It's the last week before Nanowrimo 2016 starts, and of course all of my pre-writing ruminations are about a project other than any of the ones I mentioned in my previous post.
Since my teens when I first started doing serious worldbuilding projects, I've thought that the human reproductive system is really stupid, and there must be something better than what we're stuck with. The sentient species on one of my planets, Siram, doesn't have two distinct sexes. There's only one, and they all release eggs externally into a stream, which hatch and develop into young that Someone Else has to worry about taking care of by the time they flow to the ocean.
Later on while getting a masters in marine biology, I learned about aggregate broadcast spawning in some fishes, so hey, it even exists (sort of). I also learned about plants in college, which have something called "alternation of generations" - where in the more primitive species, the haploid form is actually separate individual plants, and not just gametes. (They're technically separate individual plants in the derived species too, it's just that they either stay inside the flowers of the parent or they're pollen). I also learned that in a number of marine invertebrate taxons, including urochordates, there's a motile larval form, that settles out into a sessile adult form, that reproduces to make more motile larva; from a certain warped point of view, all vertebrates (humans included) technically have life cycles like those, except we've evolved to skip the sessile adult form.
All of which is background for the ideas floating around in my head at the moment, about a species that instead of having males and females, they have haploids and diploids. In the simplest version, there would just be two forms (one haploid, one diploid); if I wanted to get really complicated about it, there could be four (two of each type that are male and female). Two haploids have to come together to make a diploid, but a diploid (in the simple version) would be able to make haploids by itself. This would obviously have all sorts of subtle effects on what they look like and whether and how they socialize.
The most appropriate place to put such a species would be in Cosmic Potato. They're already cliff-dwelling birds with a very season-based cycle of putting nearly 100% of their time and resources into reproduction for half the year, and then they have time to do other things (sentient things, like explore the world) during the off-season. It would be pretty easy to have them also be haploids and diploids.
Then of course on the other side of the planet is the sentient plants. The plants could be a sessile adult form that also includes a motile juvenile form that runs around Doing Things before they have to settle down in one spot for the rest of their lives.
It also occurs to me that I can't really start the story when they start the sea voyage to get to the other side of the world. There needs to be a lot more backstory buildup for why they're going, and the surprise gas giant would be a lot more of a surprise if it was closer to the end of the story than the beginning. I think I was realizing this the last time I tried to write it too. So. To ensure that I'll have lots and lots of material to put into the backstory buildup, having them be cliff-dwelling birdlike haploids and diploids leading season-based lives should help quite a bit.
Showing posts with label cosmic potato. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cosmic potato. Show all posts
2016/10/26
2015/07/25
Winding Down Camp Nano for July
1917 words.
There's almost a week left to the month, but I'm not likely to do any more fiction during it. On the bright side, this is the first time I've been in a cabin where no one did zero words. All six of us did at least 500, two have reached goal, and a third is really close to it. Hooray for the cabin as a whole!
All 1917 of my words happened in the first week. I fast forwarded through the sea voyage so that they could get to the inside-facing continent, which is populated by giant sentient telepathic plants. Most of the words established setting info about the plants and what they're up to, and then there was an opening conversation between a plant and Our Heroes.
I have no idea what to do with it next, plotwise or otherwise. The other big thing I kept stalling out on was how to describe the sky at any given point, and what direction the voyagers are going relative to what things in the sky are doing. What I really need to do next is to make a scale model of the planetary system with all the moons in it, so that I can point a flashlight at it in the dark.
Either that or what I really have here is an idea for a video game, and now I should go learn digital art. This seems to happen to most of my space-based sci-fi ideas.
There's almost a week left to the month, but I'm not likely to do any more fiction during it. On the bright side, this is the first time I've been in a cabin where no one did zero words. All six of us did at least 500, two have reached goal, and a third is really close to it. Hooray for the cabin as a whole!
All 1917 of my words happened in the first week. I fast forwarded through the sea voyage so that they could get to the inside-facing continent, which is populated by giant sentient telepathic plants. Most of the words established setting info about the plants and what they're up to, and then there was an opening conversation between a plant and Our Heroes.
I have no idea what to do with it next, plotwise or otherwise. The other big thing I kept stalling out on was how to describe the sky at any given point, and what direction the voyagers are going relative to what things in the sky are doing. What I really need to do next is to make a scale model of the planetary system with all the moons in it, so that I can point a flashlight at it in the dark.
Either that or what I really have here is an idea for a video game, and now I should go learn digital art. This seems to happen to most of my space-based sci-fi ideas.
2015/07/03
Camp Nanowrimo Again
Well, it's July, and time for the second Camp Nanowrimo this year. I'm not really in a fiction frame of mind at all at the moment, but a couple other people are pretty gung-ho (Alcar and ugottafriend), and so I made yet another cabin and added them to it, plus a couple others out of the regional forum that I'd never seen before but expressed an interest. So far, ugottafriend doesn't have any words yet either, but everyone else does.
My tentative plan before was to try to work on Cosmic Potato. At the very least, I should probably write down all the backstory that has been simmering in the back of my mind since 2013. If I can remember any of it at the moment. I guess I'll start by reading over what I wrote before and see where I can go from there. Really I just need to get a basic plotline hammered out, I think, and it might be slow going while I build setting and create key characters at the same time, as I go along. I believe this is what they call "pantsing."
My tentative plan before was to try to work on Cosmic Potato. At the very least, I should probably write down all the backstory that has been simmering in the back of my mind since 2013. If I can remember any of it at the moment. I guess I'll start by reading over what I wrote before and see where I can go from there. Really I just need to get a basic plotline hammered out, I think, and it might be slow going while I build setting and create key characters at the same time, as I go along. I believe this is what they call "pantsing."
2015/03/22
Getting ready for Camp Nanowrimo April 2015
In the last couple months, I've compiled everything I've written related to Rumen into a single Scrivener file. Including all the parts from the original roleplaying game (What is it to be Human?). There was a lot, and it wasn't organized very well for copy-paste, but it was a lot of fun to go back and reread all that. In total, I copied about 90k words - nearly all of Rumen's scenes, all of Katrina, and the first night for Aaron. That's an entire novel right there, and of fairly publishable quality as-is. Actually doing anything with the original game is unlikely though, because there's no way I'm going to track down all of the other people who wrote for it, now that it's ten years later. I might go back and copy out all the rest of Aaron's scenes at some point (everything involving Samuel and Mariah, the second scene with Aniqa) but the point of divergence for my story was after the first scene with Aniqa, so it's not a high priority.
Organizing all of my own stuff was quicker overall. For Vengeance, the version that I had in the Jer's file was very well polished already, and I don't even feel like I need the earlier drafts for those anymore. The other two stories (Tragedy of the Hand, End of Rage) were more of a mess, but there wasn't as much of it, so it balanced out.
My plan for April's Camp Nano is to continue from where I left off. So far I've only done some minor tweaks to Vengeance while I was compiling, and managed to write about 300 new words to the Warehouse Ambush scene. They had broken out of the first warehouse when I last looked, and now they've broken into the second warehouse and found that it was a sidetrack. I have to come up with something to keep them occupied for another three hours so that they'll match up with the timepoint of what Aaron is doing. Then I'll finally get to the next "fun" scene: they break into the correct warehouse and find Alice, and watch Aaron's ritual with Thorme in progress.
I'm also assuming that by July's Camp Nano, Rumen is going to have faded back out of my mind again. He only seems to show up in winter for some reason. So my tentative plan for July is to take another stab at Cosmic Potato - my Nano 2013 failure, where I only got about 6k words into it before Battle Pirates distracted me. I have all sorts of fun ideas running through my head for what I could do with it, and I need to get around to writing it down.
Organizing all of my own stuff was quicker overall. For Vengeance, the version that I had in the Jer's file was very well polished already, and I don't even feel like I need the earlier drafts for those anymore. The other two stories (Tragedy of the Hand, End of Rage) were more of a mess, but there wasn't as much of it, so it balanced out.
My plan for April's Camp Nano is to continue from where I left off. So far I've only done some minor tweaks to Vengeance while I was compiling, and managed to write about 300 new words to the Warehouse Ambush scene. They had broken out of the first warehouse when I last looked, and now they've broken into the second warehouse and found that it was a sidetrack. I have to come up with something to keep them occupied for another three hours so that they'll match up with the timepoint of what Aaron is doing. Then I'll finally get to the next "fun" scene: they break into the correct warehouse and find Alice, and watch Aaron's ritual with Thorme in progress.
I'm also assuming that by July's Camp Nano, Rumen is going to have faded back out of my mind again. He only seems to show up in winter for some reason. So my tentative plan for July is to take another stab at Cosmic Potato - my Nano 2013 failure, where I only got about 6k words into it before Battle Pirates distracted me. I have all sorts of fun ideas running through my head for what I could do with it, and I need to get around to writing it down.
2014/07/10
General Update on Everything
Well, 2013 Nanowrimo was the first one I actually "failed." I got about 6000 words into Cosmic Potato and then wandered off. It was a pretty good start though, with a fair bit of setting establishment, and then they started their sea voyage. Seems promising as a future project that I don't know when I'll get back to. Maybe 2014 Nanowrimo?
The root issue with all Nanowrimos is still the same - I don't really want to start any new gigantic projects when I haven't finished the ones that are already in progress. In particular, Fortress Launne is still at the beginning of second draft stage.
Fortunately, Camp Nanowrimo doesn't have the same strictness about having to start brand new stories from scratch. I'm signed up for July 2014, and my declared project is revision for Fortress Launne. I suspect that for the next few years, I'm going to spend every summer doing one of these Camps so I can revise or continue previous projects.
So far I've been compiling all the first drafts of everything from 2004-2010 into one big Scrivener file. It's been an interesting read, and it turns out to be true what everyone says, about getting some distance between writing and editing. In my case, because I have too good of a memory, 3.5 years was how long it took before I had enough distance.
There is a LOT of well-written stuff in there that I can use with only minor edits. The first 20k words of Edward can pretty much stay exactly like it is now - all those failed earlier attempts worked out on that front, because the last version is all exactly right.
A whole lot of Triangle I can too, though all the parts with Antoine in them need rethinking. For that matter, a lot of the parts with Antoine in Amulet II do too. Basically it boils down to a lack of proper motivation for him to do any of the key plot-driving actions that he's supposed to be in the stories for. And now that I think of it, that's essentially the problem with Felicia in Temple also. I might have to do some more thinking on all of the mages, what their organization is like, what their goals are, etc.
The other overall big issue is that in basically every story, everything is only told about halfway through and then it just stops. As I was writing them, things would grind to a halt under the weight of "not quite right" and "not going in the right direction" - and so shortly after 50k words, I'd stop so I could figure out what I was really trying to do. And then of course never get back to it. So a lot of the actual revision work will be writing the other half of everything.
I've also noticed that Amulet I is not actually where Fortress Launne starts. The actual city started in Triangle I - when Nathaniel is laying down the binding spell, which takes up about half the plot. It's Aliacorba's storyline that started in Amulet I. Also, the other end of the story of the city is in Myan - when the binding spell falls. Likewise, Aliacorba's story begins in Amulet I and ends in Temple, with the climax portion in the middle of Triangle II. I'm beginning to think there needs to be another short story in between Amulet I and Triangle I that talks about the actual demon, because so far there's a lot of references to him throughout the series, and the battle that Nathaniel won, but that part has never been on stage anywhere. Since I've recently rediscovered that Chance has been researching this demon for a while now (as mentioned in Myan), I might have to write something about it that focuses around Chance.
Meanwhile, there's a whole separate story about the Duchenes that ... well, I wouldn't say that it ends in Amulet I at the moment, but it very well could. Depending on when (whether?) I go back to write the part about where Lucien is from, which would be my Emerald Sword story that I only got 6 chapters into during one of the Labor Day novel attempts. But that's a whole separate side project. There is also Arthur Glorian to consider; if the Emerald Sword story is effectively the beginning of the Duchene storyline, then the end is in the gleam-in-my-eye premise where Janis and Arthur, far in the future after Fortress Launne ends, have to face the unraveling of reality.
The more I dig up about this story, the more there turns out to be, growing in both directions. It just never ends.
I guess I need to stop thinking about the enormity of it all and just get the first drafts compiled, and then figure out where I want to start. "Anywhere" I'm sure. The way I figure it, I should try to be chronological, at least as I get started, since all the later parts have to refer to the earlier parts, and it would be good for the earlier parts to be established properly first. I'm thinking detailed work on Triangle I might be the best bet, especially if it turns out I'm still stuck on how to write the middle and end parts of Amulet I. Which is basically where I ground to a halt three years ago.
The root issue with all Nanowrimos is still the same - I don't really want to start any new gigantic projects when I haven't finished the ones that are already in progress. In particular, Fortress Launne is still at the beginning of second draft stage.
Fortunately, Camp Nanowrimo doesn't have the same strictness about having to start brand new stories from scratch. I'm signed up for July 2014, and my declared project is revision for Fortress Launne. I suspect that for the next few years, I'm going to spend every summer doing one of these Camps so I can revise or continue previous projects.
So far I've been compiling all the first drafts of everything from 2004-2010 into one big Scrivener file. It's been an interesting read, and it turns out to be true what everyone says, about getting some distance between writing and editing. In my case, because I have too good of a memory, 3.5 years was how long it took before I had enough distance.
There is a LOT of well-written stuff in there that I can use with only minor edits. The first 20k words of Edward can pretty much stay exactly like it is now - all those failed earlier attempts worked out on that front, because the last version is all exactly right.
A whole lot of Triangle I can too, though all the parts with Antoine in them need rethinking. For that matter, a lot of the parts with Antoine in Amulet II do too. Basically it boils down to a lack of proper motivation for him to do any of the key plot-driving actions that he's supposed to be in the stories for. And now that I think of it, that's essentially the problem with Felicia in Temple also. I might have to do some more thinking on all of the mages, what their organization is like, what their goals are, etc.
The other overall big issue is that in basically every story, everything is only told about halfway through and then it just stops. As I was writing them, things would grind to a halt under the weight of "not quite right" and "not going in the right direction" - and so shortly after 50k words, I'd stop so I could figure out what I was really trying to do. And then of course never get back to it. So a lot of the actual revision work will be writing the other half of everything.
I've also noticed that Amulet I is not actually where Fortress Launne starts. The actual city started in Triangle I - when Nathaniel is laying down the binding spell, which takes up about half the plot. It's Aliacorba's storyline that started in Amulet I. Also, the other end of the story of the city is in Myan - when the binding spell falls. Likewise, Aliacorba's story begins in Amulet I and ends in Temple, with the climax portion in the middle of Triangle II. I'm beginning to think there needs to be another short story in between Amulet I and Triangle I that talks about the actual demon, because so far there's a lot of references to him throughout the series, and the battle that Nathaniel won, but that part has never been on stage anywhere. Since I've recently rediscovered that Chance has been researching this demon for a while now (as mentioned in Myan), I might have to write something about it that focuses around Chance.
Meanwhile, there's a whole separate story about the Duchenes that ... well, I wouldn't say that it ends in Amulet I at the moment, but it very well could. Depending on when (whether?) I go back to write the part about where Lucien is from, which would be my Emerald Sword story that I only got 6 chapters into during one of the Labor Day novel attempts. But that's a whole separate side project. There is also Arthur Glorian to consider; if the Emerald Sword story is effectively the beginning of the Duchene storyline, then the end is in the gleam-in-my-eye premise where Janis and Arthur, far in the future after Fortress Launne ends, have to face the unraveling of reality.
The more I dig up about this story, the more there turns out to be, growing in both directions. It just never ends.
I guess I need to stop thinking about the enormity of it all and just get the first drafts compiled, and then figure out where I want to start. "Anywhere" I'm sure. The way I figure it, I should try to be chronological, at least as I get started, since all the later parts have to refer to the earlier parts, and it would be good for the earlier parts to be established properly first. I'm thinking detailed work on Triangle I might be the best bet, especially if it turns out I'm still stuck on how to write the middle and end parts of Amulet I. Which is basically where I ground to a halt three years ago.
2013/10/10
Nanowrimo 2013
So I guess the last time I really did any serious writing was back in early 2011, and the last Nanowrimo was 2010. I then got a job, faded out on most of the freelance writing, and got sucked completely into Battle Pirates on Facebook. My iMac G5 blew up, so all I have left of it is the hard drive, which is now in an external case that I can plug in by USB to my Macbook Air. I sure hope I have backup copies of everything I've ever written since 2004... somewhere.
What are the choices for things to work on this November?
Fortress Launne: I'm basically still stuck where I was before - have to get Edward figured out. The whole series is at the beginning of Second Draft mode, so not really a good fit for what Nanowrimo is supposed to be about.
Cosmic Potato: Not sure if I've ever mentioned this one on the blog. Basically it was an idea I had while writing astronomy articles for Bright Hub. I got seriously engrossed in mentally working out how planets, moons, stars, etc. might orbit each other and how it would look if one was standing on the planet's surface. Eventually I came up with a small habitable moon around a gas giant, which has its own little asteroid moon that is shaped like a potato. Then, what kind of people might be on there and what would they think of their cosmology - especially if they are still stuck on the notion that their planet is the center of the universe and everything else revolves around it? Sort of a takeoff from the kinds of debates going on in the times of Copernicus, Galileo, etc.
Later on I came up with some ideas about a race of people descended from cliff-dwelling birds, that would live on the far side of this moon, and have no idea that they're living on something orbiting a gas giant. On the side of the moon that faces the gas giant: not real sure yet, but so far my ideas seem to be very plant related. Because of very low light during most of the year, they would need very large light-gathering surfaces, and there would be a lot of competition for what light is available.
I guess I need to dump all those thoughts into the wiki at some point.
Anyway, that's a possibility for a first draft project. It would start with some guy getting into a boat to find out why the Cosmic Potato's orbit is really weird, suggesting that the "planet" is not as big as they think it is. He'll sail around until he can see the gas giant, be super weirded out by this, then discover the sentient species that lives on that side which have no idea what clear space with stars looks like.
Rumen: So basically there are two stories going. One is Vengeance, which I probably should look at again at some point and see where I left off, but I've not really thought much about it in a while. Then there's the Tragedy of the Hand / End of Rage story. That one has four separate parts: Rumen's story where he carries the kid to Drunin lands, Jenya's story 14 years later upon finding out what Rumen is, Grey's story, and Cassandra's story.
(I really don't understand other people's problems of not having enough plot. I always seem to have way too much plot.)
So the possibility for Nanowrimo is to try to write Jenya's story. I'm just going to give up on the first part of Rumen's story where he carries the baby across the continent, at least for now. Bits of it can just show up in little flashback vignettes during Jenya's story.
So far, aside from the setup that caused Rumen to get discovered and put in jail, I don't really have any solid ideas about how it goes. That could pose a problem, since I am going to need at least a barebones outline. But there's 20 days before it's time to start, so maybe I'll come up with something.
What are the choices for things to work on this November?
Fortress Launne: I'm basically still stuck where I was before - have to get Edward figured out. The whole series is at the beginning of Second Draft mode, so not really a good fit for what Nanowrimo is supposed to be about.
Cosmic Potato: Not sure if I've ever mentioned this one on the blog. Basically it was an idea I had while writing astronomy articles for Bright Hub. I got seriously engrossed in mentally working out how planets, moons, stars, etc. might orbit each other and how it would look if one was standing on the planet's surface. Eventually I came up with a small habitable moon around a gas giant, which has its own little asteroid moon that is shaped like a potato. Then, what kind of people might be on there and what would they think of their cosmology - especially if they are still stuck on the notion that their planet is the center of the universe and everything else revolves around it? Sort of a takeoff from the kinds of debates going on in the times of Copernicus, Galileo, etc.
Later on I came up with some ideas about a race of people descended from cliff-dwelling birds, that would live on the far side of this moon, and have no idea that they're living on something orbiting a gas giant. On the side of the moon that faces the gas giant: not real sure yet, but so far my ideas seem to be very plant related. Because of very low light during most of the year, they would need very large light-gathering surfaces, and there would be a lot of competition for what light is available.
I guess I need to dump all those thoughts into the wiki at some point.
Anyway, that's a possibility for a first draft project. It would start with some guy getting into a boat to find out why the Cosmic Potato's orbit is really weird, suggesting that the "planet" is not as big as they think it is. He'll sail around until he can see the gas giant, be super weirded out by this, then discover the sentient species that lives on that side which have no idea what clear space with stars looks like.
Rumen: So basically there are two stories going. One is Vengeance, which I probably should look at again at some point and see where I left off, but I've not really thought much about it in a while. Then there's the Tragedy of the Hand / End of Rage story. That one has four separate parts: Rumen's story where he carries the kid to Drunin lands, Jenya's story 14 years later upon finding out what Rumen is, Grey's story, and Cassandra's story.
(I really don't understand other people's problems of not having enough plot. I always seem to have way too much plot.)
So the possibility for Nanowrimo is to try to write Jenya's story. I'm just going to give up on the first part of Rumen's story where he carries the baby across the continent, at least for now. Bits of it can just show up in little flashback vignettes during Jenya's story.
So far, aside from the setup that caused Rumen to get discovered and put in jail, I don't really have any solid ideas about how it goes. That could pose a problem, since I am going to need at least a barebones outline. But there's 20 days before it's time to start, so maybe I'll come up with something.
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