A.I. writing fanfic!NaNoWriMo; or, How I Plan to Spend my November · 9:58pm Oct 31st, 2015
My friends, I come to you with mixed news.
I've been wanting to write original fiction for a while now. Years. Decades, actually. This year, I set out to write an original novel.
It's been sitting pretty at three and a half chapters since February. Yeee... 
See, I've been focusing on My Little Pony fiction. It's fun to write, it's awesome to share with readers, it's been my main hobby for roundabout three years now. I'm not giving it up any time soon. But in order to take part in National Novel Writing Month, I have to put it on hold.
National Novel Writing Month, for the uninitiated, is a challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in thirty days. It's a challenge, what many would call a BHAG: a Big Hairy Audacious Goal. It requires one to sit at the keyboard and type every single day. It requires the sacrifice of certain things, like watching movies whenever I want, or writing fan fiction.
So instead of falling off the face of the earth for a whole month, I thought I'd do a little NaNoWriMo blogging.
Every week, I'm gonna drop an update about how much I've written. It'll keep me honest, and keep me rolling. In addition, I'll add a snippet of what I write that week. Maybe a thousand words each, just to give you a taste. It'll be raw, unedited, and probably won't make any sense out of context, but it'll be there!
So, here's what I'll be working on. Expect it to be for sale sometime in the next few years! Maybe!
That Proverbial First Step [Title is a work in progress]
The known history of the Kingdom of Luminaria is called into question when a forgotten queen's tomb is uncovered in the northern forests. The grave holds evidence that a mythical dragon, one with the power to destroy an entire civilization, is sleeping deep beneath the soil. Dr. Darla Deutero struggles to make sense of it all, but old enemies move to take advantage of her discovery.
When a young woman from a small town is kidnapped, it brings the danger close to home for Maximilian. Caught up in the chaos, he sets off on a journey to save his friend, all the while piecing together clues about her involvement.
The kidnappers seek to awaken the world serpent. Dr. Deutero wants to understand the past. Maximilian wants to go home. Can an old professor and a dysfunctional couple save the world?
And to start us out, the first three or so pages:
Leaves crinkled beneath boots as two travelers made their way through the dense undergrowth. The heart of the Eventide Forrest was an unsettled land of plentiful greenery, beautiful mountain ranges, ravenous monsters, and absolutely no maps. That last fact was the concern of one of the travelers, a winged man with a backpack a few pounds too heavy for him. He hobbled sideways past two close-grown trees with a bundle of papers clutched tight to his chest. He paused to grasp the pencil behind his ear, but hurried forward before writing anything down.
“If you’d slow down a little bit, I’d actually be able to take a couple notes!” he said. “If you didn’t want a cartographer on this trip, you just had to say so!”
He glared at the back of his wingless companion’s head, but the straw hat she wore acted as a shield against his temper. She carried on at her same steady pace, sliding under branches and pushing aside tall grass. A stray branch tugged at the sleeve of her tan shirt, but she paid it no mind. A sheathed machete at her hip clanked in time with her pace.
“I’ve been looking for this tomb for five years, Martial,” she said. “I’m sick of waiting!”
“After five years,” Martial Lionspaw said, “you can’t spare five minutes?” He scraped a shin on a rock hidden among ferns. “Krev—”
“If you cuss again, I’m gonna dock your share of the pay.”
“—drat.” Martial rolled his eyes. “You swear like a sailor and you know it.”
“It’s a matter of personal preference,” she said. “Lumen curses are a million times better.” She climbed up a rock and kneeled on top. They found themselves overlooking a deep valley cut into the midst of the wastes. Trees rose above the ground, covering the entire site in an obscuring canopy.
She clapped a hand against her thigh. “Gotcha!”
Martial Lionspaw looked at his companion out of the corner of his eye as he spread his wings. She leaned her hands on her knees as her dark, gray-streaked hair fell over her face. The hair couldn’t hide her wide smile.
“This is it?” Martial said. “This is the ‘Valley of Less Light?’”
“‘Valley of the Lesser Light,’ Marty. There’s a distinction.” She pointed at the far edge of the valley. “See the way it curves around? The valley is a perfect circle! You wanna be a cartographer? You start making some precise calculations. See if I’m right.”
He turned to leave, but she grabbed his backpack. “Hold it! Let’s take a closer look. No sense in going through the math-y stuff if this isn’t actually the right valley.”
Martial tugged away from her grip. He wobbled before his feet found purchase. “I’ll have you know I happen to like the math-y stuff.”
“Awesome. That’s why I hired you.” She cracked her neck and slid down the rock. She winced as her right leg absorbed the shock of her landing. Her leg fell out from under her, sending her to the ground.
“Easy!” Martial let his backpack slide off his wings. He offered a hand to help her up. “Was that another twinge, Dr. Deutero?”
“Yeah.” Darla Deutero gripped his forearm and let him haul her to her feet. “It’s nothing. It’ll pass. It always does.”
“How long until you can take more ambrosia?”
“Two days. My bones’ll hold up until then. For sure.”
Martial held Dr. Deutero steady. Age lines traced the corners of her face, from the faint smile lines against her mouth to the crow’s feet trying to latch onto her eyes. In any other light, the weight of her years was banished by the spark in her eyes. At that moment, there was a chip in her determination.
That chip was soon overtaken by the one in her shoulder. “Visk it. We’re not gonna get anywhere if we don’t move forward. Take us down.”
Martial stuck a hand in the backpack. “Sure. I’ll go look for a good anchor point.”
“Anchor point. Right.” Dr. Deutero rubbed her knee and peered over the edge into the valley. “What’re the chances you can just fly us down there?”
Martial narrowed his eyes. “Fly.”
“Heck yeah, fly. It’s gotta be quicker than rappelling.” She pointed at the brown and black speckled feathers growing out of his back. “What’re those big wings on your back for, otherwise?”
“They’re there to lift me into the air.” Martial crossed his arms. “I’m not trained to carry a passenger. That’s begging for another broken leg.”
“Oh is it?” She put her hands on her hips and scowled. Even at full height, she only came halfway up his chest. It didn’t stop him from taking a step back. “Maybe that’s up to you to decide, huh? Just don’t land on a rock.”
Martial’s wings made a halfhearted flap. “We’d end up dropping like a rock. You get the harnesses together and I’ll find that anchor point.”
She scoffed. “You’re the flight expert, I guess.” She tilted her head. “Speaking of that, why aren’t you flying down?”
“Because I need to carry the backpack.” He stretched his wings out to their full three-meter length. He kicked a nearby rock to test its stability, but it shifted in the dirt. “You know, there comes a time when a person’s body stops pulling itself back together.”
“Stinks being them, doesn’t it?” Dr. Deutero tied untangled the straps to his harness. She checked each link with a sharp tug.
“I mean that you’ve had a good flight.” Martial tugged on a nearby tree to find it firmly rooted. He wrapped a rope around its middle. “You ought to reward yourself. Settle down in a nice quiet town. Have a few kids.”
“I don’t get along with kids,” Dr. Deutero said.
Martial snorted. “Then adopt a teenager. What do you want from me?”
“I hate teenagers.” She held the harness up. Her smirk showed teeth as he snatched it away from her. “Why did you think I got into advanced education?”
“I strongly suspected you liked seeing grown men cry.” Martial spent a few minutes trying to fit his arm through a leg hole.
“I never saw you cry.” Dr. Deutero slipped into her harness. “Mostly because you never showed up for class.”
Martial lidded his eyes.
“And when you weren’t skipping,” she said, “you were catching up on your sleep.”
Martial turned away from her and put on the backpack. “Can we get on with things?”
Dr. Deutero snickered. “The janitor asked for a raise after he found out you Vercalis eat raw fish.”
“Maybe we should focus on the here and now.” Martial tightened the strap around his waist. He passed Darla the end of one rope. “Hook it up.”
“You gave the dean allergies during molting season.”
“Thank you, Dr. Darla Deutero,” Martial Lionspaw said, “for this riveting trip down Memory Lane.” He bowed with a flourish, extending his hand out over the valley. “Now, how about we take a trip down Ancient Forest Lane and see what we find?”
Dr. Deutero laughed. “You’re too easy, Marty.”
Martial gave her a halfhearted smile. “And you’re too much, Dr. Deutero.”
Here's to a successful first NaNoWriMo for yours truly!
First off, unless there's a reason to call it a "forrest", it's spelled forest.
Second, this has some potential. My biggest issue is that we don't have much of a description of these beyond that one of them has wings. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but a detail like that makes me want to understand whether or not there are other differences, especially since it is implied that Martial is a different species from the doctor.
Lastly, I see that you have recycled the ambrosia idea. Since I doubt it comes from breezies, I would be interested in learning where it does come from.
The dreaded Original Fiction?!
Sounds like a great plan, actually. Changing tracks here can hopefully give you that kick start you need to get the ball rolling again.
Best of luck to you for it!
This is some exciting stuff. Looks like you're planning a rollicking adventure. I'll keep an eye out for updates. Remember, these days you can self-publish on Amazon, several other authors on this site have already, its a good way to transition to original fiction.
I'm doing NaNoWriMo as well! ...but now I feel terrible about the quality of my own novel, looking at the beautiful perfection that is yours XD
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Whoops. I guess the Eventide Forest is just north of the Gump, Forrest. Eh? Eh?
Thanks for the advice. I'm still trying to internalize the process of pacing description. I mean, a paragraph of description isn't the smoothest way to introduce a character, you know? But you also don't want to go too long without concrete details, since you risk jarring the reader out of the story by suddenly challenging their perception of the character.
It's something to work on, and no mistake.
Almost breezies.
This is the story I originally adapted ambrosia for, though I've refined it through fanfiction. Rather than the literal nectar of the gods, it is brewed by hives of fairies; tiny, fragile people who have bodies that are almost completely transparent. The original form is the nectar-like ambrosia, but it can be further refined into a honey-like gel that's used in poultices.
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It's a heck of a lot harder than it looks. The horror! The horror!
Thank you! If nothing else, it's been a good learning experience for me. It's actually pretty fun to craft a whole new world from scratch. I just have to make sure I keep a page of notes open at all times to preserve consistency.
The ball is rolling alright. Just like the boulder from Raiders of the Lost Ark.
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Only the most rollicking of adventures! I've mentioned to a a few people that this is basically my love letter to Lord of the Rings, Indiana Jones, and Star Wars rolled into one package. It's near and dear to my heart, so here's hoping I get to share some of the most exciting stuff this November!
Yeah, Amazon's looking like the most viable platform. The biggest issue I'm seeing is how much work selling books is. Like, not only do I have to spend months writing the silly thing, now I gotta advertise it, too? I'm quickly finding the reason most published authors keep their day-job.
I still count self-published as being fully published, so it's a clear goal that I'm reaching for. They say the difference between a pro and an amateur is that amateurs don't get paid.
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Hey, now, don't go getting discouraged! First of all, I've been planning this story for several years now, and so I've got a pretty firm picture of it in my head., Second of all, that text I quoted has been edited more times than I can count. Third of all, I haven't been able to keep up with the daily goal at all; I am definitely not a super-writer who can do no wrong!
It's great to hear that you're doing NaNoWriMo, too. Are you liking it? Personally, I'm finding November to be a really hard month to write in.
3528891 If there are humans in this universe, having a character compare the other to them might help, if you can do it without making it sound forced. A lot easier if the one without wings is human.
3528891 Rollicking indeed! You're absolutely right that 90% of a self-published author's work is marketing, especially Search Engine Optimization and probably an author blog linking to the work, among other techniques. But you can post it whenever you think its ready, and then work on the marketing later when you have time, if you even want to beyond sharing a link in your social profiles.
Amazon has blurred the line between professional and amateur author. I know of folks who have a day job and supplement their income by writing certain genres of fiction and get about a third of their money from that. It'll definitely give me the excuse to call you MyVocation now!