Creative Corner

This thread has opened the floodgates to my creative writing. THANK YOU SO FRIGGIN' MUCH.

I'd like to introduce my project: I'm working on writing an honest-for-goodness novel! It's all about dragons, and it takes place completely in a world of my own creation (no humans!). The title for the series is Sanction the Skies, though I haven't thought of a good title for the individual novels yet. I've got the prologue done and the first chapter down, and I'll show off the former here since it's short (and give you a link to what's done of the latter!)

Before I put anything here, I'd like to mention that I have writer's block in the first chapter. Where it ends off is a place where I can't figure out how to bridge two scenes. I will describe how I can't bridge it now. Would not recommend looking until you've read what I have so far for Chap. 1.

Basically, a gigantic storm rolls in (why and how is explained a lot, lot later), tearing buildings off their foundations and flinging winged dragons around. In this storm, Enchanter is supposed to sacrifice himself so Invictus can escape Valley, thus being stranded on her own in a forest. Later, in the forest, she meets Hadratu, a big main character, who takes pity on Invictus and brings her to a town named Oakenpass.
I'm having trouble bridging the beginning of the storm and Invictus's first encounter with Hadratu. I can't find a creative-yet-impactful way of connecting the two scenes - or how Invictus will escape Valley in a way that requires Enchanter's self-sacrifice. Suggestions highly appreciated!
Here is the prologue! If you are reading this, you are either a ruler of one of the Four Kingdoms, a high-ranking official in one of the Four Kingdoms, or very, very dead.

Of course, when I say dead, I simply imply that your lowly status suggests that you have broken into a royal vault, thereby trespassing. I’m not sure how the laws have changed to fit whatever year you’re living in, but as of the time that I am writing this, law decrees that trespassers be killed.

That being said, if you have enough skill to get in here alive, there is yet hope that such skill is what will get you out of here too. In that case, I wish you luck and hope that whatever you try to pilfer is worth more than the bounty that has undoubtedly been placed on your head.

On to business. This scroll is dedicated to telling a piece of Vahaar’s history that most will claim never existed. The locations, secrets, and dragons discovered throughout this daunting tale were deemed too dangerous to be known by the public, so the Four Kingdoms came up with the absolutely ingenious plan to simply forget a major event in the world’s history.

Whether or not their stratagem worked is unknown to me, though in the case that it was successful, this scroll was created so that this true story would not entirely be lost to time.

If you are among those who do not know the tale, then I invite you to sit somewhere warm and safe before giving this a look. Attempting to read this in a cold vault swarming with guards doesn’t sound particularly comfortable or pleasant in the slightest.

Or, perhaps, you want to know what actually happened. Perhaps your parents told you a story about a troupe of dragons who conquered the world with an army of monkeys, and you somehow had enough sense to consider such a legend absolutely idiotic, yet you had the grand idea to break into a vault to glean the truth.

At least you’re persistent enough to continue reading, even after my satirical insults to you and your profession. There is yet hope that you will actually find a place in society.
Now, allow me to reward you with the real story, not some exaggerated, clichéd wannabe heroes-save-the-world kind of thing.

This is a story of heroes, gods, and lies. And you, my persistent thief, will have the privilege of adding the final verse.

---

Chapter One link

Please let me know what you think and help me out with the bridging issue! Thanks~

@LadyRowyn

That sounds like a really interesting concept! It's a shame that it didn't get finished, but you could probably use it in a story without a video game aspect.

I'm thinking that Hinewai's antagonism will stem from his ignorance, since he's basically a mindless drone of the deity he serves and thinks only that demons are evil because he was told that by his master. While Balduri sees angels as brethren and kin who deserve a second chance, since they have not yet discovered the joys of free will that demons possess.

I just thought of a random idea. I think it might be cool to have some sort of Word document or other where you can just spew random, unrelated items down to help clear them out. Who knows, maybe some of them will actually become good book ideas! I find my interest hops around from genre to genre like nobody's business (though it always stays squarely in the realm of fantasy, mind you) so it might be good to have such a document handy. It's an experiment!

Anyone else care to join me in being a lab rat for this?

@LadyRowyn Kourin III is not a happy camper, but she's making do, though she's still a bit lost as to what to do with herself now that she can't tend familiars. They all stay stored and Vaulted by Alaman, Keiki tried and largely succeeded in killing every unattached familiar in the Clan, but even he's not irate-crazy enough to mess with the contents of Alaman's Charge while she's sitting in the doorway. .... [size=1]Geeze I'm going to [b]have [/b]to write this thing and stick it in my resurrected LJ with a crapton of warnings about everything I guess. It's just gotten very interesting to me....[/size] For an Early Spoiler, see Kistern.... and does anyone want to grab him after he bolts? (He's the Writer's Chat's traveling dragon, now that I think on it.) [url=http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=5621822] [img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/350/56219/5621822_350.png[/img] [/url] @Luthyx Nice intro, I like how it's flowing so far, it certainly has an excellent hook. (First)-Person-Smartass is one of my favorite tropes and this one is doing it quite well. You mean a snippet page? I've got one of those, it's like fifteen pages long now. It's mostly made up of lines of dialogue or scenery description that I came up with randomly or suddenly don't fit into a narrative. Heck, I've got an entire story sort of congealing around the years-old-throwaway line of, "Never pick a fight with someone smoking a cigar that isn't [i]lit[/i]!"

@paintminion

I have an artist friend that I plan to commission for all that stuff :D so there's no problem there. That's really good that you have a friend to support you and that she has you and everything, that must make a big difference! Those books look pretty interesting! ^-^ I hope they do well.

I'm actually wanting to try going through traditional publishing first, rather than just straight to self-publishing (as @LadyRowyn asked). Not that there's anything wrong with self publishing, It just seems more special to me if you can manage to get accepted the traditional way. But yeah, I'll try send it out for a few months, and if I have no luck then I'll self-publish, but yeah :3

--LadyRowyn

I'm so proud of you for getting in the rhythmn of writing so much so frequently <3 that's great news! and the fact that you seem so genuinely excited about it all. I'm sure it makes a huge difference and I'm happy for you :D

You're accomplishing so much!

And I know what you mean about having Micah there to challenge/compare yourself to, because I do the same with my friends from my writing group. It just gives you that extra little push you need. :)

@Karika Absolutely the best to have friends for support :-) If your friends do not challenge you to do better, do well, push forward, then you need to find more friends who will! So - everyone go write 333 words right now! GO! DO IT! Take a moment to work towards the published goal! Here is my guru of encouragement, with his take on the matter.... [url=http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=18981376] [img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/350/189814/18981376_350.png[/img] [/url] "Looking forward is like looking in the past. Yesterday you had the dream, tomorrow you're gonna be a bigger star. Pie crust dough must rest before it can become a pie and be eaten so you have the strength to pursue the prey. Be kind to your pie dough."

@paintminion

I WOULD write 333 words right now... but it's 12:05am and I'm barely conscious and am focusing all my energy on Public Buy for Ice dom, so I don't think writing is in my best interest right now. I promise I will do so after I get a solid nights sleep however! :D

he... is a very pretty dragon, by the way. <3

@Karika

That was 64 words by my count. :-P

@Paintminion

Sooo... I wrote over 600 words XP

They trekked down a couple of hallways, ducking around corners whenever they was someone else. Zaccur stopped suddenly, and Kellie tried her best not to run into him. He crouched down, and Kellie followed suit, eyebrows furrowing together in confusion. He stared at a door that was slightly open and had lights drifting out of it. Kellie stared as she watched a tendril of green drift pass her, and flicker her eyes over to a red one.

“I thought it would be blacker, or at least darker,” she whispered.

“Black is the combination of all colors,” Zaccur said back, creeping forward slightly, when it became clear that no one else was heading towards the room. He slowly and carefully nudged the door, and then moved back so that Kellie could get a better look. She leaned her head in and bit back a gasp.

There were lights everywhere, and every inch of the room was covered in runes. Someone had meticulously covered the room in a pattern of anemone, begonias, fir, grass, and orange lilies. The only part of the room not covered in flowers or runes were the fourteen circles. One was in the center and the other thirteen surrounded it in another circle.

Each of the thirteen circles had five dark-cloaked people in them standing in a circle with their backs to each other. Their hoods were pulled up so Kellie couldn’t make out their faces, and they kept up a deep steady chant that set her on edge.

And in the center circle sat a girl that Kellie assumed was around her age. She was strapped to a chair, and the tear tracks on her face were evident.

“Please,” the girl said, and Kellie could only just make it out, “Please we could be so much better. This isn’t what we were supposed to be. Don’t do this please. Dad, please, I don’t want to stay here.”

The chant rose and then fell, and one of the figures reached up and pulled his hood down. Kellie was only half-surprised it was Acastro.

“You will be enlightened soon. Don’t worry.” Acastro said. He stepped out of the circle, and the other people in it shifted to cover the hole. He placed his hands on her face gently, “We are the best we could possibly be. We’re your family. We’ll take care of you, even when you’re confused.”

“I’m not confused,” she whispered, “You are.”

Something flashed across Acastro’s face for a brief moment, and he hesitated, “I’ve heard- I’ve heard that somewhere before.” But as fast as the look it had been there it was gone, “But it matters no more. You will see as I have.”

Acastro muttered something in a language that Kellie didn’t recognize, and behind her Zaccur whispered, “From me to you, I transfer this curse.”

Acastro opened his mouth and a dark black mist flowed from it. The girl started to cry again, struggling against her bonds. The mist writhed in a circle before it surrounded the girl, who let out a choked scream. She shuddered as the mist seemed to sink into her skin. She slumped down, and the everyone in the room relaxed. For a heartstopping moment Kellie thought the girl wasn’t breathing.

Then a deep gasp sounded and the girl shot up, her eyes the same midnight black as everyone else in the cult. Zaccur tugged on Kellie’s arm, and practically dragged her away as Kellie heard in growing horror the girl say, “Oh thank you for this enlightenment sir! I don’t know what I was thinking…”

“That was-” Kellie said, horror etched on her face.

Zaccur’s face was grim, “Forty years. The first person with black eyes showed up forty years ago, and it slowly spread from there. Anyone who objected were either ‘converted’ or killed.” He turned to face her, “This is the reality that Layra and I have grown up with. The reality that, that girl had grown up with. If someone speaks out now, it’s right before leaving or during the ritual.”

@Amut

Thanks! Sarcastic Narrator is fun to do, but all the other chapters are in third-person and revolve around a different character. I finally found a way to bridge the annoying-as-heck gap, meaning Chapter One now needs revisions to set the pieces of that particular puzzle in place.

I also like to keep a word document full of rejected dialogue, ideas, and "show-don't-tell" paragraphs. It's really flippin' long and a lot of the rejected ideas for how Chapter One could've gone make me cringe, haha.