50,009 on Day 27.
Wow. And here I am. I didn't end with the goal I'd started with, but a whole lot of exciting stuff happened with the rest of the series while I was in the process of making a mess out of Triangle. :)
First, I think I've figured out what the end of Triangle II is going to be. It started with Janis, but then segues into Thomas getting himself introduced to the rest of the Fortress Launne Tainted. Now it has to end with Janis too. She's going to be setting up her cultural center, and Jacob is going to be the anonymous wealthy benefactor that makes it all possible. He does this without telling Thomas, or Janis that he has Thomas. It's a demonstration to Thomas that he can be trusted that Thomas will then discover by himself.
That was actually the plan from the beginning. But it's nice to see how it can actually fit into a story with a beginning, middle, and end. I'll have to reread both my 2006 attempt at Janis and my short-lived attempt at something called Taint that I wrote back in 2005 or so (it only lasted a couple thousand words), and then tackle the ending half of Triangle II.
Basically, in the middle of Triangle II I rewrote the opener that I'd planned for Taint. Only this time, with all the backstory buildup, and worldbuilding, and Amulet I having happened, and the plague introduced, and everything else since 2004: now it actually has context and makes sense.
And now I also know exactly what Felicia did when she stole the Golden Flame from the Mountain Pack in Temple (Nanowrimo 2004) and took it to the chantry. She basically destroyed Nathaniel's binding circle. The one that I just got done writing him laying down for Triangle I. Some major parts of Temple suddenly make sense. It's funny, but the binding circle had always been in the setting, even back then - I just hadn't worked out the details at the time.
And of course the absolutely pivotal moments where Aliacorba suddenly realizes the difference between who he was and who he is, and becomes fully Thomas Cougar. Even if I'd failed at everything else, just that one set of scenes made the month.
There's a lot of work ahead on this series, now that the basic groundwork has been laid out these past 7 years. I need to go over everything, take lots of notes, and then write the series second draft.
o.o
In a lot of ways, I think of writing this series like doing a gigantic painting. There are lots and lots of individual brush strokes that make up the whole picture. I apply some strokes to one side of the canvas, then other strokes to the other side, then discover that some of the first side should've been a slightly different color and have to go back and fix it. The whole Fortress Launne series has been slowly crystallizing all together at once, starting with individual "sketch it in" type scenes in individual stories to figure out where the structure is, and now I have to go back and figure out how to give it flesh and color.
Anyhoo. All in all, despite some really slow parts, it's been a great month. :)
2010/11/27
2010/11/15
Day 15
34,498 words and I have no idea what I'm doing next. So, obviously, the thing to do is blather about it in a blog post...
Triangle I
Well, the triangle is coming along nicely. The forest point is arranged and ready to go, more or less. They're in the middle of working out the details of the actual ritual, but I don't think there's any need to put any of those parts on screen. The next time I mention it, it'll be them carrying out the ritual itself.
The chaos mage has been arranged to claim the southwest point. Very straightforward how it worked out, too - it was actually her suggestion to come to Fortress Launne. Basically the southwest point is going to become a portal for the Drunin (which I mentioned during Fall of Myan I think it was), and so it was simple enough for her to a) want there to be a portal, and b) suggest it as payment for making Frank's new body. All that's left is details, which I don't think needs a whole lot of on-screen time either. She just has to see the spot and then choose it, and she's not all that picky so she'll just go along with Nathaniel's suggestion (since Nathaniel knows that Antoine would prefer the southeast point).
Then of course, Antoine is basically going to get stuck with the southeast point. He's turned into a more minor character during all this. Which is certainly not how I envisioned things when I started, figuring he'd be the main POV character. Oh well? Anyway, again, boring details I don't really feel like writing up.
I guess I just need one short scene to say which gets which spot. I've decided not to let Antoine and Lady Valdren meet each other, as I can't see that going anywhere useful.
So where do I actually go from here anyway? I guess I'm basically done with setup? I should just go ahead and write the ritual? Oh, and the ritual to install Frank into his new body too. And initiate the spirit wolves. Hmmmm.
Triangle II
Well, Thomas is about to enter the city for the first time. The obvious first thing to write about is his reaction to a city, especially after spending so long alone in the swamps.
Then he has to go solve the plague. I'm thinking he'll visit Janis's friend Michael in the Temple of Healing so he can see it firsthand. How exactly he'll come up with a cure though, with no labspace or anything, I'm not sure yet.
And after he solves the plague, that's when Stranahan will haul him into court and it can go on from there. I'm not actually sure there's a "The End" to this anywhere...
Triangle I
Well, the triangle is coming along nicely. The forest point is arranged and ready to go, more or less. They're in the middle of working out the details of the actual ritual, but I don't think there's any need to put any of those parts on screen. The next time I mention it, it'll be them carrying out the ritual itself.
The chaos mage has been arranged to claim the southwest point. Very straightforward how it worked out, too - it was actually her suggestion to come to Fortress Launne. Basically the southwest point is going to become a portal for the Drunin (which I mentioned during Fall of Myan I think it was), and so it was simple enough for her to a) want there to be a portal, and b) suggest it as payment for making Frank's new body. All that's left is details, which I don't think needs a whole lot of on-screen time either. She just has to see the spot and then choose it, and she's not all that picky so she'll just go along with Nathaniel's suggestion (since Nathaniel knows that Antoine would prefer the southeast point).
Then of course, Antoine is basically going to get stuck with the southeast point. He's turned into a more minor character during all this. Which is certainly not how I envisioned things when I started, figuring he'd be the main POV character. Oh well? Anyway, again, boring details I don't really feel like writing up.
I guess I just need one short scene to say which gets which spot. I've decided not to let Antoine and Lady Valdren meet each other, as I can't see that going anywhere useful.
So where do I actually go from here anyway? I guess I'm basically done with setup? I should just go ahead and write the ritual? Oh, and the ritual to install Frank into his new body too. And initiate the spirit wolves. Hmmmm.
Triangle II
Well, Thomas is about to enter the city for the first time. The obvious first thing to write about is his reaction to a city, especially after spending so long alone in the swamps.
Then he has to go solve the plague. I'm thinking he'll visit Janis's friend Michael in the Temple of Healing so he can see it firsthand. How exactly he'll come up with a cure though, with no labspace or anything, I'm not sure yet.
And after he solves the plague, that's when Stranahan will haul him into court and it can go on from there. I'm not actually sure there's a "The End" to this anywhere...
2010/11/11
End of Day 10 / Start of 11
23,530 words at the moment. I'm way behind where I need to be for a 100k month. On the other hand, the stuff I'm writing for Triangle II is outstanding.
Back when I first made Thomas for the IM game in 2002, I tried to write his story as a novel. It involved his great-granddaughter Janis coming into the swamps to bring him out, and him telling her his story. Well, I got about four pages into it. It was the best writing I could do at the time, and I really liked it - but the GM of the IM game that inspired Thomas's existence didn't, which basically stalled me out on the whole thing. It probably isn't very well-written either, I'm afraid to go back and look right now...
Anyway, here in 2010, after an enormous amount of continued character, setting, and plot development on all of Fortress Launne, I've gone all the way back around and now that whole thing is completely rearranged and a part of Triangle II. What I wrote on Day 7 was the first part. At the end of that scene - with one pivotal sentence from Janis - was when Aliacorba transitioned into Thomas Cougar.
And tonight I finished the transition. At the beginning of the chapter I was still calling him Aliacorba, because that was his name - but it didn't feel right to write it that way anymore. I wanted to write "Thomas" instead. But it wasn't his name until the middle, where he actually picked it out.
And now I'm like ... wow. I did it. And it's right. It worked.
To put icing on the cake, somewhere in the middle of the scene, I also worked out how exactly to continue forward in Triangle I. I'd stalled out on how exactly Antoine was going to get to Frank, managed to write that yesterday (they went back and forth across town in a carriage together, and I figure maybe there was something about the air in the carriage - I never spelled it out and don't really intend to). Then I wasn't sure how exactly to carry out the next part, where Nathaniel finds out about it, Frank gets looked over in detail and diagnosed, etc.
Well. Here we have this legend about Aliacorba the medicine man made immortal by the gods. And I need to mention this legend elsewhere, because so far I have Edward where he's just a normal regular guy, and then I have Triangle II where he's back to being just a normal regular guy, who's going to believe me about there being a legend if it's never on-stage?
Thus: mention the legend in Triangle I - which is the only novel I have in between those two. In particular: the Stranahans are going to fail to figure out how to cure Frank via standard Aunlanian medicine, so Frank goes to ask the native folk, whose legend it is. They then diagnose him, all the while talking about the legend, and voila, two problems solved! And furthermore, Frank can run into Allen in the woods while they're passing each other on separate agendas, Allen can get a close look at Frank too, which is how Nathaniel would find out about it. Third problem also solved!
So that's what I'll be writing next. :)
Back when I first made Thomas for the IM game in 2002, I tried to write his story as a novel. It involved his great-granddaughter Janis coming into the swamps to bring him out, and him telling her his story. Well, I got about four pages into it. It was the best writing I could do at the time, and I really liked it - but the GM of the IM game that inspired Thomas's existence didn't, which basically stalled me out on the whole thing. It probably isn't very well-written either, I'm afraid to go back and look right now...
Anyway, here in 2010, after an enormous amount of continued character, setting, and plot development on all of Fortress Launne, I've gone all the way back around and now that whole thing is completely rearranged and a part of Triangle II. What I wrote on Day 7 was the first part. At the end of that scene - with one pivotal sentence from Janis - was when Aliacorba transitioned into Thomas Cougar.
And tonight I finished the transition. At the beginning of the chapter I was still calling him Aliacorba, because that was his name - but it didn't feel right to write it that way anymore. I wanted to write "Thomas" instead. But it wasn't his name until the middle, where he actually picked it out.
And now I'm like ... wow. I did it. And it's right. It worked.
To put icing on the cake, somewhere in the middle of the scene, I also worked out how exactly to continue forward in Triangle I. I'd stalled out on how exactly Antoine was going to get to Frank, managed to write that yesterday (they went back and forth across town in a carriage together, and I figure maybe there was something about the air in the carriage - I never spelled it out and don't really intend to). Then I wasn't sure how exactly to carry out the next part, where Nathaniel finds out about it, Frank gets looked over in detail and diagnosed, etc.
Well. Here we have this legend about Aliacorba the medicine man made immortal by the gods. And I need to mention this legend elsewhere, because so far I have Edward where he's just a normal regular guy, and then I have Triangle II where he's back to being just a normal regular guy, who's going to believe me about there being a legend if it's never on-stage?
Thus: mention the legend in Triangle I - which is the only novel I have in between those two. In particular: the Stranahans are going to fail to figure out how to cure Frank via standard Aunlanian medicine, so Frank goes to ask the native folk, whose legend it is. They then diagnose him, all the while talking about the legend, and voila, two problems solved! And furthermore, Frank can run into Allen in the woods while they're passing each other on separate agendas, Allen can get a close look at Frank too, which is how Nathaniel would find out about it. Third problem also solved!
So that's what I'll be writing next. :)
2010/11/08
Flash Back to the Past
The Fortress Launne series originated as a World of Darkness setting based around the backstory of a character I made for an IM game in 2002. Back then, it was a place called Lauderburough, a fictional suburb of Fort Lauderdale, timeframe circa 1980s. I made a map of it:
Eight years later, it's a bit outdated. Some of the labels make no sense for the Fortress Launne world (mall areas, for instance). Also, north is now in the direction of where it says "Everglades." But the rivers, circle, triangle, and city boundary are the same.
Also, there really was someone named Frank Stranahan in Fort Lauderdale's local history. At some point before I try to publish all this, I'm going to have to change a bunch of names...
Eight years later, it's a bit outdated. Some of the labels make no sense for the Fortress Launne world (mall areas, for instance). Also, north is now in the direction of where it says "Everglades." But the rivers, circle, triangle, and city boundary are the same.
Also, there really was someone named Frank Stranahan in Fort Lauderdale's local history. At some point before I try to publish all this, I'm going to have to change a bunch of names...
End of Day 7
17,587 words. I only wrote 1215 words today, but they were very important words for an extremely difficult scene that was absolutely pivotal to all sorts of things. So all in all, despite the low wordcount, a good day.
Basically the scene was the one where Aliacorba decides to leave the swamps and go with Janis to Fortress Launne. Before that could happen, he had to decide it was a good idea, which mostly depended on Janis showing him why his reason for being in the swamps in the first place doesn't actually apply. Most of his thoughts were internal, which means most of it was completely over Janis's head (and if I ever want to explain it more explicitly, it'll have to be explained in Edward). But she did her part extremely well. All it took was one line to completely blow his mind and make him reassemble his entire worldview.
Basically the scene was the one where Aliacorba decides to leave the swamps and go with Janis to Fortress Launne. Before that could happen, he had to decide it was a good idea, which mostly depended on Janis showing him why his reason for being in the swamps in the first place doesn't actually apply. Most of his thoughts were internal, which means most of it was completely over Janis's head (and if I ever want to explain it more explicitly, it'll have to be explained in Edward). But she did her part extremely well. All it took was one line to completely blow his mind and make him reassemble his entire worldview.
2010/11/07
End of Day 6
16,372 words.
I went to a write-in this afternoon. It turns out that they're much better attended here than back in Savannah, with people coming and going and taking turns getting access to the outlets. They were also relatively serious about actually writing at the write-in, with much less chatter than last year in Savannah. I wrote 1200 words while there, and found out that I was actually in 3rd place for wordcount for Bloomington. Now I'm only a thousand words away from 1st, which hopefully I'll manage to come up with before going to bed. But it's a pretty close pack, with lots of other people with similar wordcounts.
At the moment, I've started on both Triangle I and Triangle II. I'm lumping all the words together, since they're in the same big document, though I should separate them out at some point. I've also switched back to using Jer's Novel Writer. Scrivener's lack of margin notes was starting to become a serious problem, though I hear it's a planned feature (that they may well already have, and I just need to upgrade).
Anyhoo.
Triangle I:
I went back and wrote intro chapters for both the Stranahans and Nathaniel, which are set before my original chapter that introduced Antoine. Basically I needed a way to get the phoenix from the Stranahans to Nathaniel. Well, it's been seen in the story now. The actual transfer hasn't happened yet, and I'm not sure when exactly to set it up for, but basically Nathaniel is going to track down some native folk art and trade for it.
I also decided that Nathaniel's problem needs to be on-screen, so his intro chapter is about the giant spell he's trying to plan. I've thought up more details that ought to be mentioned since then, so there'll have to be more Nathaniel-centric chapters in the future. There will also have to be more Allen screentime, since he's the only one in Nathaniel's camp that can actually talk freely with the native folk. Eventually there's going to be a big meeting where Allen, Nathaniel, Pedro, two shamans and a matriarch figure out a ritual to do with the cave. It'll seal up the leak into the Abyss, and it'll cleanse the cave, and (unbeknownst to the native folk) it'll also set up the spot as the anchorpoint for the citywide spell. Coordinating it will take some work on Nathaniel's part, since the whole thing has to happen in a single circle walk, which means the other two spots have to be ready to go too.
So I guess the next scenes to write will be: more exposition about Nathaniel's problem, a trade of native folk art for the phoenix (followed by / concurrent with Allen examining the phoenix and figuring out what it's good for), and Antoine... doing... something. Antoine is the part I'm stuck on at the moment. His planned actions in the story are pretty clear but I don't know how to get him there. Basically he has to complicate what Nathaniel wants to do in a major way, then get mad enough to hex Frank. I'm having some trouble with motivation at the moment.
Meanwhile, for Triangle II:
I basically went straight to the middle part, assuming that everything I wrote in Janis actually happened. There's a plague on, Janis has a friend who is dying from it, and she's been put in a position of wanting to help the native folk of the city.
So I opened with her grandmother telling her about the legend of Aliacorba, medicine man made immortal by the gods. I'm pretty sure I've forgotten some of the original details of this legend and I'm too lazy to look them up at the moment, but I remember all the important parts. Grandmother tells Janis about him, Janis goes looking. I racked up a lot of words describing her journey in the swamps, and then she found him, they had a fun intro conversation, and then she got to bumble around his house while he wasn't there. Now she's waiting for him to get back and they'll do a second fun conversation (I hope). I'm a bit stuck on how to get it started. It'll probably be the next thing I write, though.
After that, eventually they'll journey back out of the swamps and she'll take him to the city, and he can find a cure for the plague, then get in trouble with the king and so on. Still not sure whether that part is actually part of Triangle II or if it belongs in Amulet II yet. I might write it if I need the words (which I probably will) and move it later.
That's the plan anyway. I'm aiming for 20k by the end of the weekend. Hopefully more, since 20k would put me a bit behind for a 100k month. We'll see what happens. :)
I went to a write-in this afternoon. It turns out that they're much better attended here than back in Savannah, with people coming and going and taking turns getting access to the outlets. They were also relatively serious about actually writing at the write-in, with much less chatter than last year in Savannah. I wrote 1200 words while there, and found out that I was actually in 3rd place for wordcount for Bloomington. Now I'm only a thousand words away from 1st, which hopefully I'll manage to come up with before going to bed. But it's a pretty close pack, with lots of other people with similar wordcounts.
At the moment, I've started on both Triangle I and Triangle II. I'm lumping all the words together, since they're in the same big document, though I should separate them out at some point. I've also switched back to using Jer's Novel Writer. Scrivener's lack of margin notes was starting to become a serious problem, though I hear it's a planned feature (that they may well already have, and I just need to upgrade).
Anyhoo.
Triangle I:
I went back and wrote intro chapters for both the Stranahans and Nathaniel, which are set before my original chapter that introduced Antoine. Basically I needed a way to get the phoenix from the Stranahans to Nathaniel. Well, it's been seen in the story now. The actual transfer hasn't happened yet, and I'm not sure when exactly to set it up for, but basically Nathaniel is going to track down some native folk art and trade for it.
I also decided that Nathaniel's problem needs to be on-screen, so his intro chapter is about the giant spell he's trying to plan. I've thought up more details that ought to be mentioned since then, so there'll have to be more Nathaniel-centric chapters in the future. There will also have to be more Allen screentime, since he's the only one in Nathaniel's camp that can actually talk freely with the native folk. Eventually there's going to be a big meeting where Allen, Nathaniel, Pedro, two shamans and a matriarch figure out a ritual to do with the cave. It'll seal up the leak into the Abyss, and it'll cleanse the cave, and (unbeknownst to the native folk) it'll also set up the spot as the anchorpoint for the citywide spell. Coordinating it will take some work on Nathaniel's part, since the whole thing has to happen in a single circle walk, which means the other two spots have to be ready to go too.
So I guess the next scenes to write will be: more exposition about Nathaniel's problem, a trade of native folk art for the phoenix (followed by / concurrent with Allen examining the phoenix and figuring out what it's good for), and Antoine... doing... something. Antoine is the part I'm stuck on at the moment. His planned actions in the story are pretty clear but I don't know how to get him there. Basically he has to complicate what Nathaniel wants to do in a major way, then get mad enough to hex Frank. I'm having some trouble with motivation at the moment.
Meanwhile, for Triangle II:
I basically went straight to the middle part, assuming that everything I wrote in Janis actually happened. There's a plague on, Janis has a friend who is dying from it, and she's been put in a position of wanting to help the native folk of the city.
So I opened with her grandmother telling her about the legend of Aliacorba, medicine man made immortal by the gods. I'm pretty sure I've forgotten some of the original details of this legend and I'm too lazy to look them up at the moment, but I remember all the important parts. Grandmother tells Janis about him, Janis goes looking. I racked up a lot of words describing her journey in the swamps, and then she found him, they had a fun intro conversation, and then she got to bumble around his house while he wasn't there. Now she's waiting for him to get back and they'll do a second fun conversation (I hope). I'm a bit stuck on how to get it started. It'll probably be the next thing I write, though.
After that, eventually they'll journey back out of the swamps and she'll take him to the city, and he can find a cure for the plague, then get in trouble with the king and so on. Still not sure whether that part is actually part of Triangle II or if it belongs in Amulet II yet. I might write it if I need the words (which I probably will) and move it later.
That's the plan anyway. I'm aiming for 20k by the end of the weekend. Hopefully more, since 20k would put me a bit behind for a 100k month. We'll see what happens. :)
2010/11/03
End of Day 2
I have 5426 words at the moment. It was 5256 at midnight and then I kept going for a bit longer.
Antoine and Frank have visited the southeast site, which will end up being the actual site of the chantry eventually, but Antoine doesn't want to put it there. Now he wants to visit the forest to figure out where all the highly-pure energy is coming from.
Meanwhile, Allen got a look at the cave that Edward had been in. He reported on its condition to Nathaniel, and they were walking back to the city when they ducked into a cave with a bear in it. I now have to figure out what Allen's capabilities are before he can escape.
I also tried to start on Triangle II. That didn't get very far. I figured, start by having Janis's grandmother tell her about the legend. But the story isn't coming out the way I'd hoped. I'll probably have to scrap the whole thing (only about 200 words though, no big loss) and start over later.
I could've written more words today than I did, but procrastination set in with a vengeance. Tomorrow I'd like to be somewhere around 10k, so I'll have to actually focus. It can be done, though. I've written 5k words in one day before. Just have to make sure I know what I'm writing.
Antoine and Frank have visited the southeast site, which will end up being the actual site of the chantry eventually, but Antoine doesn't want to put it there. Now he wants to visit the forest to figure out where all the highly-pure energy is coming from.
Meanwhile, Allen got a look at the cave that Edward had been in. He reported on its condition to Nathaniel, and they were walking back to the city when they ducked into a cave with a bear in it. I now have to figure out what Allen's capabilities are before he can escape.
I also tried to start on Triangle II. That didn't get very far. I figured, start by having Janis's grandmother tell her about the legend. But the story isn't coming out the way I'd hoped. I'll probably have to scrap the whole thing (only about 200 words though, no big loss) and start over later.
I could've written more words today than I did, but procrastination set in with a vengeance. Tomorrow I'd like to be somewhere around 10k, so I'll have to actually focus. It can be done, though. I've written 5k words in one day before. Just have to make sure I know what I'm writing.
2010/11/02
End of Day 1
3557 total words so far.
Day 1 was a cakewalk. I got the first 1890 words within the first three hours (after midnight), then wrote another leisurely 700ish words in the afternoon, then finished up the rest in the evening. I could've written more but I was lazy and played lots of Facebook games. If it stays this easy though, I'd have time to write Triangle II too and aim for 100k words and possibly even reach it this year. That would be cool.
So far Antoine has arrived in town, met the Stranahans, met Nathaniel, and visited one of the two possible sites for his future chantry. Meanwhile, Nathaniel has gone up into the woods to talk the Speaker of the native folk into letting him use their most sacred place for his ritual. So far he's not having any luck, but give it another scene or two. Without interference from Antoine, at least, but Antoine is going to be making his own proposal soon (just as soon as he finds out about the place) to complicate Nathaniel's plans.
Next up: Antoine visits the second site and then I have to give him more key places to wander past and somehow get him to know about the native folk's.
And since all of that came out so smoothly and easily, I also started thinking about what to do with Triangle II if I do write it this year. A whole lot of Janis would be part of it, so technically it's already started. For this year's additions, I'd start with having Janis's grandmother telling her about the legend, and then go on from there to getting her to look for him. Depending on how things go tomorrow with Triangle I, I might start it tomorrow. We'll see.
All in all, a great first day. :)
Day 1 was a cakewalk. I got the first 1890 words within the first three hours (after midnight), then wrote another leisurely 700ish words in the afternoon, then finished up the rest in the evening. I could've written more but I was lazy and played lots of Facebook games. If it stays this easy though, I'd have time to write Triangle II too and aim for 100k words and possibly even reach it this year. That would be cool.
So far Antoine has arrived in town, met the Stranahans, met Nathaniel, and visited one of the two possible sites for his future chantry. Meanwhile, Nathaniel has gone up into the woods to talk the Speaker of the native folk into letting him use their most sacred place for his ritual. So far he's not having any luck, but give it another scene or two. Without interference from Antoine, at least, but Antoine is going to be making his own proposal soon (just as soon as he finds out about the place) to complicate Nathaniel's plans.
Next up: Antoine visits the second site and then I have to give him more key places to wander past and somehow get him to know about the native folk's.
And since all of that came out so smoothly and easily, I also started thinking about what to do with Triangle II if I do write it this year. A whole lot of Janis would be part of it, so technically it's already started. For this year's additions, I'd start with having Janis's grandmother telling her about the legend, and then go on from there to getting her to look for him. Depending on how things go tomorrow with Triangle I, I might start it tomorrow. We'll see.
All in all, a great first day. :)
2010/10/31
An Overview of my Fortress Launne series
Well, it's a few hours before Nanowrimo 2010, so I guess I should update on what I've been doing and what I plan to do this year. As usual, it's yet another book in the Fortress Launne series which I started in 2004. I think I have seven books in the series at the moment, and they weren't the 6-7 I'd originally envisioned when I started, but hey, progress is like that. :)
A few weeks ago I finally made an updated outline for the whole series. Now that I'm about to work on the 7th book, a whole lot of past pieces have fallen together into something that actually likes like it might end up making sense. Woohoo! I'll post it in a password-protected area of SFFMuse if anyone wants to look. It's 2000 words long and I don't really want to put that much detail in public (even un-searchindexed public like this place is).
Anyway, so this year's is called Triangle. It's about Nathaniel, Antoine Reiter, and the Stranahans planning the layout of their new city. Disagreements occur, and Antoine ends up hexing one of the Stranahans with a supernatural illness that kills him ... eventually. But the city gets built to everyone else's satisfaction, especially Nathaniel's, whose prime concern is binding a demon by laying down a city-wide spell that dictates the locations of various buildings.
Other plot points to cover: one of the things Nathaniel does for the local native folk is cleanse a cave, using a golden phoenix statuette he happened to have. Igniting the phoenix sparks sentience in the local spirit wolves, who have a major role in Temple and Birthright 60-65 years later. The illness that Antoine devised, meanwhile, becomes a plague 40 years later as the main plotline of Triangle II - which I'd started writing in 2006 as something called Janis before realizing what it was for.
So, at the moment anyway, the books in timeline order are:
Edward (aka Amulet I) - 2005, 2006, and 2007
Triangle - 2010 (this year!)
Janis (aka Triangle II) - 2006
Amulet II - 2005
Temple - 2004
Birthright - 2009
The Fall of Myan - 2008
I also have a glimmering of an idea in mind to write another book set some time after Myan, not as part of the Fortress Launne series but using the same setting, which will star Janis and Arthur Glorian. Arthur was the guy whose actions had a huge influence on the course of Fortress Launne's overall history, but he hasn't been seen since about a hundred years before Edward. He was also the guy that made the magic box, whose pieces appear in Triangle, Amulet II, Temple, and (especially) Birthright.
A few weeks ago I finally made an updated outline for the whole series. Now that I'm about to work on the 7th book, a whole lot of past pieces have fallen together into something that actually likes like it might end up making sense. Woohoo! I'll post it in a password-protected area of SFFMuse if anyone wants to look. It's 2000 words long and I don't really want to put that much detail in public (even un-searchindexed public like this place is).
Anyway, so this year's is called Triangle. It's about Nathaniel, Antoine Reiter, and the Stranahans planning the layout of their new city. Disagreements occur, and Antoine ends up hexing one of the Stranahans with a supernatural illness that kills him ... eventually. But the city gets built to everyone else's satisfaction, especially Nathaniel's, whose prime concern is binding a demon by laying down a city-wide spell that dictates the locations of various buildings.
Other plot points to cover: one of the things Nathaniel does for the local native folk is cleanse a cave, using a golden phoenix statuette he happened to have. Igniting the phoenix sparks sentience in the local spirit wolves, who have a major role in Temple and Birthright 60-65 years later. The illness that Antoine devised, meanwhile, becomes a plague 40 years later as the main plotline of Triangle II - which I'd started writing in 2006 as something called Janis before realizing what it was for.
So, at the moment anyway, the books in timeline order are:
Edward (aka Amulet I) - 2005, 2006, and 2007
Triangle - 2010 (this year!)
Janis (aka Triangle II) - 2006
Amulet II - 2005
Temple - 2004
Birthright - 2009
The Fall of Myan - 2008
I also have a glimmering of an idea in mind to write another book set some time after Myan, not as part of the Fortress Launne series but using the same setting, which will star Janis and Arthur Glorian. Arthur was the guy whose actions had a huge influence on the course of Fortress Launne's overall history, but he hasn't been seen since about a hundred years before Edward. He was also the guy that made the magic box, whose pieces appear in Triangle, Amulet II, Temple, and (especially) Birthright.
2010/09/06
Labor Day Novel 2010
Yes, I did it again this year. No, no plan this time either. I didn't have any excuses for not cranking out a ton of words like I had the previous two years, but alas, it looks like a lack of plan does me in just fine anyway.
Day 1: 3677 words toward Vengeance
Day 2: 3861 toward Hand
Day 3: 266 words toward ... never mind. T.T
The first two days, I made a fair amount of good progress. The overall goal was just to write a lot, advance the amount of material to edit later. Well, I managed to accomplish that.
Day 1 was all about Vengeance. I wrote out yet another version of the planning in the park, then gave up on giving it a good ending and went on to the good part - getting them into the warehouse. That was a lot of fun. Lots of fast-paced action, and the writing went by really fast.
Then I got stuck on how they were actually going to get back out of the warehouse. It sank underground and now has a heavy metal plate over the hatch. My vision of things involves them doing something ingenious and complex going back out through the roof. This rules out any underground tunnels Hernando might know about in the area and tell Rumen about. Rumen could also call on his other underlings (Edward and David are still back home), but I'd like them to do it on their own. They have a ton of combat and trespassing skills among them, they should use them.
Unfortunately, my current setup isn't very complex, and there's only one exit. So, well, I guess they need to either find or create another one in the roof that the Bad Guy somehow doesn't have covered (even though he was very well-prepared for their arrival; he didn't have intel on them in particular, just knew "someone" would likely show up).
Also, it occurs to me that the Bad Guy wouldn't just leave them to sit around doing nothing (and possibly coming up with escape plans). He'd torment them to keep them busy, fill up their time so they don't have time to plan anything about getting out or messing up the midnight plans with Aaron. So, I need torture ideas too. They would probably be generalized ones to cover a lot of different types of creatures since he didn't know who exactly was going to come.
Hmmm. I suppose some of the torture plans might provide openings on how to get them back out of there. Especially if there's only one way in or out. Any tormentors would have to go in and out the same way, right?
The other thing I did that I really like is a scene from Aaron's POV. I hadn't originally wanted to do anything other than Craig's, but Aaron wanted to be written. I started at just before he had to leave the bookstore, agonizing about how Craig had stood him up. It went until he got to the warehouse (of course he was going), and Thorme has proposed the partnership. Now he's demanding to see Alice. He wants to make sure she's all right, and he'd like for her to go home before he agrees to anything, but Thorme isn't going with that.
Unfortunately, when I tried to write him and Alice meeting up, that didn't go anywhere useful. So I have to rethink what Alice's role is going to be in this whole thing.
Day 2 was all about the Tragedy of the Hand. Since I was stuck at the warehouse scene, and the Alice scene had floundered, I figured I'd do something else instead.
Again, I liked the progress I made. I realized that the story actually starts back when the rogue vampire (the ancient retard) eats the Drunin witch. So I wrote that first. It sucked, but I can fix it in the rewrite. Then they were at the coroner, and then I touched on a whole lot of other minor plot points that needed to be introduced, and then I wrote the Council meeting. It turned out to be the best meeting scene I've written yet. I found it wildly entertaining, when normally my meetings tend to be really boring. So, yay. ;)
Then I stalled out when the meeting was almost over, on how exactly to introduce Cassandra's decoy subplot. Now that I've thought about it some, I might just delete that whole part out of the meeting and have it in discussion with Blaze instead. Or something.
I also finally got around to rereading the material from Labor Day 2008, when I first started this project. Gray's personality is completely different when he's talking to Cassandra. o.o He's also a lot more open about himself than I envision him now. Fortunately, I think the first scene, at least, is probably salvageable nearly as-is, and I can probably cannibalize large chunks of the second scene. Regardless, in this 2010 version, I haven't even introduced Cassandra yet. Though it should be only a scene or two away from the Council meeting scene.
As for Day 3 which is the end of today... not so good. T.T I didn't write anything meaningful at all, and not for lack of trying. There was lots of staring at a blank screen. I was stalled out on the warehouse ambush, stalled out on what to do next with Aaron (i.e. Alice), stalled out on how to finish up the Council meeting, and stalled out on what to do with the Jenya plotline. I tried to write some from the Rumen travel plotline - the part where he hands over Jenya to the Drunin - but it completely sucked, and I stopped after 226 words.
Which pretty much took out everyhting I had in mind to write. And so I sat there... and just had word constipation all day long.
In general. I need to get back to planning in regular fiction writing, in amongst all the freelancing I've been doing. Maybe one or two weekends a month or something. I've got three regular content-site gigs to juggle now though, so I don't know if I'll ever have time. I absolutely need to make at least $500 a month, absolute minimum. Until I can manage to do that and have time left over, fiction keeps ending up at the back of the line, and that needs to change.
Plus Nanowrimo is coming up fast, and I need to plan for it - both what I'm actually going to write (Triangle?) and how I'm going to do it and still pay bills without making it an all-savings month.
Day 1: 3677 words toward Vengeance
Day 2: 3861 toward Hand
Day 3: 266 words toward ... never mind. T.T
The first two days, I made a fair amount of good progress. The overall goal was just to write a lot, advance the amount of material to edit later. Well, I managed to accomplish that.
Day 1 was all about Vengeance. I wrote out yet another version of the planning in the park, then gave up on giving it a good ending and went on to the good part - getting them into the warehouse. That was a lot of fun. Lots of fast-paced action, and the writing went by really fast.
Then I got stuck on how they were actually going to get back out of the warehouse. It sank underground and now has a heavy metal plate over the hatch. My vision of things involves them doing something ingenious and complex going back out through the roof. This rules out any underground tunnels Hernando might know about in the area and tell Rumen about. Rumen could also call on his other underlings (Edward and David are still back home), but I'd like them to do it on their own. They have a ton of combat and trespassing skills among them, they should use them.
Unfortunately, my current setup isn't very complex, and there's only one exit. So, well, I guess they need to either find or create another one in the roof that the Bad Guy somehow doesn't have covered (even though he was very well-prepared for their arrival; he didn't have intel on them in particular, just knew "someone" would likely show up).
Also, it occurs to me that the Bad Guy wouldn't just leave them to sit around doing nothing (and possibly coming up with escape plans). He'd torment them to keep them busy, fill up their time so they don't have time to plan anything about getting out or messing up the midnight plans with Aaron. So, I need torture ideas too. They would probably be generalized ones to cover a lot of different types of creatures since he didn't know who exactly was going to come.
Hmmm. I suppose some of the torture plans might provide openings on how to get them back out of there. Especially if there's only one way in or out. Any tormentors would have to go in and out the same way, right?
The other thing I did that I really like is a scene from Aaron's POV. I hadn't originally wanted to do anything other than Craig's, but Aaron wanted to be written. I started at just before he had to leave the bookstore, agonizing about how Craig had stood him up. It went until he got to the warehouse (of course he was going), and Thorme has proposed the partnership. Now he's demanding to see Alice. He wants to make sure she's all right, and he'd like for her to go home before he agrees to anything, but Thorme isn't going with that.
Unfortunately, when I tried to write him and Alice meeting up, that didn't go anywhere useful. So I have to rethink what Alice's role is going to be in this whole thing.
Day 2 was all about the Tragedy of the Hand. Since I was stuck at the warehouse scene, and the Alice scene had floundered, I figured I'd do something else instead.
Again, I liked the progress I made. I realized that the story actually starts back when the rogue vampire (the ancient retard) eats the Drunin witch. So I wrote that first. It sucked, but I can fix it in the rewrite. Then they were at the coroner, and then I touched on a whole lot of other minor plot points that needed to be introduced, and then I wrote the Council meeting. It turned out to be the best meeting scene I've written yet. I found it wildly entertaining, when normally my meetings tend to be really boring. So, yay. ;)
Then I stalled out when the meeting was almost over, on how exactly to introduce Cassandra's decoy subplot. Now that I've thought about it some, I might just delete that whole part out of the meeting and have it in discussion with Blaze instead. Or something.
I also finally got around to rereading the material from Labor Day 2008, when I first started this project. Gray's personality is completely different when he's talking to Cassandra. o.o He's also a lot more open about himself than I envision him now. Fortunately, I think the first scene, at least, is probably salvageable nearly as-is, and I can probably cannibalize large chunks of the second scene. Regardless, in this 2010 version, I haven't even introduced Cassandra yet. Though it should be only a scene or two away from the Council meeting scene.
As for Day 3 which is the end of today... not so good. T.T I didn't write anything meaningful at all, and not for lack of trying. There was lots of staring at a blank screen. I was stalled out on the warehouse ambush, stalled out on what to do next with Aaron (i.e. Alice), stalled out on how to finish up the Council meeting, and stalled out on what to do with the Jenya plotline. I tried to write some from the Rumen travel plotline - the part where he hands over Jenya to the Drunin - but it completely sucked, and I stopped after 226 words.
Which pretty much took out everyhting I had in mind to write. And so I sat there... and just had word constipation all day long.
In general. I need to get back to planning in regular fiction writing, in amongst all the freelancing I've been doing. Maybe one or two weekends a month or something. I've got three regular content-site gigs to juggle now though, so I don't know if I'll ever have time. I absolutely need to make at least $500 a month, absolute minimum. Until I can manage to do that and have time left over, fiction keeps ending up at the back of the line, and that needs to change.
Plus Nanowrimo is coming up fast, and I need to plan for it - both what I'm actually going to write (Triangle?) and how I'm going to do it and still pay bills without making it an all-savings month.
2010/02/24
More nonfiction updating
Of course, right after I decided to set up shop at Associated Content, I checked out Hubfolio. Then someone mentioned Bukisa - which does the same thing, pay per thousand views, but at over twice the rate. So: all mention of "Associated Content" in my previous post should be replaced with "Bukisa." I signed up and set up my profile, but haven't written any articles for them yet. Been feeling kind of lazy about moving previously existing articles off eHow. So I'll probably write my RotMK series there first.
I did some keyword checking, and nobody is searching for RotMK, period. It wouldn't be a good thing to put on Bright Hub, even if they approved, since it wouldn't give me the number of views I need to carry the science articles - which is the primary purpose of writing them there. However, because I'd already pitched Bloons (and the editor even approved it initially), and because I'd mentioned moving my Dragcave articles to Hubfolio, I'm going to hold off on doing anything with those just yet. At this rate, though, it doesn't look like I'm going to get added to Hubfolio anytime soon, and even if I did, I'm not allowed to link to any articles on it. So very likely the Dragcave ones will be going to Bukisa too.
Anyway: the month is winding down, and I did write five articles this month, two of which are still in committee. I also made some diagrams to add to the micro RNA article, but they got rejected. No explanation either - I'm planning to ask next month when editor crunchtime is over. Have to get the environmental science editor to kick the fish articles back out of her queue too.
But all that wasn't why I started this blog post. I also signed up for a free Intro to SEO series over email, and they keep giving me links to useful stuff. So the point of this blog post is to have a list in one place.
1. SEO Glossary
2. Google Traffic Estimator
3. Keyword Suggestion Tool
I did some keyword checking, and nobody is searching for RotMK, period. It wouldn't be a good thing to put on Bright Hub, even if they approved, since it wouldn't give me the number of views I need to carry the science articles - which is the primary purpose of writing them there. However, because I'd already pitched Bloons (and the editor even approved it initially), and because I'd mentioned moving my Dragcave articles to Hubfolio, I'm going to hold off on doing anything with those just yet. At this rate, though, it doesn't look like I'm going to get added to Hubfolio anytime soon, and even if I did, I'm not allowed to link to any articles on it. So very likely the Dragcave ones will be going to Bukisa too.
Anyway: the month is winding down, and I did write five articles this month, two of which are still in committee. I also made some diagrams to add to the micro RNA article, but they got rejected. No explanation either - I'm planning to ask next month when editor crunchtime is over. Have to get the environmental science editor to kick the fish articles back out of her queue too.
But all that wasn't why I started this blog post. I also signed up for a free Intro to SEO series over email, and they keep giving me links to useful stuff. So the point of this blog post is to have a list in one place.
1. SEO Glossary
2. Google Traffic Estimator
3. Keyword Suggestion Tool
2010/02/15
Just a general update
Well, let's see. Dragonfly didn't win, and didn't make the top 25 finalists list either. I showed it around to a local writing group I joined a few weeks ago, called The Matchbox Society, which is sort of like a critique circle. Every week we (supposedly) meet at the local coffeehouse (the same one we used during Nanowrimo, which is how these people found us) (and by "us" I mean me and one other diehard; there were four of us back in November but two of them disappeared over the break), and take turns sharing material for critique. The idea is to read stuff out loud - but, most of the group is poets, so it makes sense they'd come up with that rule; I'm not sure it works so well for longer prose. And I didn't read Dragonfly out loud to them, just handed out copies on paper.
The other thing I dislike about the group is their habit of posting up work for review on a public website. Low traffic perhaps, but even so, first publication rights can come into play. Which is why I printed out Dragonfly on paper for them. I should probably say something to them about this at the next meeting.
Anyhoo. So overall they liked it. One wanted me to go more into detail about the elephants. One pointed out that dragonflies don't have proboscises, they have mandibles. Several said that some of my extra phrases were repetitive and could be removed. So, all in all, I get to revise it some more before sending it out again. I haven't picked out the next place it's going yet - have to look around on Duotrope.
My next idea is to start showing them Edward in installments, one at a time. This would motivate me to actually work on it in advance of showing it to them. But, I haven't gotten back into fiction lately because nonfiction (aka Brighthub) has been eating up all my time and brainpower.
Ahh, Brighthub. Lots and lots of new bureaucratic hoops. Like only being allowed to write 5 articles per month as a newbie. In January I didn't manage to write anything at all for them due to all the snafus they were having. This month I've written three so far, two of which are published, one of which is still stuck in editor committee. I'm committed to a fourth and haven't figured out what to do for the fifth yet - ideally, something in genetics will grab my attention if the editor ever puts up the second list. If not, I'll probably end up doing a third gaming article, since that's where I'm most likely to get high views.
I joined gaming so that I could write some high-view articles to carry my low-view science articles, so that I'll continue to be allowed to write articles past April. So far it looks like it might actually work - especially if this month's science articles carry themselves. The new editors for those channels have both gone with "here's a list of keywords, pick two at a time." So, less freedom for me to write whatever I want. However, it makes sense to write articles that people are actually searching for, and in Environmental Science at least, they're still fairly interesting topics.
Gaming, meanwhile, is all about having people suggest what they want to write. It's a very large community, and the main editor doesn't actually pay much attention to individual articles. There's not a whole lot of editting going on. He just approves the topic idea, then when I submit it, he publishes it. I assume he must at least glance over it first, but he doesn't notice typos so it isn't a very close read. I'm also supposed to figure out all of my own keywords. Which means that a few days ago I got to playing around with SEO Book.
Basically, it tells me what people are searching on. It doesn't tell me how many good results they get, however, so I'm still out of luck on that one (though I suppose I could just google them all myself to see what comes up). On the other hand, I can use it for more than just Brighthub gaming articles, and thus, I have new plans...
1. Check and tweak the SEO of every eHow article, starting with the oldest.
I've already fixed up my earwax article; if it got as many views as the electric toothbrush one, it would actually be my top earner. I still need to tweak the toothbrush one too. Also did one of the two Dragon Cave articles (since my 4th Brighthub is also going to be about Dragon Cave, that's how I got to looking at the eHow articles...). After that, oldest first.
2. Once they're all tweaked, make blog posts that list all articles to date, both eHow and Brighthub.
Evilkate tells me that blog links are excellent for search engine rankings, and since I have two that get indexed (my main blog, also here on Blogger, and my LJ), why not use them? I might start posting monthly summaries of my articles if I really get prolific at this. Plus I've been putting the science ones at SFFMuse too, so I'll continue to do that. And tweet them of course.
3. It turns out that a lot of the eHow articles would've made more money at Associated Content after all. They pay $1.50 per 1,000 views. Basically what it boils down to is that high view, low earnings eHow articles would earn more at that flat rate. Which is, sadly, most of them.
a. Such as gaming articles. Those still work best at Brighthub rather than AC, because not only do we get paid by number of views, we also get the $10 advance. However, gaming articles rejected from Brighthub (if any) will just go there.
b. Also, new plan for the Bloons series. How to win for Bloons 1 and 4 are already at eHow and might as well stay there. Bloons 2 and 3 articles can go over to AC. The three-part guide I want to do for Brighthub will still go there if they ever let me into PC Gaming, and then my overall index to everything will be at AC as well.
c. The main Dragon Cave article is going to get copied over to AC under their nonexclusive display-only policy. That article gets a ridiculous number of views, like twice what the electric toothbrush article gets, and yet earns very little (like a third of what electric toothbrush gets). Having it in both places will mean that it competes with itself - but I've already linked everyone at Dragonspam LJ to eHow, and that's where all the links point, so I don't want to remove it. I did tweak up the SEO on it some though.
And speaking of Dragon Cave - there's a lot of search for guides about what egg hatches into what, so I'll be pitching to write a guide at Brighthub next month too. (Right after I pitch my Restaurant City ingredients guide that I'd also like to write; unless I write that this month if genetics falls through).
4. The other big thing I want to do for gaming is a series about Emperor: RotMK. The main con is that it's an older game, out since 2003. I'll probably have to prove that people search about it. However, I've been playing it a LOT lately, and want to write "how to set up housing right at the start", "how to set up trade", and "how to take care of menagerie animals." I could also do a review article, or an overall intro to the game kind of guide article (or several).
My first choice would be to put this up at Brighthub, if I get into PC Gaming. Failing that, Associated Content.
5. Any science article rejects are still planned for Google Knol so far. Though I've also looked at HubPages, which Robert likes. I'm kind of on the fence so far, and probably won't decide until/unless Brighthub actually rejects something. They haven't so far.
6. And speaking of Knol. I really, really should get around to Mandarin Teaching Alphabet to start myself off there. (Then again, there are a couple eHows I've had on my list for over a year - grid method on Robert's Celtic bird, and "how to eat healthy" which should do well at a place like eHow). (Plus I need to update my "how to make money online" article, even though it doesn't make any actual money.)
So, lots to do. And it's good to have a plan. Of course, so far I'm just doing the procrastination part of the proceedings. But I'll get going eventually...
The other thing I dislike about the group is their habit of posting up work for review on a public website. Low traffic perhaps, but even so, first publication rights can come into play. Which is why I printed out Dragonfly on paper for them. I should probably say something to them about this at the next meeting.
Anyhoo. So overall they liked it. One wanted me to go more into detail about the elephants. One pointed out that dragonflies don't have proboscises, they have mandibles. Several said that some of my extra phrases were repetitive and could be removed. So, all in all, I get to revise it some more before sending it out again. I haven't picked out the next place it's going yet - have to look around on Duotrope.
My next idea is to start showing them Edward in installments, one at a time. This would motivate me to actually work on it in advance of showing it to them. But, I haven't gotten back into fiction lately because nonfiction (aka Brighthub) has been eating up all my time and brainpower.
Ahh, Brighthub. Lots and lots of new bureaucratic hoops. Like only being allowed to write 5 articles per month as a newbie. In January I didn't manage to write anything at all for them due to all the snafus they were having. This month I've written three so far, two of which are published, one of which is still stuck in editor committee. I'm committed to a fourth and haven't figured out what to do for the fifth yet - ideally, something in genetics will grab my attention if the editor ever puts up the second list. If not, I'll probably end up doing a third gaming article, since that's where I'm most likely to get high views.
I joined gaming so that I could write some high-view articles to carry my low-view science articles, so that I'll continue to be allowed to write articles past April. So far it looks like it might actually work - especially if this month's science articles carry themselves. The new editors for those channels have both gone with "here's a list of keywords, pick two at a time." So, less freedom for me to write whatever I want. However, it makes sense to write articles that people are actually searching for, and in Environmental Science at least, they're still fairly interesting topics.
Gaming, meanwhile, is all about having people suggest what they want to write. It's a very large community, and the main editor doesn't actually pay much attention to individual articles. There's not a whole lot of editting going on. He just approves the topic idea, then when I submit it, he publishes it. I assume he must at least glance over it first, but he doesn't notice typos so it isn't a very close read. I'm also supposed to figure out all of my own keywords. Which means that a few days ago I got to playing around with SEO Book.
Basically, it tells me what people are searching on. It doesn't tell me how many good results they get, however, so I'm still out of luck on that one (though I suppose I could just google them all myself to see what comes up). On the other hand, I can use it for more than just Brighthub gaming articles, and thus, I have new plans...
1. Check and tweak the SEO of every eHow article, starting with the oldest.
I've already fixed up my earwax article; if it got as many views as the electric toothbrush one, it would actually be my top earner. I still need to tweak the toothbrush one too. Also did one of the two Dragon Cave articles (since my 4th Brighthub is also going to be about Dragon Cave, that's how I got to looking at the eHow articles...). After that, oldest first.
2. Once they're all tweaked, make blog posts that list all articles to date, both eHow and Brighthub.
Evilkate tells me that blog links are excellent for search engine rankings, and since I have two that get indexed (my main blog, also here on Blogger, and my LJ), why not use them? I might start posting monthly summaries of my articles if I really get prolific at this. Plus I've been putting the science ones at SFFMuse too, so I'll continue to do that. And tweet them of course.
3. It turns out that a lot of the eHow articles would've made more money at Associated Content after all. They pay $1.50 per 1,000 views. Basically what it boils down to is that high view, low earnings eHow articles would earn more at that flat rate. Which is, sadly, most of them.
a. Such as gaming articles. Those still work best at Brighthub rather than AC, because not only do we get paid by number of views, we also get the $10 advance. However, gaming articles rejected from Brighthub (if any) will just go there.
b. Also, new plan for the Bloons series. How to win for Bloons 1 and 4 are already at eHow and might as well stay there. Bloons 2 and 3 articles can go over to AC. The three-part guide I want to do for Brighthub will still go there if they ever let me into PC Gaming, and then my overall index to everything will be at AC as well.
c. The main Dragon Cave article is going to get copied over to AC under their nonexclusive display-only policy. That article gets a ridiculous number of views, like twice what the electric toothbrush article gets, and yet earns very little (like a third of what electric toothbrush gets). Having it in both places will mean that it competes with itself - but I've already linked everyone at Dragonspam LJ to eHow, and that's where all the links point, so I don't want to remove it. I did tweak up the SEO on it some though.
And speaking of Dragon Cave - there's a lot of search for guides about what egg hatches into what, so I'll be pitching to write a guide at Brighthub next month too. (Right after I pitch my Restaurant City ingredients guide that I'd also like to write; unless I write that this month if genetics falls through).
4. The other big thing I want to do for gaming is a series about Emperor: RotMK. The main con is that it's an older game, out since 2003. I'll probably have to prove that people search about it. However, I've been playing it a LOT lately, and want to write "how to set up housing right at the start", "how to set up trade", and "how to take care of menagerie animals." I could also do a review article, or an overall intro to the game kind of guide article (or several).
My first choice would be to put this up at Brighthub, if I get into PC Gaming. Failing that, Associated Content.
5. Any science article rejects are still planned for Google Knol so far. Though I've also looked at HubPages, which Robert likes. I'm kind of on the fence so far, and probably won't decide until/unless Brighthub actually rejects something. They haven't so far.
6. And speaking of Knol. I really, really should get around to Mandarin Teaching Alphabet to start myself off there. (Then again, there are a couple eHows I've had on my list for over a year - grid method on Robert's Celtic bird, and "how to eat healthy" which should do well at a place like eHow). (Plus I need to update my "how to make money online" article, even though it doesn't make any actual money.)
So, lots to do. And it's good to have a plan. Of course, so far I'm just doing the procrastination part of the proceedings. But I'll get going eventually...
2010/01/23
Edward revisited
I finally opened up all my drafts of Amulet I again, and reread the first part of Edward. That was the opening 20k words where Edward first became tainted, up to the point where they left for Aunlania. It's actually quite good. I was originally thinking to change the motivations around a bit, have Edward have a more direct role in his own demise - but I like what's there, where he was really just a pawn in a plot to hurt Lucien. So I'm probably not going to change around much at all. The amulets that I was going to work in will still be worked in, but won't be as central as I was originally thinking.
So, brief outline of what I have in mind now:
1. Mario Romero wants to usurp Lucien's abyssal throne.
2. The maiden Elmara, a shallow flighty kind of girl, has Edward's attention, and she wants a particular style of amulet she saw on someone else.
3. Edward makes a deal with Halkur Tan to get some. It involves Halkur Tan going on a perilous journey to another realm. Halkur Tan comes back with several, but notices that one of them would make the journey a lot safer for him next time (he goes there a lot), and wants to keep it. Edward doesn't want to give it to him, because it's Elmara's favorite color. Halkur Tan gets mad at how ungrateful Edward is, and wants to teach him a lesson - but also has enough sense to know he can't, because there would be dire consequences from Lucien Duchene.
4. By the time Edward has the amulets and presents them to Elmara, she has already lost interest and found something else to want instead. Something that Master Wormon had, which is why she was paying more attention to him than Edward during the masquerade ball.
5. Mario Romero observes all this from a distance (as a noble himself, he can attend all the same balls), and then overhears Halkur Tan griping about it to all his friends in a local bar. Mario encourages Halkur Tan to go ahead and do Edward in anyway, saying that he would back up the Wilds Tainted when Lucien responded. Which was of course a lie; Mario just wants the heir eliminated, then a fight between Lucien and the Wilds Tainted to deplete Lucien's might, and then he would take out Lucien in the abyssal realm. The amulets incident was just the opportunity he needed to talk the Wilds Tainted into angering Lucien.
6. So Halkur Tan catches up with Edward in a dark alley and taints him.
There's a bunch of minor things to tweak in what I have, mainly which parts Edward already knows, and there needs to be some conversations referencing the amulets. But on the whole, it's pretty solid already.
It's entirely possible to scale up Mario's motivations more in prequel books, flesh out a personal vendetta against Lucien in particular, but for the purposes of Amulet I I'm just going to keep it simple - a usurpation of a throne.
So, brief outline of what I have in mind now:
1. Mario Romero wants to usurp Lucien's abyssal throne.
2. The maiden Elmara, a shallow flighty kind of girl, has Edward's attention, and she wants a particular style of amulet she saw on someone else.
3. Edward makes a deal with Halkur Tan to get some. It involves Halkur Tan going on a perilous journey to another realm. Halkur Tan comes back with several, but notices that one of them would make the journey a lot safer for him next time (he goes there a lot), and wants to keep it. Edward doesn't want to give it to him, because it's Elmara's favorite color. Halkur Tan gets mad at how ungrateful Edward is, and wants to teach him a lesson - but also has enough sense to know he can't, because there would be dire consequences from Lucien Duchene.
4. By the time Edward has the amulets and presents them to Elmara, she has already lost interest and found something else to want instead. Something that Master Wormon had, which is why she was paying more attention to him than Edward during the masquerade ball.
5. Mario Romero observes all this from a distance (as a noble himself, he can attend all the same balls), and then overhears Halkur Tan griping about it to all his friends in a local bar. Mario encourages Halkur Tan to go ahead and do Edward in anyway, saying that he would back up the Wilds Tainted when Lucien responded. Which was of course a lie; Mario just wants the heir eliminated, then a fight between Lucien and the Wilds Tainted to deplete Lucien's might, and then he would take out Lucien in the abyssal realm. The amulets incident was just the opportunity he needed to talk the Wilds Tainted into angering Lucien.
6. So Halkur Tan catches up with Edward in a dark alley and taints him.
There's a bunch of minor things to tweak in what I have, mainly which parts Edward already knows, and there needs to be some conversations referencing the amulets. But on the whole, it's pretty solid already.
It's entirely possible to scale up Mario's motivations more in prequel books, flesh out a personal vendetta against Lucien in particular, but for the purposes of Amulet I I'm just going to keep it simple - a usurpation of a throne.
2010/01/06
Suddenly, during a long roadtrip, it all became clear
So I figured out what the pact was between Aliacorba and the spirit cougars. And I didn't end up having to do the writing exercise I thought I'd need. Basically, I went back to the original version of the storyliine and played it forward, comparing with the non-WoD version as I went. I can't recall the exact thought path anymore, but the answer fell right out. Aliacorba didn't want any of his descendants to suffer his fate. Which is so obvious and makes so much sense.
After the ritual, when Edward was freed to return to the Great Mother, the Wild taint energy had released as a spirit wolf, and the dark abyssal taint had transformed James, Aliacorba knew he was dead. He'd severed his own link to the Great Mother to give it to Edward, but without realizing the full implications of stepping outside the cycle as Tainted himself. Which was that he lost the ability to see the flow of life force energy and the connection to the spirit realms. When his own remaining energy was gone (because he could no longer generate it, since he was no longer alive), everything that made him who he was would be gone.
It was a painful destruction, and he knew that his own descendants, who were also descendants of the spirit cougar clan, would suffer the same way if it happened to them. So with some of his remaining energy he enacted a ritual with the spirit cougars to never let any of his line fall to the same fate. The only one who could break the pact was himself, using his own tainted energy.
He would have walked into the morning sun after his official death, but members of his family convinced him to stay around.
And then, a few hundred years later, he had to break the pact and destroy all that Janis was in order to save her life. The reasoning went, she had the right to take her own life if she would have preferred that he let her die instead. That was part of their culture's way. (Of course she wouldn't and didn't.)
That big piece was what I needed before I could continue working on Amulet I, finish Temple, and figure out how to proceed with Birthright.
After the ritual, when Edward was freed to return to the Great Mother, the Wild taint energy had released as a spirit wolf, and the dark abyssal taint had transformed James, Aliacorba knew he was dead. He'd severed his own link to the Great Mother to give it to Edward, but without realizing the full implications of stepping outside the cycle as Tainted himself. Which was that he lost the ability to see the flow of life force energy and the connection to the spirit realms. When his own remaining energy was gone (because he could no longer generate it, since he was no longer alive), everything that made him who he was would be gone.
It was a painful destruction, and he knew that his own descendants, who were also descendants of the spirit cougar clan, would suffer the same way if it happened to them. So with some of his remaining energy he enacted a ritual with the spirit cougars to never let any of his line fall to the same fate. The only one who could break the pact was himself, using his own tainted energy.
He would have walked into the morning sun after his official death, but members of his family convinced him to stay around.
And then, a few hundred years later, he had to break the pact and destroy all that Janis was in order to save her life. The reasoning went, she had the right to take her own life if she would have preferred that he let her die instead. That was part of their culture's way. (Of course she wouldn't and didn't.)
That big piece was what I needed before I could continue working on Amulet I, finish Temple, and figure out how to proceed with Birthright.
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