|
|
Post by Jayeee on Oct 6, 2010 22:24:39 GMT -5
After watching NaNoWriMo pretty closely last year, participating this year was a must for me. I was too jealous of all those rising word counts, and postings of latest sentences. I've never written anywhere near as much as i'm going to attempt here, but i'd really like to get used to writing longer pieces of work, and what better way than a 50,000 word novel! =D On the other hand, I have possibly set myself up with an immense amount of work, which will require lots of preparation. My uni friend said that I probably shouldn't make it so complex for my first time, but I just can't do it any other way now. Epic/High Fantasy is the only way to go for me. If I tried to write some non-fantasy, I know i'd have the overwhelming urge to just include masses of magic and things in it. So here I go! In the world of Nasphar, where magic and summoning permeates the landscape, four Cities, once protected by Crystals of Guidance, are slowly losing their power. With nothing to protect them from the beasts outside, the weight lies on a band of unlikely heroes, each with a reason to fight.
But what do they stand to lose along the way? So yeah, that's my basic plot. :3 I think it might be pretty cliche, but I like it too much to change. I'll come up with a more detailed synopsis, which is more character based, when I come up with characters. XD So far, i'm getting the world's races and cities down before I start really thinking of characters. I'm in the process of worldbuilding right now, (something i've never done before), so i'll probably be posting frequent new novel points on here when I finish each part. |
|
|
|
Post by friday on Oct 6, 2010 22:37:19 GMT -5
*highfives* We're both newbies this year, heh. Best of luck, Jay! It sounds like a great story, even though I've only seen a bit of it. =D
And I'm with you on adding masses of magic. XD It just makes everything more complicated and fun.
|
|
|
|
Post by Shadaras on Oct 6, 2010 22:37:28 GMT -5
Epic Fantasy and High Fantasy are two different genres, y'know. Both are fun. And I've got to agree with you; for all that I'm technically writing sci-fi this year, it's soft sci-fi and has a number of fantastical elements (though, for once, everyone's human). Soyeah. Non-spec-fic is so much harder to write. ^_^
That is a cool basis for a plot. =D I'd love to learn more about the world and characters as you discover more about them. ^_^ Should be fun to watch this thread.
|
|
|
|
Post by Rikku on Oct 9, 2010 0:15:33 GMT -5
^_^ That's what got me into NaNo as well, if I remember right. The sheer buoyant energy of it, the determination and exhaustion and writing-way-too-fast. Even just skimming people's threads made it seem irresistible.
And I am similar with fantasy, as well. In fact I don't think I've ever written anything of decent size that isn't fantasy in some way or another. xD Though I'm too lazy for proper worldbuilding. But the real world always seems so limiting. And you can't have pyromancers! I mean, honestly!
So good luck with your first year! ^_^ I hope things'll be awesome for you.
|
|
|
|
Post by Jayeee on Oct 11, 2010 0:40:10 GMT -5
*highfives* We're both newbies this year, heh. Best of luck, Jay! It sounds like a great story, even though I've only seen a bit of it. =D And I'm with you on adding masses of magic. XD It just makes everything more complicated and fun. Yay for us newbies! Good luck to you too, although judging from the awesomeness of your thread, I highly doubt luck is something you'll need! =D Epic Fantasy and High Fantasy are two different genres, y'know. Both are fun. And I've got to agree with you; for all that I'm technically writing sci-fi this year, it's soft sci-fi and has a number of fantastical elements (though, for once, everyone's human). Soyeah. Non-spec-fic is so much harder to write. ^_^ That is a cool basis for a plot. =D I'd love to learn more about the world and characters as you discover more about them. ^_^ Should be fun to watch this thread. =O I never realised they were different genre's. I just though they were different names for the same one. ^^; I did look them up after reading this though, and now have a better grasp on the fantasy genre. So thank you for that! And thank you for the kind words, Shade. I'm excited to discover my characters too. Your own story is so complex and awesome and wow! XD Wow was totally the first word that came to mind when I read through your thread! ^_^ That's what got me into NaNo as well, if I remember right. The sheer buoyant energy of it, the determination and exhaustion and writing-way-too-fast. Even just skimming people's threads made it seem irresistible. And I am similar with fantasy, as well. In fact I don't think I've ever written anything of decent size that isn't fantasy in some way or another. xD Though I'm too lazy for proper worldbuilding. But the real world always seems so limiting. And you can't have pyromancers! I mean, honestly! So good luck with your first year! ^_^ I hope things'll be awesome for you. I'm glad so many people feel the same way with fantasy as I do. Just starting from scratch and creating everything is so much fun. And yes, a world without pyromancers is a depressing world indeed. =D --- And now for another little update. I've been fervently working away at all the little details for this story. Seems like everytime I finish writing about one thing, something else pops up that needs to be though about. I'm sure i'll eventually come up with some characters though. I feel like they're already forming in my mind. So i'll start with the basics: The World of Nasphar... The world of Nasphar is a vast globe, but is highly unexplored. The settlements located across this world are very protective and secluded from each other. This consequently means that there is a wide array of cultural differences in Nasphar, each with separate fashion, foods and skills. However, it is widely believed that everybody evolved from the same basic species, so things such as language is generally similar. This is unknown to the Cities and Villages of Nasphar, as very few people leave the comfort of their own society. Only those that venture for food are permitted to leave in most instances, and even then, that occurence is rare.
Nasphar is 'ruled' by four major Cities, each one believing itself to be the dominant power of the world. But as no contact is maintained between them, and no conflict has ever arose, there is no way to be sure.
There is one thing alone that connects the four Cities; the Crystals of Guidence. Each of the four Cities possesses a crystal in its Kingdom, believed to have been sent to them in ancient times by Celestial beings. Each City is aware of the existence of three other crystals from folklore, but nothing more than that.
The Crystals of Guidence create an invisible veil of spiritual energy to protect the Cities in which they reside. There is no physical sign of its presence, but lore says that as long as there is a glimmer of hope inside of it, no beast of the spiritual realm will be able to pass through this barrier. The residents live happily believing in this story.
Little is known about the spiritual realm itself, except that its energy can seep through and create various monstrosities throughout the land of Nasphar. It is firmly believed that Naspharian's are unable to travel to the spiritual realm themselves, and its energy has been little explored; leaving its properties a mystery. However, there are some races who strive to harness this spiritual energy - and the beasts it creates - for their own power. Through the use of objects or weapons, channeling the energy is possible. Contrary to these races, there are also those who detest this energy for the destruction it brings, and spend their time preparing to fight it, should the need ever arise. |
|
|
|
Post by Jayeee on Oct 31, 2010 12:08:54 GMT -5
My goodness, I haven't updated this place in a while!
Unfortunately Uni has kept me pretty busy lately, but i've still managed to work on my story at any spare moment.
As of right now, there's just over 7 hours until NaNoWriMo starts for me!
I think it's time for some characters then! =D
Riyder is of the Anoe race, a race very similar to humans. He lives in Malbor, one of the Four Great Kingdoms of Nasphar. He's roughly 20 years old, and joined the Malbor army when he was 17.
Riyder is very confident in himself and his kingdom. Despite his thoughts to the contrary, he doesn't have any special skills or attributes to set him apart from other people, but he uses hard work to make up for that. Because he joined the army as a full member, he lost the love and care of his family, and as such regards his friends as the most important things to him. However, with his reliance on training, he doesn't get to meet people often, and feels that Fiera is the closest thing to family that he has, although he refuses to admit this.
He is a swordsman and when he's not training, he'll almost always be found in his local tavern.
Fiera is also of the Anoe race, and lives in Malbor aswell. She's roughly 19 years old, having joined the Malbor army at 16. She works part time in her families tavern, the place that Riyder frequents. She joined the army shortly before Riyder, mainly out of a childish act of rebellion.
Fiera is a curious girl, who will always give people the benefit of the doubt. She possesses incredible accuracy, so chooses to use mainly ranged or throwing weapons in combat. As such, she often carries a retractable spear, a bow and arrows and a number of small throwing daggers with her.
She often treats Riyder as a child and has an unwavering consicence. Both her and Riyder have no particular urge to explore outside of their Kingdom, but curiosity would most likely lead Fiera to do so if the opportunity ever arose.
Kalfu is of The Spiris race, a race of summoners and magic, who possess fangs and pointed ears. He lives in Shaleth, another of the great Kingdoms of Nasphar. He is roughly 22 years old.
Kalfu represents a polar opposite of Riyder. As a naturally gifted summoner, he believes that hard work and effort sucks the fun out of life and as such, he expects to stroll through life with everything handed to him. Because of this, his skills as a mage, something that he was less gifted at, has suffered. Unwilling to put in the effort of learning magic properly, he is only able to cast the most basic elemental spells. Instead of spending his time meditating as most do in Shaleth, he spends his time with the multitude of summons he's created a bond with. When he can't manage to get away from it, he has some compulsory training under his master, who guides him in the art of summoning and tries - in vain - to strengthen his magical abilities.
Due to all this, most people perceive him as somewhat lazy, although he is generally liked for his skills as a summoner.
That's just three of the characters i'll be using for my story. There will be more, but i'm still tweaking them. :3
|
|
|
|
Post by Jayeee on Nov 2, 2010 14:12:31 GMT -5
I'm quite worried right now. Not because of the writing. The writing is going exceedingly well. I'm really enjoying this, much more than I thought I would. I know its only been day two, but still, i'm happy! The problem I have, is i'm a little scared that i've gone a little overboard. I'm 4,000 words in, and still on the prologue. I'm kind of scared that that's just too much words for just the prologue. Albeit, it is about one of my main characters, but i'm just a little nervous that it's kind of over the top. Anyways, onto exerpt time! Kalfu could only stare. Of the few books he’d actually bothered to look at about known Spiritual creatures, not a single one looked like this. “Sort of like a Hellhound, or maybe a Haunt? But, those teeth, those claws, the tails, those markings!” he exclaimed, examining each feature of the beast. Of all the Summoners he’d watched saunter back into the City, none of them had brought back anything close to whatever this was. “Why didn’t I look at more of those books?!” A pointless question, he realised straight after asking it. Anything requiring concentration, like reading a book, was a ridiculous task to tell Kalfu to complete.
The creature bared it teeth more prominently, letting out some sort of a bark or howl, which sounded much closer to a cry to Kalfu, before it slowly began circling around the confused boy. Its eyes remained on the boy indefinitely, almost like stalking its prey, but its black pupils looked as if they were staring directly into his soul.
“Think, Kalfu, think,” he urged himself, as he slowly angled his body around to face the creature at all times. If he was unconcerned with its presence before it was fully formed, he was most certainly engaged with it now. His whole person was focused on the beast that was affectively stalking him, for what purpose he was oblivious to. “How do you make a bond?” he continued to ask these questions to himself, hoping to somehow jog something significant in his memory. “You show bravery to the Hellhound, and affection to the Pixies.” he muttered, conjuring up every single nugget of knowledge that was embedded in his mind.
“Right then.” With a firm nod of his head, Kalfu placed his hands on his hips, giving the creature his most confident stare and smile, similar to something he thought other Summoners might look like when they were creating bonds with terrifying creatures. “I’m not afraid of you,” he announced, “come and help me and you’ll be doing a great service.” He tried to sound important and regal, but for a child no older than fifteen, that was an impossible feat.
In response to this death-defying bout of courage, the creature stopped in its tracks, turned to face the boy, and growled. Its growl was throaty, and was swiftly followed by it sweeping its front paw across the grass, preparing to charge at its prey.
“Guess not,” Kalfu sighed in defeat. “If bravery doesn’t work,” he trailed off, taking another look at the beast. The creature definitely looked like one of the most brutal and aggressive Spiritual creations he’d ever seen, something as far away from Pixies as he could ever have guessed, but he was ready to try anything. “Affection to Pixies,” he breathed, before shouting at the creature, “I love you…?”
Needless to say, it didn’t end well.
I hope he's at least a little bit likeable? |
|
|
|
Post by Zylaa on Nov 2, 2010 15:18:34 GMT -5
The image of a boy shouting "I love you!" at a giant beast about to charge is an excellent one. XD Keep up the good work!
And I mean, my 2006 NaNo, I ended up spending the whole 14k words I wrote on the protagonist's childhood. XD It's NaNo. It doesn't matter.
|
|
|
|
Post by Rikku on Nov 3, 2010 1:45:05 GMT -5
xD Agreed about the coolness of that, is an image. Sounded intriguing as a stand-alone sentence, works even better in context.
... So good work? =D And meh, if the writing's going exceedingly well you really have nothing to complain about. xD
|
|
|
|
Post by Jayeee on Nov 5, 2010 21:42:47 GMT -5
=D Those are exactly the kinds of responses I was hoping for from that excerpt! That has made me so happy! ^_^ And thank you for the kind comments. I was having a moment of panic about my prologue, and you helped me to feel much better about it, so thank you again! =D --- I just crossed the 10K mark, which i'm absolutely overjoyed about! I've never written more than 4,500 words on one subject in one document before, so to get this far is such a massive achievement for me. Of course i'd love to make it all the way to 50,000, but now I know that if i don't manage it, I've still made some progress! That's not to say I won't still be giving it my all, though. ^_^ Now, another excerpt. He stopped upon reaching the two. “I was hoping to run into somebody in this place. It took so much effort to get here, and not even a welcoming committee.” He smiled, revealing his fangs and causing Riyder to jump backwards in surprise. The young soldier grabbed hold of the handle of his sword.
The mysterious individual ignored this, and waited for an answer for some time, before adding, “Not a very talkative lot are you? Do you even understand what I’m saying? I was told you would, but perhaps my master was mistaken.”
Fiera took a step forward. “N-no, we understand. You just caught us by surprise, is all.” Her voice was a higher pitch than usual, making her nervousness apparent to anyone who knew her well enough. “Who are you?”
“Right, right. Do excuse my lack of introducing myself.” He took a bow before continuing. “My name is Kalfu. I’m a Summoner, hailing from the Kingdom of Shaleth. I’m quite famous, perhaps you’ve heard of me?” Without giving her a chance to answer, he picked up her hand and kissed it. “It’s a pleasure.”
Riyder took a step forward, subtly knocking Fiera’s hand out of the man’s grasp. “Sorry, we’ve never heard of you or your Kingdom-“
“Shaleth.”
“We’ve never heard of you or Shaleth.” Loosening the grip he had on his sword, Riyder folded his arms at his chest. “We don’t get out much,” he said simply.
“What a pity,” Kalfu replied. “It really is quite a wondrous place. Open spaces, pleasant atmosphere, filled with life. Quite the opposite of this place actually.”
Riyder sneered. “The only reason it’s not full of people is because they’ve all fled from you. We don’t get visitors. Ever. Like I said, we don’t get out much.”
Kalfu simply shrugged. “Your loss then I suppose. It really is quite beautiful out there. But I can’t really blame you; Shaleth is rather the same. Only to attain summoning bonds are we ever allowed outside of the Crystal’s watchful eye. Besides, I’m not that scary am I? I thought I was quite normal looking, but your people ran like I was some fearsome Chimera.”
Fiera giggled before she opened her mouth to speak, but she had so many different questions to ask the newcomer that she didn’t quite know where to start. “What’s a Summoner?” she asked finally.
He seemed slightly surprised by this particular question. “You mean you don’t have Summoners around here? You must focus on the magical arts then.”
The girl shook her head. “Neither actually, we’ve not come across any of those practices before.”
“My, when Master said that things were different here, he sure wasn’t messing around.”
“Did you say that you possessed a Crystal of Guidance as well?” Riyder asked.
Kalfu nodded again. “We do. In fact, that’s the very reason I’m here. I’ve been informed that you have the same, and I’ve things to discuss with your higher ups.”
“It’s far too late for that now. If you’d like an appointment with the King, you’ll have to come back tomorrow, in the morning.”
Fiera perked up. “Why don’t you stay at my house; above the tavern? We always keep a spare bedroom cleaned for visitors.”
“I couldn’t think of staying in a beautiful ladies house without first having had a proper introduction.”
“My name is Fiera,” she said shyly. “I live and work in a tavern just up the road, and also sometimes have duties to fulfil in our army.”
“Well, Miss. Fiera, it’s a pleasure, I can assure you.” As he attempted to kiss one of her hands again, Riyder swooped in instantly, grabbing the Summoner’s own hand and shaking it firmly.
“The name’s Riyder. I work full time with the army, and train nightly with my sword.” He smirked deviously.
|
|
|
|
Post by Jayeee on Nov 9, 2010 20:17:25 GMT -5
I'm getting rather annoyed with myself at times. I have some great days where I write a good amount, and get a little bit of a buffer than i'm proud of, and then straight afterwards I slack off and ruin that buffer. I've done it twice now. I need to stop relaxing as soon as I have a little bit extra.
Not that i'm complaining. ^^; I'm still ahead of the quota, so all is good. I already feel that i've achieved a lot.
On another note, i've come to realise that the more I write about my characters, the more I start to type like them when just writing normally. It's quite funny, I think. I like saying 'rather' and 'quite' often. XD
So yes, all is good. I'm managing to balance uni work and NaNo, and I like the way my story is going. =D
No excerpt for now. I don't think I have anything worth showing just yet, but soon i'll post another one. ^_^
|
|
|
|
Post by friday on Nov 9, 2010 20:23:30 GMT -5
I've been using 'rather', 'quite', and 'perhaps' way too much this month (and possibly 'odd' and 'simply'). XD I have a feeling I'll have to edit half of them out by the time this is over. But hey, word buffer! That's good. =D I find the urge to slack off when I get ahead, and I almost did, one day. Panicking and trying to get a semi-decent number of words in before midnight was not fun. XD
You're doing great so far, Jay! =D Keep up the good work!
|
|
|
|
Post by Jayeee on Nov 15, 2010 20:22:20 GMT -5
XD You're always my aim for workcount whenever i'm writing. I wake up in the morning thinking 'hmmm, how far ahead is Friday today?' and then aim to at least try to catch you up a little bit. I rarely do, but it keeps me on my toes! =D --- Tra-la-la-la-la NaNoing! Things have been going smoothly...too smoothly *shifty eyes* >.> I feel that i'm just in time for some sort of catastrophic explosion that will cause me dispair and horror because everything is going wrong. But not yet please :3 I'm having far too much fun! I wholeheartedly think that NaNo is officially my prozac! Not that I need it, but if I did, NaNo is what i'd use! XD Onto my story! Things are going okay. I'm especially surprised that i'm managing to keep up with my wordcount and uni work. I didn't think that'd happen, what with me being so lazy and all... But it's working. The real challenge will come next week, when I have a presentation to give. But until then, it's fun times ahead! Now have an except... Upon reaching the top of the grassy hill, they could only stare in shock. Kalfu seemed one step away from collapsing when he finally reached the hilltop, but that whole disposition changed when he managed to look forward.
The Kingdom of Shaleth was a beautiful Kingdom; filled with sweet smelling trees, wide open spaces and an unrivalled love for hidden arts. The City overflowed with a strong sense of mysticism, so much so that it was almost tangible. The air had always been clean a bright, with nothing ever masking the suns kindly rays. It was filled with quaint little wooden cottages and there was always people outside, either practicing magic or meditating in serenity. The leaders of the Kingdom, a small group known as the High Summoners, spent their time in a stone library in the centre of the land. Inside that structure, they would spend their days meditating, echoing a soft hum throughout the whole of Shaleth. Nobody quite knew what they were doing in there, but their knowledge had no bounds. In short, it was a peaceful and relaxed place, where people could do what they pleased.
What Kalfu saw in front of him however, was the destruction of everything that he had known. Not a single recognisable building stood at the other side of the hill. The trees were barren and their fruit had been squashed to oblivion, and the open spaces were now filled with rubble and debris. The mysticism still hung in the air, but for all the wrong reasons. The wooden homes had all been crushed and the stone library was smashed to pieces. There was no longer an echoing hum through the air anymore, only the odd scream or growl lingered.
Fiera looked over at Kalfu. She didn’t quite know what to say; how could anything comfort a young man whose home had just been completely destroyed? He had his eyes closed tight.
“Kalfu…” Riyder said uneasily. It was the first time he had ever said the Summoners name out loud, and it felt strange on his tongue.
Kalfu opened his eyes slowly and took a deep breath. “We need to find Master,” he said finally, and set off down the hill at a brisk pace. His two companions attempted to keep up with him, but it was difficult not to slip and fall over at times.
“Kalfu, if you need a moment alone, we can go and wait somewhere,” Fiera said.
Kalfu seemed to ignore this, and instead mused, “Master will know exactly what to do. About everything. I must find him at once.”
The walk down the hill seemed much quicker than it had been walking up it to Riyder, almost as if one side was shorter than the other.
Walking along the ash covered pathways, a strong sense of darkness drifted through the air. The sun was covered by the strong smoke running across the City, so it was cold and dim below. Everything just seemed so empty.
“This is horrible,” Fiera muttered to Riyder, as the two lagged behind Kalfu slightly.
Riyder nodded bleakly. “I wish there was something we could do.”
“No sense dwelling on the past,” Kalfu interjected. It was a rare time when he said something insightful, but they were words filled with emotion. “We’re here now, so just keep on your toes. There’s bound to be more creatures lurking around, especially after that Die Wolf just stray of here.”
No sooner had he said this, a low growl was emitted from underneath some nearby wooden beams. They had no doubt once been part of a happy little home, but now were housing some beast beneath them.
It squirmed under the beams and stood up in front of them. It was another Dire Wolf, however this one was far larger, with black fur and amber glowing eyes.
“They seem to be getting stronger. That isn’t like one I’ve ever seen before,” Kalfu said warily. “Master was right about the Crystals; something must be happening to them.”
Riyder drew his sword just as the creature pounced into action. He held it so that its handle was pushing against his chest and the blade was pointed away from him. The Dire Wolf didn’t even have a chance to react, as it flew in midair and was far too late to stop moving. It impaled itself onto the sword, and the force of its body pushed the soldier backwards onto the floor. In a last ditch attempt to do something substantial the monster scratched its claws into Riyder’s arm, but no sooner had it done this, it shattered into the energy it was formed from, and then shimmered out of view.
He clutched his arm where the claws had connected with his skin and sheathed his sword quickly.
“Riyder, are you all right?” Fiera asked hurriedly. “That looks pretty nasty.”
Riyder just nodded and stood up, wincing at the pain.
“Are you okay to move on, Mr. Riyder?” Kalfu asked. “I don’t mean to be insensitive, but time could well be of the essence here.”
“That isn’t going to stop me. Lets keep going,” Riyder said solemnly.
|
|
|
|
Post by friday on Nov 15, 2010 22:57:43 GMT -5
=D That's somewhat flattering, if not competition-sparking. I'll admit that I have been keeping an eye on your word count; I enjoy being ahead. >>; But this is a good way to motivate ourselves! Thanks, Jay! XD And yay for keeping up for NaNo! I'm generally lazy, too, so getting this far is a bit of a shock.
And prettypretty excerpt, if not sad. Shaleth sounded so wonderful. D:
|
|
|
|
Post by Jayeee on Nov 30, 2010 9:10:38 GMT -5
I don't think i'm going to finish. ;_;
If I don't, i'll be so angry with myself for going through all of this month being ahead and then ruining it right at the end.
|
|
