Silent Rain vs. Hyper Gear
The battle of ideas has begun.
What’s this about then? Something I should have started back in October. You know…before nanowrimo.
I never win nanowrimo even though I pretend to enter it almost every year since somewhere around 2002. This time my plan incorporates it into a writing homeschool unit for my son. I expect to get a lot farther this year than previous years, though I still don’t expect to “win.”
Winning is besides the point for me, as is the word count goals. I look at November as a month for celebrating novels, read some, try to work on my own…the nanowrimo contest is, for me, a fun thing to participate in casually. The best example I can come up with is if a website decided to hold a contest for national poetry day in which winners write a 20-page sonnet. It might be fun to try, but merely enjoying poetry and the poetic process honors the day. I enjoy novels and the story-telling process. November is my month to take a nod at it this year. It’s about a nod of respect and best effort toward the trade and not so much the word count, for me. A LOT goes into the process of creating a novel, not just word count. It all counts as far as I’m concerned (even if I can’t count a lot of it at the official site). I want to feel significant progress made by the end of November, not just a mad dash of words I’ll throw away.
Which leads me to the battle…I have SO many ideas for stories right now and I just can’t pick one. I was hoping you would help me, in a series of rounds during the first week of nano, to pick a winner to work on until it’s finished (likely taking me into December).
This entry…
Silent Rain vs. Hyper Gear
Silent Rain is my project from last year. I had a lot of false starts that got trashed and ended up with only 8 words kept. Yikes! It came about when I realized that the only novel I’ve ever finished a rough draft for (Blood Filigree, then called Forgotten Shadows) literally needed a prequel to set up the world properly so Blood Filigree could remain centered on the specific characters within it. You may have already encountered the world of warcraft incarnation of the main character: Lesara. If not, just type that name in my search box under the muse (on the left navigation bar) and you’ll find all the posts involving her there. It is a darker fantasy story of (hopefully) epic proportions full of a rich cultural experience as the people within struggle to survive in tough times.
The synopsis: The rivers of eth pool under the grand ethkyri capitol, lending power, immortality, and life to her citizens. Still, they lost the war against the “lesser” kyri and the survivors forced into exile across an ocean to an eth-starved land. What happens in such a land when your people need eth, the fabric of magic, the way humans need water? What lengths will you go to keep what little is left you?
Hyper Gear, meanwhile, takes on a lighter tone to start and is something of a light steampunk fantasy adventure. It follows the adventures of a young women who grew up one of many orphans in her dangerous world, but an outcast. She is in love with all things history and adventuring, replacing her unknown roots with an overabundance of knowledge for everyone’s roots all over the world. However, as she gets more deeply involved in the adventures of others, she begins to realize she’s far more central to the story than at first believed. As more of her past pushes into her present, she could rediscover her roots, but only at the cost of her present identity. It’s a bit of Jason Bourne meets Salt in a light steampunk fantasy setting.
Pros: Silent Rain is a necessary prequel to an already finished rough draft of a different novel. Hyper Gear’s main character is already interacting with my son’s characters, and since I’m doing nano with him, that makes her already established for extra writing exercises.
Cons: Silent Rain is the story I tanked last year’s nano with. I have no idea what the first half of Hyper Gear is and may have to write the story backwards scene by scene to get anything out at all.
Make your vote in the comments and don’t forget to follow-up with future rounds, followed by a showdown between the winners. Lots of ideas and I just can’t come up with any other way to pick one. Help me! *flails*
Muse Sings 
Pingback: Round Two: Go! |