.316 x writing plans & such
First of all, I admit to my shame: I am watching High School Musical 3 right now. What? What? (Dude it's already seriously corny and it just started.)
Right, so John and I decided to challenge each other to write a short story worthy (after revisal) of being submitted to Writers of the Future. Tonight we're posting a selection of ideas from which we'll help each other pick which story to actually write, and by Saturday night (midnight) we're supposed to write the story in 3,000 - 5,000 words. After that we'll help revise each other's stories.
Um yeah.
Please note that the titles are pretty incidental. They may not relate to the corresponding stories at all now that I've brainstormed them further.
survival (at cost)
This deals with my concept of old Eysurian magic, which is powered by will and the rule systems accepted by human societies. Thus, practicing magic within the rules accepted by the society you are in requires relatively little exertion of power, but practicing magic according to the rules you were raised with in the wilderness away from society is very difficult--and trying to practice your home magic in a foreign society whose rules clash with your own is pretty much impossible. Extended or extremely powerful magic use creates mageglow, which often leads to withdrawal when the magic ceases; perpetual mageglow, achieved by a mild but constant flow of magic in an attempt to avoid withdrawal and maintain the high, gradually drags the mind (and more importantly the soul) down into insanity.
Anyway, the story is one of those vicious cycles. The lead was driven from his society by a powerful (but insane) mage, and he decides to practice on his own in the wilderness to strengthen his power and his will... but of course he ends up following in the footsteps of the very mage he's trying to go back to defeat, maintaining mageglow to "increase his power" until eventually he starts going mad. Not sure how to end it; the threat of withdrawal is absolutely fatal to mages performing extended mageglow dragging, so perhaps he eventually (with some remaining spark of sanity) realizes the path he's headed down and lets his magic lapse rather than become the next ... whoever the mage he sought out to stop was.
the eshari - bonding
The eshari are an Eysurian species of desert-dwellers. They are, as a whole, hermaphroditic, or perhaps it's best described as the majority of them having only one gender that is a medium between male and female. But a small portion of them are born male and female. The thing is, once a pair of the male and female eshari mate and conceive, they merge into one being, hermaphroditic like the rest of their race. For a time these males and females were considered inferior, but eventually they became the ruling class of the eshari because they are so much more fertile than typical eshari, even once they merge. But of course there is a distinct anxiety in young males and females at the idea of merging: do they lose themselves? Sure, they will become one, but what will it be like to never be able to touch one another, caress one another, make love to one another again?
I'm not sure precisely what to do with this yet. I'm thinking it will concern this pair of eshari royals who defected and end up manipulating one of my book main characters into conquering the surrounding kingdoms, including their own. These are a pair enraptured by constant mageglow, much like the mage in the above plot. They were going to be women, but what with the constant presence of male couples in my books, I'm thinking of making them a man and a woman who cannot make love for fear of bonding into one (or perhaps who use magic to forcibly stop conception, which partially accounts for the mageglow). I'm not sure though. Lesbians might be an equally refreshing break from gay male couples. Heh.
facing a realm walker
Realm walkers are Eysuria's "gods." They are not exactly gods, but they are very powerful. They are composed of a matrix of material, soul, and magic (the three base elements of my world), plus Consciousness, which is more present in them than in mankind. Consciousness can be equated to God in a way, but is more accurately described as the connecting force between everything--love, or that feeling that lets you know when someone's eyes are on your back, or what have you. Because they are composed of these elements in a different way than humans, who are more like an overlaying of soul and matter with access to magic and a wisp of Consciousness, they can actually walk the realms, meaning that space is like nothing to them; they can go from here to there at a thought by following the magic, and change their physical manifestation at will. However, they are in large part influenced by human belief in them. They can exist in neutrality just fine, but if humans believe in them and pray to them, it empowers them; by contrast, if humans for some reason believe them weak and impotent, it actually does weaken them.
So this story would be about a society that has lost faith in its god because the realm walker, who had grown disinterested with human society, stopped responding to them. One of the faithful, however, tracked the realm walker down and appealed to him, trying to get him to return to his people, as if he was punishing them for their lack of faith rather than just losing interest. So at first the human is completely enamored by his god, but then the god begins to get across his point to the human: he is not omnipotent, he is not that powerful, and he is not interested in that society anymore. The more he makes this point, the less enamored the human becomes with him, and the less mystical the human sees him; since the human is, at this point, the only one with any real belief about the realm walker, his change in belief begins to make the realm walker more human. But he still tries to argue his point, and the realm walker admires both his tenacity and is intrigued by the fact that this simple human is turning him almost human himself. So as the human's infatuation wanes, the god's grows... a sort of paradox or irony, in that the things they like about each other are not what they like about themselves. I think in the end the god would go back to being a god in order to please this human he grows to care about so much, but it will distance them, and while the human will grow to love the god again, the god will just feel... I dunno. Hollow.
Asher
Asher is a character from the first of my planned books in Eysuria. He was sent to World's End as little more than a child from the Black Coast as a plant, meant to head the empress' Obsidian Whips and appear to be loyal to her but in fact remain loyal to the Black Coast and ensure that the Whips are more loyal to him than to the empress. The trouble is, he felt no real allegiance to the Black Coast. He was effectively raised in World's End, and at least there he was upper class as a bronzeskin as opposed to sometimes-middle-class as he would have been in the Black Coast. In fact, he grows to love the empress as a daughter-sister-lover (he's not really sure which), and though he does make the Whips loyal more to him than anyone else, he himself becomes pretty loyal to the empress.
Only she takes this for granted, and she finds out Asher's connections to the Black Coast and uses him as a tool to turn around on those who would have used him against her. Well, eventually he gets tired of being used. He takes his Whips and goes to a power who can use his help but not use him: Aerlun, a former Whip, who has freed an entire city of the Black Coast's slaves and is setting up a rebellion.
So those are the ideas, albeit in need of paring down and being stated more concisely.
This guy I knew in middle school contacted me on Facebook and he's really pestering me to meet up some time, it's annoying. He's into writing some too, and mentioned he hadn't written much lately, so I mentioned to him what John and I are doing in case he wanted to set a similar challenge for himself, or kind of piggyback on ours. And his reponse (after lots of questions about what I thought was a very simple idea) was that maybe the three of us should meet and discuss it. I don't know, it wouldn't bother me except he seems pretty pushy about it. I wouldn't recognize him if I saw him (his facebook picture is like... some knight's armor), and I completely remembered his name wrong up until he reminded me of who he was... I mean it's not that big a deal, what the hell?
Anyway.
Right, so John and I decided to challenge each other to write a short story worthy (after revisal) of being submitted to Writers of the Future. Tonight we're posting a selection of ideas from which we'll help each other pick which story to actually write, and by Saturday night (midnight) we're supposed to write the story in 3,000 - 5,000 words. After that we'll help revise each other's stories.
Um yeah.
Please note that the titles are pretty incidental. They may not relate to the corresponding stories at all now that I've brainstormed them further.
survival (at cost)
This deals with my concept of old Eysurian magic, which is powered by will and the rule systems accepted by human societies. Thus, practicing magic within the rules accepted by the society you are in requires relatively little exertion of power, but practicing magic according to the rules you were raised with in the wilderness away from society is very difficult--and trying to practice your home magic in a foreign society whose rules clash with your own is pretty much impossible. Extended or extremely powerful magic use creates mageglow, which often leads to withdrawal when the magic ceases; perpetual mageglow, achieved by a mild but constant flow of magic in an attempt to avoid withdrawal and maintain the high, gradually drags the mind (and more importantly the soul) down into insanity.
Anyway, the story is one of those vicious cycles. The lead was driven from his society by a powerful (but insane) mage, and he decides to practice on his own in the wilderness to strengthen his power and his will... but of course he ends up following in the footsteps of the very mage he's trying to go back to defeat, maintaining mageglow to "increase his power" until eventually he starts going mad. Not sure how to end it; the threat of withdrawal is absolutely fatal to mages performing extended mageglow dragging, so perhaps he eventually (with some remaining spark of sanity) realizes the path he's headed down and lets his magic lapse rather than become the next ... whoever the mage he sought out to stop was.
the eshari - bonding
The eshari are an Eysurian species of desert-dwellers. They are, as a whole, hermaphroditic, or perhaps it's best described as the majority of them having only one gender that is a medium between male and female. But a small portion of them are born male and female. The thing is, once a pair of the male and female eshari mate and conceive, they merge into one being, hermaphroditic like the rest of their race. For a time these males and females were considered inferior, but eventually they became the ruling class of the eshari because they are so much more fertile than typical eshari, even once they merge. But of course there is a distinct anxiety in young males and females at the idea of merging: do they lose themselves? Sure, they will become one, but what will it be like to never be able to touch one another, caress one another, make love to one another again?
I'm not sure precisely what to do with this yet. I'm thinking it will concern this pair of eshari royals who defected and end up manipulating one of my book main characters into conquering the surrounding kingdoms, including their own. These are a pair enraptured by constant mageglow, much like the mage in the above plot. They were going to be women, but what with the constant presence of male couples in my books, I'm thinking of making them a man and a woman who cannot make love for fear of bonding into one (or perhaps who use magic to forcibly stop conception, which partially accounts for the mageglow). I'm not sure though. Lesbians might be an equally refreshing break from gay male couples. Heh.
facing a realm walker
Realm walkers are Eysuria's "gods." They are not exactly gods, but they are very powerful. They are composed of a matrix of material, soul, and magic (the three base elements of my world), plus Consciousness, which is more present in them than in mankind. Consciousness can be equated to God in a way, but is more accurately described as the connecting force between everything--love, or that feeling that lets you know when someone's eyes are on your back, or what have you. Because they are composed of these elements in a different way than humans, who are more like an overlaying of soul and matter with access to magic and a wisp of Consciousness, they can actually walk the realms, meaning that space is like nothing to them; they can go from here to there at a thought by following the magic, and change their physical manifestation at will. However, they are in large part influenced by human belief in them. They can exist in neutrality just fine, but if humans believe in them and pray to them, it empowers them; by contrast, if humans for some reason believe them weak and impotent, it actually does weaken them.
So this story would be about a society that has lost faith in its god because the realm walker, who had grown disinterested with human society, stopped responding to them. One of the faithful, however, tracked the realm walker down and appealed to him, trying to get him to return to his people, as if he was punishing them for their lack of faith rather than just losing interest. So at first the human is completely enamored by his god, but then the god begins to get across his point to the human: he is not omnipotent, he is not that powerful, and he is not interested in that society anymore. The more he makes this point, the less enamored the human becomes with him, and the less mystical the human sees him; since the human is, at this point, the only one with any real belief about the realm walker, his change in belief begins to make the realm walker more human. But he still tries to argue his point, and the realm walker admires both his tenacity and is intrigued by the fact that this simple human is turning him almost human himself. So as the human's infatuation wanes, the god's grows... a sort of paradox or irony, in that the things they like about each other are not what they like about themselves. I think in the end the god would go back to being a god in order to please this human he grows to care about so much, but it will distance them, and while the human will grow to love the god again, the god will just feel... I dunno. Hollow.
Asher
Asher is a character from the first of my planned books in Eysuria. He was sent to World's End as little more than a child from the Black Coast as a plant, meant to head the empress' Obsidian Whips and appear to be loyal to her but in fact remain loyal to the Black Coast and ensure that the Whips are more loyal to him than to the empress. The trouble is, he felt no real allegiance to the Black Coast. He was effectively raised in World's End, and at least there he was upper class as a bronzeskin as opposed to sometimes-middle-class as he would have been in the Black Coast. In fact, he grows to love the empress as a daughter-sister-lover (he's not really sure which), and though he does make the Whips loyal more to him than anyone else, he himself becomes pretty loyal to the empress.
Only she takes this for granted, and she finds out Asher's connections to the Black Coast and uses him as a tool to turn around on those who would have used him against her. Well, eventually he gets tired of being used. He takes his Whips and goes to a power who can use his help but not use him: Aerlun, a former Whip, who has freed an entire city of the Black Coast's slaves and is setting up a rebellion.
So those are the ideas, albeit in need of paring down and being stated more concisely.
This guy I knew in middle school contacted me on Facebook and he's really pestering me to meet up some time, it's annoying. He's into writing some too, and mentioned he hadn't written much lately, so I mentioned to him what John and I are doing in case he wanted to set a similar challenge for himself, or kind of piggyback on ours. And his reponse (after lots of questions about what I thought was a very simple idea) was that maybe the three of us should meet and discuss it. I don't know, it wouldn't bother me except he seems pretty pushy about it. I wouldn't recognize him if I saw him (his facebook picture is like... some knight's armor), and I completely remembered his name wrong up until he reminded me of who he was... I mean it's not that big a deal, what the hell?
Anyway.