Hello.

[Shaun b.]

I'm guessing just like the majority of the people here I would like to write a novel.

I've a torrent of random ideas, characters settings and scenes. All of them sketchy at best and confused at worst. Hopefully this forum can help me sort through them, perhaps I can even work out if there is enough to tell a story.

The idea started out when I decided I wanted to write a novel for my son and snowballed from there. I've always been a fan of epics and really enjoy the darker grittier side of fantasy.

I'm from the grim North Eastern coast of England, I'm thirty years old, by night I'm a manager and by day I'm usually sleeping.

Truth be told I'm feeling a little scared and out of my depth.

So um, yeah, .... hello.

 

[CupofJoe]

Hello Shaun b.
Welcome to MS.
There should be lots of help, advice and encouragement to be found here.
We don't bite [even if you ask nicely]

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

Dark & gritty... that's just my cup of tea (Sorry CupofJoe).

You will find lots of helpful people here.

Fear is normal. Any author that tells you they don't have a tinge of fear or apprehension every time they sit down to write is full of expletives.

Have you started writing your story yet or are you in the conceptual stage?

 

[Shaun b.]

Thank you for the welcome!

Dark and gritty seems to be the way forward for me. I'm a big Abbercrombie fan, I love the depth of his characters and it's something I would probably pay homage to. I'm fascinated by the brutality of the human condition and my novel will be heavily centralised on the psychology of the characters as they traverse through the story.

I have aspects of the novel planned out already. Primarily I have how I would like it to start, a spattering of the characters involved and how I would like it concluded. I'm in a debate with myself about the setting for the world, so I will probably be asking a lot of seemingly random questions about a wide variety of subjects. The lions share of project is a primordial soup of ideals and values that I would like to explore.

The biggest obstacles I think I will face will be improving my writing technique. I've looked over the forum here at some length, already I have picked up pointers about mistakes I make. It's a learning process, or so I'm lead to believe.

 

[PlotHolio]

The number one thing you should know about dark and gritty fantasy is never to skimp on your monsters. They should be frightening, violent, and dangerously common.

If you're creating a world without monsters, that's a completely different story.

 

[Shaun b.]

The monsters I want to concentrate on are of a more human appearance, for the mean at least. That's not to say we won't see 'monsters' of the traditional sense. I have at least one race waiting in the wings to be encountered, they won't come until much later. I forsee plenty of violence without 'monsters' to be gnawing through.

 

[PlotHolio]

You're already close! By saying that monsters gnaw you've passed the first step. Being eaten alive is one of the things that almost everyone is scared of. It's right up there with being pulled apart.

 

[Lock]

Welcome Shaun! I wish you luck figuring out what happens in the muddle of your story.

 

[Shaun b.]

Thanks! appreciated and hello to you too.

 

[Jaredonian]

Hello and welcome. I'm a fan of a lot of dark fantasy as well (always wanted to read those Abercrombie books, might be my next thing to try). I think one of the important things in keeping dark and gritty stories enjoyable to read is to give your characters some breathers in between their trials. Some grittier books (won't name names) almost become hard to read when the characters we've come to care about are getting flogged without reprieve, at least for myself. And if the situation doesn't call for giving your good guys a break, seeing the bad guys get some pain sent there way can usually mollify your readers.

 

[Shaun b.]

Thanks for the advice. I'm quite interested in the names of those books however, I'm always looking to extend my reading resources. I enjoy this forum so much because I pick up a lot and learn new things by the hour. Lots of experience on these boards!

 

[Jaredonian]

I was talking about GRRM. The books I hate to love.

 

[Shaun b.]

Ah yes! The man come mistress that carried on the affair I started with the writing of Gemmell.