Archive for the 'Planning/Plotting' Category

Plotting…

Alan Morgan June 10th, 2007

I’ve been a bit stuck on Blood of the Goddess for a bit now, and a thought came to me while I was driving in to work tonight. A while back I’d been part of the “Above and Beyond” class over at Evolution Writers, which my wife Nonny had been teaching. Thinking about A&B, I think some of the exercises might help me sort through the problems I’m having and help me move on. For the curious, I’ll post these publically, though most of it will be behind a cut link so as to not spam you.

I’m skipping the first exercise as it was mainly designed to help you pick an idea to work on in the class; that’s already a given as to what I’m going to apply the course to. The second exercise is about the story premise:

* * *

Premise:

Siobhan runs a florist shop in the heart of Providence near Thayer Street, close to Brown College and Johnston & Wales University, called The Wild Rose. It also serves as a New Age store, selling pagan books, herbs, and oils for use in ritual. The shop has been in the family for many generations, though the New Age materials were added by Siobhan when she took over running the shop after her mother Mary’s death.

Her father moved away from Rhode Island, seeking to start a new life and to distance his daughter Sarah from the influence of her older sister. Years have passed without contact between them, until one day Siobhan receives a call from James asking for her help. To her surprise, James is acknowledging his own talents, and a vision of danger gives him great concern for Sarah or one of his roomates.

Surprised to learn that her sister is going to college in Providence– and upset that she was not told before– she agrees to look in on Sarah. She can tell that James is wrestling with his conscience, but his Native American heritage makes it clear to him that gifts are not given without reason. The catch: Sarah hasn’t talked to Siobhan in years, and James has convinced her that her sister is a devil-worshipper.

While trying to track down her sister, she runs into an attractive ex-Marine who is under attack from someone with dark talents and her ex-fiancee Robert, who turns out to be a werewolf. While both men try to help her find her missing sister, they both have their own problems that require her aid. Soon she starts to see that their problems and her sister are connected, and she’s in over her head.

Can she find her sister and stop the evil rising in the heart of Providence before it’s too late?
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Further Plottage…

Alan Morgan November 25th, 2006

So, I’ve been thinking about Glenn and really think that he needs to be more prominent in the story. Which is fine, because I think I can put him as the POV character again for chapter 9. Don’t need to focus on Shiobhan as she deals with filing police report and such– but rather, I can focus on his emotions as he deals with his breakup with Melissa. And the breakdown of the magical bonds that she placed on him…

Also have a few other subplots that I need to develop soon:

  • Introduce the cultists Melissa is working with
  • Show that Sorcha is alive
  • Amp up the attraction between Shiobhan and Glenn (this is something that I need to revise into Chapter 1, as well…)
  • Involve what help Robert needs from Shiobhan

I can probably do the first two– if not three– in the next chapter with Glenn. I’m thinking he has a dream when he’s in the hospital, his magical gift all the stronger for having been contained/shielded by Melissa. He can see the cultists with Sorcha, showing she is alive, and showing some interaction between them and Melissa– though he doesn’t realize that it’s her. (Don’t want the readers figuring it out quite yet.) And when he’s dealing with the aftermath of the breakup, Shiobhan keeps intruding on his thoughts…

But Robert does need to play into this as well… he needed help from Shiobhan, and he’s been good about putting Sorcha above himself at the moment. But that can’t last forever, because he’s dealing with a deadline… and it’s something he will have to face. Possibly related to a Pack issue? Or someone hunting shifters? Not sure yet, he’s been fairly tight-lipped even to me… will have to crack his shell open soon and get more out of him other than he wants Shiobhan back (which she won’t let happen). Once burned, twice shy… she’s over him, or at least enough that she isn’t hooking back up with him again.

Providence plotting…

Alan Morgan September 20th, 2006

Further plottage for Providence paranormal. Went rereading through the first two chapters and realized how much I like this story and do want to work on it. But I had a lot of questions about it and wasn’t sure what was going on. So I sat down and did some freewriting to help get me past this block.

Notes under the cut… some of these refer to the previous notes I had made.
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Current status

Alan Morgan September 3rd, 2006

I’ve got several WIPs that I’m working on, so this is a general update.

Providence Paranormal:

This is temporarily being shelved while I try to plot out some more of the conflicts that I want to have in it. I need to do some digging into who the hero is, what the romantic conflict of the story is, what is going on behind the scenes involving the sister, and how the hero is tied to the sister. I’m thinking this is going to be in the 50k+ range, and may aim it at LSB or possibly even NY print.

Savage Lands:

I’m thinking about this story a bit lately. I’m wondering if I want to continue it in the serial idea that I was going to go with before, or if I want to expand it to be more like a Tryst length story for each installment (10-20 per “episode”). If I do that, I need to figure out who the romantic interest is and have her involved from the beginning.

Upon Wings of Hope:

I’ve been really bad about keeping up with this WIP. This is the one I was primarily going to run through the Above & Beyond coursework with, and I’m behind on that. I need to finish up Marten’s bio, which is the last bio I need, and then I need to do the homework for the stakes assignment. I’ll need to do that for Alissandra, Marten, and Litala.

Luzon:

I’m putting this back on indefinite hold. I want to get some of the other projects done first and return to this with some fresh ideas. I think I’m going to change up some of the things I wasn’t planning on before and probably darken the tone a bit. I think I also have a lot of characters for this story and I’ll need to reevaluate who the “main” characters are and how necessary some of the support characters are. I definitely do not want to fall back into the trap of forgetting to involve the familiars like I did the first time around.

Love at First Kiss:

This is a romance idea that I’m aiming at Cobblestone for. I’ve got some details over on the WIP manager at Evolution, and I’ve started working on this. Some 1kish words at the moment, I want to finish this over September/October, revise it and send it off. Looking to actually finish something for once.

Hitting the Books:

Once I finish up with Love at First Kiss, I’m going to work on this novella and push that out to Cobblestone as well.

Shadows in the Light:

This is a dark idea that came to me a while ago, and it’s something I’m going to work on plotting out. I’m thinking along the lines of L. A. Banks / Chris Golden tone… dark, gritty, gory… but yet with a stong romance amidst the hell. This is going to take a bit of research and may end up being a series, so I’m not rushing to work on this right away, but will chip away at it a bit here and a bit there.

Update…

Alan Morgan August 15th, 2006

Sorry I haven’t posted updates in a bit, things have been rather hectic with the server problems (which should be resolved now that Evo is moved over to the RackForce server…), the abysmal heat (which has cooled down, thank all the gods), and more health issues (which seem to have somewhat stabilized).

I’d like to thank the good folks over at Cobblestone Press for the wonderful Q&A session they did over at Evolution. It was a lot of fun and I know that I for one learned quite a bit from it.

In more personal news, I’ve shelved the Providence paranormal for the moment. I’m stepping away from novel length projects at the moment and I’m working on some novella ideas that, ideally, I’d like to submit over to Cobblestone. Ironically enough, none of them are paranormal!

Now I just need to figure out which one to work on… Blind Date, Hitting the Books, or Love at First Kiss. Leaning towards Hitting the Books, but we’ll have to see.

Plot threads for Providence…

Alan Morgan May 21st, 2006

Going through and identifying some of the plot threads for the paranormal:

  • A dark herbwitch is trying to kill Glen
  • Conflict between Shiobhan and the dark herbwitch
  • Romantic tension between Shiobhan and Glen
  • Conflict between Shiobhan and her father James due to her religion
  • Conflict between Shiobhan and her sister Sorcha due to her religion
  • Danger that Sorcha is threatened by
  • Plot line that connects Glen and what threatens Sorcha (I assume that the dark herbwitch is involved, but why? And how does this tie together more directly with Glen?)
  • Conflict from Shiobahn’s ex-lover, Robert — who was kicked out of Kelly’s coven for his behavior (Was it just his personality or was he dabbling in the dark?)
  • Past romance between Kelly and Shiobhan? (Undecided on this one… there is attraction between them, but I could see Shiobhan resisting it given that Kelly works for her.)
  • Conflict between Shiobhan and the coven… they want her to rejoin, she thinks she needs to do things alone.

Prewriting to do…

Alan Morgan March 4th, 2006

Over at Evolution, I’m taking part of the March/April Prewriting Mission. I signed up for level 1, which is 10k worth of prewriting material. At first, I thought to myself that I wouldn’t be able to do it, but Nonny made a point about character bios that I needed to do.

As a todo list for my own reference, these are the bios that I need to do:

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All in all… that’s a lot of prewriting to get done, I think. 16 bios, each around 1k… yeah, that’ll get me my 10k without an issue, especially when you add in the plot and setting notes on top of the bios.

From A&B… Premise homework for Upon Wings of Hope

Alan Morgan February 14th, 2006

Realized I never posted these to LiveJournal…

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Luzon #1: A&B Premise Questions…

Alan Morgan February 14th, 2006

Working on the A&B premise questions for the first Luzon book…

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Thantil Setting…

Alan Morgan November 1st, 2005

Thantil world setting notes:

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Wings of Hope Conflicts list…

Alan Morgan August 3rd, 2005

Personal Conflicts:
Litala wanting security and love
Thaltron wanting Alissandra
Alissandra searching to uncover the truth
Marten trying to free his people
Alissandra seeking comfort and love

Story Conflicts:
The rebellion’s distrust of Avians affecting Alissandra and Litala
Litala’s rape and integrating Marten into the triad
The Avians wanting to keep the status quo
Alissandra’s mentor wanting Alissandra
Alissandra’s mentor wanting to kill Litala and Marten
Litala overcoming her past and becoming a leader/dealing with her powers

Background Conflicts:
Avians struggling against declining population due to lack of bloodlines
Avians hiding interactings with the outside world

And the shower strikes again…

Alan Morgan April 7th, 2004

As many writers know, inspiration can hit at very random times. Such as when in the middle of a shower, BOOM! It hits you, the lightning-struck oak, duir.

Anyways. I’ve had this vignette, “Morning’s Kiss” kicking around for a while. It’s a decent erotica piece, a “slice of life” story. Not a long of depth or length to it… just passion.

Now, on the April Fool’s board, someone was asking for suggestions for a job for a hippie/witch character that they are writing about in their story/novel (not really sure which). I’ve been mulling it over for a bit.

I was hanging out with an old friend (more like brother…), Paul, and his SO. Both of them are pagan… and in conversation, it came up that she’s a florist. Didn’t really think much of it at the time… but this morning in the shower, it hit me.

A florist is a perfect spot for an active magician. When someone gets married, you send flowers. When someone has a baby, you send flowers. When you’re courting someone, you send flowers. When someone passes away, you send flowers. Sometimes you send flowers as a “thank you”, sometimes as a “haven’t seen you in a while, and was thinking of you”. There are a lot of reasons to send flowers, touching on most aspects of modern life.

It’s a perfect position, because flowers and herbs are not dissimilar. By arranging certain combinations of bouquets, you can effectively produce a spell. Protection, comfort, happiness, etc.

So… I’m thinking about the female character in my vignette, and I’m thinking I’d like to explore that aspect, that kind of career choice melded with the magical path she follows. I’m thinking she owns the store, and does a lot of the work herself, probably most of the people that work for her just do the deliveries. Maybe her boyfriend is pagan, maybe not… but if she’s weaving spells, of say protection, into flowers sent to someone who follows the Left Hand Path… that would leave her open as a target. And would make for some very interesting doings.

I haven’t done urban fantasy before. I think I’d like to take a go at urban fantasy erotica and see how it goes.

–Morgan

*ponders*

Alan Morgan April 3rd, 2004

Working on fleshing out a setting. I’ve been thinking about the crits I got on the “Blood Sight” short, and one really good point was that I needed to establish the setting better.

Now, thinking about that, it just kind of made sense that I should look at the setting I was designing for the shorts based on the character Slip. (“Bathing Beauties” is the first one I’m working on with her, but I have notes for future ones.) So… why not use the Slip setting (which I always meant for more than just that series) for “Blood Sight” and other “Blood” shorts to follow?

So I dug out my notes, and started working on a map. Got some work done on that, named the different countries and a few places. Then I started to think… what about “Division Bell”? DB focuses on one continent and a really large island nearby. So far, for Slip’s setting, I only have a few islands and one major continent. Why not combine the two into the same world? Always meant to explore other places in the DB setting, because Latinira wasn’t all. Zarania’s story was going to delve more into that… and if I flip her from Slip’s setting to Latinira, that makes a lot of sense.

“Tears of the Dragon” might also fit, though I haven’t thought a lot about that. I’m thinking I might.

“By the Horn” I was already thinking about fitting in a while back, but was going to hold back until the setting was firmed up more.

So, if I do tie it all together, I’ll have:

* Division Bell (Latinira novel)
* Zarania’s story (Latinira short)
* Bathing Beauties series (Slip’s shorts)
* Blood Sight series (Awena + Karlan’s shorts [need to rename Karlan])
* Tears of the Dragon (short)
* By the Horn (short)

I think it’s probably a good idea. It’ll give things a cohesiveness, a sense that the world beyond each of the areas I focus on actually exists and isn’t just floating in vaccuum.

–Morgan