A Quick Overview

Here’s my ROW80 (Round 3) weekend update.  I’ve made some great story-crafting progress this week, especially as it pertains to one of my major villains, but more on that in a minute.  First, I want to give you a quick overview of where my “Sword & Sorcery” story-world is in its development so far.  Keep in mind that everything at this point is in the conceptual-stage of development; constantly evolving and ever changing. 

Note: A [bracketed word] means that the idea is conceptual, or that it is yet unnamed. 

All my “Sword & Sorcery” stories take place on an “Alternate-Earth” type planet.  This [World] was three main continents, each separated by vast treacherous seas.  These continents are the [Civilized Continent], the [Wild Continent], and the [Mystical Continent]. 

• The [Civilized Continent] has beautiful cities, rival kingdoms, and competing nations.  Don’t let the name fool you, it can be anything but civilized.  It is steeped in history as it contains the majority of the population of the [World].  Magic is feared and forbidden here.  All magic and monsters have been purged from the land long ago, after the [Great Arcane War].  

• The [Wild Continent] resides on the farthest outskirts of the trading routes of the [Civilized Continent], untamed and mostly undiscovered.  It has some ancient outposts along the coastlines, but they have long been claimed by jungle overgrowth.  This is a very primitive land inhabited by dangerous wild creatures and great beasts.  Survival is the law of the land here. 

• The [Mystical Continent] resides on the other side of the [World], cloaked in mystical fog and mystery.  It hosts the [World]’s oldest history, with ancient ruins and magical secrets located throughout this enchanted and accursed land.  It is sparsely populated with reclusive sorcerers, arcane cultists and remnant monstrosities.

There are several reasons why I wanted my story-world to be unified on one planet, yet separated by locations.  By separating locations, I have created for myself an “ultimate sandbox” to play in, leaving open all the story-possibilities that I want to tell.  On the [Civilized Continent], I can write classically-styled heroic fantasy.  On the [Wild Continent], I can write action-adventure fantasy.  And on the [Mystical Continent], I can write "fantaisie-noir".  All vary in tone, mood and style.  I unified my story-world on one planet because I wanted to leave open the possibility of shared history or maybe even a world-battle, but for now, each location will have there own unique characters and situations.  I have considered a few cross-over characters, like the [Mariner], the [Mercenary], and the [Scribe], but that won’t happen until I get further in a series. 

My “Sword & Sorcery” product-line will consist on three major series; an [Arcane Series], a [Rogue Series], and a [Warrior Series].  My sixteen story-idea threads are divided (almost) evenly between these three series.  Many are stand-alone stories, but some have potential for trilogies.  Scattered within are twenty-seven main characters and twenty villains.  Of them, I have a few candidates for “legendary status”, meaning these characters are my favorites, will have multiple adventures, and will represent my heroic fantasy franchise.  No “Sword & Sorcery” franchise would be complete without a least one Conan-esque hero, so my [Warrior Series] has one.  My [Legendary Hero] is just as strong and skilled with the sword, but is more fully-clothed (most of the time).  My [Warrior Series] also has an Amazon-like heroine I’ve dubbed the [Monster Huntress].  Yes, she hunts monsters.  In my [Rogue Series], my franchise character is the [Mercenary].  Others in this series may share in his action-adventures, but they are all under-developed so far, so I haven’t decided on their status yet.  My [Arcane Series] franchise characters are the [Grand Magister] and the [Arcane Warrior], who are both sorcerer-warriors (think sword-master, martial-artist and Jedi-master combined) battling the [Arch-Sorcerer] and his [Acolytes] for control of forbidden magic and power supremacy.  I’m still working on the magic-system. 

Which brings me to the major villain I mentioned at the top of this post.  For the past couple of days, I’ve been obsessed with one of the lesser-developed villains in my [Arcane Series].  His conceptual name is the [Savant] and he has great magical super-powers that I’m not yet ready to reveal.  But let’s just say that his unique talents are sought by both rival factions, and that he is a danger to himself and to others if his powers aren’t safely harnessed and properly controlled.  The [Arch-Sorcerer] villain secretly takes an interest in his talents and has sinister plans for him in the future.  All I can tell you now is that he will have a profound affect on many characters and plots in my [Arcane Series].  He is my “fallen hero” and the first I’ve developed with a negative character-arc.  Exciting stuff!  More details later.

Against the background of somber, primitive forest she posed with an unconscious picturesqueness, bizarre and out of place.  She should have been posed against a background of sea clouds, painted masts, and wheeling gulls.  There was the color of the sea in her wide eyes.  And that was as it should have been, because this was Valeria of the Red Brotherhood, whose deeds are celebrated in song and ballad wherever seafarers gather.
— (Excerpt from, Red Nails, by Robert E. Howard)

That’s all for now.  Keep the Fire Burning!
Please visit the other writers in the ROW80 Community…

Goal, Motivation, and Conflict

“He lifted his hands to the skies and sounded a long weird call that seemed to shudder endlessly out into space, dwindling and fading, yet never dying out , only receding farther and farther into some unreckoned cosmos.  In the silence that followed, Conan heard a sudden beat of wings in the stars, and recoiled as a huge bat-like creature alighted beside him.  He saw its great calm eyes regarding him in the starlight; he saw the forty-foot spread of its giant wings.  And saw it neither was bat nor bird.”
— (excerpt from The Scarlet Citadel, by Robert E. Howard)


Goal, Motivation, and Conflict
Happy Tax Day, everyone!  I hope y’all got your taxes done on time and that ol’ Uncle Sam is treating you fairly ( * insert raging diatribe here * ).  Hard to believe April is half over already, although we are only ten days into the second round of ROW80 (which is one-eighth of the way through, for all you non-math majors out there).  As I mentioned in my last blog post, I have been trying to strengthen the plots of my three stories by giving my main characters and villains strong goals and motives.  I had been struggling with this concept for awhile now, but then I discovered a book on the subject called GMC: Goal, Motivation & Conflict (The Building Blocks of Good Fiction) by Debra Dixon.  I read her book straight through on Monday, fell in love with her system, and started working it out on graph-paper yesterday.  So far, within my world-building project, I have thirty major characters, which includes ten major villains (each will be developed into their own stories later).  So, for each of my characters, on a full-sheet of graph-paper, I created a grid with three rows (Goal, Motivation, Conflict) and two columns (External, Internal).  Within this gridded worksheet, I have been brainstorming the the most important starting questions of any story; the "who, what, why, and why not" questions.  The "who" is the Character, the "what" is the Goal, the "why" is the Motivation, and the "why not" is the Conflict.  Each of these questions are expressed in terms of the plot (External) and the character development (Internal).  The beauty of this layout is that you can see the entire story-arc of each character, and when compared side-by-side with other characters, story-ideas and conflicts between enemies and allies start emerging.  It's a great way to view new, developing characters while they are still simple (non-complex), unsullied by contrived personalities or background-stories that may not fit them.  Once these basic questions are answered, I can then delve deeper into the details of the characters and their story.  I recommend this intuitive system to those who want to develop strong plots with motivated characters.  Anyway, that's what I have been doing for the last couple of days.  Let me know if you have any comments or questions about the GMC system.

That's all for now.  I'm behind on my word-count elsewhere (yeah, you guessed it) and I'll be typing feverishly until midnight after I post this.

Please visit the other writers in the ROW80 Community...

The Ides of March

“Across the red drifts and mail-clad forms, two figures glared at each other.  In that utter desolation only they moved.   The frosty sky was over them, the white illimitable plain around them, the dead men at their feet.  Slowly through the corpses they came, as ghosts might come to a tryst through the shambles of a dead world.  In the brooding silence they stood face to face.”

(excerpt from, The Frost Giant’s Daughter, by Robert E. Howard)

The Ides of March

On this date, March 15th, 44 BC, Julius Caesar was assassinated, marking the end of the Roman Republic and cascading Rome into civil war and strife.  Months earlier, Julius Caesar had declared himself “Dictator Perpetuo” (dictator in perpetuity) and sought to consolidate all power to himself.  The Roman Senators, fearing that this new tyrannical king of Rome would ultimately overthrow their senate, all conspired in secret to ambush him on the floor of the Roman Senate.  They sent Senator Brutus, friend and confidant of Julius Caesar, to summon him.  Calpurnia, wife of Julius, having had a vision of the ambush in her dreams the night before, begged him not to go.   Brutus scoffed at Calpurnia’s warning, convincing the Caesar that he should ignore his wife’s silly dreams and attend the awaiting Senate.   Upon his arrival, all the Senators surrounded Julius Caesar and stabbed him to death with their daggers.

Why am I telling you this history here in my blog today?   Well, for one, it has many of the elements that make for a great story; corruption, the lust for power, conspiracy, betrayal, and murder.  Mix these story elements into your own novels and you have the potential for an intriguing thriller.   But mostly, I bring up this history because of the research I have been doing for my world-building project.

Nation Building

I am at a point in my world-building where I need to establish the major nations, empires and cultures first before I can develop the world any further.  These nations will have the most affect on the rest of the world due to their size, power and influence.  How do I go about creating these nations and cultures?  Well, first I need to study the empires of the past (which I’m currently doing now), mash-up and change these empires to fit my story-world, and then set these empires at odds with each other.  In the end, I want to create six or seven major nations, each with vastly different cultures, philosophies, and governmental systems, all vying for control over disputed lands, trade routes, and natural resources.   In other words, if I want to write stories about espionage, usurpation, and global warfare in my fantasy story-world, I need to seed in all that potential for chaos and conflict into my world now.

Which brings me full circle to ancient Rome.  Over the past few days, I’ve been studying the history of the Roman Empire, hoping to emulate its political and military structure into one of my nation-states.  The goal is to find the most intriguing elements of that empire and to combine them with other fantasy elements to create a completely unique, believable civilization.  Hopefully, if done right, it won’t be obvious to the reader that this nation originated from the concepts of ancient Rome, just like most people don’t recognize that the conceptual origins of the Galactic Empire in Star Wars was Nazi Germany.   I plan on doing the same for other historical empires as well.  At this point, I envision a colonial nation, a conquering nation, several tyrannical nations, an enlightened-yet-corrupt nation, and a zealot-controlled slave-nation.  I envision all sorts of governmental and political systems ruled by monarchs, corrupt politicians, tribal warlords, feudal landholders, and a self-professed god-king.   All of these ideas (and research) are in their infancy right now and need a lot of work and development.  Yet, once established, I believe that this portion of my world-building process will produce many characters and plots for my future story-world.

That's all for now.  Please visit some of the other writers in the ROW80 Community…

Finding My Rhythm

“Olivia reclined in the bows of the gently rocking boat, in a state dreamy and unreal.  She experienced an illusion that she was floating in midair, stars beneath her as well as above.  Her silent companion was etched vaguely against the softer darkness.  There was no break or falter in the rhythm of his oars; he might have been a fantasmal oarsman, rowing her across the dark lake of Death.   But the edge of her fear was dulled, and, lulled by the monotony of motion, she passed into a quiet slumber.”

(excerpt from, Shadows in the Moonlight, by Robert E. Howard)

Finding My Rhythm

So far, the first week of March has been relatively productive for me.  As I prepare for the next round of ROW80, I feel like the preliminary planning of my [World-Building] project is right on schedule.  This past week has mostly been about organizing my project folders, and copying-and-pasting all the “good stuff” from my NaNoWriMo world-building manuscript into my new folders.  Once organized, editing these new components into something useful has been the hardest part.   For example, I have some scenes that I have written where the story is told using a certain protagonist, but then I think ‘hey, wouldn’t it be better if this happened to my other protagonist in a different story?’  Well, that’s what I’ve been doing to a couple of my scenes, swapping out one character for another, then changing the new character’s reactions and dialog to the scene.  In other words, I end up re-writing the entire scene using a different lead character.  It’s a lot of work, but the end result is a stronger, more compelling, scene.

Random Scenes

In my [Brainstorming Ideas] folder, under a sub-folder called [Scenarios], I’ve been free-writing all the random scenes that I have floating around in my head.  Maybe it’s an exotic setting, like that of a crumbling temple, strangled by the vines and roots of the deep jungle.  Or maybe it’s a dramatic situation, like a hero frantically trying to unfasten the clasps and buckles of his heavy armor as he sinks quickly in deep dark waters.  Sometimes it’s nothing more than a mood or a tone that I want to convey in a story.   Mostly, these ideas come to me as nothing more than a vivid snapshot, without plot or context.  I don’t know if I’ll use these scenes in any of my stories, but I figure it’s good writing practice and counts toward my daily word-count goal.  More importantly, if I don’t get these thoughts out of my head, I’ll forget them tomorrow.  As the ancient proverb states, “the palest ink is better than the sharpest memory”.  Write it down before it’s forgotten!

World-Building Research

I’ve been doing some online research for my world-building project.  Many of the fantasy world-building articles that I find are geared towards video-game designers or role-playing-game dungeon-masters, but many of these same concepts can be used by fantasy writers to develop their world.   Here are some great world-building links that I discovered this week:

• A World Building Checklist — A well-organized list of all the world-building components that a fantasy writer will have to consider.  It is similar to the S.F.W.A. Questionnaire discussed in a previous post.   A great place to start.

• The Cartographers’ Guild — If you want to have a map of your fantasy world in the front of your book, this is, by far, the best map-making community forum out there!  Check out the Finished Maps and Cartographer’s Choice galleries.

• Medieval Names Archive — A fantastic collection of articles on medieval and renaissance names, and how to properly choose one.  A great resource for anyone wanting to add authenticity to their historical fiction.

• Ringwork’s Fantasy Name Generator — More than just a simple name generation tool, this one accepts complex commands that allow you to personalize how you character’s name looks and sounds.  Play around with the drop-menu.

• Donjon’s Fantasy Name Generator — A name generator used by role-playing-game dungeon-masters (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons) to create characters for quests.  It has some fun drop-menu combinations, such as for naming adventuring parties and monsters.   Obviously, you would want to tweak these names with your own naming variation.  A good starting point.  Again, play around with the drop-menus.

• Medieval Demographics Calculator — This random kingdom generator calculates all the resources that are needed in order to support a kingdom of a certain size, such as population density, farmland acreage and trade services.  It is based on actual historical demographic data compiled by S. John Ross, in his article Medieval Demographics Made Easy.  Play around with the parameters.  Note: In order to get another random kingdom, refresh your browser.

• Fractal World Generator — A world creation tool where you can change the planetary parameters, like water and ice content, to create a map.   Press the [Create] button to see your fractal-generated world map.   A fun way to play with world-building ideas.

Okay, enough playing on the Internet; back to writing!  Just kidding.  I hope you find some of these links useful for your writing projects.  Please visit some of the other writers in the ROW80 Community…

Organizing My Characters

“Look at me, Conan!”  She threw wide her arms.  “I am Bêlit, queen of the black coast.  Oh, tiger of the North, you are cold as the snowy mountains which bred you.  Take me and crush me with your fierce love!  Go with me to the ends of the earth and the ends of the sea!  I am a queen by fire and steel and slaughter — be thou my king!”

— Bêlit

(excerpt from, Queen of the Black Coast, by Robert E. Howard)

Characters

Because world-building can be such a daunting (and sometimes overwhelming) task, I wanted to make sure, from the beginning, that my project was well organized and intuitive.  To that end, I’ve been trying to spend a little time each night organizing and editing some aspect of my [World-Building] project.  Lately, I’ve been organizing my [Characters] folder, which has many character-template files in it, all at various levels of completion.  Some of my main characters are decently defined, but they lack depth, personality, history and motivation right now (all of this will be refined later).  Most of the files are just generically-named placeholders of future characters I may need for my story plots (the cast of characters, as it were).  Here’s how my [Characters] folder is organized right now:

[Protagonists]

• [Heroes] — This folder contains all of my male lead characters.
• [Heroines] — This folder contains all of my female lead characters.

• [Allies] — This folder contains important secondary characters, including family members, friends, sidekicks, and mentors.

[Antagonists]

• [Villains] — This folder contains all of the main villains, including overlords, warlords, and arch-villains.

• [Henchmen] — This folder contains all of the main villain’s subordinates, including body-guards, bounty-hunters, spies, and assassins.

• [Adversaries] — This folder contains any character (excluding the villain and his underlings) that might get in the way of the protagonist’s goals, including rivals, traitors and scorned ex-lovers.

[Neutral Characters]

• [Supporting Cast of Extras] — This folder contains ambivalent characters (neither friend nor foe), like merchants, inn-keepers and bar-maids.

[Cannon Fodder] (expendable enemies that must die!)

• [Human Enemies] — Includes: enemy soldiers, rival mercenaries, elite assassins, savage cannibals, raiders, marauders, thugs, criminals, lunatics, zealots, fanatics and cultists (just to name a few).

• [Monsters] — Oh, yes! Monsters!  Lots of Monsters!  Everything from giant carnivorous predators to summoned hell-spawn to man-beast monstrosities!  I have a special character-template for monsters (more on that in a later blog post).

This style of organization may change as I move forward with the project.  I may combine some folders or add others later as needed.  So far, this method of organization is working for me.  I will go over some of the variables that I include in my character-template files in a future post...

First Week Assessment

“Above him the skies glowed and crackled with strange lights and gleams.  The snow shone weirdly, now frosty blue, now icy crimson, now cold silver.  Through a shimmering icy realm of enchantment Conan plunged doggedly onward, in a crystalline maze where the only reality was the white body dancing across the glittering snow beyond his reach — ever beyond his reach.”

(excerpt from, The Frost Giant’s Daughter, by Robert E. Howard)

New Blog Pages

I created two new pages titled [My Writing Projects] and [My Reading List] for my blog (see links above).  On the first page you will find my current writing projects and long-term writing goals.  It is a reference page for all of the stories I will be discussing in my blog.  I will update this page frequently with new ideas and progress reports.  On the second page you will find a long list of stories I plan on reading.  Most of these stories fall under the genre of “Sword & Sorcery” and “Heroic Fantasy” because that’s what I love to read, and hopefully someday write.  Many of the stories (like the Conan series) I have read as a child, but I want to read them again with fresh adult eyes, studying the prose while rediscovering the magic.  I will update this page on a regular basis as I complete each story and as I add new ones to the list.

Project Organization

Besides updating the look and feel of my blog site (more changes to come later), I’ve been organizing my new writing project in Scrivener (I highly recommend this writing software).  Lately, I have been wading through all of the rambling sentences of my 54,000-word NaNoWriMo world-building manuscript, copying-and-pasting all the “good stuff” onto new pages.  So far, I’m half-way through this process.  I will have a lot of good “raw material” for story-crafting once I weed-out all of the “bad stuff.”   Within my World-Building folder, I have several sub-folders, such as Characters, Places, Story Outlines, Scenes, History and Lore, and Magic.  I have been using the World-Building Questionnaire provided by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America as my organization guide.   I have also been reading The Complete Guide to Writing Fantasy: Volume One, by Darin Park & Tom Dullemond and The Guide to Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction, by Philip Athans.  These are great resources for fantasy world-building.

Writing and Reading

For my daily writing exercises, in a sub-folder called Brainstorming Ideas, I have been free-writing my generic characters into practice scenes as I try to develop their personalities.  Some are coming to life nicely, while others, not so much.  I will get more serious about this in the weeks ahead as I work on a few of my favorite characters that I think have the most potential.  With only one month to go until the “Spring Round” of ROW80, I want to have three or four main characters sketched-out, a few plots outlined, and several location settings established in the month of March.   My tentative goal is to write 60,0000 words during the 80 day period, focusing mostly on world-building and possibly a short-story or two, depending on how well the brainstorming sessions go.   I’m doubling my word-count goal for next week as I blasted past the measly 250 words-per-day goal I previously set for myself.   My reading goal remains the same; at least one “Sword & Sorcery” story a week.  I’m really enjoying this goal, having just read, The Frost Giant’s Daughter, by Robert E. Howard.   I’ll be sticking to Conan short-stories for the foreseeable future, until all of them have been read.  More on my progress mid-week…