I'm probably going to rename CHAOS IN WAYCHESTER, at least for a different purpose. It doesn't sound like a good novel. And I'm feeling motivated to convert this into a novel right now. I've been puttering around with the labor of love novel that I've been unwilling to commit to, and its time to just stop and do it already. Most of my objections aren't valid; I can get a professionally done cover on Fiverr for easily less than $100, and it is just a matter of determining finally to do it and not put it off any more.
With regards to recent posts that I've made, I still haven't found a job, although I'm technically only 8 days out from the official end of my employment. In the meantime, I've had two interviews already, and I have three more scheduled. I'm feeling confident that I'll find new work fairly quickly, hopefully long before my severance money runs out, and I'll actually come out financially ahead from having lost my job. Here's hoping, anyway.
Because of that, my anxiety is significantly reduced, and I have motivation to allow myself some free time here and there to read and think about hobby endeavors after all. I'll feel even better when I convert some of these interviews into offers, and even better when I start working and get settled in. If I have to relocate, I'll be unsettled for months due to that process, but at least I won't be too anxious about the future, and I might actually have more free time in the short term if I have to move out west while my wife stays behind for a few months until she can get out of her work commitments, my daughter's wedding is done. I mean, with her being out of state, what do I have to come home to other than my computer, amirite? And heck; I've got three interviews out in the Rocky Mountain states where I'd love to live, so I'll put aside whatever hassle and anxiety comes from relocating and enjoy being surrounded by the best scenery in the world on a regular basis. (My wife won't be quite as happy about it, but once we're settled in, she'll be happy too. Especially since we'll be a lot closer to our kids and grandkids, and she'll be able to see them much more frequently than we do now.)
Anyway, long rambly prelude aside, I'm feeling motivated to write Dark Fantasy X novels, including ones based on the CHAOS IN WAYCHESTER campaign (which I'll rename to Chaos in the North or something like that; Waychester just isn't a suitably epic name to be in the title), and the CULT OF UNDEATH and the MIND-WIZARDS OF THE DAEMON WASTES. Except, I wonder if these 5x5 as a high level outline actually provide too much content to work with. And the nature of the various columns having little relationship to each other except kinda sorta geographical proximity makes it difficult to imagine a coherent structure that utilizes all of them in a single novel. Each of the campaign 5x5s will probably give me material for two or even three novels, if I go for the punchy 350 or so page 90,000 word novel, not the door-stopper epic fantasy types that are twice or even thrice that. I know that in epic fantasy that's a pretty ideal length given the market these days, but I don't think I can do it. Plus, I don't want to wait until I've got a novel that long to publish. Punchier "standard" length novels still sell well in fantasy too, I believe. Spec fiction, like the D&D novels, for instance, were always that long. This is probably especially true for Kindle stuff. And it's just so much easier to structure that kind of novel well.
I've been messing around with my "iconics" that I really created more for gaming purposes, but which I'll repurpose, I believe, to novel characters. But I've rejiggered how I imagined them as a group of PCs and thought about them more as characters in a novel. And I think for a two-three book Chaos in the North Country "arc" based on Chaos in Waychester, I'd need a main character who's got a sidekick, and a secondary main character who operates separately from him most of the time with his own sidekick, and maybe even a tertiary main character who can operate separately from them even and handle geographically more far-flung plot points. They'll all come together at the end again of the first novel, and advance the storyline. The main character would focus on the eponymous columns, with the Grand Duke and his wife, the secondary main character would focus on the Tazitta Death cult threat, and the tertiary one could run around doing some of the other ones, depending on how I adapt the 5x5 matrix into a novel-like structure. I'm giving up my 4-5 member "PC party" structure to these characters, and thinking that I'd bring in the non-main character of each arc with his sidekick as merely recurring allies and "guest stars" for the most part.
So, the main character is still Stefan Clevenger, the freelance Shadow, mid-to-late twenties, combination of Robin Hood and Davy Crockett, except he hunts ghosts, vampires and other monsters for a living. His "sidekick" will be Kimnor "Kim" Rugova, a Shadow Sword from Lomar who used to be named Demir, but I decided I liked this name better. His allies will be Oisin Dughall, the woodwose who used to have a weird foreign name, and Shule, the little goblin criminal who I also used to have another name for, but I don't know that they would even make appearances in the first book. He's also associated with Revecca von Lechfeld, but not until we get to the CULT OF UNDEATH arc, and with Alys, but not until near the end of the CHAOS IN WAYCHESTER arc.
The secondary main character will be his older brother, pushing 30, also a freelance Shadow, named Ragnar Clevenger, and his new wife Cailin, who was a damsel in distress. Ragnar saved her, but not 100%; she was still bitten a few times by the vampire Lysander Draven, and although Ragnar was able to break the hold on her, she had a partial transformation, and became a dhampir. Her father sadly decided that it wasn't safe for her to remain on the ranch, so she decided to use her new-found abilities to do what Ragnar had been doing, and tagged along with him. Over a very brief courtship, that started when she was being rescued anyway, they fell in love and got married. He's also associated with Fredegar de Vend and Dean Bannermane, but I don't think they are crucial to the story yet and may not make an appearance for some time.
These two groups, in spite of the fact that they carry the consequences of desperate or poor choices, are the heroes. The tertiary group is a group that aspires to be heroic, but often fall morally short, and is centered around the Lupescus, twin brother and sister Claud and Griselda, and their mentor father Victor. Dominik and Redemption can appear later on. I'm not yet sure which threat I'll have them deal with. The Southumbria threat plays very well in to the Tazitta Death cult threat, but will delay getting to that threat. I think I'll need to maybe shorten it somewhat, and let Ragnar handle the rescuing of Joan Wilmere. Maybe Claud and Co. can deal with the thurses, and maybe I can tie that in to the Chersky Island orc pirates threat too.
Meanwhile, the Burlharrow smaller threat probably needs to be dealt with as part of the Duke and Duchess storyline, so I'll roll that over to Stefan.
Not sure how I'll get them all back together again, but I'll work on it. It's pretty early to have a settled structure mapped out and plotted already.
Anyway, I've also made a few updates. I had earlier made these sample city watch guys for Waychester, who will be an impediment if not outright Bad Guy to Stefan and his friends. And by made, I mean that I found them in the Library and made some minor modifications to them. I was more worried about the actual look and costume of them than anything else at the time, and I came to realize that they looked really fake, like dummies wearing a costume in a store.
With just some minor reposing of their heads and faces, as well as a dusting of dirt, they look much more realistic now, I think.
No comments:
Post a Comment