Tell me about your WIP

[Sheilawisz]

Hey CatholicCrow, great thread.

My WIP at the moment is called Alice into Darkness. It's my own Alice in Wonderland story, except that there are many differences when compared to the original: My Alice is twenty-two years old when she travels to the Fantasy world (which is called Wander's Land) for a second time, and she is red-haired and also suffers from a severe form of colorblindness.

She happens to be a murderous psychopath, as well!

It's a weird and creepy story, something very different from most of my other works. You can find it at the Showcase, in case you are curious about it... Alice into Darkness is already more than 57 thousand words long, and there is still a lot more to come. I think that it's going to be the longest work that I have shared here in Mythic Scribes.

After this story I am probably going to start Freya 7 but that is a very different thing.

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

Loving hearing about all the stories here.

 

[Michael K. Eidson]

My WIP is about the efforts of a sorceress, Lady Ryley, to restore the god Pyrsloe as head of the world's pantheon. Pyrsloe was once known as the Torturer, but has lost that title. Restoration of the title involves the ritual sacrifice of a thief who stole Pyrsloe's symbol of power two thousand years ago and caused the god's downfall. After all this time, the thief isn't around anymore, so the fatal punishment is to be levied against a married man named Alonso. He's a reincarnation of the thief. Several past lives separate Alonso from the thief of old, but that won't adversely affect the success of the ritual, and might even strengthen it.

Locket is a young woman who can walk in other people's dreams. Lady Ryley has been Locket's benefactor for five years, ever since the sorceress rescued Locket from the house fire that killed Locket's parents. The sorceress asks Locket to spy on Alonso's dreams to help determine the best way to emotionally torture him as part of the ritual. Locket refuses to help Lady Ryley, but then she starts spying on Alonso's dreams out of her own curiosity.

In due course, Locket discovers that the ancient theft was carried out by two lovers, Lord Sunspark and Lady Rainseeker. Alonso is a reincarnation of Lord Sunspark. Guess who's a reincarnation of Lady Rainseeker. You can guess where this is headed.

Tehn Khar, the god of rebirth, is the current leader of the pantheon. He and the other gods don't want Pyrsloe to be restored as their leader, but they must tread carefully so as not to start an all-out religious war or, worse yet, lose status themselves. There's a prophecy involved, and Lady Fate isn't about to let the other gods interfere with it, or she'll lose status. With the gods, status is everything.

That's the main plot. There are numerous side plots intricately interwoven with the main plot. There are at least nine different viewpoint characters that I can think of now, including one of the gods.

The story is with beta readers now. I've received great feedback from a couple of them so far, and know some changes that I'll want to make, but I'm waiting to make any changes until I receive feedback from those who are still reading. After four years of writing and revising, I'm so excited to be at this stage of the publishing process with my debut novel, which is Book 1 of a planned series. Book 2 is halfway written.

 

[Miskatonic]

I can sum it up in one sentence: A ton of fleshed out ideas and zero confidence to write them.

 

[TheCrystallineEntity]

I just spend that last four years working on my epic fantasy novel The Crystal Heart, which is far too complex to explain in one sitting.
My current work in progress is collecting various short stories and poems into one book [now entitled Phantom Life] while also writing my newest 'big' story, which doesn't have a title so far. My newest book is about a genderless being [Kanna] who is found and rescued by a cheerful, child-like creature [Satori], and the two gradually bond while they live together in a very peculiar and wacky wizardry village and Satori tries very hard to take care of Kanna, since the latter is still recovering from near catatonia. The two are linked in many different ways, and are assisted [as much as cryptic comments can assist] by three mysterious feminine beings and twelve ghostly cats. Meanwhile, across the realm [which so far doesn't have a name!], everything is turning to crystal, and no one knows why.

My books always have at least three-five rules:

1) Dead characters stay dead [unless they reincarnate]
2) There are always crystals, cats, braided hair, cloaks, spiritualism, mystical energy/magic, and angelic, healing beings. Oh, and everyone has bizarre skin colours/hair colours and are often energy beings.
3) No sex, ever. :skull:oop: Beings reproduce by energy fusion.
4) There is always multiple 'Mega-Twists' throughout the story, which all need good foreshadowing

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

I just spend that last four years working on my epic fantasy novel The Crystal Heart, which is far too complex to explain in one sitting.
My current work in progress is collecting various short stories and poems into one book [now entitled Phantom Life] while also writing my newest 'big' story, which doesn't have a title so far. My newest book is about a genderless being [Kanna] who is found and rescued by a cheerful, child-like creature [Satori], and the two gradually bond while they live together in a very peculiar and wacky wizardry village and Satori tries very hard to take care of Kanna, since the latter is still recovering from near catatonia. The two are linked in many different ways, and are assisted [as much as cryptic comments can assist] by three mysterious feminine beings and twelve ghostly cats. Meanwhile, across the realm [which so far doesn't have a name!], everything is turning to crystal, and no one knows why.

My books always have at least three-five rules:

1) Dead characters stay dead [unless they reincarnate]
2) There are always crystals, cats, braided hair, cloaks, spiritualism, mystical energy/magic, and angelic, healing beings. Oh, and everyone has bizarre skin colours/hair colours and are often energy beings.
3) No sex, ever. :skull:oop: Beings reproduce by energy fusion.
4) There is always multiple 'Mega-Twists' throughout the story, which all need good foreshadowing

Your writing sounds amazing. The ideas, anyway. I'd like to read this stuff.

How'd you come up with those rules, though? Why do you have them? I don't have any rules to govern my writing...but I totally agree about the dead characters staying dead!! I'll probably break that rule someday though...that's why I don't make rules, lol.

 

[TheCrystallineEntity]

Thank you kindly. Of the few people who have read my work, they mainly comment on the good descriptions yet somewhat confusing narrative [my writing is often as dense as Tolkien sometimes!]
I'm not sure where the rules came from; they sort of amassed throughout the years. Clamp manga gave me the idea about making sure dead characters stay dead, come to think of it [specifically, Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle].

 

[Futhark]

My project is a little cliché, but that's because I want to do a more classical fantasy. I aim to hit the old tropes head on with a twist and a modern edge. It's about two young men, Natan and Boshen, who have great ability, opportunity, and enthusiasm. They are part of a nation of clans that are returning to power in their corner of the world. It has an eastern feel as it is inspired in part by the anime Naruto. Honour is very important. Natan is a Runecaster, but his anxiety limits his abilities, and he feels he is disappointing his family. Boshen is basically a samurai/ranger (fumida?). Natan has a near death experience and it gives him glimpses of the future. He is not chosen because he is special, he is just in the wrong place at the wrong time with the right aptitude. So he becomes the author of prophecy, and the agent at the same time. Meanwhile, Boshen is bitten by a supernatural critter and starts to become was he has been taught is evil. Somehow their fates intertwine and they stop the big bad. In the end they are feared and reviled, chained and exiled, but somehow more free than at the start.

However, I have to admit, I'm really struggling with actually writing. I love the world building side, everything from tectonic plates to technological advancement to cultural diffusion. Nations view the same event differently, legends get warped, adapted and adopted, there's trade routes, lost knowledge, and a system that is flexible enough to incorporate pretty much whatever I want.

BUT

I can't write. I know I just need to practice, but it is so frustrating when your a systems (or pattern) learner, and writing is a linear format. It don't process well. I was going to start with a prologue to introduce the bad guy and his long game, but I think I will drop that. Reviewing my notes for the first chapter I realised that it serves the same function in that it describes the fundamentals of runecasting, only it starts with Natan going through his last test at the temple. There is little dialogue because he's in a transitional stage and there's not many people in his life and, I don't know. I feel like I'm telling someone how the house was built instead of showing it to them.

Anyway, sorry for the rant, just had to get it off my chest.

 

[Alyssa]

I can sum it up in one sentence: A ton of fleshed out ideas and zero confidence to write them.

This, so much this.

My project is a dystopic high fantasy. 300 years ago a war precipitated the death of almost all the worlds magicians and the loss of most of their magical language (except among those who survive), however, due to magic being a recessive trait, new magicians were eventually born, without knowledge of the language. As such they were easily enslaved, becoming human energy sources that were used to power a magical industrial revolution. 300 years later, there's been a boom in agriculture and population. Greater urbanisation and a huge boost in military as magic obviates the need for workers in certain fields. An empire has developed around the source of the industrial revolution, connected by railways and a magical telegraph system. Meanwhile, despite the advances, due to the limitations of the magical language and the fact that a few individuals hold an absolute monopoly on it, progress, while initially advancing relatively rapidly has stagnated to a point where there's been no new developments for decades. The free distribution of magical power sources has made it impractical to develop a chemical industrial revolution, as there can be no profit in it and thus, no competition.

The gods have been gone for centuries, and being directly interventionist gods prior to their disappearance, belief in them has dropped precipitously, greater than if they had never actually interfered at all. Coupled with the inculcation of the belief that they were constructs created by magicians to enslave the rest of society has led to many religions disappearing entirely, and the rest becoming endangered species.

As such the world is one where there are new railways, machines, towering buildings and sprawling industrial complexes, against a backdrop of crumbling temples and the ruined schools of magic, the largest of which (the Factory) is now ironically used as the centralized workhouse of the entire enslaved magical underclass as they produce magical power to fuel the empire's lifestyle.

The war, which killed many civilians as well, caused a massive suspicion of magic in general. Coupled with the boost in technology it has led to a total extermination of the greater dragons and the keeping of the lesser dragons as pets, or ersatz-furnaces in luxury metalworking.

The dwarves are a conquered race, subject to extreme discrimination. Driven out of their cities and their Delves they have only recently been permitted to work in state-run mines (which are often their own Delves), although some find a place in circuses. Their knowledge of metallurgy has been stolen, and applied in the industrial machine on an epic scale (i.e. no more dwarven smiths)

Elves have disappeared entirely, with no idea where they've gone.

The boost in technology has allowed for the mass production of boats with metal plated hulls, a necessary defense against a race of aquatic insectoids called the Fisherfolk, which have a tendency to bore hulls in ships and sink them. As such there is now a nascent naval power for the first time in the history of this world and with the main continent mostly conquered it is now seeking to expand into new territories rumored to exist across the seas.

Expansion into the Southern Deserts, beyond the Greyrise Mountain range (which is the source of the magical crystals essentially used as batteries - surprise, they're harvested from sentient magical creatures) led to the discovery of giant humanoid rock formations which have been crippled and domesticated into being walking collectors for a windblown narcotic found exclusively in the desert, known as Dust, which is used widely throughout the empire.


Now, for the main gist of the story. An enslaved magician girl, Aia, is transported to power the railways (the most powerful magicians are taken away from the Factory and stationed on the trains to ensure that the empires transport system never stops) but manages to escape into the Southern Desert, which because of its distance and relative inaccessibility has maintained a measure of independence. Finding a small group of sympathetic individuals (mostly dwarves - because of the way they're discriminated against). From here she sets out to free her fellow magicians from the Factory, blighted by the fact that her magic is running amok in sympathy with her emotions (as it's not being drained by continual work, and is building up) but finds that 1: some magicians, despite living a horrendous life of hunger, fear and exhaustion, are terrified to leave. 2: that their rebellion will result in the total grinding to a halt of the empire's machinery, transportation and agriculture. Resulting in an artificial Malthusian Catastrophe and an even greater hatred of magicians.

With no way to use their collective magic (despite causing a disaster by its withdrawal) they try to track down the missing gods (the only ones that they suspect can teach them magic, now that knowledge of it has faded from the world) with their overflowing magic causing minor natural disasters all around them. Some feel guilty about the devastation they've caused and turn themselves in, to continue a life of slavery. While others continue to find a way to achieve ultimate power (the fear of this eventuality coming around again, being what had led to their enslavement), in order to finally be free.

There are 2 other MCs as well and their points of view, but I think this sums it up pretty well... there's something wrong with me... I'm just a bad, bad person.

 

[TheCrystallineEntity]

Now I am working on a new story. I wrote mostly half of it in a week, but then only kept around 20% of what I had written, if that. It is a quiet, unassuming, poignant tale about a genderless, semi-mythical being named Oueyia, who embarks on a quest to find their missing heart, accompanied by their beloved Kisa, an emotionally and physically scarred, mute girl; Kisa's bickering grandfathers, Annys and Oak; and Oak's feline familiar, Katea, who is definitely more than she seems. The trouble is, no one really knows where Oeuyia's heart actually is, and so they just end up wandering aimlessly for awhile until it becomes apparent that Oeuyia will die painfully without it. Shortly thereafter, Oeuyia is forced to make a heart-rending decision as certain revelations come to light.

 

[ThinkerX]

Futhark and Alyssa (and others) -

You are not alone. Writing a major epic is intimidating. Hence, 'Iron Pen,' and its successor, 'Top Scribe.'

'Iron Pen' was created at this site years ago to help budding authors hone their writing skills, to weave disparate elements together, and most importantly, to get them to finish a tale, even if it was a 'mere' short story. I participated in most editions of Iron Pen, and even helped judge a couple.

When Iron Pen went away, I took note of the budding writers appearing on this site, and decided that challenge needed to be revived. Hence, I started Top Scribe last year. Top Scribe took the holiday season off, but now it is back, with a February edition - check it out in the 'Challenges' sub forum.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

Here's the Blurb in Progress for Faerie Rising, the First Book of Binding, which we finished YESTERDAY!!!!

Winter Mulcahy is many things to Seahaven, Washington. The City of Peace. The city with the highest per capita preternatural population in the world. She is a physician. Wizard. A woman trying to survive a personal apocalypse while being the last flickering light of law keeping chaos at bay.

She holds the city together by the skin of her teeth, the blood of her friends, and an addiction to stimulants that is killing her. The young wizard is approached by a tarnished faerie knight who claims that her city is harboring a fugitive who has kidnapped a prince, and that he is on a mission to rescue the boy.

They investigate, and what they find are wild magic, rifts between realms, and the deadly waters of preternatural politics all colliding to rip the city both figuratively and literally apart.

She's losing the fight with her personal demons. He's been hiding from his for centuries. Together are they strong enough to save the city and themselves?

 

[Malik]

My WIP is Book II of my series, titled The New Magic. Blurb in progress follows. I'll have to rework it so that it makes sense if you haven't read the first one. It's harder than I thought it would be.

“Tell me who you ride beside, and I'll tell you who you are.”
- Falconsrealm proverb

Former stuntman and swordmaster Jarrod Torrealday is now Lord Protector of Falconsrealm and a knight officer in the Order of the Stallion. He awakens one glorious fall morning to find his castle under siege and his alliances shattered as a new threat rises in the west.

As Gateskeep rocks on its heels under a revolution he thought he’d averted, and foreign armies push into the borderlands, Jarrod must choose between siding with a sworn enemy for the greater good of the realm, or risking total war to save the life of an old friend.

I'm on my second draft, which is a total rewrite; the first draft was mostly crap. Some scenes were in present tense, some were just pictures that I found on fantasy sites to tell me what I wanted to put in there. I started a complete rewrite from a blank page about a month ago and I'm at 50K words right now. I have the story; it's just a matter of picking the right words and putting them in the right order this time.

 

[Garren Jacobsen]

I have 4 WIPs.

1) Blood Iron- presently in the rewrite stage. This book is abbout a young man that has a disease that makes him an outcast. He struggled with who he is. Goes to college and joins a magic MMA college sponsored fight club. But also joins a terrorist organization. He leaves the organization and eventually fights against the terrorists.

2) The Fallen-In the initial drafting stage. This is about a young man and his three friends. They were born into a religiously sanctioned thieving clan. Their clan is murdered in chapter 3. The boy finds out that he's a mage. He kills the man who betrayed his clan. Rips the soul away from a friend he made while spying on the friend's home country. And eventually becomes a despot of three different nations.

3) Father Novel (working title)-This is in the prewrite and early drafting stage. It's about a middle aged father who chased after his sons kidnappers. The bad guys are trying to sacrifice a two year old to summon a demon. The father is also an angel of death.

4) magic lawyer novel (working title)-this is in the world building stage. The magic system is based on property law (so how you get magic depends upon your treatment of and access to real property.). The three main characters are a lawyer,a politician, and a soldier. The lawyer takes a case for a client that could change the concept of magazines c. The politician uncovers a huge corporate conspiracy. The soldier goes on a more traditional quest.

 

[Insolent Lad]

My current WIP (unless I get sidetracked) is not speculative fiction at all but a bit of 'chick-lit' that should appear under a pen name. No need to go into that! But I have some projects in development — one is an SF/spy novel (shades of Poul Andersen) set on a world set up according to distributist concepts, possibly to be titled 'Feudal Planet.' And sequels to many of my other novels are in one stage of development or another — a new Polynesian-themed fantasy in my Mora series is a certainty.

 

[TheCatholicCrow]

I'm on my second draft, which is a total rewrite; the first draft was mostly crap. Some scenes were in present tense, some were just pictures that I found on fantasy sites to tell me what I wanted to put in there. I started a complete rewrite from a blank page about a month ago and I'm at 50K words right now. I have the story; it's just a matter of picking the right words and putting them in the right order this time.

Can't even describe how much I relate to this hahaha

 

[Chessie]

@ AE Lowan: congratulations on finishing your novel. High five!

So yay, I've started a new novel. Back to fantasy this time and it's good to be writing in my world again. The story is a fantasy romance based loosely on Beauty & the Beast. I know, I know. But I've always wanted to write a twist to this fairytale. I still haven't decided yet where the rose bush will come into play. There are some ideas floating in my head...one in specific that'll probably make the cut. For now, I'm just writing the story according to what's been marinating in my noggin'. Letting the idea sit for a few months always seems to be what works for me. I outlined the last two novels I wrote but will be pantsing this one, looks like. I'll also be putting it up on Wattpad and giving that another go. -_-

 

[TheCrystallineEntity]

I suddenly stopped writing my second fantasy novel [roughly more than halfway, just when it was getting funny, too[, and and now working on a new story entitled Hatchling. For once I came up with the title right at the start instead of at the end.

 

[Ronald T.]

After being gone for a month or so, I'm finally back from the necessary tunnel-vision I needed in order to complete my second E-book tasks. They always seem to take forever. I'm not that good at multi-tasking, so if I want to get something done in a timely fashion, I have to focus down on the challenge at hand.

For the last few weeks I've had to place all my social networking on the back burner while I did a final edit on A DIRE ONUS. It's only a couple of pages short of six hundred, so it takes awhile. Plus, I had to write and edit all my front and back matter for the new E-book, and that takes a huge amount of time as well.

I'm so glad to be back with all of you here at Scribes. My posting might be a little sporadic now and again, because I trying to finish the last hundred pages of book #3, already weighing in at five hundred pages. I feel that six hundred pages is a good size for my novels -- not too long and not too short.

I'm waiting for the formatter to send me my formatted E-book, A DIRE ONUS, Book #2 in my epic-fantasy series, "The Blood-Rune Saga". It's supposed to arrive some time this week, and I'm beside myself with excitement. Of course, then I have to go over the entire formatted work to make certain there are no formatting errors. It seems the work never ends.

Book #1, THE UNNAMED RUNE, came out last September. And if all goes as planned, book #3 will be ready for e-publication by the end of this year.

But you know what they say about plans..."Plan in one hand and sh..." Well, you get the idea.

As always, my best to all of you. I hope to be more active here once again, at least, moderately so.

Keep dreaming my friends, and may all your dreams be fulfilled.

 

[Michael K. Eidson]

^ 600 pages. Yikes. For my own reading pleasure, I seldom buy anything longer than 400 pages, and prefer books around 300 pages. That's primarily because my time for reading is limited, and I don't like to be reading only one book for more than a month.