Writing Journal: Craft Book Edition · 1:12am Dec 1st, 2018
Journal Date 11/30/2018
Whatever you may think of reading craft books, whether a waste of time, or going slavishly by the advice, and everything in between, I think it's a universally held truth that reading them, ingesting ideas from other authors about the craft we're all engaged in, churns the well of ideas within us.
Whether you've got one or a dozen... I have dozens. Today, as I was listening to a craft book on the commute home, the story that impacted me most in the thinking of examples was "Darkest Before the Dawn", a story about an AU Celestia without a sister, and her adventures in a Land Before Equestria.
It's a fractious collection of city states, not unlike the Greek states of classical antiquity, and I think I might borrow quite heavily from the ideas of Ancient Greece as well. Mostly in architecture, government, and trade. But not sea power. These are all, more or less, landlocked city states on a massive continent. Or, at least, taking up a broad strip of the interior. Which means a wide variety of governments, but a common (more or less) language and coinage (again, more or less).
The ideas I had pertained to the heroes journey, specifically what flaws Celestia needs to overcome in order to be victorious.
What is her biggest flaw? She thinks she's incapable of taking charge, and avoids leadership positions as much as she can.
The big change for her early in the story, the thing that sets her on her ultimate journey, is an attack on the city where she lives, by creatures difficult for unicorn magic to deal with, and hard for earth ponies and pegasi to fight in their own ways. Only light can bring them down to be dealt with by others.
Her mentor at this time, Star Swirl the Bearded tasks her with finding the origins of these creatures, though he is afraid privately that he already knows.
And he puts her in charge of the expedition, because he must stay to prepare the city against further attack as its arch-unicorn.
Later, as she gets the feel for leadership and it comes more naturally (past the midway point), she encounters more and more challenges that set her back, but she learns from each, leaning rather hard on the wisdom of the guard captain commanding the fighting ponies. She is in overall charge, including of the civilian ponies who are along to care for camp duties (commoner ponies), and learned ponies of each race, who are there to provide prompt knowledge, negotiate with emissaries of other cities, and provide advice for their commander. But it is upon her shoulders that rests the mantle and responsibility of decision. Where to go, what to do, when to fight and when to flee.
She keeps in touch with her mentor via spellfire each night.
One night, near the end, the spellfire does not ignite the way it should, but throws shadows and light in mixed flares. Through it, she hears the last earthly words of her mentor before his final spell. Far in the distance, a radiance brighter than the sun flares, turning the land for hundreds of miles around to noonday brightness, then dies. Cantercourt, her home, is gone.
She has no one higher than herself to turn to for advice now, but she can't stop. Not with all of ponykind at risk.
ANd then plot stuff happens, and more plot stuff, and the end.
Anyway... That gives me my sort of beginning, a place to aim for for the end of act 2 of the traditional 3 act story structure, and I have long known the rough outline of the ending, though the details and the speicific story beats have eluded me for the most part, and even now a few still do. But I am making progress, and it feels good to really IDEA again.
I've always been an explorer, but it's mostly been relegated to books, games, programming, and my writing, because I'm not in the best shape. But exploring ideas, fleshing them out to see where they go, finding the little details that make me happy and fit the story... That's what relieves my stress at the end of the day. It's a wonder that I keep wandering away from it for whatever reason. Mostly because I can't think of something to write.
But I've recently stopped worrying about some things that I can't really control, and that's freed up a lot of mental fortitude that I need to power my creativity engine. And that feels great.
The same craft book gave me some ideas for another story, not pony, though. So be warned, because I'm gonna lay some deets below.
Premise: In a future world, a young woman living on the moon for her entire life grows tired of the game that has been most of her non-working life. She's explored everywhere, and expanded the map of the known game world more than any other single person in the game. She's a legend. And it's boring. Nothing is a challenge anymore in the game, not really, but she still feels alive when she abandons her fame and sets off on a little skiff to find adventure somewhere noone else in the game has ever seen, often with her best friends.
But they're starting to drift away, because they don't feel the same connection that she does to the game world, but they all understand why she does. The game gives her access to a life that she can't ever dream of in the real world.
She has brittle bone disease. Living on the moon gives her the best chance of a 'normal' life. She can walk with only a little assistance, and it's harder to break herself in the low gravity. She is employed as a nuclear technician, monitoring the reactor that keeps the moon colony running.
One day, a thing happens, and she can no longer work. She retires on medical disability. The game becomes her entire life. But her friends aren't there all the time. She just wants to live in this world where she can run and jump and fight, and sail and climb the rigging of her ships, feeling as if this body really is her own, and not the frail, broken thing left in a neural cradle on the moon.
Soon, she's contacted by the developers, asking if she wants to playtest an upcoming sequel to the game, a world just as vibrant as the one she knows, with the same land and features, but set two hundred years in the future, and given time for the absence of the calming presence of players to vanish and run amuck amongst the simulation.
She agrees... but before she can experience this new world... she dies.
And wakes up in the new simulation, her 'heaven'. Then the adventure begins, because it turns out that the game developers have been inadvertently tapping into an alternate reality through their quantum computer network (yes, I know, cliche by now, bite me), and influencing the world's laws and physical realities. It's become so much a part of the game that its physical realities can't work without the game.
Not sure what exactly the mission will be, but it will include getting a message of some sort to the devs and telling them to stop messing around with her world.
It's still very nebulous, and I don't have a middle or an end in mind yet, but I do have a beginning of a sort. A place to start exploring.
And, for me, that's what writing is all about.
The idea sounded so awesome, i didnt pick up that its your story idea so far (from the early part) and went looking for it. Was unable to find it, then went back here and read on, finding out its an idea you have.
Sounds like an awesome idea and hope you do write it. The stark differences between some of the poleis that existed being represented would be cool.
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It's still my intent, and I love the idea, I just haven't had the idea all hammered out in its entirety yet. I want to not entirely pants this one, but have a more solid idea of where to go from point to point. Not fully outlined, but more of a rough outline from A to B to C to D, etc. Specific story beats that I want to hit... and then the rest of the writing will be exploring and finding the path to get from A to B, etc, rather than having points A and Z and somehow pantsing my way through the rest of the plot points and moments.