The Four-Novel Project

[Quadrophenia]

I've been a member on this site for roughly 24 hours now... and I felt almost floored by how shockingly welcoming and friendly you guys could be here. When I asked for help about writer's block and procrastination, I received very thoughtful and empathetic advice. Part of the reason, I think, for my difficulty in following through on my projects is how unpracticed I am at balancing tone... and maybe, just maybe, it's keeping my ideas so close to the chest out of a paranoid fear someone might steal said ideas from me that has... really stunted my ability to write them in the first place.

That said, someone pointed out rather astutely that no novel is ever the same as it started out in the rough sketches. A legit point!

And again, it's nice to meet wonderfully nice people around here.

So, bearing that in mind...

With some of the good new friends and acquaintences I've made here in the last day, could I share the rough outlines I have for my current project(s)? Off the top of my head, they're each my attempts to write...

• New Weird fiction in the vein of Michael Moorcock, H.P. Lovecraft and China Mieville. 
• Urban Fantasy/Dark Fantasy following in the vein of Brandon Sanderson and Jim Butcher. 
• A melancholic, bittersweet, Studio Ghibli/Shadow of the Colossus/Watership Down/The Last Unicorn-inspired tale about the fading twilight of wonders this fantasy world will never see again... (cheery, I know)
• A seemingly standard high fantasy yarn... except it's written in the style of a Sergio Leone Spaghetti Western. It's a fusion of the genres, blended, certain tropes married together til death do they part. 

Is it safe to share?

[The One Who Connects he/him]

I haven't read most of the writers that you seek to emulate, so I'm probably a bad choice to discuss your ideas from those with. That list shows a lot of ambition though, so I think that your projects will turn out pretty well. It's those quick ideas that you gotta worry about, since people usually don't give them enough effort (guilty).

Edit: Regardless, I am really impressed by your extensive post count. I've made 225 in the past 2 months, you've done 70 in about a day.

Edited September 19, 2016 by The One Who Connects

[Quadrophenia]

8 minutes ago, The One Who Connects said:

I haven't read most of the writers that you seek to emulate, so I'm probably a bad choice to discuss your ideas from those with. That list shows a lot of ambition though, so I think that your projects will turn out pretty well. It's those quick ideas that you gotta worry about, since people usually don't give them enough effort (guilty).

Edit: Regardless, I am really impressed by your extensive post count. I've made 225 in the past 2 months, you've done 70 in about a day.

 

 

I'm a very talkative person, I like meeting new people AND I'm just bursting with ideas! 

Edited September 19, 2016 by Quadrophenia

[Quadrophenia]

22 minutes ago, The One Who Connects said:

I haven't read most of the writers that you seek to emulate, so I'm probably a bad choice to discuss your ideas from those with. That list shows a lot of ambition though, so I think that your projects will turn out pretty well. It's those quick ideas that you gotta worry about, since people usually don't give them enough effort (guilty).

2

Incidentally, if you've never heard of my the above mentioned influences?

You need to check out the works of Lovecraft, Moorcock (the father of alternative fantasy, the anti-Tolkien), Mieville (author of new fantasy, which refuses to pick up anything from the Tolkien toybox), Jim Butcher (author of the astoundingly fun Dresden Files and Codex Alera series, the latter of which can best be described as Ancient Rome having a classic Roman orgy with Starcraft, World of Warcraft, Pokémon and Avatar: The Last Airbender), and Sergio Leone (he directed The Good, The Bad and The Ugly!).

As for the non-named authorial presences:

Shadow of the Colossus is a PS2-era classic set in a minimalist fantasy world where you play a young man forced to kill sixteen peaceful giants in order to fulfil a pact with a dark god. 

Watership Down is Lord of the Rings, with rabbits. 

The Last Unicorn is more or less the ur-example of feminist fantasy... 

And did I mention one of the authors wrote a series that has Romans fighting alongside or against Pokémon like creatures? Yeah. Because that's a thing.

[Zathoth]

Lets see, I am reading Small Favor at the moment, I read way too much Lovecraft in my late teens, I have read Perdido Street Station, my favorite film is Spirited Away and I've watched the two first in the Dollars series.

I am also really terrible at critiquing, but that is a minor detail, right?

I havent read Moorcock, I should do that...

[Quadrophenia]

3 minutes ago, Morzathoth said:

Lets see, I am reading Small Favor at the moment, I read way too much Lovecraft in my late teens, I have read Perdido Street Station, my favorite film is Spirited Away and I've watched the two first in the Dollars series.

I am also really terrible at critiquing, but that is a minor detail, right?

I havent read Moorcock, I should do that...

 

Best intro to Moorcock? Either get your hands on a collection of The Elric Saga or a collection of Moorcock's short stories. 

[Zathoth]

33 minutes ago, Quadrophenia said:

Best intro to Moorcock? Either get your hands on a collection of The Elric Saga or a collection of Moorcock's short stories. 

Will do.

[Quadrophenia]

So, here's my first of the four novel projects...

THE DYING BEAST

Here's the pitch by way of "X Meets Y." Ahem... imagine this as a rich blend of Antz, Attack on Titan, Animal Farm and a dash of George R.R. Martin's Sandkings short story.Yeah. Crazy, right? But it gets better~

The premise here follows an entire civilisation, a mass colony, of anthropomorphic insects who thrive on the back of a titanic beast whose species will never exactly be identified by the narrative. This is not a world set on Earth; this is an all-around original fantasy world... that happens to focus on insects living in what is, to them, a country-sized literal beast of burden.

For years, the Colony has prospered gloriously. Settlements are built into tumour mounds of flesh on the beast's back, they dine on flesh and blood and other bodily liquids, with the more refined... "stuff" a thing for the higher echelons and tier of this rigid colonial caste system. Still, everything is fine...

Until, one day, a rancid smell permeated the Beast. No one knows where it came from or what is causing it. 

... They do know, however, that it's attracting them. The Carrions. 

In this setting, carrion birds like crows... might as well be dragons. They attack the flesh cities, picking at the insects for the grub. The insects fight back with wave after wave, sacrificing many to drive off so much as one bird. 

The main throughline here is that that rancid smell?

It's the smell of decay. As the title not so subtly suggests, the beast is dying. The insects have overused their natural "resources," the poor thing is on its last legs, barely a husk of the magnificent creature it had once been. This is why the Carrions are attacking with increasing ferocity- with the beast too weak to fight back, it's abuffet on legs. 

The main plot will be one of survival, following a lower-caste bug as it finds itself embroiled in conspiracy and revolution and a journey of survival.

That's the bare bones of it, really. What do you guys think?

Edited September 20, 2016 by Quadrophenia

[Darkness Ascendant he/him]

That. Is one of the most unique ideas I have ever heard. Well done.

[Zathoth]

Except "I wish I had thought of that"?

The only pitfall I can see is getting too heavy handed with the environmental message, but other than that I really like it.

[Quadrophenia]

2 hours ago, Morzathoth said:

Except "I wish I had thought of that"?

The only pitfall I can see is getting too heavy handed with the environmental message, but other than that I really like it.

I can't decide whether it should be a novella or a short story. Or even full lengthed. Depends how deeply I want to get into its world... and which format would better serve the story.

Edited September 20, 2016 by Quadrophenia

[Zathoth]

Just now, Quadrophenia said:

I can't decide whether it should be a novella or a short story. Or even full lengthed. Depends how deeply I want to get into its world.

Start writing and it will be as long as it ends up being?

[Quadrophenia]

1 minute ago, Morzathoth said:

Start writing and it will be as long as it ends up being?

All the same, ain't it ballin' a concept or what?

3 hours ago, Darkness Ascendant said:

That. Is one of the most unique ideas I have ever heard. Well done.

Thanks!

[Zathoth]

9 minutes ago, Quadrophenia said:

All the same, ain't it ballin' a concept or what?

Thanks!

It is one of the coolest concepts Ive ever heard XD

[Quadrophenia]

24 minutes ago, Morzathoth said:

It is one of the coolest concepts Ive ever heard XD

And I know exactly how I'd want to end it. 

The beast goes down, all hope seems lost as the crows descend... 

But they're suddenly warded off by thunder.

The insect people are relieved... but there's another crack of thunder. And another... and now something massive's blotted out the sun.

They glance up, these survivors of a now dead civilization...

And see another beast of burden---stronger, healthier---, staring down at them. 

It'd end like that, on a perfect note of ambiguity.

[Zathoth]

4 minutes ago, Quadrophenia said:

And I know exactly how I'd want to end it. 

The beast goes down, all hope seems lost as the crows descend... 

But they're suddenly warded off by thunder.

The insect people are relieved... but there's another crack of thunder. And another... and now something massive's blotted out the sun.

They glance up, these survivors of a now dead civilization...

And see another beast of burden---stronger, healthier---, staring down at them. 

It'd end like that, on a perfect note of ambiguity.

I thought you were going to go "And see a giant carrion descending upon them". XD

It feels a bit too... happy I guess. Sure you have the implication that they are just going to do the same mistakes all over again, but for the insects it is a very happy ending. It feels like all the problems are just suddenly solved, not because of something someone did, but because they were lucky. It feels a bit too much deus ex machina, you know.

On the other hand, it is not a happy ending for the beast and there is that implication that they are just going to make all the same mistakes all over again. I think you could make it work.

 

Just all my opinion, of course XD

[Quadrophenia]

8 minutes ago, Morzathoth said:

I thought you were going to go "And see a giant carrion descending upon them". XD

It feels a bit too... happy I guess. Sure you have the implication that they are just going to do the same mistakes all over again, but for the insects it is a very happy ending. It feels like all the problems are just suddenly solved, not because of something someone did, but because they were lucky. It feels a bit too much deus ex machina, you know.

On the other hand, it is not a happy ending for the beast and there is that implication that they are just going to make all the same mistakes all over again. I think you could make it work.

 

Just all my opinion, of course XD

 

 

Honestly, I was going for the beast possibly wanting to eat them as a symbolic act of revenge against civilisation. Nature taking up arms against exploiters, sort of thing. Although, come to think of it, maybe replacing the carrions with an even larger carrion would be far more upsetting an ending.

Edited September 20, 2016 by Quadrophenia

[Zathoth]

1 minute ago, Quadrophenia said:

Honestly, I was going for the beast possibly wanting to eat them as a symbolic act of revenge against civilisation. Nature taking up arms against exploiters, sort of thing. Although, come to think of it, maybe replacing the carrions with an even larger carrion would be far more upsetting an ending.

No I like the idea of the beast wanting to eat them, that is really ambiguous. The ending can go either way there, though a giant carrion is a beautiful downer ending XD

Now I just made you more confused XD

[Darkness Ascendant he/him]

Onky the strong belong, I like it

[Quadrophenia]

3 minutes ago, Darkness Ascendant said:

Onky the strong belong, I like it

Not quite how evolution or nature actually works, nor the central theme.

[Darkness Ascendant he/him]

Just now, Quadrophenia said:

Not quite how evolution or nature actually works, nor the central theme.

No, like the carrion obviously have an advantage over the insects, and the othe beats was bigger than the first beast (wanted to eat it?) So they were "stronger"

I know all about Darwinism and how Natural Selection works thanks.

[Quadrophenia]

4 minutes ago, Darkness Ascendant said:

No, like the carrion obviously have an advantage over the insects, and the othe beats was bigger than the first beast (wanted to eat it?) So they were "stronger"

I know all about Darwinism and how Natural Selection works thanks.

The idea here is that civilisation is getting its just desserts after exploiting the natural "world" for too long, that the systems that keep society running will eventually come crashing down. It's less about strength and more pitting artificial designs like civilisation against the fundamental forces of nature.

Edited September 20, 2016 by Quadrophenia

[Quadrophenia]

Think less Social Darwinism, more Jurassic Park... with a dash of Lovecraft.

[Zathoth]

Because everything needs a dash of Lovecraft.

Im not being sarcastic, there is nothing that wont be better with a little bit of Cosmic Horror.

[Quadrophenia]

4 minutes ago, Morzathoth said:

Because everything needs a dash of Lovecraft.

Im not being sarcastic, there is nothing that wont be better with a little bit of Cosmic Horror.

Even Sanderson's work has a bit of it. The whole horror behind the Heralds' plight, Odium as sentient rage spreading across reality like a scar gashed across existence itself and breeding nightmarish monsters in its wake? That's not even getting into Ruin's true Shard form as a writhing mass of shadowy tentacles (Mistborn: Secret History) that nearly breaks Kelsier's mind...

Edited September 20, 2016 by Quadrophenia