve had a fair amount of time to think out the details in each one, though some are better thought out than others. All in all, however, I believe I have mostly reached a stalemate on deciding which story I should pursue, and am in need of thoughts and opinions from potential readers. Though I am not counting on obtaining a huge following, I expect that at least one or two people will either be curious or bored enough to have some interest in it. If you happen to be one of those people, please give me your thoughts on the following summaries!
Finding Antarctica
Summary: The past year for Zack Ackerly has been as dull and uninteresting as usual, living with yet another host family and slogging through schoolwork. However, when a strange magical ailment strikes, stealing the hearts of people and turning them into animals, monsters, or worse, Zack's life is turned upside down. Whisked off along with his friend, the mischievous genius Abacus Fidget, and the stubborn young prophetess Cassandra Sign, he is taken under the wing of master magician and musician Nemo J. Omen. Together, the three children must learn the laws of anti-science from the top down in order to fight the curse and hopefully unmask the sorcerer behind it. Unfortunately, what initially seems like a simple albeit malevolent spell with no specific target is soon discovered to be far more complex, organic, and directed. Nemo himself is not as innocent a character as he first seemed. Bizarre discoveries appear at every turn, and every path seems to lead to an enigmatic, mythical place known as "Antarctica."
Comments: The summary makes it sound a lot cheesier and stereotypical than it actually is; it's just a very hard plot to summarize without spilling over into details and completely spoiling everything. The influences on this story are pretty diverse, with a number of elements from both Greek and Norse mythology combined with some modern mythos born of the minds of Tetsuya Nomura and Diana Wynne Jones. The writing is of a lighter, more humorous tone (if perhaps a little satirical at spots), but it is at heart a gothic tragedy, though you'd never know it until after you'd finished it. A lot of the plot and almost all of the characters are very concrete at this point, making it for the most part a pretty clear cut piece of work to pursue.
Trans Epica
Summary: Luke Nyles was hoping that working as an archivist for the rich Dr. Farrell would be a plush job, with lots of interesting texts to sort and few disturbances. Unfortunately, his expectations could have not been further from the truth. Forced to board with the obnoxious Ajax, Dr. Farrell’s delivery boy and a self-proclaimed disturber of the peace, Luke gets scarcely a moment’s peace from the second he arrives. The enigmatic young housekeeper, Keys, is no help in warding off Ajax but instead unintentionally raises questions about Dr. Farrell’s shady business practices. It isn’t long before Luke finds himself knee-deep in a cult and conspiracy funded by the doctor and dedicated to the opaque goal of reuniting the modern world with its archaic sister-world that divorced it long ago. The unexpected discovery of a midworld between the two further complicates the project, and the arrival of a superhuman midworld army threatens to destroy it completely… which as Luke soon learns might not be such a bad thing. With men tinkering with reality and science, disaster looms and the twins Apollo and Apocalypse threaten to emerge from the womb eons earlier than intended.
Comments: This plot is perhaps the most bizarre of all three (which is saying a lot because they are all pretty strange), at least in terms of the sheer number of unrelated elements all thrown together at high velocity into an almost coherent storyline. The plot was originally based off the story of my cat’s life mixed with Final Fantasy VII, which is probably why it has ended up being so much of a creative train wreck. In any case, the characters are all pretty solid and the foundational elements are there; the only complication is that not all of the exact timing of events is as lucid as it perhaps should be after two years of developing the story. It should prove to be fun to figure out along the way. In terms of style, this is written in the more serious tone that is typically used with high fantasy but with bits of welcome irony thrown in to make things interesting.
Encounters with the Kutché
Summary: The invisible folk are commonplace to Tuomas Kuolannen and his enormous family. The ability to see and speak to the folk is trademark of his clan, which has lived in the same great house in the same great wood for a number of years greater than anyone can remember. Travelers are scarce and seen once in a century. News from the Beyond is even rarer. But when a strange, self-proclaimed First Class Magician and Official Authority of Pan-Universal Magicks arrives and leaves his grandson Raphael behind with the family, the wood suddenly seems much smaller and the world much bigger than any Kuolannen reckoned it to be. The usually peaceful invisible folk suddenly turn malicious. The wood becomes dangerous. Even the Kuolannen House turns upon itself. Worst of all, the Kutché has been paying Tuomas Kuolannen unexpected, unwanted visits. And everyone knows that the Kutché is the darkest, most demonic of all the folk in the wood.
Comments: Yes, it’s my NaNoWriMo novel. The one and only. Except, when I got to about 41,000 words, I realized that I wanted to take the story in a completely different direction that warranted an almost complete rewrite of everything I had done thus far. There will be usable chunks here and there, but for the most part I will need to start from scratch. Even though the summary is virtually the same as what I posted for my NaNoWriMo summary, the story will have a very different focus and the plotline will be drastically altered, especially in terms of pacing. Even the tone of writing, which was initially much lighter and more comical, will be tweaked to give a more somber, eerie feel to the story while maintaining the quirky fairytale edge the original had. I am a little hesitant to pick up this project again as it’s a little frustrating to work on something you’ve already done in a sense, but I know it’s a good story that needs to be told eventually. In many ways it’s quite similar to “Finding Antarctica” in both its writing style and the basic themes of the story (which are much more morbid than you might think).
If you have any sort of opinion or suggestions in general, please voice them. I will most likely begin writing this weekend so I could really use the help.
Eager
Amused
Pleased
Uneasy
Bemused
