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capri0mniI need two things: to write this down, to cement what I do have, and to ask for brainstorming help, to grab hold of what I don't have.
I'd post this to NaNoWriMo.org's "Plot doctoring" forum, but the servers appear to be down, due to traffic overload. So I'll write this here, then copy and paste it to a thread there, later, in the wee hours, if I'm still stuck by then:
This is what I have for my novel plot so far:
An Earth-like Otherworld with vast alpine terrain, contrasted with what could be equally vast areas where a vibrant sea merchant trade could be conducted. This is world where magic and "mythical beasts" exist (though the beasts wouldn't be mythical to the people who live there, just part of the normal fauna).
A heroine (with no name, yet) in her late 20s-early 30s, who grew up in a sheltered alpine culture, that centers around the shores of twin "Great lakes" in the center of her high, fertile, valley. One day, she catches a fish from one of the lakes, and, preparing it for dinner, finds a finger bone in its stomach with an ornate, antique ring still around the bone. ...And it's not a ring that she recognizes from her her own culture.
And ever since that moment, she is burdened by a persistent dream, and sometimes waking visions, that compel her to leave home and travel through the mountains to the coastal cities, until she solves the ring's mystery.
I have a general idea of which chapters go where in the landscape, and I've marked those out on a printout of my map, so I at least have an idea of what she'll see when she wakes up in the morning, throughout the journey. I figure that, at least, will help me move forward in the plot when I'm unsure of what I should write next.
What I do not have, however, is any sense of the *infrastructure* of my story -- the technology and means by which she'd make her journey (or how she'd catch and cook the fish, for that matter).
Ordinarily, this would be your typical sword and sorcery type tale, but I'm not really interested in writing a medievalesqe or Renaisance-like world. And then, last night, an idea came to me (and this is where any brainstorming help would be appreciated):
Most Sword and Sorcery tales are based on what Western European culture was like 500 to 600 years ago, except that magic and mythical creatures are real, instead of philosophical and theological theory. Assume that the worlds portrayed in S&S stories progressed through their own histories at the same rate of development as *our* world.
What would a Sword and Sorcery world look like if it were hybridized with the late 20th century? I think that would be interesting, but I'm having trouble visualizing it.
(The map of my world, and her journey, is here, btw: http://pics.livejournal.com/capriuni/pic/00060kry)
I'd post this to NaNoWriMo.org's "Plot doctoring" forum, but the servers appear to be down, due to traffic overload. So I'll write this here, then copy and paste it to a thread there, later, in the wee hours, if I'm still stuck by then:
This is what I have for my novel plot so far:
An Earth-like Otherworld with vast alpine terrain, contrasted with what could be equally vast areas where a vibrant sea merchant trade could be conducted. This is world where magic and "mythical beasts" exist (though the beasts wouldn't be mythical to the people who live there, just part of the normal fauna).
A heroine (with no name, yet) in her late 20s-early 30s, who grew up in a sheltered alpine culture, that centers around the shores of twin "Great lakes" in the center of her high, fertile, valley. One day, she catches a fish from one of the lakes, and, preparing it for dinner, finds a finger bone in its stomach with an ornate, antique ring still around the bone. ...And it's not a ring that she recognizes from her her own culture.
And ever since that moment, she is burdened by a persistent dream, and sometimes waking visions, that compel her to leave home and travel through the mountains to the coastal cities, until she solves the ring's mystery.
I have a general idea of which chapters go where in the landscape, and I've marked those out on a printout of my map, so I at least have an idea of what she'll see when she wakes up in the morning, throughout the journey. I figure that, at least, will help me move forward in the plot when I'm unsure of what I should write next.
What I do not have, however, is any sense of the *infrastructure* of my story -- the technology and means by which she'd make her journey (or how she'd catch and cook the fish, for that matter).
Ordinarily, this would be your typical sword and sorcery type tale, but I'm not really interested in writing a medievalesqe or Renaisance-like world. And then, last night, an idea came to me (and this is where any brainstorming help would be appreciated):
Most Sword and Sorcery tales are based on what Western European culture was like 500 to 600 years ago, except that magic and mythical creatures are real, instead of philosophical and theological theory. Assume that the worlds portrayed in S&S stories progressed through their own histories at the same rate of development as *our* world.
What would a Sword and Sorcery world look like if it were hybridized with the late 20th century? I think that would be interesting, but I'm having trouble visualizing it.
(The map of my world, and her journey, is here, btw: http://pics.livejournal.com/capriuni/pic/00060kry)
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Date: 2008-11-01 06:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-01 06:22 pm (UTC)Sorry to be disrespectful to your grandfather, but a Mother Goose Counting rhyme just popped into my head:
"1, 2, 3, 4, 5!
Once I caught a fish alive.
6, 7, 8, 9, 10!
Then I let it go again."
"Why did you let it go?"
"Because it bit my finger so!"
"Which finger did it bite?"
"The little finger, on the right!"
(maybe some kid actually overheard your grandfather telling that story -- yes? ;-))