WC: 567.

Today I wrote a rewarding, touching scene—a conversation between Mourn, Cirellio, Eth, Marrow, Tasa, Cyronil, and Shanung. It was all about what they speculate happens when we die.

Despite having seven people in conversation at once, it flowed nicely. Kind of like a campfire scene, but without the fire. :)

And, the best part? Every one of these characters had radically different opinions on the matter. It really made the characters come to life, moreso than ever before.  Especially Tasa.

I’m feeling guilty watching people type 50k words in a month, so I wrote a few more scenes. :P

1st – Lhasa joins up with Shanung, Eth, Mourn, Cyronil, and Marrow. They leave Shiira, sneaking out Lhasa who, since he is a nameless, cannot legally cross gates within the gates system, effectively becoming a rat.

2nd – This scene depicts what happened from Cirellio’s point of view within the relic house, and how Nevius died.

3rd – This is the heated argument between Cirellio and Morikel.

Here comes a candybar scene! ^__^

WC: 11,265

Prev: Another emotional hit | Next: The dizzying world of words

Wow. I just wrote two very important scenes that ended up changing the lives of Shanung, Mourn, Cyronil, Eth, and Marrow in very profound ways. What’s wonderful is that the event tugs at heartstrings quite a bit. I remember this particular part making me blink out a few tears when it first came to me.

A new character is also introduced, a small ‘nameless’ boy from the 9th satrapy (the wall) who goes by ‘Lhasa’ (which means ‘place of the gods’ in Tibetan).

What’s funny about the name is it immediately reminded “G” of a certain Tibetan dog breed. LOL. Well, hopefully the character will be endearing enough to make readers forget about lhasa apsos. :P

+763
Total: 10,494

Prev: Pinin’ for good writer blogs | Next: Scenery

The location page got a hefty update. The characters page got a minor one (I’m going to update that more, soon). Since I came up with a lot of those names on-the-fly, feedback is most definitely welcome. Especially if anything I named there also happens to be the name of a rare foot disease, or whatever.

Anyway, the next scene is when I start to coordinate the groups of characters I’ve introduced.

There’s traditional Shiirati music as a backdrop; heavy rhythmic drum beats echoing through the city due to the festivites.

There’s Cauinn—along with nearly the entire population of the city—at the Feast of the Eight. She still has Cirellio’s lock of hair and is waiting patiently for him.

There’s the guards patrolling every city street.

There’s Cirellio sneaking through the city.   Read the rest of this entry »

Shanung has a meeting with some of his most trusted members. There’s Mourn, a woman of the ‘third-culture’ (a group of rebellious young Shiirati that dislike the old traditions they were raised on). There’s Cyronil, her boyfriend that she indoctrinated into the third-culture. There’s Eth, an analytical, highly intelligent man who’s only ambition is to study literature abroad. And, of course, there’s Marrow.

Writing dialogue between five people was quite a challenge. In fact, I used to rewrite this particular scene for practice over and over again. So really, this is a very familiar scene to me, and this version is a re-re-re-re-rewrite. It feels almost as polished as my short story. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve read this before—and I should have suspected it would come naturally like they said—but I felt like an average person looking into some sort of glass room full of untouchable writers each time I’d read it. The idea was a pleasant, comforting thought for me. But it felt too alien, like it was doubtful it would ever come into play. After all, I was merely a beginning writer.

But writing routinely, even just a few times a week (as I have been doing), really does make the words flow more freely. And before too long, you actually start to feel like writing the next part of your book without having to view a cavalcade of motivational posters; You start getting genuinely excited about all the fantastic possibilities that will come from you sitting down in front of that keyboard. Read the rest of this entry »

This is one of the four chapters I mentioned in my previous post. I had written this before I started to iron out a decent timeline with proper motives and villains. I just thought I would post this, since it might give you a better feel for my writing style. I’ve also shared this with a few friends. Since the general situation will be largely unchanged in the final product, critiques are definitely most welcome. (For that matter, critiques are always welcome here.)

Matar had flown long enough. He just … somehow … knew he had. He changed his wing pattern to ‘Up, Down, and Close‘. When he broke free of the clouds, he could clearly see every detail of the dense city buildings, even in the dying light. He didn’t think of it as ‘Shiira’. In his head, it was more like, ‘Lonely Circled Group with Even Layers‘.

~ ~ ~

Whenever Shanung was doing someone else’s job, he usually paced. Back and forth he went; the wood beneath his feet creaking with each step. High above the city, the wind would occasionally gust. So, to break up the monotony, he would lean against any of several support beams, stemmed from the surrounding parapets, and rap his aki pipe against the iron rail guard, making a distinct ‘dinging’ sound until the embers stirred up inside. If he timed it just right, he would get to watch the wind catch a few of the embers so they could ‘dance’, glowing and twirling over the cityscape. Peering over the edge of the tower, he noticed the Shiirati were finally flocking south in droves. Turning to Marrow, he spoke loudly in his rough, leathery voice. “I know this is boring, but you’ll need to wake up, boy.”

Read the rest of this entry »