Tag Archives: adventure

What is it and why would you pick it? (Need some NaNoWriMo plot choices help)

black birdfall leaves centerblack bird

So, I flew through to 50k without any trouble, mostly because I was writing very fast with out stopping to think about where my plot was heading. I just wrote the first thing that popped into my head. As a result I now have a ton of random not really connected scenes, involving 3 kids (about 10 or 12 years old, I think.) who believe their new neighbor is a vampire. Though the scenes are all on the same theme, they do not connect well, into a coherent story. So, I still have a ways to go before this story is finished and thus I am continuing to write through to November 30th.
Then I had an idea. If I change my book into a Choose Your Own Adventure type novel, I would have a way to connect all these random scenes into a logical story. With that in mind I and now writing up random choices to place at the end of my scenes.
Here’s where you guys come in and where I need your help. I just wrote this:
    EelKat wrote:

    Zeb wanted to pick the blue one. Azreal thought we should pick the emerald green one. Xavier liked the look of the red one best, but thought it would be best if we left them all alone and just went back the way we came. Since there were three choices and four of you, Zeb, Azreal, and Xavier now looked at you to decide.

    If you decide to pick the crimson red one, turn to page 46.
    If you decide to pick the sapphire blue one, turn to page 78.
    If you decide to pick the emerald green one, turn to page 100.
    If you think it’s a trap and want to try to go back the way you came, turn page 56.
It’s another scene not connected to any others, I really like the idea of them having to choose one of three colored objects, but I have no idea what the objects are. And now I have to connect this scene to my other scenes, but in order to do that I need to figure out a few things first.
    1) Where are they? Why are they there?
    2) What are these three colored objects that they have found?
    3) Which option would you pick and why?
    4) Any thoughts on what might happen as a result of each choice?
Any ideas would be really helpful. Thanks!

All Hail Bela Lugosi!
Dracula!

http://twitter.com/EelKat
http://www.facebook.com/EelKat
http://eknano.blogspot.com

testing tags

having a problem getting posts to show up… testing to see if tags are working yet

Good reason for large numbers of people disappearing?

black birdfall leaves centerblack bird

On the NaNoWriMo Forums the question was asked:

[quote=jamers503]I am doing my NaNo in December this year because November was a lousy time this year. Too many other things.

So, this year my novel is going the post-apocalyptic route. I didn’t want it to, but it did. The plot is a large-scale, highly-destructive meteor shower blankets the earth and knocks pretty much everything out. Power, satellites, all organization. Now, my 4 MCs survived the initial shower and were in the country. They’re hiking back to the city (pop. about 150,000, for the sake of the story) to find out what’s going on. not everything is craters, though about 50% of the landscape was hit. Meaning 50% of houses, cars, people, etc. But I want less people in my novel.

Any ideas on something that would severely reduce the number of people encountered?
———-

2007 – Untitled, but gonna win

2006 – Tucker Martine (50,180)

[/quote]

My first thought is, what about aliens? Could they have whisked away tons of people just before the event?

Looting gone wrong… people do weird things when they panic… like there’s no electricity, but folks are runing into what’s left of WalMart and stealing PlayStation 3′s anyways, and a riot breaks out, cause there is only one left in the store so one guy goes nuts and kills the rest of the mob with a machine gun, he’d looted out of the local army barracks? After he’s killed everyone and a run off with the PS3, he realizes that without electricity he can’t use it anyways…. weird stuff like that could decrease the surplas population quite a bit.

Disease… if you’ve got a lot of dead bodies laying in the streets, it won’t be very long before the people who survived, start to get boubonic plauge and other such diseases…. an outbreak of plauge could kill off 6 million people in less than a month… it did it before in the 1600′s.

The general stupidity of city folk, will kill off quite a few of them. No electricity = no hospitals, no gas stations, no food coming into cities, no tap water, and no heat. People will have to eat wild plants for food, most can’t tell a dandylion from a daisy, and how many city folks know you can eat dandylions? Here’s a question: how many city folks know that you can eat grass? Corn, wheat, rye, oat, and all other grains, are just grass seed… could YOU tell which grass seed was which? No heat is a biggie… in Maine 5 people die each year from gas poisoning, because they do not know to not use a gas heater indoors. And 10 families end up hospitailized because they do not know the same thing. And 30 families lose their homes, because they didn’t know not to light a wood fire with gas and burned their houses down. Farmers and country folk know better because they live with out electricity, 40% of the year anyways… city folk, are quite frankly stupid when it comes to basic survival skills and living off the land.

Apocolyptic religons, that sacrific the unworthy? People in a panic tend to go off on religous frenzies.

Vegitation destroied, so surviors start eating the weaker people?

Wild animals have nothing to eat, so start attacking people.

Zombies?

Vampires?

Werewolves?

————-

Publishing Your Novel? Read This First!
Do You and I Read the Same Books?
Want to Give Me a Reward for Reaching 50k?

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

black birdfall leaves centerblack bird

Page copy protected against web site content infringement by Copyscape

————-
Copper Cockeral
Publishing Your NaNo Novel?
Do You and I Read the Same Books?
Want to Give Me a Reward for Reaching 50k?
*I Love Phookas!*
Got Writer’s BlocK? Kill It Today!
Need A Quiet Place To Write? Find Help Here!
Need Help Creating Characters? Check This Out!
Want to Do a Good Deed? Save the Goldeneagle.

Good reason for large numbers of people disappearing?

black birdfall leaves centerblack bird

On the NaNoWriMo Forums the question was asked:

[quote=jamers503]I am doing my NaNo in December this year because November was a lousy time this year. Too many other things.

So, this year my novel is going the post-apocalyptic route. I didn’t want it to, but it did. The plot is a large-scale, highly-destructive meteor shower blankets the earth and knocks pretty much everything out. Power, satellites, all organization. Now, my 4 MCs survived the initial shower and were in the country. They’re hiking back to the city (pop. about 150,000, for the sake of the story) to find out what’s going on. not everything is craters, though about 50% of the landscape was hit. Meaning 50% of houses, cars, people, etc. But I want less people in my novel.

Any ideas on something that would severely reduce the number of people encountered?
———-

2007 – Untitled, but gonna win

2006 – Tucker Martine (50,180)

[/quote]

My first thought is, what about aliens? Could they have whisked away tons of people just before the event?

Looting gone wrong… people do weird things when they panic… like there’s no electricity, but folks are runing into what’s left of WalMart and stealing PlayStation 3′s anyways, and a riot breaks out, cause there is only one left in the store so one guy goes nuts and kills the rest of the mob with a machine gun, he’d looted out of the local army barracks? After he’s killed everyone and a run off with the PS3, he realizes that without electricity he can’t use it anyways…. weird stuff like that could decrease the surplas population quite a bit.

Disease… if you’ve got a lot of dead bodies laying in the streets, it won’t be very long before the people who survived, start to get boubonic plauge and other such diseases…. an outbreak of plauge could kill off 6 million people in less than a month… it did it before in the 1600′s.

The general stupidity of city folk, will kill off quite a few of them. No electricity = no hospitals, no gas stations, no food coming into cities, no tap water, and no heat. People will have to eat wild plants for food, most can’t tell a dandylion from a daisy, and how many city folks know you can eat dandylions? Here’s a question: how many city folks know that you can eat grass? Corn, wheat, rye, oat, and all other grains, are just grass seed… could YOU tell which grass seed was which? No heat is a biggie… in Maine 5 people die each year from gas poisoning, because they do not know to not use a gas heater indoors. And 10 families end up hospitailized because they do not know the same thing. And 30 families lose their homes, because they didn’t know not to light a wood fire with gas and burned their houses down. Farmers and country folk know better because they live with out electricity, 40% of the year anyways… city folk, are quite frankly stupid when it comes to basic survival skills and living off the land.

Apocolyptic religons, that sacrific the unworthy? People in a panic tend to go off on religous frenzies.

Vegitation destroied, so surviors start eating the weaker people?

Wild animals have nothing to eat, so start attacking people.

Zombies?

Vampires?

Werewolves?

————-

Publishing Your Novel? Read This First!
Do You and I Read the Same Books?
Want to Give Me a Reward for Reaching 50k?

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

black birdfall leaves centerblack bird

Page copy protected against web site content infringement by Copyscape

————-
Copper Cockeral
Publishing Your NaNo Novel?
Do You and I Read the Same Books?
Want to Give Me a Reward for Reaching 50k?
*I Love Phookas!*
Got Writer’s BlocK? Kill It Today!
Need A Quiet Place To Write? Find Help Here!
Need Help Creating Characters? Check This Out!
Want to Do a Good Deed? Save the Goldeneagle.

>Good reason for large numbers of people disappearing?

>
black birdfall leaves centerblack bird

On the NaNoWriMo Forums the question was asked:

[quote=jamers503]I am doing my NaNo in December this year because November was a lousy time this year. Too many other things.

So, this year my novel is going the post-apocalyptic route. I didn’t want it to, but it did. The plot is a large-scale, highly-destructive meteor shower blankets the earth and knocks pretty much everything out. Power, satellites, all organization. Now, my 4 MCs survived the initial shower and were in the country. They’re hiking back to the city (pop. about 150,000, for the sake of the story) to find out what’s going on. not everything is craters, though about 50% of the landscape was hit. Meaning 50% of houses, cars, people, etc. But I want less people in my novel.

Any ideas on something that would severely reduce the number of people encountered?
———-

2007 – Untitled, but gonna win

2006 – Tucker Martine (50,180)

[/quote]

My first thought is, what about aliens? Could they have whisked away tons of people just before the event?

Looting gone wrong… people do weird things when they panic… like there’s no electricity, but folks are runing into what’s left of WalMart and stealing PlayStation 3′s anyways, and a riot breaks out, cause there is only one left in the store so one guy goes nuts and kills the rest of the mob with a machine gun, he’d looted out of the local army barracks? After he’s killed everyone and a run off with the PS3, he realizes that without electricity he can’t use it anyways…. weird stuff like that could decrease the surplas population quite a bit.

Disease… if you’ve got a lot of dead bodies laying in the streets, it won’t be very long before the people who survived, start to get boubonic plauge and other such diseases…. an outbreak of plauge could kill off 6 million people in less than a month… it did it before in the 1600′s.

The general stupidity of city folk, will kill off quite a few of them. No electricity = no hospitals, no gas stations, no food coming into cities, no tap water, and no heat. People will have to eat wild plants for food, most can’t tell a dandylion from a daisy, and how many city folks know you can eat dandylions? Here’s a question: how many city folks know that you can eat grass? Corn, wheat, rye, oat, and all other grains, are just grass seed… could YOU tell which grass seed was which? No heat is a biggie… in Maine 5 people die each year from gas poisoning, because they do not know to not use a gas heater indoors. And 10 families end up hospitailized because they do not know the same thing. And 30 families lose their homes, because they didn’t know not to light a wood fire with gas and burned their houses down. Farmers and country folk know better because they live with out electricity, 40% of the year anyways… city folk, are quite frankly stupid when it comes to basic survival skills and living off the land.

Apocolyptic religons, that sacrific the unworthy? People in a panic tend to go off on religous frenzies.

Vegitation destroied, so surviors start eating the weaker people?

Wild animals have nothing to eat, so start attacking people.

Zombies?

Vampires?

Werewolves?

————-

Publishing Your Novel? Read This First!
Do You and I Read the Same Books?
Want to Give Me a Reward for Reaching 50k?

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

black birdfall leaves centerblack bird

Page copy protected against web site content infringement by Copyscape

————-
Copper Cockeral
Publishing Your NaNo Novel?
Do You and I Read the Same Books?
Want to Give Me a Reward for Reaching 50k?
*I Love Phookas!*
Got Writer’s BlocK? Kill It Today!
Need A Quiet Place To Write? Find Help Here!
Need Help Creating Characters? Check This Out!
Want to Do a Good Deed? Save the Goldeneagle.

Dragons and DragonRiders

black birdfall leaves centerblack bird

On the NaNoWriMo Forums one poster asks the question:

Does having dragonriders make my novel automatically cliche/unmarketable?

After reading the entire rather long post, my first thought was:

    Dragonriders! hmmm… cool art on the covers of the Pern books! Yay for fantasy art!

My second thought was…

    huh? I can’t believe I bought all those books for the cover art! I hve yet to read one of them!

Than my thoughts turned too:

    Eragon… great movie, I’ll have to read the book someday.

Well, when it comes to dragons and dragonriders, I love them, however, every dragon/dragonrider book I’ve ever started to read, I put away before I reached the end of the first chapter. So, I’ve never actually read a dragonrider story, and can’t say wither or not yours is cliche. Why have I never read one before? Well, I start reading and by the third or second page my mind goes:

    Great idea, but bad story.
    Great idea, but bad writing.
    Great idea, but why the hell are the dragons talking?
    Great idea, but why aren’t the dragons eating people?
    Great idea, but I just don’t see dragons the same way.

In other words, I love the whole idea of dragons and dragonriders, I just don’t like the way most writers handle them. For me, when I think dragon, I think: big, firebreathing, maneating, monster. Yet when I start reading these books, I am disapointed to find that the dragons are peaceful, talking, wish-granters or some other such lovey-dovey thing. In my mind, I think of dragons as being a lot like Jurrasic Park’s T-rex: big, mean, ruthless, ready to fight, eating everything in sight, and acting like a… like an animal. Dragons are animals after all, big dino-type lizards to be exact, so why do writers always potray them as gentle loving and acting way to much like humans? I want to see some dragons that actualy act like dragons, not dragons that act like humans, but I’ve yet to find and writers who write their dragons like that.

So, I will continue to love dragons and buy dragon books for the cover art, and someday I hope to run across a book that has dragons that fit my notions of what I think dragons are like.

I wouldn’t worry about cliches and such… just write from your heart and let your characters lead your story in the right direction. It’s your story, so write it your way.

————-

Publishing Your Novel? Read This First!
Do You and I Read the Same Books?
Want to Give Me a Reward for Reaching 50k?

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

black birdfall leaves centerblack bird

Page copy protected against web site content infringement by Copyscape

————-
Copper Cockeral
Publishing Your NaNo Novel?
Do You and I Read the Same Books?
Want to Give Me a Reward for Reaching 50k?
*I Love Phookas!*
Got Writer’s BlocK? Kill It Today!
Need A Quiet Place To Write? Find Help Here!
Need Help Creating Characters? Check This Out!
Want to Do a Good Deed? Save the Goldeneagle.

Dragons and DragonRiders

black birdfall leaves centerblack bird

On the NaNoWriMo Forums one poster asks the question:

Does having dragonriders make my novel automatically cliche/unmarketable?

After reading the entire rather long post, my first thought was:

    Dragonriders! hmmm… cool art on the covers of the Pern books! Yay for fantasy art!

My second thought was…

    huh? I can’t believe I bought all those books for the cover art! I hve yet to read one of them!

Than my thoughts turned too:

    Eragon… great movie, I’ll have to read the book someday.

Well, when it comes to dragons and dragonriders, I love them, however, every dragon/dragonrider book I’ve ever started to read, I put away before I reached the end of the first chapter. So, I’ve never actually read a dragonrider story, and can’t say wither or not yours is cliche. Why have I never read one before? Well, I start reading and by the third or second page my mind goes:

    Great idea, but bad story.
    Great idea, but bad writing.
    Great idea, but why the hell are the dragons talking?
    Great idea, but why aren’t the dragons eating people?
    Great idea, but I just don’t see dragons the same way.

In other words, I love the whole idea of dragons and dragonriders, I just don’t like the way most writers handle them. For me, when I think dragon, I think: big, firebreathing, maneating, monster. Yet when I start reading these books, I am disapointed to find that the dragons are peaceful, talking, wish-granters or some other such lovey-dovey thing. In my mind, I think of dragons as being a lot like Jurrasic Park’s T-rex: big, mean, ruthless, ready to fight, eating everything in sight, and acting like a… like an animal. Dragons are animals after all, big dino-type lizards to be exact, so why do writers always potray them as gentle loving and acting way to much like humans? I want to see some dragons that actualy act like dragons, not dragons that act like humans, but I’ve yet to find and writers who write their dragons like that.

So, I will continue to love dragons and buy dragon books for the cover art, and someday I hope to run across a book that has dragons that fit my notions of what I think dragons are like.

I wouldn’t worry about cliches and such… just write from your heart and let your characters lead your story in the right direction. It’s your story, so write it your way.

————-

Publishing Your Novel? Read This First!
Do You and I Read the Same Books?
Want to Give Me a Reward for Reaching 50k?

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

black birdfall leaves centerblack bird

Page copy protected against web site content infringement by Copyscape

————-
Copper Cockeral
Publishing Your NaNo Novel?
Do You and I Read the Same Books?
Want to Give Me a Reward for Reaching 50k?
*I Love Phookas!*
Got Writer’s BlocK? Kill It Today!
Need A Quiet Place To Write? Find Help Here!
Need Help Creating Characters? Check This Out!
Want to Do a Good Deed? Save the Goldeneagle.

Dragons and DragonRiders

black birdfall leaves centerblack bird

On the NaNoWriMo Forums one poster asks the question:

Does having dragonriders make my novel automatically cliche/unmarketable?

After reading the entire rather long post, my first thought was:

    Dragonriders! hmmm… cool art on the covers of the Pern books! Yay for fantasy art!

My second thought was…

    huh? I can’t believe I bought all those books for the cover art! I hve yet to read one of them!

Than my thoughts turned too:

    Eragon… great movie, I’ll have to read the book someday.

Well, when it comes to dragons and dragonriders, I love them, however, every dragon/dragonrider book I’ve ever started to read, I put away before I reached the end of the first chapter. So, I’ve never actually read a dragonrider story, and can’t say wither or not yours is cliche. Why have I never read one before? Well, I start reading and by the third or second page my mind goes:

    Great idea, but bad story. Great idea, but bad writing. Great idea, but why the hell are the dragons talking? Great idea, but why aren’t the dragons eating people? Great idea, but I just don’t see dragons the same way.

In other words, I love the whole idea of dragons and dragonriders, I just don’t like the way most writers handle them. For me, when I think dragon, I think: big, firebreathing, maneating, monster. Yet when I start reading these books, I am disapointed to find that the dragons are peaceful, talking, wish-granters or some other such lovey-dovey thing. In my mind, I think of dragons as being a lot like Jurrasic Park’s T-rex: big, mean, ruthless, ready to fight, eating everything in sight, and acting like a… like an animal. Dragons are animals after all, big dino-type lizards to be exact, so why do writers always potray them as gentle loving and acting way to much like humans? I want to see some dragons that actualy act like dragons, not dragons that act like humans, but I’ve yet to find and writers who write their dragons like that.

Talking dragons piss me off. They didn’t used to. I use to love dragons. All dragons. Any dragons. But when I was a kid, dragons DIDN’T talk – they didn’t morph into humans – they didn’t foretell futures and grant wishes – and they DIDN’T talk!

I can understand a wizard/witch turns the prince into a dragon, thus now you have a talking dragon. Okay, I get that.He’s not REALLY a dragon, he’s merely under a spell, and somehow he can still talk. I’ve no problems with that.

My problem is dragons that are born talkers – a race of talking dragons. WTH? Do you know what a dragon is? Really? Anybody? A dragon is a big scaly lizard. Yep. A lizard. Shocking isn’t it? It’s nothing more than an alligator that grew as big as a house. That’s it. A lizard. How many talking lizards do you meet in the pet store? If the dragon can talk – why can’t the horses talk too? And the dogs? and the cats? and the cows? If your world is going to make one animal talk, the only way I’m going to believe it is if ALL the animals are talking.

Think about it – how would you like Jurassic Park if the T-rex suddenly stopped chasing the jeep to have a chat with one of the park guards? Do you know what a T-rex is? Really? Anybody? A T-rex is a big scaly lizard. Yep. A lizard. Shocking isn’t it? It’s nothing more than an alligator that grew as big as a house. That’s it. A lizard. How many of you think T-rex could talk?

Now I ask you, how is a dragon any different than a T-rex? And for that matter, how do we even know that dragons WEREN’T T-rexes? Dragon = big lizard. T-rex = big lizard. How many dragon legends exist? Did you ever read the REAL dragon mythology. Dragons were big mean lizards that eat sheep and cows and children. Knights, real knights, hunted them down and slaughtered them with swords. Look at the paintings of dragons – they look like alligators! They always look like alligators. Most actual dragon paintings, show a lizards about 6 feet long. The ones that show bigger dragons, look vaguely stegosaurus-like. There were hundreds of reports of dragons. In the late 1800′s one dragon was caught alive and shipped to a zoo in London – and guess what? That dragon is STILL THERE stuffed and on display, and it was identified as a Komodo Dragon – a very real, very large, meat eating, relative of the alligator. And what about the dino fossils? yep – big lizards DID roam the earth, but they didn’t talk and grant wishes.

And if you have to have talking dragons, why can’t they at least have a decent normal, lizardy type conversation with any one? Could you just see the T-rex stopping to say “Oh, by the way, you are the choosen one and I have to help you find the magic stone so you can claim your kingdom.”

No! If the T-rex is going to say anything, it’d be something like “Oh look at that tasty morsal running by. I think I’ll have me a mid-day snack.” Dragons are giant flesh eating lizards for crying out loud! Do you really think a giant meat eating lizard is going to look at the prince and want to do anything other than eat him? – and no, that’s not the dragon being mean or evil, that’s just an animal being hungry and fulfilling a basic need.

A dragon is nothing more than a 40 foot tall alligator! Can you see an alligator handing out prophecies? Only thing I can see an alligator doing it biting your head off. Come on people. . . give us some BELIEVABLE dragons for once! Real, live believable alligator, komodo, t-rex type dragons that we can look at and say – now THAT’S a dragon! Talking dragons? Godzilla makes a more believable dragon – and you all know how fake he is!

So, I will continue to love dragons and buy dragon books for the cover art, and someday I hope to run across a book that has dragons that fit my notions of what I think dragons are like.

I wouldn’t worry about cliches and such… just write from your heart and let your characters lead your story in the right direction. It’s your story, so write it your way.

————-

Publishing Your Novel? Read This First!
Do You and I Read the Same Books?
Want to Give Me a Reward for Reaching 50k?

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

black birdfall leaves centerblack bird

Page copy protected against web site content infringement by Copyscape

————-
Copper Cockeral
Publishing Your NaNo Novel?
Do You and I Read the Same Books?
Want to Give Me a Reward for Reaching 50k?
*I Love Phookas!*
Got Writer’s BlocK? Kill It Today!
Need A Quiet Place To Write? Find Help Here!
Need Help Creating Characters? Check This Out!
Want to Do a Good Deed? Save the Goldeneagle.

>Dragons and DragonRiders

>
black birdfall leaves centerblack bird

On the NaNoWriMo Forums one poster asks the question:

Does having dragonriders make my novel automatically cliche/unmarketable?

After reading the entire rather long post, my first thought was:

    Dragonriders! hmmm… cool art on the covers of the Pern books! Yay for fantasy art!

My second thought was…

    huh? I can’t believe I bought all those books for the cover art! I hve yet to read one of them!

Than my thoughts turned too:

    Eragon… great movie, I’ll have to read the book someday.

Well, when it comes to dragons and dragonriders, I love them, however, every dragon/dragonrider book I’ve ever started to read, I put away before I reached the end of the first chapter. So, I’ve never actually read a dragonrider story, and can’t say wither or not yours is cliche. Why have I never read one before? Well, I start reading and by the third or second page my mind goes:

    Great idea, but bad story. Great idea, but bad writing. Great idea, but why the hell are the dragons talking? Great idea, but why aren’t the dragons eating people? Great idea, but I just don’t see dragons the same way.

In other words, I love the whole idea of dragons and dragonriders, I just don’t like the way most writers handle them. For me, when I think dragon, I think: big, firebreathing, maneating, monster. Yet when I start reading these books, I am disapointed to find that the dragons are peaceful, talking, wish-granters or some other such lovey-dovey thing. In my mind, I think of dragons as being a lot like Jurrasic Park’s T-rex: big, mean, ruthless, ready to fight, eating everything in sight, and acting like a… like an animal. Dragons are animals after all, big dino-type lizards to be exact, so why do writers always potray them as gentle loving and acting way to much like humans? I want to see some dragons that actualy act like dragons, not dragons that act like humans, but I’ve yet to find and writers who write their dragons like that.

Talking dragons piss me off. They didn’t used to. I use to love dragons. All dragons. Any dragons. But when I was a kid, dragons DIDN’T talk – they didn’t morph into humans – they didn’t foretell futures and grant wishes – and they DIDN’T talk!

I can understand a wizard/witch turns the prince into a dragon, thus now you have a talking dragon. Okay, I get that.He’s not REALLY a dragon, he’s merely under a spell, and somehow he can still talk. I’ve no problems with that.

My problem is dragons that are born talkers – a race of talking dragons. WTH? Do you know what a dragon is? Really? Anybody? A dragon is a big scaly lizard. Yep. A lizard. Shocking isn’t it? It’s nothing more than an alligator that grew as big as a house. That’s it. A lizard. How many talking lizards do you meet in the pet store? If the dragon can talk – why can’t the horses talk too? And the dogs? and the cats? and the cows? If your world is going to make one animal talk, the only way I’m going to believe it is if ALL the animals are talking.

Think about it – how would you like Jurassic Park if the T-rex suddenly stopped chasing the jeep to have a chat with one of the park guards? Do you know what a T-rex is? Really? Anybody? A T-rex is a big scaly lizard. Yep. A lizard. Shocking isn’t it? It’s nothing more than an alligator that grew as big as a house. That’s it. A lizard. How many of you think T-rex could talk?

Now I ask you, how is a dragon any different than a T-rex? And for that matter, how do we even know that dragons WEREN’T T-rexes? Dragon = big lizard. T-rex = big lizard. How many dragon legends exist? Did you ever read the REAL dragon mythology. Dragons were big mean lizards that eat sheep and cows and children. Knights, real knights, hunted them down and slaughtered them with swords. Look at the paintings of dragons – they look like alligators! They always look like alligators. Most actual dragon paintings, show a lizards about 6 feet long. The ones that show bigger dragons, look vaguely stegosaurus-like. There were hundreds of reports of dragons. In the late 1800′s one dragon was caught alive and shipped to a zoo in London – and guess what? That dragon is STILL THERE stuffed and on display, and it was identified as a Komodo Dragon – a very real, very large, meat eating, relative of the alligator. And what about the dino fossils? yep – big lizards DID roam the earth, but they didn’t talk and grant wishes.

And if you have to have talking dragons, why can’t they at least have a decent normal, lizardy type conversation with any one? Could you just see the T-rex stopping to say “Oh, by the way, you are the choosen one and I have to help you find the magic stone so you can claim your kingdom.”

No! If the T-rex is going to say anything, it’d be something like “Oh look at that tasty morsal running by. I think I’ll have me a mid-day snack.” Dragons are giant flesh eating lizards for crying out loud! Do you really think a giant meat eating lizard is going to look at the prince and want to do anything other than eat him? – and no, that’s not the dragon being mean or evil, that’s just an animal being hungry and fulfilling a basic need.

A dragon is nothing more than a 40 foot tall alligator! Can you see an alligator handing out prophecies? Only thing I can see an alligator doing it biting your head off. Come on people. . . give us some BELIEVABLE dragons for once! Real, live believable alligator, komodo, t-rex type dragons that we can look at and say – now THAT’S a dragon! Talking dragons? Godzilla makes a more believable dragon – and you all know how fake he is!

So, I will continue to love dragons and buy dragon books for the cover art, and someday I hope to run across a book that has dragons that fit my notions of what I think dragons are like.

I wouldn’t worry about cliches and such… just write from your heart and let your characters lead your story in the right direction. It’s your story, so write it your way.

————-

Publishing Your Novel? Read This First!
Do You and I Read the Same Books?
Want to Give Me a Reward for Reaching 50k?

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

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————-
Copper Cockeral
Publishing Your NaNo Novel?
Do You and I Read the Same Books?
Want to Give Me a Reward for Reaching 50k?
*I Love Phookas!*
Got Writer’s BlocK? Kill It Today!
Need A Quiet Place To Write? Find Help Here!
Need Help Creating Characters? Check This Out!
Want to Do a Good Deed? Save the Goldeneagle.

Adventure-Fantasy-ChickLit?

black birdfall leaves centerblack bird

Is there such a thing as Action-Adventure-Fantasy-ChicLit? Cause I think that’s what I’m writing.

I started out with and Action-Adventure story plot, but after I started writing it, it turned into an Adventure-Fantasy instead, complete with mythical beasts and everything. Than by the time I got around to chapter 2 my male MC found himself twiddleing his thumbs on the side lines as my minor female took off as the MC instead. In walks my comic book super-villain style villain, and before I now it, he and the MC are flipping out over each other. By the time I got o 20,000 words, my story had gone completely off track and was now a Fantasy-Romance! Now I’m nearing the 50k deadline, but am only less than half-way through my story, so I’ll be aiming for 150k, even after Nov ends, but my story seems to be going a bit “girly” now, and I’m wondering if maybe, it’s actually Chic-Lit, but I have no idea what Chick-Lit is, as it’s not my normal cuppa tea.

So, my question is this:

When you guys are reading Chick-Lit, what makes it Chick-Lit and not something else?

And is there such a thing as Adventure-Fantasy-ChickLit?

And am I writing Chick-Lit if: my MC is a female who joined up an archaeological dig team that gets lost in ncharted regions of the Amazon rainforest and end up in a lost Incan (or Mayan?) city where life hasn’t changed in a thousand years; than the evil Incan god of death and my MC fall in love and she joins hin against her former team mates? It’s kind of a sweet little college girl turned Xena type of thing. (see my except for a pic of her and the villain)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

EDIT: I love this answer, and had to repost it here:

[quote=Bozoette]I posted this last year because it’s one of the most valuable lessons I got in a chick lit writing course that I took. The instructor was Stephanie Lehmann (you should check out her books – they’re great). This is Stephanie’s eight-part structure for chick lit, and she gets all the credit:

The eight-part structure works like a timeline. Remember, it does not need to be slavishly adhered to. Use it as a guide to the extent that it helps you conceive of your book.

1. The set-up. The beginning of your book sets up who the main character and what she wants. Both her outer need (an action in the world, like a career or ambition) and her inner need (her feelings, her psychology) are established. The outer need is what the heroine thinks she wants, and the inner need is what she really wants.

2. The love interest. Our main character meets the guy who is going to make her suffer for most of the rest of the book. Or do they already know each other? If so, what’s wrong with the relationship, and why can’t they take the next step, whatever that is.

3. The stakes. Opportunity presents itself. Something happens that makes the situation more exciting. The main character’s expectations are raised. Her inner problems (what are they again?) make whatever is going on in her life become even more intense. And/or… something happens in her outer life that makes her inner problems more intense.

4. She rises to the occasion. Most likely, she is experiencing early success. Things seem to be going her way. She seems to be achieving her outer need.

5. Things start to go wrong. The antagonist makes things more difficult for the main character. Her inner need may be preventing her from achieving her outer need. You are weaving together the storylines so that they all are inevitably crashing towards…

6. The Crisis. Everything falls apart. The antagonist seems to have prevailed. Your heroine hits rock bottom. She is losing everything. Her love interest doesn’t want her. The worst happens. I like to have a crisis in mind from the beginning – a scenario in which I can imagine everything that I’ve been setting up going wrong. It needs to be the “right” crises, in that it needs to be an event that helps the heroine learn something about herself.

7. She takes a risk. Your heroine does something extreme, acts totally unlike herself, goes beyond the call of duty, does “the right thing,” finally tells the truth… She is facing down her demons.

8. The resolution. Our main character has changed – or, in a more Chekhovian ending, perhaps she just learns to accept the highly imperfect way she is. Or perhaps a mixture of both. In any case, she either ends up with the guy or she doesn’t.
[/quote]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

————-
Publishing Your NaNo Novel?
Do You and I Read the Same Books?
Want to Give Me a Reward for Reaching 50k?

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

black birdfall leaves centerblack bird

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————-
Copper Cockeral
Publishing Your NaNo Novel?
Got Writer’s BlocK? Kill It Today!
Need A Quiet Place To Write? Find Help Here!
Need Help Creating Characters? Check This Out!
Want to Do a Good Deed? Save the Goldeneagle.

>Adventure-Fantasy-ChickLit?

>
black birdfall leaves centerblack bird

Is there such a thing as Action-Adventure-Fantasy-ChicLit? Cause I think that’s what I’m writing.

I started out with and Action-Adventure story plot, but after I started writing it, it turned into an Adventure-Fantasy instead, complete with mythical beasts and everything. Than by the time I got around to chapter 2 my male MC found himself twiddleing his thumbs on the side lines as my minor female took off as the MC instead. In walks my comic book super-villain style villain, and before I now it, he and the MC are flipping out over each other. By the time I got o 20,000 words, my story had gone completely off track and was now a Fantasy-Romance! Now I’m nearing the 50k deadline, but am only less than half-way through my story, so I’ll be aiming for 150k, even after Nov ends, but my story seems to be going a bit “girly” now, and I’m wondering if maybe, it’s actually Chic-Lit, but I have no idea what Chick-Lit is, as it’s not my normal cuppa tea.

So, my question is this:

When you guys are reading Chick-Lit, what makes it Chick-Lit and not something else?

And is there such a thing as Adventure-Fantasy-ChickLit?

And am I writing Chick-Lit if: my MC is a female who joined up an archaeological dig team that gets lost in ncharted regions of the Amazon rainforest and end up in a lost Incan (or Mayan?) city where life hasn’t changed in a thousand years; than the evil Incan god of death and my MC fall in love and she joins hin against her former team mates? It’s kind of a sweet little college girl turned Xena type of thing. (see my except for a pic of her and the villain)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

EDIT: I love this answer, and had to repost it here:

[quote=Bozoette]I posted this last year because it’s one of the most valuable lessons I got in a chick lit writing course that I took. The instructor was Stephanie Lehmann (you should check out her books – they’re great). This is Stephanie’s eight-part structure for chick lit, and she gets all the credit:

The eight-part structure works like a timeline. Remember, it does not need to be slavishly adhered to. Use it as a guide to the extent that it helps you conceive of your book.

1. The set-up. The beginning of your book sets up who the main character and what she wants. Both her outer need (an action in the world, like a career or ambition) and her inner need (her feelings, her psychology) are established. The outer need is what the heroine thinks she wants, and the inner need is what she really wants.

2. The love interest. Our main character meets the guy who is going to make her suffer for most of the rest of the book. Or do they already know each other? If so, what’s wrong with the relationship, and why can’t they take the next step, whatever that is.

3. The stakes. Opportunity presents itself. Something happens that makes the situation more exciting. The main character’s expectations are raised. Her inner problems (what are they again?) make whatever is going on in her life become even more intense. And/or… something happens in her outer life that makes her inner problems more intense.

4. She rises to the occasion. Most likely, she is experiencing early success. Things seem to be going her way. She seems to be achieving her outer need.

5. Things start to go wrong. The antagonist makes things more difficult for the main character. Her inner need may be preventing her from achieving her outer need. You are weaving together the storylines so that they all are inevitably crashing towards…

6. The Crisis. Everything falls apart. The antagonist seems to have prevailed. Your heroine hits rock bottom. She is losing everything. Her love interest doesn’t want her. The worst happens. I like to have a crisis in mind from the beginning – a scenario in which I can imagine everything that I’ve been setting up going wrong. It needs to be the “right” crises, in that it needs to be an event that helps the heroine learn something about herself.

7. She takes a risk. Your heroine does something extreme, acts totally unlike herself, goes beyond the call of duty, does “the right thing,” finally tells the truth… She is facing down her demons.

8. The resolution. Our main character has changed – or, in a more Chekhovian ending, perhaps she just learns to accept the highly imperfect way she is. Or perhaps a mixture of both. In any case, she either ends up with the guy or she doesn’t.
[/quote]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

————-
Publishing Your NaNo Novel?
Do You and I Read the Same Books?
Want to Give Me a Reward for Reaching 50k?

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

black birdfall leaves centerblack bird

Page copy protected against web site content infringement by Copyscape

————-
Copper Cockeral
Publishing Your NaNo Novel?
Got Writer’s BlocK? Kill It Today!
Need A Quiet Place To Write? Find Help Here!
Need Help Creating Characters? Check This Out!
Want to Do a Good Deed? Save the Goldeneagle.

Adventure-Fantasy-ChickLit?

black birdfall leaves centerblack bird

Is there such a thing as Action-Adventure-Fantasy-ChicLit? Cause I think that’s what I’m writing.

I started out with and Action-Adventure story plot, but after I started writing it, it turned into an Adventure-Fantasy instead, complete with mythical beasts and everything. Than by the time I got around to chapter 2 my male MC found himself twiddleing his thumbs on the side lines as my minor female took off as the MC instead. In walks my comic book super-villain style villain, and before I now it, he and the MC are flipping out over each other. By the time I got o 20,000 words, my story had gone completely off track and was now a Fantasy-Romance! Now I’m nearing the 50k deadline, but am only less than half-way through my story, so I’ll be aiming for 150k, even after Nov ends, but my story seems to be going a bit “girly” now, and I’m wondering if maybe, it’s actually Chic-Lit, but I have no idea what Chick-Lit is, as it’s not my normal cuppa tea.

So, my question is this:

When you guys are reading Chick-Lit, what makes it Chick-Lit and not something else?

And is there such a thing as Adventure-Fantasy-ChickLit?

And am I writing Chick-Lit if: my MC is a female who joined up an archaeological dig team that gets lost in ncharted regions of the Amazon rainforest and end up in a lost Incan (or Mayan?) city where life hasn’t changed in a thousand years; than the evil Incan god of death and my MC fall in love and she joins hin against her former team mates? It’s kind of a sweet little college girl turned Xena type of thing. (see my except for a pic of her and the villain)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

EDIT: I love this answer, and had to repost it here:

[quote=Bozoette]I posted this last year because it’s one of the most valuable lessons I got in a chick lit writing course that I took. The instructor was Stephanie Lehmann (you should check out her books – they’re great). This is Stephanie’s eight-part structure for chick lit, and she gets all the credit:

The eight-part structure works like a timeline. Remember, it does not need to be slavishly adhered to. Use it as a guide to the extent that it helps you conceive of your book.

1. The set-up. The beginning of your book sets up who the main character and what she wants. Both her outer need (an action in the world, like a career or ambition) and her inner need (her feelings, her psychology) are established. The outer need is what the heroine thinks she wants, and the inner need is what she really wants.

2. The love interest. Our main character meets the guy who is going to make her suffer for most of the rest of the book. Or do they already know each other? If so, what’s wrong with the relationship, and why can’t they take the next step, whatever that is.

3. The stakes. Opportunity presents itself. Something happens that makes the situation more exciting. The main character’s expectations are raised. Her inner problems (what are they again?) make whatever is going on in her life become even more intense. And/or… something happens in her outer life that makes her inner problems more intense.

4. She rises to the occasion. Most likely, she is experiencing early success. Things seem to be going her way. She seems to be achieving her outer need.

5. Things start to go wrong. The antagonist makes things more difficult for the main character. Her inner need may be preventing her from achieving her outer need. You are weaving together the storylines so that they all are inevitably crashing towards…

6. The Crisis. Everything falls apart. The antagonist seems to have prevailed. Your heroine hits rock bottom. She is losing everything. Her love interest doesn’t want her. The worst happens. I like to have a crisis in mind from the beginning – a scenario in which I can imagine everything that I’ve been setting up going wrong. It needs to be the “right” crises, in that it needs to be an event that helps the heroine learn something about herself.

7. She takes a risk. Your heroine does something extreme, acts totally unlike herself, goes beyond the call of duty, does “the right thing,” finally tells the truth… She is facing down her demons.

8. The resolution. Our main character has changed – or, in a more Chekhovian ending, perhaps she just learns to accept the highly imperfect way she is. Or perhaps a mixture of both. In any case, she either ends up with the guy or she doesn’t.
[/quote]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

————-
Publishing Your NaNo Novel?
Do You and I Read the Same Books?
Want to Give Me a Reward for Reaching 50k?

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

black birdfall leaves centerblack bird

Page copy protected against web site content infringement by Copyscape

————-
Copper Cockeral
Publishing Your NaNo Novel?
Got Writer’s BlocK? Kill It Today!
Need A Quiet Place To Write? Find Help Here!
Need Help Creating Characters? Check This Out!
Want to Do a Good Deed? Save the Goldeneagle.

Slice of Life Fantasy?

Anybody else writing about Fantasy creatures dealing with everyday (or extraordinarily ordinary) issues in life, rather than an epic quest?

Actualy, the story I’m doing for NaNo is the FIRST I’ve ever writen that did not have fantasy creatures just living out life. I usually write more literary-slice-of-life-fantasy. For NaNo thouh, I’m trying out my hand at more straight fantasy-fantasy, however, after 30,000 words, my characters seem to be doing more liveing out daily life than questing and having adventures. I guess I’m not cut out for straight fantasy; I’m just plain better at looking into a day in the life on my character. Oh well, I’m happy writing this style and that’s all that really matters.

————-
Copper Cockeral
Publishing Your NaNo Novel?
Do You and I Read the Same Books?

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

Page copy protected against web site content infringement by Copyscape

————-
Copper Cockeral
Publishing Your NaNo Novel?
Got Writer’s BlocK? Kill It Today!
Need A Quiet Place To Write? Find Help Here!
Need Help Creating Characters? Check This Out!
Want to Do a Good Deed? Save the Goldeneagle.

>Slice of Life Fantasy?

>
black birdfall leaves centerblack bird

Anybody else writing about Fantasy creatures dealing with everyday (or extraordinarily ordinary) issues in life, rather than an epic quest?

Actualy, the story I’m doing for NaNo is the FIRST I’ve ever writen that did not have fantasy creatures just living out life. I usually write more literary-slice-of-life-fantasy. For NaNo thouh, I’m trying out my hand at more straight fantasy-fantasy, however, after 30,000 words, my characters seem to be doing more liveing out daily life than questing and having adventures. I guess I’m not cut out for straight fantasy; I’m just plain better at looking into a day in the life on my character. Oh well, I’m happy writing this style and that’s all that really matters.

————-
Copper Cockeral
Publishing Your NaNo Novel?
Do You and I Read the Same Books?

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

black birdfall leaves centerblack bird

Page copy protected against web site content infringement by Copyscape

————-
Copper Cockeral
Publishing Your NaNo Novel?
Got Writer’s BlocK? Kill It Today!
Need A Quiet Place To Write? Find Help Here!
Need Help Creating Characters? Check This Out!
Want to Do a Good Deed? Save the Goldeneagle.

Slice of Life Fantasy?

black birdfall leaves centerblack bird

Anybody else writing about Fantasy creatures dealing with everyday (or extraordinarily ordinary) issues in life, rather than an epic quest?

Actualy, the story I’m doing for NaNo is the FIRST I’ve ever writen that did not have fantasy creatures just living out life. I usually write more literary-slice-of-life-fantasy. For NaNo thouh, I’m trying out my hand at more straight fantasy-fantasy, however, after 30,000 words, my characters seem to be doing more liveing out daily life than questing and having adventures. I guess I’m not cut out for straight fantasy; I’m just plain better at looking into a day in the life on my character. Oh well, I’m happy writing this style and that’s all that really matters.

————-
Copper Cockeral
Publishing Your NaNo Novel?
Do You and I Read the Same Books?

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

black birdfall leaves centerblack bird

Page copy protected against web site content infringement by Copyscape

————-
Copper Cockeral
Publishing Your NaNo Novel?
Got Writer’s BlocK? Kill It Today!
Need A Quiet Place To Write? Find Help Here!
Need Help Creating Characters? Check This Out!
Want to Do a Good Deed? Save the Goldeneagle.

Slice of Life Fantasy?

Anybody else writing about Fantasy creatures dealing with everyday (or extraordinarily ordinary) issues in life, rather than an epic quest?

Actualy, the story I’m doing for NaNo is the FIRST I’ve ever writen that did not have fantasy creatures just living out life. I usually write more literary-slice-of-life-fantasy. For NaNo thouh, I’m trying out my hand at more straight fantasy-fantasy, however, after 30,000 words, my characters seem to be doing more liveing out daily life than questing and having adventures. I guess I’m not cut out for straight fantasy; I’m just plain better at looking into a day in the life on my character. Oh well, I’m happy writing this style and that’s all that really matters.

————-
Copper Cockeral
Publishing Your NaNo Novel?
Do You and I Read the Same Books?

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

Page copy protected against web site content infringement by Copyscape

————-
Copper Cockeral
Publishing Your NaNo Novel?
Got Writer’s BlocK? Kill It Today!
Need A Quiet Place To Write? Find Help Here!
Need Help Creating Characters? Check This Out!
Want to Do a Good Deed? Save the Goldeneagle.

Journeys…they just drag on and on! Help! What should my characters be doing while they travel?

I have a journey for my characters to struggle through.

In mine, it is a 70 year old professor, his 20-ish granddaughter, and his 30-ish college student assistant. The professor is the son of an archaeologist who made some sort of a weird discovery nearly 100 years ago, in the Amazon rain forest, but the secret died with him, so now the professor intends to find out what his father found down there.

So, I need to devote at least one chapter to the actual journay through the Amazon Rain Forest, because thier finding the secret is dependant on them “exploring” and “discovering it”. I can’t just say: They treked through the jungle until they came to an ancient city. I have to have them find it via a journey of some sort.

And that is where I am stuck, cause I’m not sure what should happen to them or what they should be doing as they explore. I don’t want to focus on it too much, but I need about 5 or 6 pages worth of it at least, just to blend the before the discovery to the after the discovery scenes.

They are traveling through a rain forest on foot. They’ll be climbing a volcanic mountain. They will be descending into a deep misty valley. They’ll need to cross at least one river, maybe more, most likey with pirahanas in it. I’m thinking they might meet up with some natives that don’t speak English and try (unsuccessfully) to warn them to not head into the misty valley. Can anyone think of ways to tell all these things without being boreing?

If any one has any specific things they can think of that might help, feel free to post them here.

————-
Copper Cockeral
Publishing Your NaNo Novel?
Do You and I Read the Same Books?

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

Page copy protected against web site content infringement by Copyscape

————-
Copper Cockeral
Publishing Your NaNo Novel?
Got Writer’s BlocK? Kill It Today!
Need A Quiet Place To Write? Find Help Here!
Need Help Creating Characters? Check This Out!
Want to Do a Good Deed? Save the Goldeneagle.

>Journeys…they just drag on and on! Help! What should my characters be doing while they travel?

>
black birdfall leaves centerblack bird

I have a journey for my characters to struggle through.

In mine, it is a 70 year old professor, his 20-ish granddaughter, and his 30-ish college student assistant. The professor is the son of an archaeologist who made some sort of a weird discovery nearly 100 years ago, in the Amazon rain forest, but the secret died with him, so now the professor intends to find out what his father found down there.

So, I need to devote at least one chapter to the actual journay through the Amazon Rain Forest, because thier finding the secret is dependant on them “exploring” and “discovering it”. I can’t just say: They treked through the jungle until they came to an ancient city. I have to have them find it via a journey of some sort.

And that is where I am stuck, cause I’m not sure what should happen to them or what they should be doing as they explore. I don’t want to focus on it too much, but I need about 5 or 6 pages worth of it at least, just to blend the before the discovery to the after the discovery scenes.

They are traveling through a rain forest on foot. They’ll be climbing a volcanic mountain. They will be descending into a deep misty valley. They’ll need to cross at least one river, maybe more, most likey with pirahanas in it. I’m thinking they might meet up with some natives that don’t speak English and try (unsuccessfully) to warn them to not head into the misty valley. Can anyone think of ways to tell all these things without being boreing?

If any one has any specific things they can think of that might help, feel free to post them here.

————-
Copper Cockeral
Publishing Your NaNo Novel?
Do You and I Read the Same Books?

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

EDIT: November 24, 2007

poisonous butterflies? really, I never heard of them… must look that up.

I just got finished writing a scene with poison arrow frogs … after I get to the editing stage, I’ve got to go back and find out the Latin-science names for all these things, and than edit the professor’s dialouge, cause I want him to be calling things by their science names.

I got a book out from the library about the Amazon, and it said that in the day it gets really hot, and there are two seasons rain season and dry season; during rain season, there are fierce thunderstome every single night. WOW. I didn’t know that. I was thinking like just rain; but this book I was reading says that there are really bad lightening storms and that the local tribes often believe these are caused by the gods. It talks about flooding being really bad and streams and rivers being hard to cross. It said that during the dry season it can go for weeks with out rain, and during that time there is almost no food to be found, and because of this the locals stock up on nuts and dried meats so they well have food to eat during the dry season..

Well, once I realized this, I had to figure ot when they’d be down there, cause I was writing in dates and stuff, and I got to thinking: “What if I’ve got them stuck in the rain when it was dry season?” Well, as it turns out, I have them done there, during the rain season, so I have to make sure that it rains every day! eeek! I had rain here and there, but now, I’ve either got to change the dates or add more rain. I optted for adding more rain. It ended up giving me more to write about. So, now I’ve got the girl getting really pissed off about the rain.

I’ve also changed the professor some. After thinking about it, I think I had him more active than he should be, so now I have their trip taking longer, cause even though he’s all ghun-ho about the trip, he can’t just keep treking steady none stop. So I’m adding in a lot more “camp site” scenes.

While reading tht book, I also found out…. that it gets cold enough to snow in the Amazon!!! OMG! I was writing it as humid hot tropics all the time. Than I saw these picture in the book… of trees with snow on them! OMG! I had no idea it snowed down there. Now I’ve got to rethink that. As it turns out, the area that I had choosen to send them to, gets snow. eeek! I’m sending them to the Volcanic region, where the mountains are. I had this point all plotted out before I started writing. They leave the jungle, climb the mountains, end up in the valley…. now I find out that those mountains are snow capped! I’ve got to got back and rewrite the mountain scences now.

————-
Copper Cockeral
Publishing Your NaNo Novel?
Do You and I Read the Same Books?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

black birdfall leaves centerblack bird

Page copy protected against web site content infringement by Copyscape

————-
Copper Cockeral
Publishing Your NaNo Novel?
Got Writer’s BlocK? Kill It Today!
Need A Quiet Place To Write? Find Help Here!
Need Help Creating Characters? Check This Out!
Want to Do a Good Deed? Save the Goldeneagle.

Journeys…they just drag on and on! Help! What should my characters be doing while they travel?

black birdfall leaves centerblack bird

I have a journey for my characters to struggle through.

In mine, it is a 70 year old professor, his 20-ish granddaughter, and his 30-ish college student assistant. The professor is the son of an archaeologist who made some sort of a weird discovery nearly 100 years ago, in the Amazon rain forest, but the secret died with him, so now the professor intends to find out what his father found down there.

So, I need to devote at least one chapter to the actual journay through the Amazon Rain Forest, because thier finding the secret is dependant on them “exploring” and “discovering it”. I can’t just say: They treked through the jungle until they came to an ancient city. I have to have them find it via a journey of some sort.

And that is where I am stuck, cause I’m not sure what should happen to them or what they should be doing as they explore. I don’t want to focus on it too much, but I need about 5 or 6 pages worth of it at least, just to blend the before the discovery to the after the discovery scenes.

They are traveling through a rain forest on foot. They’ll be climbing a volcanic mountain. They will be descending into a deep misty valley. They’ll need to cross at least one river, maybe more, most likey with pirahanas in it. I’m thinking they might meet up with some natives that don’t speak English and try (unsuccessfully) to warn them to not head into the misty valley. Can anyone think of ways to tell all these things without being boreing?

If any one has any specific things they can think of that might help, feel free to post them here.

————-
Copper Cockeral
Publishing Your NaNo Novel?
Do You and I Read the Same Books?

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

EDIT: November 24, 2007

poisonous butterflies? really, I never heard of them… must look that up.

I just got finished writing a scene with poison arrow frogs … after I get to the editing stage, I’ve got to go back and find out the Latin-science names for all these things, and than edit the professor’s dialouge, cause I want him to be calling things by their science names.

I got a book out from the library about the Amazon, and it said that in the day it gets really hot, and there are two seasons rain season and dry season; during rain season, there are fierce thunderstome every single night. WOW. I didn’t know that. I was thinking like just rain; but this book I was reading says that there are really bad lightening storms and that the local tribes often believe these are caused by the gods. It talks about flooding being really bad and streams and rivers being hard to cross. It said that during the dry season it can go for weeks with out rain, and during that time there is almost no food to be found, and because of this the locals stock up on nuts and dried meats so they well have food to eat during the dry season..

Well, once I realized this, I had to figure ot when they’d be down there, cause I was writing in dates and stuff, and I got to thinking: “What if I’ve got them stuck in the rain when it was dry season?” Well, as it turns out, I have them done there, during the rain season, so I have to make sure that it rains every day! eeek! I had rain here and there, but now, I’ve either got to change the dates or add more rain. I optted for adding more rain. It ended up giving me more to write about. So, now I’ve got the girl getting really pissed off about the rain.

I’ve also changed the professor some. After thinking about it, I think I had him more active than he should be, so now I have their trip taking longer, cause even though he’s all ghun-ho about the trip, he can’t just keep treking steady none stop. So I’m adding in a lot more “camp site” scenes.

While reading tht book, I also found out…. that it gets cold enough to snow in the Amazon!!! OMG! I was writing it as humid hot tropics all the time. Than I saw these picture in the book… of trees with snow on them! OMG! I had no idea it snowed down there. Now I’ve got to rethink that. As it turns out, the area that I had choosen to send them to, gets snow. eeek! I’m sending them to the Volcanic region, where the mountains are. I had this point all plotted out before I started writing. They leave the jungle, climb the mountains, end up in the valley…. now I find out that those mountains are snow capped! I’ve got to got back and rewrite the mountain scences now.

————-
Copper Cockeral
Publishing Your NaNo Novel?
Do You and I Read the Same Books?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

black birdfall leaves centerblack bird

Page copy protected against web site content infringement by Copyscape

————-
Copper Cockeral
Publishing Your NaNo Novel?
Got Writer’s BlocK? Kill It Today!
Need A Quiet Place To Write? Find Help Here!
Need Help Creating Characters? Check This Out!
Want to Do a Good Deed? Save the Goldeneagle.

Journeys…they just drag on and on! Help! What should my characters be doing while they travel?

I have a journey for my characters to struggle through.

In mine, it is a 70 year old professor, his 20-ish granddaughter, and his 30-ish college student assistant. The professor is the son of an archaeologist who made some sort of a weird discovery nearly 100 years ago, in the Amazon rain forest, but the secret died with him, so now the professor intends to find out what his father found down there.

So, I need to devote at least one chapter to the actual journay through the Amazon Rain Forest, because thier finding the secret is dependant on them “exploring” and “discovering it”. I can’t just say: They treked through the jungle until they came to an ancient city. I have to have them find it via a journey of some sort.

And that is where I am stuck, cause I’m not sure what should happen to them or what they should be doing as they explore. I don’t want to focus on it too much, but I need about 5 or 6 pages worth of it at least, just to blend the before the discovery to the after the discovery scenes.

They are traveling through a rain forest on foot. They’ll be climbing a volcanic mountain. They will be descending into a deep misty valley. They’ll need to cross at least one river, maybe more, most likey with pirahanas in it. I’m thinking they might meet up with some natives that don’t speak English and try (unsuccessfully) to warn them to not head into the misty valley. Can anyone think of ways to tell all these things without being boreing?

If any one has any specific things they can think of that might help, feel free to post them here.

————-
Copper Cockeral
Publishing Your NaNo Novel?
Do You and I Read the Same Books?

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

EDIT: November 24, 2007

poisonous butterflies? really, I never heard of them… must look that up.

I just got finished writing a scene with poison arrow frogs … after I get to the editing stage, I’ve got to go back and find out the Latin-science names for all these things, and than edit the professor’s dialouge, cause I want him to be calling things by their science names.

I got a book out from the library about the Amazon, and it said that in the day it gets really hot, and there are two seasons rain season and dry season; during rain season, there are fierce thunderstome every single night. WOW. I didn’t know that. I was thinking like just rain; but this book I was reading says that there are really bad lightening storms and that the local tribes often believe these are caused by the gods. It talks about flooding being really bad and streams and rivers being hard to cross. It said that during the dry season it can go for weeks with out rain, and during that time there is almost no food to be found, and because of this the locals stock up on nuts and dried meats so they well have food to eat during the dry season..

Well, once I realized this, I had to figure ot when they’d be down there, cause I was writing in dates and stuff, and I got to thinking: “What if I’ve got them stuck in the rain when it was dry season?” Well, as it turns out, I have them done there, during the rain season, so I have to make sure that it rains every day! eeek! I had rain here and there, but now, I’ve either got to change the dates or add more rain. I optted for adding more rain. It ended up giving me more to write about. So, now I’ve got the girl getting really pissed off about the rain.

I’ve also changed the professor some. After thinking about it, I think I had him more active than he should be, so now I have their trip taking longer, cause even though he’s all ghun-ho about the trip, he can’t just keep treking steady none stop. So I’m adding in a lot more “camp site” scenes.

While reading tht book, I also found out…. that it gets cold enough to snow in the Amazon!!! OMG! I was writing it as humid hot tropics all the time. Than I saw these picture in the book… of trees with snow on them! OMG! I had no idea it snowed down there. Now I’ve got to rethink that. As it turns out, the area that I had choosen to send them to, gets snow. eeek! I’m sending them to the Volcanic region, where the mountains are. I had this point all plotted out before I started writing. They leave the jungle, climb the mountains, end up in the valley…. now I find out that those mountains are snow capped! I’ve got to got back and rewrite the mountain scences now.

————-
Copper Cockeral
Publishing Your NaNo Novel?
Do You and I Read the Same Books?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Page copy protected against web site content infringement by Copyscape

————-
Copper Cockeral
Publishing Your NaNo Novel?
Got Writer’s BlocK? Kill It Today!
Need A Quiet Place To Write? Find Help Here!
Need Help Creating Characters? Check This Out!
Want to Do a Good Deed? Save the Goldeneagle.

>NaNoWriMo Expert: Griffins

>I just found this question on the NaNoWriMo forums and had to give an answer:

[quote=Sarurun Kamui]Yay. Sudden plot change. My story is now about gryphons!
They’re about wolf-sized, a bit bigger, or at least my focus colony is. They are more feline in build, but still have standard avian features (head, beak, talons, etc.) They are covered completely in feathers.

What I need are ideas for colorings (maybe some names, too, but I think I’m good). Realistic colors (meaning no vivid orange or pink or anything) and patterns (meaning no elaborate swirlies or splotches), generally based on normal bird plumage patterns. My main character’s name is Shira, if that gives any ideas. Perhaps something with black, but not all black or black with snazzy markings.

Also, if you know of any bird personalities you think my gryphons should take on after (e.g. crow behavior, ostrich behavior, sapsucker behavior…), tell me. I’m sure there are plenty of birds out there that would make excellent character bases. :)
———-
[/quote]

Yaah! Griffins! (I prefer this spelling though when writing so it’s the one I’m useing here too.) I love them, and sometimes I have them in my books. I might have one in my NaNo this year, but I’m undecided still.

When I think of Griffins my mind always shows me: (I’m provideing links to pictures of the birds. Each link takes you to a differant picture and/or site, click them all to see the differant birds I think of when I think of Griffins.)

Brown, resembling a Golden Eagle

Black, resembling a Verreaux’s or African Black Eagle

Grey, resembleing a Harpy Eagle

As you can tell, I think of eagles when I think of Griffins. Generally I think of Griffins as being very big (8 to 12 feet head to tail). For the cat part of them, I think of Lions, Tigers, Jaguars, and Panthers.

I think of these large Griffins as being mean, fierce, savage, predators

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When I think of small Griffins, I usually call them “Faerie Cats” instead, and think of them as half-house-cat-half-song-bird or half-house-cat-half-butterfly.

Example:

A Blue Jay and a Blue Persion

or

A Siamese with Blue Morpho Wings

II think of these small Griffons as being friendly and being kept as house pets.

————-
Copper Cockeral
Need To Publish Your NaNoNovel?
So You Think You Know Phookas?

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

Page copy protected against web site content infringement by Copyscape

Official NaNoWriMo 2007 Participant
It’s that time of year again. Have you signed up for NaNoWriMo 2007 yet? Sign up today and let the world’s #1 writing contest begin!

Need To Publish Your NaNo Novel? Find Out How!
Got Writer’s BlocK? Kill It Today!
Need A Quiet Place To Write? Find Help Here!
Need Help Creating Characters? Check This Out!
Want to Do a Good Deed? Save the Goldeneagle.

NaNoWriMo Expert: Griffins

I just found this question on the NaNoWriMo forums and had to give an answer:

[quote=Sarurun Kamui]Yay. Sudden plot change. My story is now about gryphons!
They’re about wolf-sized, a bit bigger, or at least my focus colony is. They are more feline in build, but still have standard avian features (head, beak, talons, etc.) They are covered completely in feathers.

What I need are ideas for colorings (maybe some names, too, but I think I’m good). Realistic colors (meaning no vivid orange or pink or anything) and patterns (meaning no elaborate swirlies or splotches), generally based on normal bird plumage patterns. My main character’s name is Shira, if that gives any ideas. Perhaps something with black, but not all black or black with snazzy markings.

Also, if you know of any bird personalities you think my gryphons should take on after (e.g. crow behavior, ostrich behavior, sapsucker behavior…), tell me. I’m sure there are plenty of birds out there that would make excellent character bases. :)
———-
[/quote]

Yaah! Griffins! (I prefer this spelling though when writing so it’s the one I’m useing here too.) I love them, and sometimes I have them in my books. I might have one in my NaNo this year, but I’m undecided still.

When I think of Griffins my mind always shows me: (I’m provideing links to pictures of the birds. Each link takes you to a differant picture and/or site, click them all to see the differant birds I think of when I think of Griffins.)

Brown, resembling a Golden Eagle

Black, resembling a Verreaux’s or African Black Eagle

Grey, resembleing a Harpy Eagle

As you can tell, I think of eagles when I think of Griffins. Generally I think of Griffins as being very big (8 to 12 feet head to tail). For the cat part of them, I think of Lions, Tigers, Jaguars, and Panthers.

I think of these large Griffins as being mean, fierce, savage, predators

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When I think of small Griffins, I usually call them “Faerie Cats” instead, and think of them as half-house-cat-half-song-bird or half-house-cat-half-butterfly.

Example:

A Blue Jay and a Blue Persion

or

A Siamese with Blue Morpho Wings

II think of these small Griffons as being friendly and being kept as house pets.

————-
Copper Cockeral
Need To Publish Your NaNoNovel?
So You Think You Know Phookas?

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

Page copy protected against web site content infringement by Copyscape

Official NaNoWriMo 2007 Participant
It’s that time of year again. Have you signed up for NaNoWriMo 2007 yet? Sign up today and let the world’s #1 writing contest begin!

Need To Publish Your NaNo Novel? Find Out How!
Got Writer’s BlocK? Kill It Today!
Need A Quiet Place To Write? Find Help Here!
Need Help Creating Characters? Check This Out!
Want to Do a Good Deed? Save the Goldeneagle.

Griffins

I just found this question on the NaNoWriMo forums and had to give an answer:

[quote=Sarurun Kamui]Yay. Sudden plot change. My story is now about gryphons!
They’re about wolf-sized, a bit bigger, or at least my focus colony is. They are more feline in build, but still have standard avian features (head, beak, talons, etc.) They are covered completely in feathers.

What I need are ideas for colorings (maybe some names, too, but I think I’m good). Realistic colors (meaning no vivid orange or pink or anything) and patterns (meaning no elaborate swirlies or splotches), generally based on normal bird plumage patterns. My main character’s name is Shira, if that gives any ideas. Perhaps something with black, but not all black or black with snazzy markings.

Also, if you know of any bird personalities you think my gryphons should take on after (e.g. crow behavior, ostrich behavior, sapsucker behavior…), tell me. I’m sure there are plenty of birds out there that would make excellent character bases. :)
———-
[/quote]

Yaah! Griffins! (I prefer this spelling though when writing so it’s the one I’m useing here too.) I love them, and sometimes I have them in my books. I might have one in my NaNo this year, but I’m undecided still.

When I think of Griffins my mind always shows me: (I’m provideing links to pictures of the birds. Each link takes you to a differant picture and/or site, click them all to see the differant birds I think of when I think of Griffins.)

Brown, resembling a Golden Eagle

Black, resembling a Verreaux’s or African Black Eagle

Grey, resembleing a Harpy Eagle

As you can tell, I think of eagles when I think of Griffins. Generally I think of Griffins as being very big (8 to 12 feet head to tail). For the cat part of them, I think of Lions, Tigers, Jaguars, and Panthers.

I think of these large Griffins as being mean, fierce, savage, predators

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When I think of small Griffins, I usually call them “Faerie Cats” instead, and think of them as half-house-cat-half-song-bird or half-house-cat-half-butterfly.

Example:

A Blue Jay and a Blue Persion

or

A Siamese with Blue Morpho Wings

II think of these small Griffons as being friendly and being kept as house pets.

————-
Copper Cockeral
Need To Publish Your NaNoNovel?
So You Think You Know Phookas?

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

Page copy protected against web site content infringement by Copyscape

Official NaNoWriMo 2007 Participant
It’s that time of year again. Have you signed up for NaNoWriMo 2007 yet? Sign up today and let the world’s #1 writing contest begin!

Need To Publish Your NaNo Novel? Find Out How!
Got Writer’s BlocK? Kill It Today!
Need A Quiet Place To Write? Find Help Here!
Need Help Creating Characters? Check This Out!
Want to Do a Good Deed? Save the Goldeneagle.

NaNoWriMo Expert: Griffins

I just found this question on the NaNoWriMo forums and had to give an answer:

[quote=Sarurun Kamui]Yay. Sudden plot change. My story is now about gryphons!
They’re about wolf-sized, a bit bigger, or at least my focus colony is. They are more feline in build, but still have standard avian features (head, beak, talons, etc.) They are covered completely in feathers.

What I need are ideas for colorings (maybe some names, too, but I think I’m good). Realistic colors (meaning no vivid orange or pink or anything) and patterns (meaning no elaborate swirlies or splotches), generally based on normal bird plumage patterns. My main character’s name is Shira, if that gives any ideas. Perhaps something with black, but not all black or black with snazzy markings.

Also, if you know of any bird personalities you think my gryphons should take on after (e.g. crow behavior, ostrich behavior, sapsucker behavior…), tell me. I’m sure there are plenty of birds out there that would make excellent character bases. :)
———-
[/quote]

Yaah! Griffins! (I prefer this spelling though when writing so it’s the one I’m useing here too.) I love them, and sometimes I have them in my books. I might have one in my NaNo this year, but I’m undecided still.

When I think of Griffins my mind always shows me: (I’m provideing links to pictures of the birds. Each link takes you to a differant picture and/or site, click them all to see the differant birds I think of when I think of Griffins.)

Brown, resembling a Golden Eagle

Black, resembling a Verreaux’s or African Black Eagle

Grey, resembleing a Harpy Eagle

As you can tell, I think of eagles when I think of Griffins. Generally I think of Griffins as being very big (8 to 12 feet head to tail). For the cat part of them, I think of Lions, Tigers, Jaguars, and Panthers.

I think of these large Griffins as being mean, fierce, savage, predators

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When I think of small Griffins, I usually call them “Faerie Cats” instead, and think of them as half-house-cat-half-song-bird or half-house-cat-half-butterfly.

Example:

A Blue Jay and a Blue Persion

or

A Siamese with Blue Morpho Wings

II think of these small Griffons as being friendly and being kept as house pets.

————-
Copper Cockeral
Need To Publish Your NaNoNovel?
So You Think You Know Phookas?

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

Page copy protected against web site content infringement by Copyscape

Official NaNoWriMo 2007 Participant
It’s that time of year again. Have you signed up for NaNoWriMo 2007 yet? Sign up today and let the world’s #1 writing contest begin!

Need To Publish Your NaNo Novel? Find Out How!
Got Writer’s BlocK? Kill It Today!
Need A Quiet Place To Write? Find Help Here!
Need Help Creating Characters? Check This Out!
Want to Do a Good Deed? Save the Goldeneagle.

NaNoWriMo Expert: Griffins

I just found this question on the NaNoWriMo forums and had to give an answer:

[quote=Sarurun Kamui]Yay. Sudden plot change. My story is now about gryphons!
They’re about wolf-sized, a bit bigger, or at least my focus colony is. They are more feline in build, but still have standard avian features (head, beak, talons, etc.) They are covered completely in feathers.

What I need are ideas for colorings (maybe some names, too, but I think I’m good). Realistic colors (meaning no vivid orange or pink or anything) and patterns (meaning no elaborate swirlies or splotches), generally based on normal bird plumage patterns. My main character’s name is Shira, if that gives any ideas. Perhaps something with black, but not all black or black with snazzy markings.

Also, if you know of any bird personalities you think my gryphons should take on after (e.g. crow behavior, ostrich behavior, sapsucker behavior…), tell me. I’m sure there are plenty of birds out there that would make excellent character bases. :)
———-
[/quote]

Yaah! Griffins! (I prefer this spelling though when writing so it’s the one I’m useing here too.) I love them, and sometimes I have them in my books. I might have one in my NaNo this year, but I’m undecided still.

When I think of Griffins my mind always shows me: (I’m provideing links to pictures of the birds. Each link takes you to a differant picture and/or site, click them all to see the differant birds I think of when I think of Griffins.)

Brown, resembling a Golden Eagle

Black, resembling a Verreaux’s or African Black Eagle

Grey, resembleing a Harpy Eagle

As you can tell, I think of eagles when I think of Griffins. Generally I think of Griffins as being very big (8 to 12 feet head to tail). For the cat part of them, I think of Lions, Tigers, Jaguars, and Panthers.

I think of these large Griffins as being mean, fierce, savage, predators

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When I think of small Griffins, I usually call them “Faerie Cats” instead, and think of them as half-house-cat-half-song-bird or half-house-cat-half-butterfly.

Example:

A Blue Jay and a Blue Persion

or

A Siamese with Blue Morpho Wings

II think of these small Griffons as being friendly and being kept as house pets.

————-
Copper Cockeral
Need To Publish Your NaNoNovel?
So You Think You Know Phookas?

What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!

Page copy protected against web site content infringement by Copyscape

Official NaNoWriMo 2007 Participant
It’s that time of year again. Have you signed up for NaNoWriMo 2007 yet? Sign up today and let the world’s #1 writing contest begin!

Need To Publish Your NaNo Novel? Find Out How!
Got Writer’s BlocK? Kill It Today!
Need A Quiet Place To Write? Find Help Here!
Need Help Creating Characters? Check This Out!
Want to Do a Good Deed? Save the Goldeneagle.