You're just letting your characters out to play. Which is really cool, because you're getting a feel for how they talk to one another. It teaches you more about those characters when they have arguments with each other, or just any time they are discussing something. This is a perfectly good exercise in building up your characters. Save this stuff, learn their personalities and do lots more of this. Have all of your characters have conversations with each other, if you like. You can even have them do it over coffee, it really doesn't matter. You're the student. But this is not how you're going to actually construct your plot. Once you know your characters fairly well, their personalities and their decision making abilities, you can come up with a sequence of key events based on their interactions, motivations, desires and all of that good stuff. That will be your plot. Keep going, get all the characters you are going to need fleshed out just like this. Once you have your plot, you're going to have to write write write so the more ideas you have in reserve for things that can happen during the story, the better off you'll be. It will all come together.
@Indefatigable Id Thank you, this is how I have started my characters and their world. Quotes/images pop up and I must write them down or freak out my other half when I laugh at the random snidbits because I live in my head. This definitely feels more natural for me. As I tend to take the back seat with my characters and kind of let them drive for snippets of conversations or short scenes.
That would be out of the kettle and into the fire to go for a serious or dramatic story. I know I have a major serious event as a key point in my story, so for me it be hard to balance the humor and seriousness? Case point below. lol 3 of my random quotes that are hold for the right the right scenes that I have are: When [Female Character 1] blandly answered, “I only stabbed you once, nothing get to your panties in a wad over...” (not the full quote due to some serious cursing that occurs after that statement). ---------------- “WHY!?” She yelled at the mushroom before tilting and falling over on her face in a daze. ---------------- “If there never was a then, then there will never be an after, and without a future or past then the present is naught but an unending, never changing hell. Limbo, if you prefer.” [Male Character] declared suddenly before hopping off the marker and sauntering over to where they stood. Last one I think I am going to using as a jumping point for the why it/what/reasons behind what happened in the the Vale. So where are key points with adding drama then? Problem, looking for answers/obstacles, & solution are the basis, but general thoughts on adding drama are welcomed. 1. The mages were there to battle and something (working on that) happened that killed them abruptly as if almost ripping their existence away. Leaving behind a massive amount of magic. Not sure yet if I am going to connect them to their magic, is there magic a primordial form of their soul? I am also working on that as well. 2. Not sure if I want to finagle with a reality warp. I need their magic as a catalyst for the Vale of Wisps, and for mages to be a rarity. 3. It was almost have if they were tricked into being there at that time. Someone else set up them up/ betrayed them. The Layethnadur or Nature's Warriors are a humanoid species divided into non-poisonous and poisons, both of which are native to this world. The non-poisonous are more easy going and tend to lead a simpler lives as they do not have under take classes and training to control themselves like the poisonous do. The poisonous in general lead more rigid lives, since starting at a young age they take classes to train and discipline themselves in controlling their poison and when to use it. As they mature, they must take learn how use said poison offensively to kill, maim, paralyze etc. and at least the basics in wielding their poison for field medicine. As a result there are a higher number of the poisons in the military or in positions as healers due to their toxic nature ability use the poison they create at-will to kill or heal. While each poison and non-poison race do have a House (nobility in this world), only a non-poison can rule over species. Concerning Anita Blake, I was not able to get any further than the summary. I am more of a Kresley Cole fan truth be told.
There are some basic writing issues here, mostly grammatical ones at first glance. However, I adore Cherry - she is fascinating! What's the story about? Anyway, let the character do as they please. When you try too hard to reign them in, all you end up with is getting stuck and making your story unnatural and stilted. Follow your characters. Plans are good, but they are more like general guidelines rather than the law. Change your plans accordingly What you have here sounds pretty awesome
Not at all. You can do "serious" without going full-on "epic fantasy" by keeping the occasional humorous elements and jokes. There's nothing wrong with sarcasm, quips, and dry humor - I do it myself. It's really just a matter of where you want to go on the scale (1 = parody to 10 = totally serious). I like that. It's not funny, but it's a good quote nonetheless. Cherry is a perfect source of drama - she's a member of a race whose bodies are poisonous, but she doesn't want to be a killer. How does she resolve this? The Vale, too: how did the mages die? You're leaning toward mass murder, so who did it and why? That's pretty dramatic on its own. Since I don't have many details of the rest of the plot, I can't add much more besides this: Why are Cherry, Zane, et al involved in this plot? So I was right - it was a trap. If magic is connected to/drawn from the mages' souls, then maybe the deaths of all those mages in one place is what caused the... whatever it is - all that free magic let loose in one place corrupted the land, and the only way to cleanse it is to put the souls to rest. Ah, now I see. Cherry was raised to have strict control over herself and her abilities. I don't know how her people view killing (either murder or self-defense), but from what she said to Zane, she seems to come off as more like "Yes, I had it drilled into me that I can't just kill people willy-nilly, but if you give me a reason, I won't hold back." With a little tweaking, you could make it "I was taught never to take a life without good cause (or at all, depending on her peoples' views), but if you command it, I will lay waste to the world and lay the dead at your feet as an offering." Develop that dichotomy, and you could have a really interesting character. Had to look her up, because I'd never heard of her. Cherry and Zane are two characters in the Anita Blake books - weretigers. I just thought it odd that you happened to have two such unusual names. Carry on.
Ok so somewhere in this thread I have posted a about Cherry before this scene, where I had wanted her to be different than I wrote her when I asked for help. I like her as she is now. Her boldness is quite interesting vs. the shy and somewhat goofy character I had in mind when I created her. The land is not corrupted. Magic in and of itself is not a bad thing, it depends on the user. So this is more like a place of possibilities. So based on that, I will need to work on why would they need such a vast amount of magic that has tied itself to the land (another puzzle piece for me!). I think the only remorse she would ever feel would be if she took a life accidentally and with Cherry having such a rigid upbringing then that would be little to no chance, unless the incident occurred during her childhood. If she kills or wounds intentionally then there is no remorse for her. Not because she's psychotic, but because the code of honor she was raised with deem which actions are acceptable or not. She's kind of black & white that way. Her flippancy or maybe 'Yes I did that what of it' attitude in interactions outside her culture is probably going to help cause some interesting scenarios with her comrade(s?) down the line. Cherry is actually based off of a very toxic plant called Deadly Nightshade or Belladonna. I grew up actually taking belladonna to help with some problems (debilitating physical pain) and Belladonna was the only thing that helped. I honestly have quite a fondness for the plant (and a healthy respect for it as well). One of the the nicknames for Belladonna is 'Devil's Cherries' hence her nickname. Her poison is also real and based on Belladonna, it's propensity, if used incorrectly, to do damage is amazing for weapon inspiration, and the uses it has for healing are remarkable! Everything about Cherry, except for her wings is based on Belladonna. Here is some more info about Cherry Spoiler: Cherry Bio Nickname: “Black” Cherry Gender: Female Position: Daughter of Clan Leaders, Nox & Amara Bane, of the Bane Clan, also known as the Poison Clan. Species: Layethnadur Called the Nadors for short “We are Layethnador!” Pronunciation: Lay-ith-na-door Na-door Race: Ala Noctis Description: Height & Build: 5’ tall, slender build, almost waif-like in appearance; bone structure is strong, but hollow, allowing for flight Eye Color: Slanted almond-shaped Crimson eyes, Hair Color: Pitch black hair with subtle wine-colored streaks to the middle of her back. Species Traits: Cherry’s incisors are slightly longer and sharper than a human’s and her lips are black on outer part of the upper and lower lips & dark green on inner part of the upper and lower lips. She has porcelain skin except for on the back of her neck, across the top of her shoulders, and from there, down her back in a v pattern which goes just outside of where her wings are to the lower part of her back to right above the tail. Here Cherry’s pale skin is covered with a slightly effervescent smattering of black-green freckles. This is a defense mechanism, if willed, due to this species having wings they developed a the smattering of ‘freckles’ to help protect themselves from being held down as they can secrete their own individual toxin through the skin here. At the end of Cherry’s 3’ skin-colored tail there is a 2" black-green blade-like porous bone that she can use to cause devastating gashes with and can simultaneously deliver her poison through. She has black-green claws that taper 1/4” of deep crimson and as hard as the talons on her wings). Black wings with a deep ruby streaking across them, creating a vein-like or tree-branch pattern. In terms of height they are about 2” taller than she when she holds her wings behind her and have a wingspan of 6’ that are bat-like in structure. Upon the highest arch on each rest a hooked talon (hallow and almost unbreakable they are prized in trade) allowing Cherry to hook them talon to talon in the front creating a cloak-like appearance. Family: Nox Bane (Father; copper eyes & black purple hair; name is based off of S. Nigrum or Black Nightshade), Amara Bane (Mother; modeled after Woody Nightshade; bright red hair and amethyst eyes Ability: Her poison, atropine, which she is able to use at will. Effective in liquid, vapor, or solid form, while it is quite deadly as it attacks the nervous system it is also used to heal in small doses. When she exhales atropine in vapor form she can light a match causing the vapor to ignite, creating a fire-breathing effect. Weapons: Matches (lol), 2 Poison dipped (made by it all by herself too) swords as they will not interfere with her wings, and poison dipped throwing knives for long range. Personality: Honorable (very black & white most of the time); honest to a fault; Yes I did that what of it'attitude; As for Zane, he just popped out of nowhere so I am currently working from the ground up on him.
I quite like her this way too. "Corrupted" just means to be infected or tainted, which this valley is - it's infused with magical energy that's caused widespread changes to the flora and fauna. It generally has a negative connotation, I know, but it is the most appropriate adjective here. Not accidentally... more like "without good cause". But, being as disciplined as she is, she wouldn't even kill someone unless she had a good reason. Let me rephrase my earlier post for clarity: She's strictly disciplined, but she's willing to go against her training if she has a reason she deems good enough - like if she swears her loyalty to Zane and he says "Go kill this person". It wouldn't matter if said person deserves to die or not; she'll happily slaughter him and bring back his head because Zane told her to. This is the dichotomy I referred to. Course, that's obviously not what you're thinking, so just ignore me. I like her "yeah, so?" attitude - she seems almost amoral, which would definitely cause friction with her companions.
I got the feeling that cherry was somewhat possesive of Zane. Could make for interesting conflict and tension. Also the comedy aspect could work as a lot fantasy takes itself seriously
This got me thinking about maybe taking Cherry & Zane down this path. Could you explain more about your comment with comedy or what it is in reference to?
No this idea has merit, but maybe not to such an extreme with what your talking about. There is a major cultural difference between her and Zane and without them getting to know each others cultures then there is a potential storm of incidents that could and would occur. Here is a quote I had been playing with, trying to connect it (I love this mini-scene and I am not letting go! lol) to the story that would work along what your saying to a lesser degree. Idea: Zane got irritated or something [cause for Cherry to react with one of her blades- something deemed acceptable to her culture to attack someone for] --------Incident---------- When Cherry blandly answered, “I only stabbed you once, nothing get to your panties in a wad over.” Xanthe started to climb over the table to strangle the little twat before being grabbed by [a comrade]. “That hurt you fucking bitch!” Xanthe roared as she struggled to free herself so she could kill the little toe rag. “Well it’s not my fault that you can’t take a little pain.” Cherry stated as she calmly drank her tea.
