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capri0mniIt took me 29,100 words to figure out where my Chapter One starts (metaphorically speaking), now I need to figure out Chapter Two.
My Setting: Fuzzily Present Day / Early Twenty-First Century USA, centered around a Family Home (Mansion-Estate) inherited by one of the last Male Surname-holders of the family, who lives there alone (save for "pets" and the ghosts, sprites, and bogles who wander through. befriend him, and stay for a bit-- it's sort of like he runs an Otherworldy B&B) until he becomes in loco parentis for a teenage distant cousin (My FMC / P.O.V. character).
What it took 29K words to figure out: That this Family Home sits in the middle of what would be a "Fey road" in Celtic folklore. Some of the family who lived in the house could sense that it was visited by ghosts, sprites and bogles. Those people divided into two groups: those who feared the Otherworld, and those who were okay with it. Those who feared it were the power holders in the family, and would psychologically punish / make life hard for those who were open to it, because they believed these open people were "bad luck;" both my MC's mother and the wizard character were victims of this punishment, but my MC's mother is not really like the wizard character in other ways, beside that-- she has no talent for, or interest in magic or the occult.
And however unpleasant the power holders in the family were, they are not at the center of what's causing the conflict now-- at least, not directly (they are not, for example, all connected to an evil wizard, or anything). But perhaps their attitude toward the world could be some sort of related symptom of the Big Bad Whatever.
The "mechanics" of the fantastical elements of my story:
Magic: works on the principle that: "If you can imagine it, that is because it exists in some form, on some dimensional plane," and so it's a system of "Navigating the maze of reality, finding your desired goal, and bringing it back with you." But the greater divergence between "Imagination" and "Reality," the more difficult and energy-consuming the magic required, until, even with magic, some things are impossible to "Make Real" (As, in physics, it's impossible to go faster than the speed of light).
So magic, when used, is usually used for small physical things (making sure the dinner doesn't burn), things that are primarily psychological in the first place (having clairvoyant dreams, or seeing into the past, so you can see what the message on the napkin read before someone spilled their drink on it, communication with other species, etc.).
Otherworld: Is somewhat parallel to / coexistent with this world, something like a "phase shift," and ghosts, though invisible to the living, can still touch and interact with our world]
Sprites and Bogles are non-corporeal or transiently corporeal beings from the start of their existence; ghosts are corporeal beings who have shed their bodies, but still move through the world based on the memory of their bodies. My world is functionally atheist / agnostic (leaning toward atheist). This Otherworld is simply another phase of being, and is neither Heavenly nor Hellish, it just is. There are no gods or demons or Higher Powers at conflict, here-- just folks, whether corporeal or not, human or other species, working things through as best they can.
My $29K Question: Something is going wrong on the Otherworldly plane, and two of the "regular visitors" to the Otherworldly B&B seek help of my wizard and MC, to come to the Otherworld and help solve the mystery / fix what's breaking / find what's lost (Wizard and MC could 'travel there' via dreams or astral projection, or maybe just a form of self-hypnosis that allows them to see the world from a ghost's or bogle's vantage point).
But What? Why?
Oh, and gripe: You know what's annoying, for fantasy writers like me? Google's spell check does not recognize either the word "Otherworld" or "bogle," so every time I write them, I get red squiggly underlines.
My Setting: Fuzzily Present Day / Early Twenty-First Century USA, centered around a Family Home (Mansion-Estate) inherited by one of the last Male Surname-holders of the family, who lives there alone (save for "pets" and the ghosts, sprites, and bogles who wander through. befriend him, and stay for a bit-- it's sort of like he runs an Otherworldy B&B) until he becomes in loco parentis for a teenage distant cousin (My FMC / P.O.V. character).
What it took 29K words to figure out: That this Family Home sits in the middle of what would be a "Fey road" in Celtic folklore. Some of the family who lived in the house could sense that it was visited by ghosts, sprites and bogles. Those people divided into two groups: those who feared the Otherworld, and those who were okay with it. Those who feared it were the power holders in the family, and would psychologically punish / make life hard for those who were open to it, because they believed these open people were "bad luck;" both my MC's mother and the wizard character were victims of this punishment, but my MC's mother is not really like the wizard character in other ways, beside that-- she has no talent for, or interest in magic or the occult.
And however unpleasant the power holders in the family were, they are not at the center of what's causing the conflict now-- at least, not directly (they are not, for example, all connected to an evil wizard, or anything). But perhaps their attitude toward the world could be some sort of related symptom of the Big Bad Whatever.
The "mechanics" of the fantastical elements of my story:
Magic: works on the principle that: "If you can imagine it, that is because it exists in some form, on some dimensional plane," and so it's a system of "Navigating the maze of reality, finding your desired goal, and bringing it back with you." But the greater divergence between "Imagination" and "Reality," the more difficult and energy-consuming the magic required, until, even with magic, some things are impossible to "Make Real" (As, in physics, it's impossible to go faster than the speed of light).
So magic, when used, is usually used for small physical things (making sure the dinner doesn't burn), things that are primarily psychological in the first place (having clairvoyant dreams, or seeing into the past, so you can see what the message on the napkin read before someone spilled their drink on it, communication with other species, etc.).
Otherworld: Is somewhat parallel to / coexistent with this world, something like a "phase shift," and ghosts, though invisible to the living, can still touch and interact with our world]
Sprites and Bogles are non-corporeal or transiently corporeal beings from the start of their existence; ghosts are corporeal beings who have shed their bodies, but still move through the world based on the memory of their bodies. My world is functionally atheist / agnostic (leaning toward atheist). This Otherworld is simply another phase of being, and is neither Heavenly nor Hellish, it just is. There are no gods or demons or Higher Powers at conflict, here-- just folks, whether corporeal or not, human or other species, working things through as best they can.
My $29K Question: Something is going wrong on the Otherworldly plane, and two of the "regular visitors" to the Otherworldly B&B seek help of my wizard and MC, to come to the Otherworld and help solve the mystery / fix what's breaking / find what's lost (Wizard and MC could 'travel there' via dreams or astral projection, or maybe just a form of self-hypnosis that allows them to see the world from a ghost's or bogle's vantage point).
But What? Why?
Oh, and gripe: You know what's annoying, for fantasy writers like me? Google's spell check does not recognize either the word "Otherworld" or "bogle," so every time I write them, I get red squiggly underlines.
