#wordsnstuffplotbuilding

[natalieironside]

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8.  How does the main conflict frame the message of the story? 

Well!  The central conceit I’m going for here is like a meditation on the human cost of ambition and pondering the question of whether or not a powerful person can be a good person, and the answer to that question is “no.”  It’s a story about how the state apparatus is a machine that runs on blood and tears and how politics is where honest men go to die.  It’s like Berserk if Griffith was more sympathetic and not a creep, and also if Guts was a 15-year-old girl.  And in space.  Okay so it’s only like Berserk thematically but you get what I mean.

  The story, the whole thing with trying to flim-flam an army out of thin air and revitalize an ancient empire in order to resist the Crusade and the great big swashbuckling adventure to save the galaxy, is an attempt to destroy the master’s house with the master’s tools.  The gayng “winning” the war and enjoying their “victory” is basically this:

[ambidextrousarcher]

January plot building challenge, Day 5

For @wordsnstuff‘s Plot building challenge.

Today’s prompt is: Day 5- Briefly outline each major subplot in your story, and include their role in pushing the main conflict forward. There are basically two subplots (arcs) in my story, that are very interlinked with each other. One is the internal familial dynamics of the Romanov family, both the close and the extended family (which is almost every single Royal family that existed a century ago), and how they mix. I’ll try to encapsulate all major relationships I can. The second is Nicholas’s administration, and how that has long running consequences. Here, light will be shed on why exactly (I think) he made the decisions he did. So, there is a personal arc, and a political arc. The internal family dynamics are very instrumental in understanding the Tsar’s mindset, as his was an absolute monarchy, and every little decision he took had far running consequences. These arcs also highlight how a little boy’s illness became catastrophic for a nation, for Alecei’s sickness led the Royal family into ever-greater isolation, which severed the ties between the working population and the ruling class, thus becoming a catalyst for the Russian Revolution.

[natalieironside]

(x)

4.  What genres does your story fit into, and to what extent?

Well!  I’ve called Voidsong a “sword-and-bolter space opera” and that about covers it.  It’s space fantasy drawing heavily on 40K and Star Wars; there are spaceships and supernatural monsters, marvelous technology and people doing magic.  Too much sci-fi to quite be fantasy and too much fantasy to quite be sci-fi.

In terms of the actual plot, well, I tried to model Voidsong: The Witchling off of the Volundarkvida (a grim but extremely cathartic revenge story, with America’s second favorite transgender starship-navigating space witch in the role of Volund), and I’m gonna try and stick to that conceit and model the next two installments off of the Volsungasaga; lots of war and death and politics and The Horror Of It All(tm) and people being undone by their own mistakes.  All that is to say:  The plot is very trope-heavy and follows the usual patterns of a pulp adventure serial. As it should.

[natalieironside]

(x)

5.  Briefly outline each major subplot in your story, and include their role in pushing the main conflict forward.

Securing the stronghold

Helga returns to Isa and reunited with her family, mixed reactions, hold court to settle the disposition of Harald’s property

The gayng arrives at Dimmurdalr and takes ownership.  Settling a weregild with Sven Magnusson.  Foreshadowing Erik’s eventual betrayal.

Laying plans to prosecute the war.  Swearing a compact.  Saoirse witnesses her first real Isan ritual and begins to suspect she’s in over her head.

The House of Night

The gayng heads back to Beacon.  Pick up Lars and Chuck along the way, young love, hints at Chuck’s terrible secret.  Vevic and Nirtovi talk cryptically about hating their aunt.

Arrival at Beacon, demanding help from Lotherte.  A closer look at dark elven culture; it’s real bad; Saoirse realizes she’s absolutely in over her head.  Closer look at dark elven politics; the House of Night is ascendant and Nirtovi doesn’t have much time.  Suspicions of pursuit.

One Last Big Job

Vevic and Hideji bond over being rogues and doing rogue activities.  Vevic and Toki are just guys being dudes being pals.  Preparations to steal the macguffin from Vogelsong.

The dream team reaches the reliquary, has the macguffin in hand.  Vevic kills the Grand Master.  Escape without incident.

The distraction goes horribly wrong.  Desperate battle.  Major character death.  The gayng flees back to Isa.

Blood on the Ice

Major character undeath.  Divine meddling and divine politics.  [Character] came back but Came Back Wrong(tm). 

Sudden but inevitable betrayal.  Blood on the ice.  Another compact is sworn.  Set up the inciting incident for the next story as Helga is hailed as queen.

[natalieironside]

(x)

3.  How does each main character serve the progression of the plot?

Well!  The whole thing about Rise of the Warbringer is Nirtovi Warbringer and Helga Helruna following their separate yet convergent Rube Goldberg ass plans to win an interstellar war and postpone the apocalypse, Helga by raising an army and Nirtovi by reuniting her people’s scattered warbands.  It goes . . . well, it goes.  Most of the drama centers around Helga being a little too good at her half of the job and returning to her roots as a cool pirate who merc’s people, which is progressively more and more horrifying to Saoirse, Helga’s witchcraft apprentice and universally-beloved adorable ray of sunshine who’s too pure for this world.

Basically it’s a story about the relationship between power and moral rectitude and whether or not a powerful person can be a good person.  Turns out the answer’s no.

[natalieironside]

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2.  Is your novel part of a series?  What do you need to plan in order to make it all tie nicely together?

=D

So the project I’m currently fucking w/ is Voidsong: Rise of the Warbringer, which is a direct sequel to Voidsong: The Witchling and picks up just moments after The Witchling ended.  Rise of the Warbringer follows the same cast of main characters doing a bunch of stuff they already talked about, so I’m not worried about tying those nicely together b/c it’s pretty much one story in two parts.  

The one that’s going to require the most planning is the third installment, Voidsong: Twilight of the Gods.  The Witchling is only novella-length and Rise of the Warbringer is probably going to end up being of similar scope, so if all goes according to plan (fingers crossed) I’ll probably be dipping into that one as well before November’s over.  Twilight of the Gods involves an interstellar war, a very complicated character arc for everyone’s favorite space witch, and the apocalypse, so that’s far more ambitious and will prolly require a deal more work to tie in.  If all goes according to plan, it should also be a direct continuation of the previous installment, but y’know these things so rarely go according to plan.

[natalieironside]

Alright now I’m gonna necro the 31 Days of Plotbuilding

1. What point of view will you be writing from and why?

I’m gonna continue writing the Voidsong series in 3rd person.  I’ve never had any luck with other points of view, mainly because 1st-person feels too . . . personal.  The only story told in 1st-person that I’ve ever been able to keep going for any significant length is TGoE, which (1) is a very, very personal story and (2) is now on indefinite hiatus after getting stuck at the halfway point.  It’s difficult to use a lot of first-person pronouns without feeling like I’m talking about, well, me.

I also enjoy the flexibility of 3rd-person.  If you’ve read, well, basically anything I’ve written, but The Last Girl Scout in particular, you know that I like switching between different points of view far more than is advisable, and not having the PoV limited to a particular character makes it easier for me to write more of those “meanwhile, back at the ranch” chapters that I love so very very much.

[ambidextrousarcher]

January plot building challenge, Day 11

For @wordsnstuff‘s plot building challenge.

Today’s prompt is Day 11: How do you want the reader to feel when they put down the story? I want the reader to be able to envision the scenes in my story. At the end of it, I hope that the reader feels the sadness I do when I think of their tragic end. I want the reader to know that everything is not black and white. History is definitely written by the winners, yes, but that does not mean that the people who lost are the villains. Sometimes, there are good people on the losing side, too.