Jump to content

Lounge II (The Lounge Strikes Back)


kais

Recommended Posts

10 hours ago, Robinski said:

That's great :) 

For characters, like so many things, I love the phrase 'low hanging fruit'. I don't know if you can search it out in WE, but I think it's usually Howard that refers to it. It is an excellent concept. Whatever idea you have, set it aside and have another, then another, don't just accept the first thing you come up with. Try combining two ideas; three ideas. This is the way to forge interesting, intriguing, intoxicating characters/settings/plot twists/etc.

It does show up in search, so I’ll get to work on those this weekend. Thanks so much!

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Doing some idea generation; 

 

I was wondering what you guys thought about stuff set in the Enlightenment/Refromation/age of exploration?

 

Not necessarily historical fiction or steampunk, but thinking in terms of pike and shot style combat. It lends itself to a military travelogue style thingy, which is one of the few things I feel comfortable writing. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Need to tap the group mind on a title. My second novella that's coming out soon is a Mid-Grade Jules Verne-like adventure, in which a band of explorers are climbing the walls of the Nether for the first time. POV is the daughter of the head explorer. My first choice for a name is:

Journey to the Top of the Nether

But I'm sure about putting "Nether" in the title since it's a specific in-world word. Should I have something more generic? Does anyone else have ideas? Here are some I came up with, but I don't like any of them as much as the first one:

Climbing the Walls of Light

The Walls of Light

The Walls of Crystal

From the Ground to the Sky

Link to comment
Share on other sites

47 minutes ago, Mandamon said:

since it's a specific in-world word.

Is that a bad thing? Like, for reals, I'm not sure. I mean, technically, "The Fifth Season" is an in-world word, as is 'ancillary' in "Ancillary Justice," 'kushiel' in "Kushiel's Dart" (sorry, I just finished reading "The High Couch of Silistra" ('high couch' and 'silistra' both being in-world words btw) and it gets a lot of comparison to the Kushiel series (despite the fact you could fit like eight Silistras into one Kushiel book) so it's fresh in my mind), 'murderbot' in "Murderbot Diaries," the fourth book in my beloved  Kencyrath series is called "To Ride a Rathorn" and that's not only an in-world idiom for an impossible task, but 'rathorn' is an in-world animal... Not all books do that, of course, but a decent number of them do. I'd have to go digging a bit for middle grade comps (I don't have ready access to mg like I used to), but I know they're out there. 

Otherwise... 

Ascending the wall of light

Ascent to the roof of nowhere

The Impossible expedition

Finding the world's roof

Finding the top of everything

 

(fair warning though, kids seeing a book about the roof of the Nether might end up thinking it's about Minecraft, since the Nether is a place in that game and has a roof that, while supposedly impassable, is fairly easy to glitch through.)

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 minutes ago, industrialistDragon said:

seeing a book about the roof of the Nether might end up thinking it's about Minecraft,

Ah yes--I knew there was another reason I was wary!

Although if kids like Minecraft and end buying my book...this is a plus?

23 minutes ago, industrialistDragon said:

Is that a bad thing?

No necessarily. I just like novel titles that are easily accessible. Like most of the examples you gave, it's at least a word with real-world usage, so that's good. I definitely wouldn't want something like "Silistra" or "Rathorn" in the title. Maybe it's just me.

26 minutes ago, industrialistDragon said:

The Impossible expedition

This one has potential, as does "Ascending the Wall of Light," but I'm wondering if that's going too general and doesn't actually tell anything about the book.

Thanks for the input!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Mandamon said:

Need to tap the group mind on a title. My second novella that's coming out soon is a Mid-Grade Jules Verne-like adventure, in which a band of explorers are climbing the walls of the Nether for the first time. POV is the daughter of the head explorer. My first choice for a name is:

Journey to the Top of the Nether

But I'm sure about putting "Nether" in the title since it's a specific in-world word. Should I have something more generic? Does anyone else have ideas? Here are some I came up with, but I don't like any of them as much as the first one:

Climbing the Walls of Light

The Walls of Light

The Walls of Crystal

From the Ground to the Sky

TBH I don't see it as all that problematic. if the world the characters use is nether, that's fine. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, Mandamon said:

Journey to the Top of the Nether

It's pretty much directly equivalent to Jules Verne's 'Journey to the Centre of the Earth'. Not saying that's good, bad or indifferent.

 - Does it give away the ending? Maybe not.

 - Bit wordy.

 - I don't get the Minecraft reference, but I'm not 12.

 - Suggestions:

  • Climb! - (Go the other way, brief and to the point, with some urgency)
  • (The) Impossible Ascent
  • Don't Look Down! - (Danger!) - Nope, there are handfuls of books with this title on Amaz*n
  • Impossible Heights
  • The Roof of the World
  • Climb the Crystal Wall
  • Fear of Falling - nope, a few terrible-looking romance novels already got there
  • The Height of the World
  • [character name]'s Climb
  • To Climb the Nether
  • Climbing the Walls
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Robinski said:

It's pretty much directly equivalent to Jules Verne's 'Journey to the Centre of the Earth'

That was actually the inspiration for it, so I'd say good!

4 hours ago, Robinski said:

Does it give away the ending? Maybe not.

Not really...It's a kid's book. They're going to reach the objective. It's more in how they reach it.

4 hours ago, Robinski said:

The Roof of the World

This one's alright, but I'd want to substitute 'Nether' for 'world,' and then I'm almost back where I started.

4 hours ago, Robinski said:

Climb the Crystal Wall

Something like this name is probably my second favorite, but it lacks that last bit of poetry, and the reference back to Verne...

7 hours ago, mrwizard70 said:

Thinking about it again, it’s got “literary merit” too, given the title is an oxymoron if the reader has a decent vocabulary. 

This is also a good point, and appeals to me as well.

Thanks to @industrialistDragon, @mrwizard70, and @Robinski! This is a great stress test, and I'm finding I like the original name better and better as more come up.

One last thing. Which sounds better?

"Journey to the Top of the Nether," or "Journey to the Roof of the Nether?"

(although 'roof' gives me the impression of being on the outside of things, whereas they'll be staying inside the Nether.)

 

Edited by Mandamon
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Mandamon said:

That was actually the inspiration for it, so I'd say good!

Not really...It's a kid's book. They're going to reach the objective. It's more in how they reach it.

This one's alright, but I'd want to substitute 'Nether' for 'world,' and then I'm almost back where I started.

Something like this name is probably my second favorite, but it lacks that last bit of poetry, and the reference back to Verne...

This is also a good point, and appeals to me as well.

Thanks to @industrialistDragon, @mrwizard70, and @Robinski! This is a great stress test, and I'm finding I like the original name better and better as more come up.

One last thing. Which sounds better?

"Journey to the Top of the Nether," or "Journey to the Roof of the Nether?"

(although 'roof' gives me the impression of being on the outside of things, whereas they'll be staying inside the Nether.)

 

http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/top

Eh?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, Mandamon said:

That was actually the inspiration for it, so I'd say good!

Not really...It's a kid's book. They're going to reach the objective. It's more in how they reach it.

This one's alright, but I'd want to substitute 'Nether' for 'world,' and then I'm almost back where I started.

Something like this name is probably my second favorite, but it lacks that last bit of poetry, and the reference back to Verne...

This is also a good point, and appeals to me as well.

Thanks to @industrialistDragon, @mrwizard70, and @Robinski! This is a great stress test, and I'm finding I like the original name better and better as more come up.

One last thing. Which sounds better?

"Journey to the Top of the Nether," or "Journey to the Roof of the Nether?"

(although 'roof' gives me the impression of being on the outside of things, whereas they'll be staying inside the Nether.)

 

Pinnacle? Peak? Summit?

wait, let me try again now that I’ve properly read the post. I’d probably go with “top”.

Edited by Silk
Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 minutes ago, industrialistDragon said:

Journey up the Cliffs of Light

I think this is the best contender so far.

15 minutes ago, industrialistDragon said:

Vertical peregrination of the phosphorescent escarpment

And I'll just make this the subtitle...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Eagle of the Forest Path said:

The lights at the top of the Nether

Hmm...I like this too, but the lights are all the way up the wall, so possibly confusing to readers.

4 hours ago, Eagle of the Forest Path said:

For more inspiration: Jules Verne bibliography (Just on the off-chance you haven't checked there yet).

Yep--I've poured through that several times. His titles seem to get shorter as he wrote more, but his most famous works are the early ones, so I erred on the early side.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 hours ago, Robinski said:

Where's the background picture of your cover, I wonder?

I was wondering that, too. They have it, so something must have happened when they transferred the image over.

19 hours ago, Robinski said:

so do peeps vote, or what?

The books go out to librarians around the country. They read and assess. The best part about being a finalist is that it gets the book exposure to libraries, which is awesome!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...