Hey folks. I complained a bit about fantasy cliches awhile back and apparently a lot of folks read about it. There were a number of comments with a number of valid critiques. One or more of which suggested I try to write a fantasy novel. Well, I'm actually going to attempt to write a fantasyish novel for nanowrimo.
For those who don't know National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.
This my first year actually doing it and we'll see how close to 50,000 I get. I've been working on an outline during October and it's getting down to crunch time.
Here's my current novel info:
Title: The 7 Sainted Hollows
SETTING: Cyberpunk Fantasy. Strongly influenced by comic books [American, European, Japaneses and Chinese], kung fu movies, Lovecraft, and hardboiled crime stories. At first I tried to create a genre label, but I don't think it really fits one aside from the broad category of speculative fiction. Structurally it'll probably be closest to contemporary fantasy.
PLOT/BLURB: I'm currently in the construction phase but here's my current blurb...
It has been nearly 50 years since Optimus was founded on the wasteland that was once Perry County, Tennessee. Destroyed by the Outer God cult - Starry Wisdom, their leaders - the Seven Sainted Hollows, worshippers of the Great Old One - Byssh Naga, servant of Nyarlathotep. Five Saints were imprisoned with Byssh Naga, One was killed. One is still free.
The remnants of those who saved the city haven't given up on finding the final Saint but have had no leads until now. A run-in with a town of Lovecraftian vampires and the acquisition of a strange device point to Starry Wisdom and a plot to free the Saints.
It will change as I work on it so... My profile/novel summary
So as you can see it is clearly a mix of cliche and non-cliche. Cliches cannot completely be avoided without abandoning genre or decent adventure storytelling. I an assure you I will do my best to avoid Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, and Contemporary Fantasy tropes/cliches.
Wish me luck, or not, it's a free country.
Nick.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
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4 comments:
Budd -- that's awesome that you're giving this a shot. Go for it! Can't wait to see what you come up with!
That's pretty ambitious. I like the plot you've sketched out. Sounds like fun.
It isn't me Steve, although I have tossed around the Idea of participating in NaNoWriMo this year. This would be Nick, who did not provide a bio or picture for the contributors page. Hint. Hint.
good luck, Nick and may the force be with you, dark side or light, your choice.
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