• Welcome to the Fantasy Writing Forums. Register Now to join us!

Tell me about your WIP

If there's one thing writers love, it's talking about our writing. Don't lie - I know you do :) it's okay though because I'd love to hear a bit about what you're working on.

Right now ... I'm working on some flash (it might end up a short) that started out as a story about an old French man and a little boy. Then I realized most of my characters have been Caucasian males lately and the story actually works better in a Latin culture so I'm completely redoing it. And it's so much better!

Now, it's about a Mexican old lady that runs a panaderia (a bakery)... She manages to convince a little girl that her pan dulce is magical. The little girl learns a lesson in hope and it's about pan dulce. Yummy yummy conchas y tortugas. The puerquitos de piloncillo too, but you'd have to be crazy to prefer those to conchas or the big pink cookies... even corn biscuits are better. And now I'm just rambling about food .... moving on!

I've written a few Latino characters before but this is the first piece I've ever written with Spanish. And it has a happy ending which I haven't done in quite some time. Trying new things.

How about you? What have you been up to?


Edit: It occurred to me that some of you might not know what the heck I'm talking about so I thought I'd share a few pictures.
6e110bb4c5d8b5107c4a2ead67f19aba.jpg

Conchas (Shells)

4891240253_5294e2a0cf_z.jpg

Puercos (pigs)

529d395a7aebe6998c1a30eeca97643d.jpg

Tortugas (turtles)
 
Last edited:

Heliotrope

Staff
Article Team
I'm also writing a story with a bit of Mexican flair ;)

Mine is a middle grades (ages 9-13) novel about a seventh grader named Andromeda Rackham who discovers that her dad is the infamous Captain Calico Jack Rackham. In 1720 Jack chased Edward (Blackbeard) Teach into the Aztec Dreamplane when they were both after the lost Noche Triste Treasure. The pirates got stuck in the time/space continuum and crashed their ships in modern day Manhattan.

Jack has been raising the young Andromeda as a single father who is clueless about the generation she is growing up in (like most fathers), and Blackbeard has been hiding as a homeless man performing coin tricks at Union Station.

Mary Read, the third pirate (villain) managed to steal the Noche Triste Treasure from the Dreamplane and has taken over as curator at the Museum of Natural History where she has the treasure closely monitored at all time.

However, monsters from the Dreamplane have followed them out and are eating up people all over Manhattan (including Jack), so Andy and Blackbeard must work together to steal the treasure from the museum and take it back to the Dreamplane.
 
I'm also writing a story with a bit of Mexican flair ;)

Mine is a middle grades (ages 9-13) novel about a seventh grader named Andromeda Rackham who discovers that her dad is the infamous Captain Calico Jack Rackham. In 1720 Jack chased Edward (Blackbeard) Teach into the Aztec Dreamplane when they were both after the lost Noche Triste Treasure. The pirates got stuck in the time/space continuum and crashed their ships in modern day Manhattan...

That sounds really awesome!

Now that I'm thinking about it ... why isn't there more Latino Fantasy? (Magical Realism is big but not straight up Fantasy) Latinos are notoriously superstitious and magic plays a big role in the culture (curses, brujas, palm readers, herbal erm specialists, indigenous religions, Santeria etc. LOL if you've ever seen Nacho Libre - eagle eggs). I love Viking inspired fantasy too but nothing beats changing things up now and then.
 
Last edited:

Heliotrope

Staff
Article Team
I know it's a fascinating culture. And their mix of superstition with Catholicism is equally as fascinating.
 
C

Chessie

Guest
Los puerquitos are so good. Mmm! I'd love to read your flash when you're done and I haven't had the conchas since childhood. YUM. :)

Me? I'm working on what I originally thought would be a 75k novel and realized just last night that it's going to be closer to 90k. That's okay, just means there's a lot to say lol. It's a fantasy romance story based on Vasilia The Beautiful, which is a Russian fairytale.

In the world of Mirovinia, a plague is about to explode. This particular story takes place at the start of it.

Herbalist Ludmila and her partner, Elya (healer), are assigned to assist the only 2 healers in the tiny village of Vikna with their afflicted. After several attempts to create an effective tonic, villagers are still dying and the disease is still spreading. Desperate for a solution, Ludmila risks her life in order to steal a potent herb from Baba Yaga's garden. She is caught in the process by one of the witch's horsemen, and is therefore kept at the hut for 3 days as a slave to "pay" off her debt.

During Ludmila's days with Baba Yaga, she is kept under watch by Sergei, one of the horsemen. There is a connection between them from a previous interaction, so she is able to convince him of helping her infuse her tonics with his healing magic. Sergei's magic doesn't act/perform in the same way that of the Mirovinian healers does, so this is her solution to curing the afflicted.

But Sergei's magic is also witchcraft, which is outlawed and greatly feared in Mirovinia. They meet in secret to infuse the potions and end up forming a love relationship. Their affair is greatly endangered by Elya's intense jealousy and attempts to separate them in any way that he can. And once Baba Yaga becomes aware of Ludmila and Sergei's secret relationship, she is the one that does physically separate them.

The story has a happy ending though. There is plenty of magic and heavy influences from Slavic folklore. I actually woke up this morning thinking about how much I love this novel and what a blast I'm having writing it. Looking forward to the first draft being completed by January 1st, at which time it'll sit for a bit before edits. But I'm definitely going to publish this one.
 

Ireth

Myth Weaver
My NaNo project for this year is Bellringer, a fantasy/LGBT reimagining of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The eponymous bellringer is Diana Harrows, a werewolf who has lived in the belltower of Leeds Parish Church (circa 1540-50 or so) for the past six years, ever since she was bitten. Her captor is the Reverend Matthew Short, her ex-fiancé who entered the clergy after he broke off their engagement because of her "demon possession", as he views it.

Diana lives in terror of him and his abusive ways, until one day she saves a suicidal werewolf from jumping off the church roof. This leads her to flee the church entirely, whereupon she meets Valerie Richards, an alchemist and healer who is allied with the werewolves. She takes Diana with her to the werewolves' Den, where they bond and begin to fall for each other, while Matthew organizes a search for them both -- partly to find the Den, and partly to have Valerie, with whom he has fallen in lust, for himself.

So far it's sitting at almost 32K words, and I'm not sure I can add much more without bloating it out. Guess I'll have to look into the publishing market for novellas if I want to make money off of this one.
 
Last edited:

Nimue

Auror
Aahhhh, I love me a witch/healer story, Chester. Not to mention romance... If you ever need an extra pair of eyes to read that one, I'd be happy to. Also, personal turn-ons aside, your story sounds like a great concept, CatholicCrow--and I like to see how your pirate heist story keeps evolving in new & cool ways, Helio. :D. Ooh, and your bell ringer story, Ireth, also sounds right up my alley, I would totally read that. I like the historical grounding.

I feel like all of my WIPs are more WNIPs, if you know what I mean, but maybe I should make an attempt to summarize my current story outside of my head. I'll tryyyy not to go too long, though I don't particularly care about giving stuff away. I'll start with the beginning of my longline/pitch:

When Lothar, son of the Thane of Tirannon, slays a dark sorcerer, he hopes to end the ancient curse hanging over his land and his family. Instead, his fate will depend on an act of mercy by the same sword-stroke: freeing a changeling witch imprisoned by the sorcerer, who turns into a crow and escapes him.

Safe in the ancient forest of Tirannon, the witch Sabhenna returns to her childhood home and tries to pick up the pieces of her life, and renew her duty as healer and greenwitch to the nearby village. When Lothar hunts her down, he sees her for what she is--not the sorceress he feared--and asks for her help.

In the ruins of the sorcerer's castle, at the stone circle where the remnants of the old Druids still gather, they discover the extent of the curse blighting Tirannon and turning the Thanes that rule the isle into corrupted tyrants--dark magic tied to the golden crown and chain guarded by the sorcerer while he lived, now in the hands of the cruel Thane. In the midst of this dread and doubt, Sabhenna and Lothar fall in love, but Lothar must weigh his desires against the threat over his future, and for him duty will always come first.

In a wild ritual plea to the weakened gods of Tirannon, Sabhenna discovers that the curse can be unmade the same way it was made--with blood and sacrifice. She undertakes this magic alone, but the cost will be greater than she knows, and dooms Lothar before his time. Corrupted and possessed, he begins to destroy everything they fought for, leaving her with but one choice...

</Narrator voice> Heh, that was fun. If only I would finish the ****ing thing....
 
Last edited:

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
I've talked about my WiP for so long now, I won't bring it up again. Let us pass by Goblins at the Gates in a respectful, morose silence.

I'm nearly done with it, so I can talk about my WAtBB (Work About to Be Begun). I have two and am still deciding between them.

Tuck the Unchosen
Tuck is a dwarf who, bored with his life at home, joined a company of somewhat shady adventurers who are on what looks to be a really exciting mission. They have been retained by a plain farm boy with unexpected powers, who was told by an aged wizard that he his the One prophesied to save the kingdom from doom and destruction.

Our story opens with a bit of conundrum because the farm boy lies dead. Killed in his first encounter. There's quite a bit of finger-pointing among the adventurers, but they conclude that Tuck is their man now. This is because he made the mistake of kneeling next to the dying boy, who whispered in his ear. Tuck swears he couldn't understand what the lad said, but it's too late. His comrades decide Tuck is now the Chosen One.

Can an ordinary dwarf with modest magical ability overcome powerful wizards and ferocious monsters to save the kingdom? Of course. But what will be the price?


The Falconer
This is a re-telling of the story of Frederick II of Hohenstaufen. At the age of eighteen, he escaped from royal captivity in Sicily with only a handful of followers, little money, and a claim to the Imperial throne. It tells of his adventures fighting and dodging his way across Italy, then across the Alps into Germany where he fought Otto of Brunswick.

The story has wizards and giants and ambushes and battles, but the real story is about this: is my rival therefore my enemy?


I tell you, with these and other stories standing just outside my door, it's really difficult to force myself to do that one more editing pass through 150,000 words!
 
C

Chessie

Guest
@Nimue, you're totally on my reader list then and you can definitely add me to yours. Our works are very similar in audience and intention. :)

@Ireth: I love that you made them werewolves!
 

Nimue

Auror
@Ches - Oh yeah, stay posted for the first draft in 5 years... *sigh* I do wanna be on the historical-inspired fantasy romance list, though, period!

@skip - Those stories sound like a ton of fun! Like I keep telling myself, a little brainstorming and daydreaming on the side isn't cheating on the Project, right??
 
Uhm...What *am* I writing?? Haha...

I'm writing a post-apocalyptic urban fantasy about a brash, ruthless young street criminal who, after committing murder and being captured in possession of dangerous illegal drugs, gets thrown into a notorious women's prison where inmates rarely survive over a year. There she meets someone who offers to help her escape, but is really recruiting her for an assassin school. It seems like a new start, but she won't be allowed to leave, and the Headmistress is training her students to carry out her sinister secret plans.

Before the apocalypse, the world was ruled by a race of immortal wizards, but the humans overthrew them and now the immortals exist in hibernation beneath the earth. Addiction to a heroin-like drug (that slowly turns people into undead...withdrawals cause a thirst for human flesh) is rampant, and a plague that kills people by inflicting supernatural wounds (that steadily grow more severe as infection progresses) is everywhere. The Headmistress (who is secretly an immortal herself, and has a half-blood son who she keeps a secret) wants to bring back that supposed utopia, but her sister is the leader of an organization that is trying to prevent this from happening. Spoiler alert, they're both evil.

My MC is an arrogant a-hole and I hate her.

Anyway. This has been...interesting.
 
I have at least four other story ideas in the works, though, including the novel in verse idea I mentioned in another thread.

Hahaha yeah ... that sounds familiar. I've got a Noir Thriller novel that's always in the works, a novel I'm ghostwriting for a client, a fantasy short I'm playing around with about a dwarf executioner who hates his job, a trilogy I've abandoned in order to work on the rest and an outline for a cozy murder mystery that needs my attention. Also some literary flash about depression that needs to find a home. Yep ... always lots going on. It's nothing short of a miracle when I manage to actually finish a piece.
 
C

Chessie

Guest
Hahaha yeah ... that sounds familiar. I've got a Noir Thriller novel that's always in the works, a novel I'm ghostwriting for a client, a fantasy short I'm playing around with about a dwarf executioner who hates his job, a trilogy I've abandoned in order to work on the rest and an outline for a cozy murder mystery that needs my attention. Also some literary flash about depression that needs to find a home. Yep ... always lots going on. It's nothing short of a miracle when I manage to actually finish a piece.

You're still ghosting? Good for you! :) I had to give that up in order to focus on my projects, of which I have ton planned. 3 more books in this fantasy romance series (each featuring a different couple) and 3 in a historical romance series. It'll be 2018 before I'm done with those but I also want to do a collection of novelettes for my world. I can't write fast enough to finish them all this year!
 

Svrtnsse

Staff
Article Team
My NaNo project is about a girl who loses her family to the sea and how she deals with it. I decided that it would be a great idea to tell the story from the point of view of the villagers around her, rather than from her own perspective. I still think it's a good idea in theory, but in practice it's not working out very well. All kinds of interesting side stories keep popping up and characters that are completely irrelevant to the main plot are taking up way too much space.
I'll keep going though. It's still fun, and I'm getting a load of ideas for other stories I could write involving these characters.

I also had a minor realisation about my story once after I'd gotten started on it. I'm sure you're familiar with the trope of the young orphan who grows up to become an elite assassin/spy/whatever. What I'm doing here could be the story of how that kid became an orphan and how it put them on their path towards a life in the shadows - or something like that.

It's set in the same setting as all my other stories, but it's geographically distant enough that it won't have any impact on any of them.
 

ThinkerX

Myth Weaver
Currently, for NaNo, I am plodding along with 'Empire: Judgment,' the sixth and last in a series of fantasy novella's with Lovecraftian overtones. (In truth, probably more of a trilogy, given the way the stories piece together.) Anyhow:

Empire: Country - Tia Samos is checking out prospective noble born husbands (her family is comprised of wealthy commoners looking to move up in the world.) With Tia are Sir Peter Cortez, a noble bastard and skilled fighter acting as her bodyguard; her carriage driver Kyle, a huge peasant and former soldier with a knack for minor magic; and her half-gypsy maid Rebecca, who is musically talented. The story opens with them stumbling into the minutes old scene of a bloody massacre on the border of impoverished Cosslet Barony, ruled by Peter's brother Liam, one of Tia's potential marriage prospects. Tia checks out the barony itself while Peter assists his brother in tracking the entity responsible for the massacre. Instead, they find something else. Treachery and horror result. What saves Tia is an unintentional recognition on her part that will haunt her dreams for a long while to come.

Empire: Capital - After the events in 'Country,' Tia and company have been summoned to the Imperial Palace as witnesses. The Emperor takes a dim view of mass slaughter, especially when the victims/perpetrators are aristocrats. The tale opens after the trial proper, just before the verdicts are handed down. But schemes abound in all royal courts, especially this one. The characters individually note little things that do not add up, but don't connect the pieces until its almost too late. The story ends with a barely thwarted assassination of the Emperor by the demons responsible for the massacre in 'Country.'

Empire: Estate - Tia and company are enroute to Corber Port, largest city in the empire. Along the way, they stopped at the estate of the once powerful Bestia family to purchase slaves (former civilian war captives) to be sent to Cosslet province. But there are a lot of odd characters skulking about, and it turns out the supposedly dead/banished demons from the prior stories are still around. Worse, they get the drop on Tia's friends. To save them, she agrees to leave with the demons.

Empire: Metropolis - Takes place in Corber Port, Empires largest city, wracked with massive civil unrest - so severe a major riot/fire a few weeks prior to the story saw a quarter of the city reduced to rubble, and much of the rest prowled by thieves, gangs, and religious zealots. Tia and the demons are living 'common lives' at a villa converted to apartments square in the middle of the devastation. Tia learns domestic skills from the other women while gleaning insights to the demons history. Peter is determined to track Tia down, but is utterly clueless how to do so, plus he keeps getting roped into social events (a fellow knight is getting married). Kyle is studying magic while acting as a witness at the trial of Lysander, a renegade magician. Behind the scenes, a major faction of the clergy has decided that the only thing that will save the empire is divine intervention. To bring this about, they plan to summon large numbers of 'servants of justice' (angels) via a bloody ceremony. What the clergy does not know, but Tia's demonic captors and Lysander do, is this ritual will fail catastrophically. Tia convinces one of the demons to change his mind about this ritual at the literal last minute, just as Peter and Kyle blunder upon them. Instead of a summoning, the spell results in an unstable gate to Dagon's World. Tia, Peter, Kyle, and the Demon (complicated) are drawn through.

Empire: Spiral - Most of this novella is set on Dagon's world, a barely habitable planet whose night sky is dominated by a massive spiral galaxy. Here, Tia, Kyle, and Peter spend time in the island city of Carcosa, seat of the alien King in Yellow, and later bounce around Lake Dehme, looking for a way back to their world. Eventually, Peter learns of such a portal, and drags Tia along on a futile quest to reach it. The remainder takes place in Corber Port - the portal from the previous book remains open, and Lord Dagon, a vaguely squid-like being big as a castle, thinks the cities populace would make for a nice meal. Rebecca, along with Lysander and others, work to seal this gate from their end. In the end, Tia, Peter, and Kyle become agents of the demon, though not exactly willing ones.

Empire: Judgment - Put bluntly, Tia's demon stalker, irked at having his prior plans ruined, kidnaps the Emperor and others, placing them on trial for crimes against the demon world.

Think I've bored everybody enough.
 
SO MUCH STORY HAPPENING EVERYWHERE!!
All of them sound awesome; I'm especially excited for the "unchosen" one. Sounds like it'll have a good sense of humor about it.
Keep it up everybody!

Here's my WIP quick peek:
-----
A collection of criminals selected for a reconnaissance mission find out a secret society will pay fortunes for the assassination of their target, King Dogugorra, who's hiding deep in the mountains in an impenetrable beehive of his own goblin/giant hybrids.

A chronicler known as Old Book, investigating for the same secret society, stumbles upon a terrifying plot over one-hundred years in the making.

A girl learning how to care for a Spell-Fire that imprisons a dragon horde explores the secrets of her new tower home.
-----
Here's a sorta-spoiler;
They're all extremely connected.


It's been so much fun hammering the plot down to something manageable....
But seriously, I'm really excited about this draft.
 
Last edited:

Caged Maiden

Staff
Article Team
Yeah...there's some good reading in this thread, for sure! OMG, I want to read these stories! It's so fun to be in the loop and know what people are talking about, because we've been here since the beginning of many of these stories, and I get to see how they're developing. Oh man, so exciting.

I'm still working on my rewrite, but I'm dragging my feet, I suppose. My goal is to have it completely finished and query-worthy by April, when I go to the conference. If by some miracle I get finished before then, I'll start on the next book's rewrite.

Raisa is the mistress of a powerful crime boss, and she is the queen of frauds. Everything about her life is fake, and she is tired of the lies--especially the ones she's been telling herself for years. A new face in her home makes her question who her enemies are, because Martin, the bard, seems to have a bit too much influence over Raisa's benefactor, and Raisa feels the need to step in and protect her interests.

She decides to leave the crime syndicate, and take with her a teenage girl in her care. But with every excuse Raisa makes, saying she needs more money, or that she'll be ready to leave after just one more job, those around her realize she's never actually going to leave.

Before she can overcome her own hesitations, a cryptic letter, sent by a man she murdered, arrives at the end of a drug binge. Raisa is so busy feeling sorry for herself and questioning the value of her life, that she's unprepared for the fate the gods dealt her. A group of treasure hunters are looking for the crypt of a long-dead mage, and they think Raisa's the one who can get them in to steal the treasures.

They kidnap her, and take the bard, too as an afterthought. Interrogated and tortured in a dungeon, it's only after they've given up all hope of surviving, that the bard reveals his terrifying nature as a werewolf, and they break free.

But when they run for safety, Raisa learns that not only is a madman on her trail, but that these werewolves are searching for her, too. She agrees to aid them in their quest to gain entry to the crypt. But along their journey, Raisa and the bard she hated become close friends and realize how much they have in common. Lies. So many lies.

When Raisa learns she's related to the pair of werewolves, she tries to leave them behind as nothing more than a bad memory. But her heart is heavy, knowing she's fallen in love. She returns and together, they plan how they're going to find the crypt and rescue two dragons out of it, who have been frozen in time by a goddess who wants them back.

In the end, Raisa has to come to terms with who she is, and has to decide whether to walk her own path, or to embrace a legacy handed down to her by her traitorous father.
 
Top