MG's Ongoing Writing Projects

[MasterGhandalf]

Hello, all! Some of you may remember me as having posted a previous writing project of mine around here several years ago; that was my Realm of the Stars series (generic title, I know!) my “girl King Arthur in space meets Star Wars meets Dune” space fantasy saga. That was a passion project of mine I started during NaNoWriMo and continued afterwards; I ended up falling away from it when COVID massively disrupted my life and productivity, but I remain fond of it and would still like to go back someday and clean it up and maybe do something with it. But that’s not what I’d like to talk about today.

Back in late January of this year, I started work on another writing project of mine, this one a more straightforward fantasy that I’d been knocking around in my head for a while. I’ve now been working on it for 110 days straight now, with my goal being to write at least 1,000 words per day, which is relatively easy for me to budget into my schedule between other activities. So far I’ve been able to keep to that promise (most days I’ve gone over) and as of today I’m officially at 140,835 words, which I estimate puts me at slightly under three quarters of the way done with my first draft (I intend this to come out somewhere between 190,000 and 200,000 words, so roughly comparable to Warbreaker).

At the moment, I’m tentatively calling this Crimson Shadows, though I expect I’ll change it down the line (since it sounds too much like RA Salvatore’s Crimson Shadow trilogy, which is very different). It’s an action/intrigue/political/some romance fantasy set in a city-state loosely inspired by Renaissance-era Italy, very much intended to be in the vein of something Cosmere readers might enjoy (though my magic systems aren’t quite as crunchy), while also incorporating some other influences of mine and concepts I find intriguing, including magical transformation, characters being forced to wrestle with questions about their identities, and my own spin on beings similar to D&D’s tieflings. This story is intended to be something that could be read as self-contained, but I do have tentative plans for a sequel continuing the story, tentatively titled The Damned Saint. While I don’t expect this series would be more than a duology, it is set in a world I’ve been slowly assembling in the back of my mind for a while now, which I’d envisioned as a sort of sandbox where I could play around with different styles and subgenres of fantasy. I also have tentative ideas for a sword and sorcery series (a series of shorts and at least one full novel), a more Tolkienesque high fantasy saga (a trilogy, of course) an ASOIAF-esque political/military epic (probably a longer series?) and maybe an attempt to write a more modern take on chivalric romance (standalone) in different regions and time periods in this same world.

For now, my main goal is to wrap up my first draft of Shadows, which I hope to have done by late June if I maintain my current pace. After that, I may try to knock off a couple of the sword-and-sorcery shorts before heading back to do the second draft. I’m overall feeling very excited about this project, and I hope to be able to do something serious with it someday; fingers crossed! Until then, I think I might go ahead and post some of the various “asides” to Crimson Shadows I’ve been doing to help get myself in the proper mood and mindset. First off, the current version of my elevator pitch for the book:

 

In a city-state inspired by Renaissance Italy, a fallen princess and a streetwise thief are thrown together and must unravel a sinister conspiracy and prevent the city from falling into the hands of a tyrant. For fans of Mistborn and Brimstone Angels.

 

Does it sound intriguing? If it does, or if there’s anything else you’d like to ask about the project, feel free! Otherwise, in a few days my next post will probably be some character designs I’ve come up with. Thank you!  

[CoderDrag0n8 He/They]

53 minutes ago, MasterGhandalf said:

In a city-state inspired by Renaissance Italy, a fallen princess and a streetwise thief are thrown together and must unravel a sinister conspiracy and prevent the city from falling into the hands of a tyrant. For fans of Mistborn and Brimstone Angels.

Ooooo

I would love to read it!

[MasterGhandalf]

Okay, thought I'd go ahead and share some character designs for major characters from Crimson Shadows that I've been working on using the magic of HeroForge(tm). For some context, Thea and Lys are the main characters (Thea probably somewhat more prominent than Lys, though if I ever get around to The Damned Saint that will likely be more Lys's book). Grazia is also a POV character, though less central to the narrative. Meletius and Seraphi are supporting characters, and Senator Adreano di Torriani is an antagonist. For names, I mostly took names that would have been in use in Italy during the Renaissance, mixed in with a few Greek names from the Byzantine Empire for variety (and Seraphi's name is actually a stage name, fwiw). Hopefully this link worked; I was having trouble with it. Fingers crossed!

 

[CoderDrag0n8 He/They]

4 hours ago, MasterGhandalf said:

Okay, thought I'd go ahead and share some character designs for major characters from Crimson Shadows that I've been working on using the magic of HeroForge(tm). For some context, Thea and Lys are the main characters (Thea probably somewhat more prominent than Lys, though if I ever get around to The Damned Saint that will likely be more Lys's book). Grazia is also a POV character, though less central to the narrative. Meletius and Seraphi are supporting characters, and Senator Adreano di Torriani is an antagonist. For names, I mostly took names that would have been in use in Italy during the Renaissance, mixed in with a few Greek names from the Byzantine Empire for variety (and Seraphi's name is actually a stage name, fwiw). Hopefully this link worked; I was having trouble with it. Fingers crossed!

 

Those look really cool!

[MasterGhandalf]

Thanks!

[MasterGhandalf]

So, for my next thing associated with my Crimson Shadows project I'd like to share, I've been working on a music playlist to accompany my writing or help me get into the proper mood. For this one, I've been using Disney songs (and a few songs from a couple of movies that aren't technically Disney but in similar style) - hey, I've always found Disney songs good for getting in the mood, since they're already designed to convey character or narrative and are familiar enough that most people will get it when you reference them;). Each of these songs was picked because they reflect a character, idea, scene or sequence from the book (covering the whole story, including parts I've outlined but not actually written yet), arranged roughly in the proper order. Here is my current playlist:


1. One Jump Ahead (Aladdin)
2. I just Can’t Wait to be King (Lion King)
3. Reflection (Mulan)
4. A Whole New World (Aladdin)
5. Transformation, Phill Collins Version (Brother Bear)
6. All I Ever Wanted (Prince of Egypt)
7. Through Heaven’s Eyes (Prince of Egypt)
8. Look Through My Eyes (Brother Bear)
9. Streets of Gold (Oliver and Company)
10. God Help the Outcasts (Hunchback of Notre Dame)
11. Be Prepared (Lion King)
12. Once Upon a December (Anastasia)
13. In a Place of Miracles (Hunchback of Notre Dame, Unreleased)
14. Can You Feel the Love Tonight (Lion King)
15. My Lullaby (Lion King 2)
16. The Mob Song (Beauty and the Beast)
17. Playing With the Big Boys Now (Prince of Egypt)
18. Let it go (Frozen)
19. When You Believe (Prince of Egypt)

Or, if you'd rather jump in and listen for yourself, here's a YouTube link! Fingers crossed for it working properly.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/videoseries?si=bdAfnuRfCh03TqXT&amp;list=PLS-GsNCdEMx5L2RdOcDOHB-Hh9sEKNV9r" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Or here.

EDIT: Gah, my attempt at embedding clearly isn't working! 

Edited May 19 by MasterGhandalf

[MasterGhandalf]

For today, thought I'd go ahead and share the rough blurb for Crimson Shadows that I've been tinkering with (a bit longer than the brief elevator pitch from my original post).

 

Thea di Trevana is a princess. Heir to a wealthy and powerful city-state, she nonetheless finds herself stifled by the expectations of palace life. In her attempts to find freedom, she will become enmeshed in a long-simmering plot and forced to confront the sins of her city’s, and her family’s, past.

Lys is a thief. Born to a people considered cursed and outcast, she would do anything to escape her debt to a dangerous crime lord. When she takes a job from a mysterious patron hoping that it will solve her problems, she soon learns that actions have consequences and she’s become a part of something much larger and more far-reaching than she’d realized.

A chance encounter will bring Thea and Lys together… and leave the princess fallen from grace and cut off from family, position and privilege. Together, they will have to unwind the plots which seethe through their city and confront the injustices it is built on… and may be the only ones who can stand between an ambitious senator and the power he seeks.

Does it pique your interest? Or does it need more work? 

[CoderDrag0n8 He/They]

9 hours ago, MasterGhandalf said:

Thea di Trevana is a princess. Heir to a wealthy and powerful city-state, she nonetheless finds herself stifled by the expectations of palace life. In her attempts to find freedom, she will become enmeshed in a long-simmering plot and forced to confront the sins of her city’s, and her family’s, past.

Lys is a thief. Born to a people considered cursed and outcast, she would do anything to escape her debt to a dangerous crime lord. When she takes a job from a mysterious patron hoping that it will solve her problems, she soon learns that actions have consequences and she’s become a part of something much larger and more far-reaching than she’d realized.

A chance encounter will bring Thea and Lys together… and leave the princess fallen from grace and cut off from family, position and privilege. Together, they will have to unwind the plots which seethe through their city and confront the injustices it is built on… and may be the only ones who can stand between an ambitious senator and the power he seeks.

Oooooooooo

yes it does pique my intrest

[al_lan_mandragoran]

This looks really interesting and well thought out!
I would love to know more.

[MasterGhandalf]

Thank you all for your kind words and your interest! As of today's writing, I just crossed 150,000 words, and am now at 151,031 words exactly, over twenty-eight full chapters, half of a twenty-ninth chapter, a prologue and four interludes (the prologue and interludes all being shorter than regular chapters). I'm still estimating it will ultimately come out to between 190,000 and 200,000 words total. So I'd say I'm continuing to make pretty good progress! I plan to have another fairly hefty post on Tuesday (since that's when I'll be at exactly 120 days of writing, or approx. four months) about the overall status of the project and a bit more on the sword-and-sorcery stuff I'm looking to do as one of the other projects in the same universe (as mentioned in the original post). But if there's anything more specific you'd like to know more about before then, feel free to let me know! Thanks again! 

[MasterGhandalf]

Well, as of today I have indeed officially completed 120 straight days (or approximately four straight months) of writing on Crimson Shadows! For a reminder, I've been trying for at least 1,000 words a day minimum, which so far I've managed to stick to! Which puts me, for those keeping score, at 154,032 words over 29 full chapters, a prologue, and 4 interludes. I'd say that this means that at the moment I'm roughly 80% done with this draft, and remain on track for my goal of wrapping it up in late June!

Last time I posted, I said I wanted to go ahead and talk a bit more about some of my future plans for this setting, including my immediate plans for when I wrap up this draft. So here we go! 

First off, my next immediate plans for Crimson Shadows are to, as noted, wrap up the first draft in about a month. Then, following some writing advice I've gotten from elsewhere, I plan to let it sit for a while (several weeks at minimum) and turning my attention to other things to detox for a bit, then do a full reread with relatively fresh eyes before moving on to a second draft and whatever major revisions I feel the story needs. After that I'll probably start looking for beta readers (if anyone is interested!) and after that... who knows? 

But what about the other projects in this setting that I've been alluding to? Here I can go into a bit more detail about what's likely next on my agenda! 

 

Shade’s Saga Intro

So far in this thread, I've mostly been posting about the novel I'm currently engaged in writing, the tentatively titled Crimson Shadows. As I noted in my initial post, this story takes place in only one small corner of what I’m envisioning as a larger setting, one where I wanted to give myself a chance to play around with a number of different styles and subgenres of epic fantasy (authors having their own private setting where they put a decent chunk of their output seems to have been more common in the past than it is now, though it’s possible that’s because it just takes a while to build up enough stories in a given setting to make it obvious; but it still seems like either long single-narrative series or authors writing in a bunch of mostly unconnected settings is more typical these days). Crimson Shadows (and its hypothetical sequel, tentatively titled The Damned Saint) is a more modern style political/intrigue/adventure/romantic fantasy mostly set in and around a particular city-state (the sequel will likely get a bit further afield). I also have plans percolating for a more conventional Tolkienesque high fantasy trilogy throwback in a different region of the world.

What I want to talk about today is the third series I’m currently looking at for this setting, a sword-and-sorcery series I’m imaginatively calling “Shade’s Saga” (again, likely not the final title!) after its main character. Sword and sorcery differs from high fantasy in various ways. It tends to have lower stakes, focusing more on personal adventures than the fate of the world (though its scope can occasionally creep that high). Its installments also tend to be shorter; s&s tends to be more associated with short stories, novellas and shorter novels in contrast to lengthy series of doorstoppers the way high fantasy is, and its structure tends to be more episodic rather than having a single overarching narrative. Its heroes tend to be less clear-cut; though they usually possess at least some admirable qualities and can be rooted for, they’re often rogues, scoundrels, or tormented antiheroes more interested in treasure, revenge, adventure for its own sake or other personal agendas than fighting for a cause. And magic in such stories is often a dangerous, hostile force even for the characters who wield it. While high fantasy descends primarily from Tolkien and Lord of the Rings, sword and sorcery is generally considered to have originated with Robert E. Howard’s Conan stories, with Lieber’s Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser and Moorcock’s Elric probably being the two next most notable and influential examples.

Shade is a character I’ve known for a long time. I first conceived of the character more than a decade ago, driven by my long-term fascination with the “dark elf” archetype. My original conception was for a more high fantasy-esque tale, but told from the perspective of characters who would be villains in a more conventional narrative, with a somewhat ASOIAF-inspired plot arc – when the ruler of an ancient, malevolent empire ruled by a powerful nonhuman race is assassinated, her four children end up forced into exile and scattered around the world, where they would have various adventures in different lands before ultimately reuniting and getting their revenge on the usurper. I tried several false starts with this, but they never seemed to gain traction and go anywhere. However, it became clear that the character who most drew me was eldest sister Taerlyth, who would flee over the mountains to human lands where she would be forced to stoop to mercenary work to support herself while concealing her true identity and trying to find allies, taking the pseudonym “Shade” in the process.

Eventually, I decided to refocus the series entirely. Jettisoning the epic high fantasy setup, I decided to start with Shade already in exile in human lands, going through various episodic, smaller scale adventures in the vein of Conan or Elric with her backstory and true motives only gradually being revealed and her siblings as off-page characters whose fate is (initially) unknown. In hindsight, this seemed like a much more obvious approach for the character and her story. As I began creating my world for Crimson Shadows, it became increasingly obvious to me that this was also the human world into which Shade had strayed. Thus, the shared setting was born.

As I mentioned, “dark elves” as an archetype have long been a guilty pleasure of mine (I blame early exposure to Drizzt Do’Urden and Liriel Baenre, as well as to the Yuuzhan Vong, who IMO have one foot in “space drow” and the other in “space orcs”; alternately, I once saw them described as a comparatively - emphasis on comparatively - lighter-and-softer version of Warhammer 40K's Drukhari). Elric of Melnibone, whose people originated the modern “dark elf” as a concept (there are “dark elves” in Tolkien's Middle-earth of course, but they’re nothing like this; of all Tolkien's creations the Black Numenoreans are probably closer to the stereotypical concept, not that they’d appreciate being compared to any kind of elves!) is a classic sword-and-sorcery (anti)hero, making it all the more obvious to me that this genre and approach was the correct one for the character. And Shade, who for most of her stories will be a stranger in a strange land, traveling among a people not her own and to whom she is a creature from their oldest, darkest mythologies and a practitioner of strange and alien sorceries and shadowed by a tragic fate, definitely has some Elric in her. Though I certainly hope to give the character her own distinct voice and feel, particularly in bringing in some more modern sensibilities in terms of characterization and tone vs Elric’s pulpier ones.

At the moment, I mostly envision Shade’s Saga as being a series of short stories, though I have at least one full-length novel featuring the character building in me (featuring her homecoming and showdown with her family’s enemies); this would probably be considerably shorter than Crimson Shadows. I’ve sketched out basic ideas for around ten shorts already; I’ve written a few fragments of one as of last year but will likely jettison it and start fresh when I seriously approach these. At the moment, I intend to try and knock off rough drafts of a couple of Shade stories (probably between 5,000 and 10,000 words each) between the first and second drafts of Crimson Shadows, to try and get the character’s voice and the vibe I’m going for down (I’m hoping for something that feels like a throwback to old-style sword and sorcery tales, but with, again, a more modern sensibility). And while Crimson Shadows is mostly set in one city, Shade is more of a globetrotter, so this should also give me more of an opportunity to explore more nooks and crannies of my shared setting and flesh it out a bit more. The difference in location and subgenre will also hopefully let me shed a different light on some elements from Shadows; ie, that book takes place in a city-state where people largely understand magic (or at least, think they do) and treat it as a science, whereas Shade will get a chance to poke her nose into places where much weirder and more mysterious powers reside (and her own abilities stem from a form of sorcery most humans would find strange and creepy, and which she is not eager to explain).

At the moment, I have vague ideas for about ten+ books in the shared setting; two “Thea and Lys” novels – Crimson Shadows and The Damned Saint; two Shade books – a collection of the short stories and a full novel; a more ASOAIF epic political/military fantasy set in an empire that's sort of a mix of Byzantine and Ottoman elements (but with a dominant religion that's closer to Manichaeism than either Orthodox Christianity or Islam); and the old school high fantasy throwback trilogy that’s still in the distant planning stages. Of all of these, I’ve only done serious work on Crimson Shadows. Of course, I’m absolutely leaving myself open for more stories with any of these characters, as well as other stories to tell in other parts of the world, especially if I hit on other fantasy subgenres I might be able to use in it. Is all this ambitious? Probably unrealistically ambitious? Sure, but I feel like I’ve built up some real momentum in the last few months in a way I haven’t in a very long time, and it feels like a shame to waste it.

If any of this sounds at all interesting and you have any comments or questions, feel free to let me know!