Writerly Ways

[cornerofmadness]

But before I get into that, let me say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to helliongoddess & masqthephlsphr. I hope you ladies had a great day.

And in somber news Fire on OU’s campus This is right where I was going to be last night. I planned to have dinner at Jackie O's (for anyone who read my novella freebie this summer, this is the bar in that) then go to the diner. It looks like that whole chunk of the block burnt badly and people were hurt and OU students displaced. It's very sad.


And now for the writerly ways otherwise known as 'please someone get me a live trap for all the wild plot bunnies.'

What is it about being on a deadline for one project that brings these things out of the wilderness of your subconscious? Surely I'm not alone in this right? I'm trying to get Luc and Arrigo on track but in the back of my mind are all these NEW characters frolicking around with total disregard for my deadline or for all the other stories I have before them.

Two of the loudest are these (one even has some names attached)

- Centuries ago this city-state was under a magically siege. They build into the caves to hide but now the only things in the underground are pretty much what's in the abandoned subway lines of many cities, the poor, the homeless and the criminal. Above something is brewing again. One forward thinking army captain goes underground looking for a) cannon fodder, because let's be honest, they would do that especially if they could harness people they see as mildly criminal but useful and b) anyone with innate magical powers.

He finds one young man with the promise as a mage (and a thief but that's another story). He can barely communicate with him at first thanks to the very thick slang spoken in the underground. This character I haven't named yet but I was informed by someone who had been looking out for him (a professor/archaeologist who studies the old ruins down there) that his name means 'nobody' in the old tongue. I figure this one is for the m/m market and he'll end up with the captain and will end up with some friends, a female mage and a male healer. I have several scenes in my head for this but no real plot yet.

And the other wouldn't let me alone all last night or this morning (I woke up and laid in bed thinking about it for what I thought was 15 minutes but was an hour and twenty...oops.)

It wants to be faux Vikings. Really? I've never had that much interest in Vikings. Their history and myths are fascinating but I've never really wrote them. Not only that one of the main characters is a berserker...okay then. WTF brain? Basic idea he was obtained in a raid as a kid after his diplomatic dad is killed (I'm picturing them more like the Italians of the group). He was kept as a boy toy by the leader. The leader's brother takes over the boy's care and trains his slave to fight mostly so he can take out his brother. So the young man is basically a berserker at the end of an iron chain.

This group of 'Vikings' seeks to reestablish an alliance with the southern group against a worse enemy. Berserker is reunited with a family who doesn't know what to make of him and introduced to the other two main characters, a woman who's good with lightning strike weather magic and one of the excess princes whose magic is flame based (for now, I'm open to suggestions for war-enhancing magic). I was thinking it would be a very open partnership (and open as to whether or not they're a trio) I was thinking of just writing this sans sex (and adding it in if it goes nowhere because this could go either way).

Thoughts? Bunny slaying magic?

yearly word count -

97496 / 125000
(78%)

Comments

[masqthephlsphr.livejournal.com]

Send some of those wild bunnies my way. My biggest weakness as a writer is lack of ideas. Especially original ones, and ones that hold my interest for longer than a few seconds.

[masqthephlsphr.livejournal.com]

And thanks for the B-Day wishes!

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

You're welcome

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

I'll shoo them your way. My problem is too many bunnies and a complete inability to concentrate on any one thing for long

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

I like the second idea; the first idea sounds like something I've read many times already (right down to 'nobody' being the ccharacter's name, so I'd be less interested in that one).

I have no idea how to get rid of bunnies except to write them down, then they scatter.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

That was probably me. I've used Nobody before.

I need Mo Plot for the second one cuz it has zero

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

I knew you had used 'Nobody'. I'm just thinking I've heard a smiliar non-name before, too.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

Poppy Brite did, Nothing, Nobody, literally just that. Not a name that means that (my plan) in her NO vampire thing.

Oh and anyone who's ever used the name Nemo

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

That must've been it.

Never used 'nemo'. :D

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

If i do this later that's totally his last name

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Nobody Nemo?

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

Well some fantasy name that means nobody sort of like some tribal names where they name their kids horrible things so the demons will think they're unloved and leave them alone

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Oh, then let's go with Dingledorf.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

The look of horror the little twerp is giving me is hysterical

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

I could come up with something worse, I'm sure - just go look at those lists of names I have.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

he's like just call me Grimm or Frostshield or Wolf or something

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Sexywolf.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

Of course I am

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

That was L's SCA name, Seaxwulf. Una referred to him regularly as 'that Sexy wolf person.'

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

that's hysterical

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Yes, it was; we (Y, Silvrethorn and I) would usually fall out laughing hearing that.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

hahaha

[helliongoddess.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the birthday wishes! It was a good day, as birthdays go.

All I can think of when you say "faux Vikings" is the bizarre get ups I see when the hubs is watching Minnesota play football - some of the.... ensembles... the Vikings fans come up with reach new heights of both the bizarre & the silly - especially the men that opt for the "Brunhilde" look, with huge boobs, blonde wigs, and - of course - the mandatory plastic Viking helmet. I've told him if we ever go to a live game and he tries any of that crap, I'm completely disowning him. (Truthfully, I'm just grateful he's not a fan of any of the Native American themed teams..... )

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

You're welcome. glad ot hear it.

Hahah NO not that kind (though I like the Vikings but they're not the Steelers.) Granted I would totally wear that crap to a game

[helliongoddess.livejournal.com]

If and when you ever do, we ALL want pictures!!!!!!!

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

hahahaha, somewhere there ARE pictures of me in black and gold with a Terrible Towel.