tyr story blatherings
That's the one I tried to write for NaNoWriMo last time, with the ex-black ops werewolves.
Basically...
1) it's an alternate universe where Homo sapiens is sharing the planet with, amongst others, Homo Superior (ELVES.) and Homo gigapodos (yes. Bigfoot.)... but in the beginning it reads like any normal AU, just with secret werewolves.
a) Yes, it happens in the 21th century, but they've been on-and-off at war for the last *five centuries*. Differences should be more obvious. Where's the worldbuilding, Asuka!
b) the "everything magical has a perfectly scientific explanation (except for the werewolves' ability to friggin SHAPESHIFT) and/or no one ever noticed, say, the elves' hypnotism/mesmerisation ability or chalked it all up to some collective hallucination born from stupid old legends, so they don't know it even exists" thing is unbalanced and clunky and stupid.
Therefore! => I oughta be working on a world where low-level magic/stuff you can't entirely/perfectly explain with SCIENCE is more common, and people know about it. I kinda want something where it's so commom to them and always so low level with most humans that they don't really go OOOOOO MAGICS (apart from the New Age types XD), and also they assume that if you're a bit strong with magic then it means you have Evil Elf ancestry and that's Suspicious.
-So the werewolves are assumed to be another subspecies, but an extinct one (they're just undercover, because science? urk no.)
Now i'm trying to figure out whether they're really a subspecies, meaning you can only be BORN a werewolf and the black ops treatment is gene therapy, or whether there's some, possibly magical, means of contamination. I can't decide.
-If the society is different then the naming themes are possibly subtly different... I really want to name more people after greek and roman gods. XD So Tyr's name would only be strange because of the pantheon, there would be OCs named Athena and stuff like that, and I might be able to rename Duane to ... I dunno, Dyon for Dyonisos. (Or even Dian for Diana, though a guy being named for a female goddess is more unlikely. XD the problem here is that I like the look of Dian better than Dyon, I have an irrational problem with -on sounds and the letter Y when a I would do. XDDD;;; Other suggestions?)
2) What the fuck were the main characters' motives for going to war.
a) Xiang was always a martial soul, and she didn't want to be married off; okay, that says why she wanted to be army. Why'd she choose to go to the suicide squads? Maybe as a woman it's the only way she had of being allowed to fight on a battlefield. They've been at war so long that a good fourth of their forces are women but usually they'd probably try to shuffle them into areas where they don't come directly mano a mano against the enemies, even men have enough of a disadvantage there... hrrm. I don't know, she seems so ambitious.
b) Gabriel actually went because he was a little fucktard with self-destructive impulses and that's fine with me. XD
c) Serrano went because, hm, I just think she saw it needed to be done and she was young enough for the treatment to work... hrrm. Self-sacrifice, someone has to? Probably a death wish as well. Naturally depressed? looking for meaning? I have no idea.
d) Duane = revenge. Don't care if I die, taking you down with me. Okay, that works fine.
e) ... Tyr.
It's probably a bad thing if I'm not even sure of my main character's motivations.
Okay. he was 16. Everyone makes bad decisions at 16. His guardian and only family was dead so he was alone, and he wasn't even born in the ... let's call 'em USA for now, even though they'd likely be called something else. Okay. ... I think he was looking for meaning. Just... not knowing who he was, not knowing what he was living for. Figured, hey, that's the biggest cause I will ever find, maybe? Gah. He's so weird.
Wait, wait. He was born in Europe. Huh. There's a plot hook in here, it just won't come out in the light just yet. That's only been enemy territory for the last fifty years or so -- well, not the nordic countries where he'd be from, but still REAL close and they were always spreading out, harrassing their neighbors and stuff...
And, since he's the main character and there's now magic in this book, I should probably figure out something a little less than mundane for his background.
He's not gonna be a super powerful mage. Or even much of a mage, except for basic cantrips. The mage of the group is, hm, I think Gabe, and Duane knows a few handy spells as well. and Xiang doesn't believe in that bullshit. XD But in his backstory, I man, his great-uncle who was raising him (absent-minded professor type) was killed. Why?
Aw shit. I have two books here. One about Tyr getting used to the pack and the pack getting used to him. And one about Tyr's and the other guys' past catching up to them.
Considering that in their past there is a looong war that only recently ended, the issues and enemies it would bring up would be a lot more action/adventure/violence/mystery than the other, more domestic/character interaction story I was planning to write when I started out!
Also the "bad guys" would be totally different.
My first idea for a "bad guy" would be the alpha werewolf Tyr would have to kick out of office, and I didn't want him a cliche abusive asshole, so he was a soft-spoken schoolteacher, who's 95 year old (so he has a somewhat antiquated mindset) but only looks 45~ yay werewolf metabolism. That would make conflicts more nuanced, less about who beats up who (though there would be some of that, but dude, ex black ops, okay they've been wrewolves all their lives but. equal grounds here dude.)
If my plot is more about magic and secrets and repercussions from the war, then the bad guys have to be more dangerous as a direct result. ... eee. kickassery. way more challenging!
The first one was what I wanted to write, but it's just weird that in the backdrop I have this five centuries long war, and no visible repercussions save "oh yeah, that's the reason why we're black ops werewolves who totally kick ass. Yeah." I dunno. It bugs me. And of course now that i've started thinking about backstory things there's all these possible things twisting in the back of my mind like a nest of snakes in the dark and I have no idea what's going to come out. I just know it's there. Moving.
... I really want to figure out a way to merge the two plots that doesn't come off like "okay these two plots happen in parallel but thematically and otherwise it's really kind of... random and they don't really mesh"), but i'm braindead from nosleep and I keep losing my trains of thought. Friggin wagons, come back already, where was I going with that sentence? I can't remember.
Mergh. Anyway. Yeah. I need to develop shit more. I really can't write first and learn about the characters and plot that way. Okay, lesson learned.
edit: omg I love Kurai008. T^T *translates the gist of her frenchy babble*
-They've been at war for so long, so war/hunt/violence/other dangerous things! gods/goddesses baby names are in fashion, and it's not necessarily seen as extremely feminine/weak to be a guy named for Athena or Diana, because, *WAR* goddesses. (i mean, there might be some teasing. But.) Most kids will become soldiers at some point, so, in a way, protection. (Later on, gods being in fashion, softer gods' names might have started appearing as well.)
-"As well, with 500 years of war, this AU's society might have become almost totally militarized at some point and so almost all human resources served the war effort. Since the story happens at the end of the war, the characters might have simply stayed in the spirit of "(almost) everyone goes to war at some point" without thinking about it too much, since that was mostly what society as a whole has known for the last centuries. Now that they have to scale back their involvement in military things, problems appear."
=> eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee yes yes yes yes yes YES. *flails with glee*
Also I should totally show that even civilians are drilled often on emergency procedures and where to go for shelter, and they take it more seriously than we would and a lot of them aren't half as laid back as we would, not being sure of their safety as we are. They've been at it for a long while now so they're very organized about it and by now it's tradition/custom/just how people are raised. Oh yeah. *_*
Basically...
1) it's an alternate universe where Homo sapiens is sharing the planet with, amongst others, Homo Superior (ELVES.) and Homo gigapodos (yes. Bigfoot.)... but in the beginning it reads like any normal AU, just with secret werewolves.
a) Yes, it happens in the 21th century, but they've been on-and-off at war for the last *five centuries*. Differences should be more obvious. Where's the worldbuilding, Asuka!
b) the "everything magical has a perfectly scientific explanation (except for the werewolves' ability to friggin SHAPESHIFT) and/or no one ever noticed, say, the elves' hypnotism/mesmerisation ability or chalked it all up to some collective hallucination born from stupid old legends, so they don't know it even exists" thing is unbalanced and clunky and stupid.
Therefore! => I oughta be working on a world where low-level magic/stuff you can't entirely/perfectly explain with SCIENCE is more common, and people know about it. I kinda want something where it's so commom to them and always so low level with most humans that they don't really go OOOOOO MAGICS (apart from the New Age types XD), and also they assume that if you're a bit strong with magic then it means you have Evil Elf ancestry and that's Suspicious.
-So the werewolves are assumed to be another subspecies, but an extinct one (they're just undercover, because science? urk no.)
Now i'm trying to figure out whether they're really a subspecies, meaning you can only be BORN a werewolf and the black ops treatment is gene therapy, or whether there's some, possibly magical, means of contamination. I can't decide.
-If the society is different then the naming themes are possibly subtly different... I really want to name more people after greek and roman gods. XD So Tyr's name would only be strange because of the pantheon, there would be OCs named Athena and stuff like that, and I might be able to rename Duane to ... I dunno, Dyon for Dyonisos. (Or even Dian for Diana, though a guy being named for a female goddess is more unlikely. XD the problem here is that I like the look of Dian better than Dyon, I have an irrational problem with -on sounds and the letter Y when a I would do. XDDD;;; Other suggestions?)
2) What the fuck were the main characters' motives for going to war.
a) Xiang was always a martial soul, and she didn't want to be married off; okay, that says why she wanted to be army. Why'd she choose to go to the suicide squads? Maybe as a woman it's the only way she had of being allowed to fight on a battlefield. They've been at war so long that a good fourth of their forces are women but usually they'd probably try to shuffle them into areas where they don't come directly mano a mano against the enemies, even men have enough of a disadvantage there... hrrm. I don't know, she seems so ambitious.
b) Gabriel actually went because he was a little fucktard with self-destructive impulses and that's fine with me. XD
c) Serrano went because, hm, I just think she saw it needed to be done and she was young enough for the treatment to work... hrrm. Self-sacrifice, someone has to? Probably a death wish as well. Naturally depressed? looking for meaning? I have no idea.
d) Duane = revenge. Don't care if I die, taking you down with me. Okay, that works fine.
e) ... Tyr.
It's probably a bad thing if I'm not even sure of my main character's motivations.
Okay. he was 16. Everyone makes bad decisions at 16. His guardian and only family was dead so he was alone, and he wasn't even born in the ... let's call 'em USA for now, even though they'd likely be called something else. Okay. ... I think he was looking for meaning. Just... not knowing who he was, not knowing what he was living for. Figured, hey, that's the biggest cause I will ever find, maybe? Gah. He's so weird.
Wait, wait. He was born in Europe. Huh. There's a plot hook in here, it just won't come out in the light just yet. That's only been enemy territory for the last fifty years or so -- well, not the nordic countries where he'd be from, but still REAL close and they were always spreading out, harrassing their neighbors and stuff...
And, since he's the main character and there's now magic in this book, I should probably figure out something a little less than mundane for his background.
He's not gonna be a super powerful mage. Or even much of a mage, except for basic cantrips. The mage of the group is, hm, I think Gabe, and Duane knows a few handy spells as well. and Xiang doesn't believe in that bullshit. XD But in his backstory, I man, his great-uncle who was raising him (absent-minded professor type) was killed. Why?
Aw shit. I have two books here. One about Tyr getting used to the pack and the pack getting used to him. And one about Tyr's and the other guys' past catching up to them.
Considering that in their past there is a looong war that only recently ended, the issues and enemies it would bring up would be a lot more action/adventure/violence/mystery than the other, more domestic/character interaction story I was planning to write when I started out!
Also the "bad guys" would be totally different.
My first idea for a "bad guy" would be the alpha werewolf Tyr would have to kick out of office, and I didn't want him a cliche abusive asshole, so he was a soft-spoken schoolteacher, who's 95 year old (so he has a somewhat antiquated mindset) but only looks 45~ yay werewolf metabolism. That would make conflicts more nuanced, less about who beats up who (though there would be some of that, but dude, ex black ops, okay they've been wrewolves all their lives but. equal grounds here dude.)
If my plot is more about magic and secrets and repercussions from the war, then the bad guys have to be more dangerous as a direct result. ... eee. kickassery. way more challenging!
The first one was what I wanted to write, but it's just weird that in the backdrop I have this five centuries long war, and no visible repercussions save "oh yeah, that's the reason why we're black ops werewolves who totally kick ass. Yeah." I dunno. It bugs me. And of course now that i've started thinking about backstory things there's all these possible things twisting in the back of my mind like a nest of snakes in the dark and I have no idea what's going to come out. I just know it's there. Moving.
... I really want to figure out a way to merge the two plots that doesn't come off like "okay these two plots happen in parallel but thematically and otherwise it's really kind of... random and they don't really mesh"), but i'm braindead from nosleep and I keep losing my trains of thought. Friggin wagons, come back already, where was I going with that sentence? I can't remember.
Mergh. Anyway. Yeah. I need to develop shit more. I really can't write first and learn about the characters and plot that way. Okay, lesson learned.
edit: omg I love Kurai008. T^T *translates the gist of her frenchy babble*
-They've been at war for so long, so war/hunt/violence/other dangerous things! gods/goddesses baby names are in fashion, and it's not necessarily seen as extremely feminine/weak to be a guy named for Athena or Diana, because, *WAR* goddesses. (i mean, there might be some teasing. But.) Most kids will become soldiers at some point, so, in a way, protection. (Later on, gods being in fashion, softer gods' names might have started appearing as well.)
-"As well, with 500 years of war, this AU's society might have become almost totally militarized at some point and so almost all human resources served the war effort. Since the story happens at the end of the war, the characters might have simply stayed in the spirit of "(almost) everyone goes to war at some point" without thinking about it too much, since that was mostly what society as a whole has known for the last centuries. Now that they have to scale back their involvement in military things, problems appear."
=> eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee yes yes yes yes yes YES. *flails with glee*
Also I should totally show that even civilians are drilled often on emergency procedures and where to go for shelter, and they take it more seriously than we would and a lot of them aren't half as laid back as we would, not being sure of their safety as we are. They've been at it for a long while now so they're very organized about it and by now it's tradition/custom/just how people are raised. Oh yeah. *_*