[Sir Esh]

I think I'll need to stop doing this soon, as we keep on growing! But welcome, Ella_Swift, to the Writers' Society

So what is everyone in currently working on? Just a rough outline, perhaps a little something for us to read and comment on...

[Elements]

(Original post by Sir Esh)
I think I'll need to stop doing this soon, as we keep on growing! But welcome, Ella_Swift, to the Writers' Society

So what is everyone in currently working on? Just a rough outline, perhaps a little something for us to read and comment on...

Welcome.

That's a good idea. Shame that my hands are frozen though; am typing in gloves atm.

[Purple]

I am still trying to think of a basic plot I can develop.

[Sir Esh]

(Original post by Elements)
Welcome.

That's a good idea. Shame that my hands are frozen though; am typing in gloves atm.

How on earth do you do that? I tried once when the computer room at school had lost its heating, but found it was far too difficult. . .

What kind of thing are you looking for, kirstinx? genre/characters/length/audience?

[Jayk]

(Original post by kirstinx)
I am still trying to think of a basic plot I can develop.

Bah! Never develop plot first! Develop characters! And then setting! Then do the plot

I always found that to be the easiest way to make stories; although that's likely something to do with me being a Dungeon Master for Dungeons and Dragons; and that's the way you have to think when you're a DM! Yeah; that's how sad I am

[Ella_Swift]

Awsome! Count me in! Wootness..

[Purple]

(Original post by Sir Esh)
How on earth do you do that? I tried once when the computer room at school had lost its heating, but found it was far too difficult. . .

What kind of thing are you looking for, kirstinx? genre/characters/length/audience?

Romantic/2-4 main characters/moderate length/haven't really thought about it

[Sir Esh]

Have you thought about the characters, then? I know next to nothing about romance. Sorry, I do know nothing about romance But I'd guess it's all in the characters, and the conflict. Perhaps the setting as well. Another question you might want to ask yourself is what things from real life you can drag into it. You've got to use your experiences in your books, just so that they are realistic and feasible. But still interesting enough...

Jayk, I took a quick look at your Raiders thing. But realised it's rather long, so only read a bit. I will try to get back to you with some comments. The prologue seemed good, though. Not much I would say to it. I'll read some more some time and let you have my thoughts

[Elements]

(Original post by Ella_Swift)
Awsome! Count me in! Wootness..

Hey. It's great that you like reading alot and oing on The SIMS!;thumbsup; I love the fact that you seem really optimistic and positive too.

[Jayk]

(Original post by Sir Esh)
Jayk, I took a quick look at your Raiders thing. But realised it's rather long, so only read a bit. I will try to get back to you with some comments. The prologue seemed good, though. Not much I would say to it. I'll read some more some time and let you have my thoughts

Kewl; I wasn't demanding it of anyone of course, as it is rather long - I think it's somewhere in the region of 115 pages at the moment, and I'm only about half-way through - so I'm just glad you read the first bit! Oh yeah, and the quality of the writing does go up as it goes along! So don't be disheartened; the prologue and chapter 1 were the very first things I got down, and actually I think I need to re-write them!

As for romance....I have no comment; as apparently my idea of romance only happens in my own little world But I do agree, romance is all about the characters, and how they react to the situations you put them in. So what I said stands, kristin! You should get the characters in your head, and then just pick somewhere where they are (my vote goes to the Scottish Highlands ); then the story should fall into place after a bit of thinking

EDIT: Oh yeah, and I can give you a brief synopsis of The Raider's Dream if you guys like...

[Elements]

(Original post by Jayk Bakner)
Kewl; I wasn't demanding it of anyone of course, as it is rather long - I think it's somewhere in the region of 115 pages at the moment, and I'm only about half-way through - so I'm just glad you read the first bit! Oh yeah, and the quality of the writing does go up as it goes along! So don't be disheartened; the prologue and chapter 1 were the very first things I got down, and actually I think I need to re-write them!

As for romance....I have no comment; as apparently my idea of romance only happens in my own little world But I do agree, romance is all about the characters, and how they react to the situations you put them in. So what I said stands, kristin! You should get the characters in your head, and then just pick somewhere where they are (my vote goes to the Scottish Highlands ); then the story should fall into place after a bit of thinking

EDIT: Oh yeah, and I can give you a brief synopsis of The Raider's Dream if you guys like...

Yes please do.

[Jayk]

The Raider's Dream
Genre: Fantasy/Action & Adventure

Main Influences: Firefly/Serenity, Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World, Pirates of the Caribbean, Indiana Jones, Wheel of Time

I also pulled one idea from Prison Break...though that hasn't come into play yet

Setting:
An original fantasy setting which I made actualy made up about 4 years ago for a roleplaying game that never happened. The world itself has four major cultures - one that have many things in common with European/American culture at the moment, one that is basically just a badly disguised Russian culture (), an oriental culture, and one inspired by the African and Islamic cultures. The whole thing is set basically where the four cultures meet in a huge group of islands in the middle of what I've named the Marlyth Ocean. Basically, it's a very diverse setting! The countries I've used so far are:

Tu'un: Pretty much equates to Great Britain in terms of culture and attitudes, with a few different laws thrown in for good measure. Roughly the size of Ireland.
Targand:I've taken all the bad, bad things about America and Britain, and concentrated them into this country. Roughly the size of Great Britain and Ireland as a whole.
Monath:Huge country, in the Islam/African culture. Generally people from this country are enormous. Roughly four times the size of the UK.
Garnall: A country that is currently split down the middle due to a war with Targand. About the size of Madagascar.
Vatheria:Part of the Russian culture; roughly the size of Texas.
Jahania:Also part of the Russian culture, although not as prominent as Vatheria. Relatively small, about the size of Scotland.

There is Magic (always with a capital 'M'), and the technology level is roughly correspondant to that of about the late 19th century in the real world.

Protagonists (i.e. the people whose perspective I write from):
Captain Jacob 'Jake' Vance: Captain of the eponymous ship, The Raider's Dream. Is an easy-going guy, really; and shockingly enough, he was very little real sailing knowledge - a cunning device so that I didn't have to learn too much about sailing - even though he captains a Freelancing vessel. The boat was a gift from his father, who disappeared under mysterious circumstances when he was four years old. He comes from Tu'un, specifically from the city of Port Racania.
Kaitlyn Ryyk: The Weather Jack (a person who uses Magic to manipulate the weather) of The Raider's Dream. She's a proffesional Mage, and also hails from Port Racania. Her parents died when she was fourteen, and her and her brother have been looking after themselves since then. Jake fancies the crap out of her, and she's not sure whether the feeling is mutual.

Antagonists:
Lieutenant Commander Anthol Thrage:A high ranking member of the navy of a country called Targand. If I go into any more depth, I'll give away the story
Chand Danarra:First Hand of the Port Racania chapter of the Twisted Leopards guild, a Tu'unth crime syndicate that hires freelancers such as Jake Vance to smuggle less-than-legal cargo from place to place. Jake owes him a favour, since he failed to pull of a job in the past for the man.

I'll stick in a plot summary once I can actually get it down to less than a billion words

[Ella_Swift]

Hey. It's great that you like reading alot and oing on The SIMS! I love the fact that you seem really optimistic and positive too.

Thanks! I just got hooked on Sims. It totally rocks!

To Jayk: That's sounds really interesting. I've got only two main characters, all these minor characters and I haven't managed to think up a angtagonist.

[Purple]

I love the Sims but I dont have a copy anymore

[hyper-little-mushroom-men]

Hey Jayk, that sounds intriguing! I'd be interested in reading that, though I haven't time to scratch myself these days... I hate not having enough time to read!

As for what I'm working on... *shamelessly copies and pastes from other thread*

It's set in a country that for centuries has used magic to bind the people to loyalty -- civilians and peasants are free unless they're given a direct order, but the Watch, the military and the nobility are all under quite strict bonds. (Though of course, it all depends on how you interpret your bonds... ) Because of this, there hasn't been a rebellion or any challenge to the royal succession for centuries; there's a lot of magical safeguards surrounding it. The story's set around what happens when the brother of the Queen, a powerful wizard, tries to break the magic surrounding the succession and claim the throne...

It's from the point of view of Erian, a captain of the border watch, who begins to smell a rat when she discovers a huge cover-up about a border breach to the north. Let's just say that she has her own special way of interpreting her commands... She's one of the few who isn't a sheep.

Does anyone else find facets of themselves inadvertantly surfacing in their characters? I've realised that in the as yet unwritten sequel to this, Erian's actions are almost me playing out all the rebelling I never did... the bossy bit of me that rarely sees the light of day. There's a big part of me that wants to stand on top of buildings shouting and leading rebellions, lol. Writing reminds me of acting... finding the bit of me somewhere inside that's a snob, or a coward, or brave, or insane, or rebellious, or vain, and writing it into the characters.

I probably sound schizophrenic.

[Jayk]

(Original post by hyper-little-mushroom-men)
Hey Jayk, that sounds intriguing!

...

Does anyone else find facets of themselves inadvertantly surfacing in their characters? I've realised that in the as yet unwritten sequel to this, Erian's actions are almost me playing out all the rebelling I never did... the bossy bit of me that rarely sees the light of day. There's a big part of me that wants to stand on top of buildings shouting and leading rebellions, lol. Writing reminds me of acting... finding the bit of me somewhere inside that's a snob, or a coward, or brave, or insane, or rebellious, or vain, and writing it into the characters.

I probably sound schizophrenic.

Ditto at yours! Intruiging indeed

And of course! It's part of writing, I think; I invariably have a part of me in all my characters; even the female ones! In fact, I do believe that R.A. Salvatore (who?!?!?!) said 'anyone who claims there's nothing of themselves in the characters that they write is just flat out lying'. I take that to heart

[Purple]

Everyone seems to like fantasy here

[Ella_Swift]

Everyone seems to like fantasy here

Yeah! Go Fantasy! I perfer Medevil (Or Medeval?) Fantasy myself. I've actually done some writing today and I'm happy with it. (I haven't read through it yet.)

Sorry I'm a terrible speller but I have a vast vocabulary though.

[Elements]

(Original post by Jayk Bakner)
The Raider's Dream
Genre: Fantasy/Action & Adventure

Main Influences: Firefly/Serenity, Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World, Pirates of the Caribbean, Indiana Jones, Wheel of Time

I also pulled one idea from Prison Break...though that hasn't come into play yet

Setting:
An original fantasy setting which I made actualy made up about 4 years ago for a roleplaying game that never happened. The world itself has four major cultures - one that have many things in common with European/American culture at the moment, one that is basically just a badly disguised Russian culture (), an oriental culture, and one inspired by the African and Islamic cultures. The whole thing is set basically where the four cultures meet in a huge group of islands in the middle of what I've named the Marlyth Ocean. Basically, it's a very diverse setting! The countries I've used so far are:

Tu'un: Pretty much equates to Great Britain in terms of culture and attitudes, with a few different laws thrown in for good measure. Roughly the size of Ireland.
Targand:I've taken all the bad, bad things about America and Britain, and concentrated them into this country. Roughly the size of Great Britain and Ireland as a whole.
Monath:Huge country, in the Islam/African culture. Generally people from this country are enormous. Roughly four times the size of the UK.
Garnall: A country that is currently split down the middle due to a war with Targand. About the size of Madagascar.
Vatheria:Part of the Russian culture; roughly the size of Texas.
Jahania:Also part of the Russian culture, although not as prominent as Vatheria. Relatively small, about the size of Scotland.

There is Magic (always with a capital 'M'), and the technology level is roughly correspondant to that of about the late 19th century in the real world.

Protagonists (i.e. the people whose perspective I write from):
Captain Jacob 'Jake' Vance:Captain of the eponymous ship, The Raider's Dream. Is an easy-going guy, really; and shockingly enough, he was very little real sailing knowledge - a cunning device so that I didn't have to learn too much about sailing - even though he captains a Freelancing vessel. The boat was a gift from his father, who disappeared under mysterious circumstances when he was four years old. He comes Tu'un, specifically from the city of Port Racania.
Kaitlyn Ryyk: The Weather Jack (a person who uses Magic to manipulate the weather) of The Raider's Dream. She's a proffesional Mage, and also hails from Port Racania. Her parents died when she was fourteen, and her and her brother have been looking after themselves since then. Jake fancies the crap out of her, and she's not sure whether the feeling is mutual.

Antagonists:
Lieutenant Commander Anthol Thrage:A high ranking member of the navy of a country called Targand. If I go into any more depth, I'll give away the story
Chand Danarra:First Hand of the Port Racania chapter of the Twisted Leopards guild, a Tu'unth crime syndicate that hires freelancers such as Jake Vance to smuggle less-than-legal cargo from place to place. Jake owes him a favour, since he failed to pull of a job in the past for the man.

I'll stick in a plot summary once I can actually get it down to less than a billion words

Cool. Sounds really good. I look forward to it.

[Elements]

(Original post by Ella_Swift)
Thanks! I just got hooked on Sims. It totally rocks!

To Jayk: That's sounds really interesting. I've got only two main characters, all these minor characters and I haven't managed to think up a angtagonist.

What SIM expansion packs do you have and are thinking of getting then?