The Eye of Argon, and Other Goodies
Hello, all! Well, it seems that the nano site is working again, but not everyone who told me they will be participating has reactivated their profiles. This results in "page not found" errors and me grumbling obscenities. So, no linking from here, but if you go to my profile there, and click "writing buddies" you'll see who I would've linked to anyway. If you're not on that list, but are participating, please let me know so I can add you and stalk you.
Now, for those of you preparing for nano (or those bored and wanting entertained), I recently discovered a MST3k version of The Eye of Argon. This story is the worst fantasy epic ever, and thus very funny. The MST3k version is even funnier and can be found here. If you're a glutton for punishment, you can read the original joke-free version here. Don't worry, it's easy to make up your own jokes to go along with this.
For more reading fun, there's this great thread about fantasy cliches. Someone on there linked to this site which lists video game cliches. Much funniness.
That's enough linking. Now I will update y'all on my own nano preparation progress. I'm sure you've been waiting for this with bated breath. I am currently working on getting a little bit of an outline for Duty's Tomb so that when November comes I can plunge right in. So far I have something like this -
Ch. 1 - Someone jumps off a cliff
Ch. 2 - Same, but from bottom of cliff
Ch. 3 - Um... crap.
Yes, I have some mighty great outlines. I also have a list of names, which is MUCH more important for me than outlines. I swear, I waste more time sitting around trying to think up names than just about anything else. So this time, all my important people are already named. And they're good meaningful names, dagnabbit.
And now, after lots of babbling, it's time for the interactive part of this post. (Because clicking around to other websites and back wasn't interactive enough!) I need some thoughts. The original idea for Duty's Tomb involved a bunch of journal entries from the priestess who was being prepared to be a human sacrifice. Part of the title came from this idea. (tomb/ tome, get it? lawl.) The book would be third person limited (priestess' view) with some first person journal entries, same view. But now, I want to add in another point of view, mostly because I think it would be really freakin' awesome to describe a sacrifice as beautiful, and then describe it from the view of someone who has no idea what's going on.
All that brings me to the question - Should the journal entries still be there? Would it make any bleepin' sense? Here the options as I see them now -
1) Two points of view, both in third person. Very traditional.
2) Two points of view, one in journal form the other in the third person. Some of The Death Gate Cycle books do this, though I'm not sure how much I like that.
3) Three points of view - The journal, the priestess in third person, the other dewd in third person. Keep journal entries short, but introspective and poignant. Or as poignant as I can make them without sounding cheesy.
What do y'all think? Any other ideas? I need to know by November! AAAH!
Now, for those of you preparing for nano (or those bored and wanting entertained), I recently discovered a MST3k version of The Eye of Argon. This story is the worst fantasy epic ever, and thus very funny. The MST3k version is even funnier and can be found here. If you're a glutton for punishment, you can read the original joke-free version here. Don't worry, it's easy to make up your own jokes to go along with this.
For more reading fun, there's this great thread about fantasy cliches. Someone on there linked to this site which lists video game cliches. Much funniness.
That's enough linking. Now I will update y'all on my own nano preparation progress. I'm sure you've been waiting for this with bated breath. I am currently working on getting a little bit of an outline for Duty's Tomb so that when November comes I can plunge right in. So far I have something like this -
Ch. 1 - Someone jumps off a cliff
Ch. 2 - Same, but from bottom of cliff
Ch. 3 - Um... crap.
Yes, I have some mighty great outlines. I also have a list of names, which is MUCH more important for me than outlines. I swear, I waste more time sitting around trying to think up names than just about anything else. So this time, all my important people are already named. And they're good meaningful names, dagnabbit.
And now, after lots of babbling, it's time for the interactive part of this post. (Because clicking around to other websites and back wasn't interactive enough!) I need some thoughts. The original idea for Duty's Tomb involved a bunch of journal entries from the priestess who was being prepared to be a human sacrifice. Part of the title came from this idea. (tomb/ tome, get it? lawl.) The book would be third person limited (priestess' view) with some first person journal entries, same view. But now, I want to add in another point of view, mostly because I think it would be really freakin' awesome to describe a sacrifice as beautiful, and then describe it from the view of someone who has no idea what's going on.
All that brings me to the question - Should the journal entries still be there? Would it make any bleepin' sense? Here the options as I see them now -
1) Two points of view, both in third person. Very traditional.
2) Two points of view, one in journal form the other in the third person. Some of The Death Gate Cycle books do this, though I'm not sure how much I like that.
3) Three points of view - The journal, the priestess in third person, the other dewd in third person. Keep journal entries short, but introspective and poignant. Or as poignant as I can make them without sounding cheesy.
What do y'all think? Any other ideas? I need to know by November! AAAH!
posted by Trintara at 8:32 AM
7 Comments:
In option two, aren't both points of view the same person (priestess)? Or did I miss something? Otherwise, having the third point of view could be interesting.
Yeah, option two contains two different views... both of which are the priestess' (third and first POV). I think I'm leaning towards that third option which has three, two of which are third and one which is first. ...I confuse myself when I try to articulate it, which makes me worry that will be confusing to read.
Basically what it comes down to is that I really want to use the journal entries. The problem is, how best to make sure the reader knows both the third person and first person priestess views are the same priestess without making it sound funky or gimicky? One solution is that second option where it's all the priestess' view, but that leaves out the element of complete opposition which I'm obsessed with. Very tricky.
Hey Trin, Lyli here-
The part where you say this:
Ch. 1 - Someone jumps off a cliff
Ch. 2 - Same, but from bottom of cliff
Ch. 3 - Um... crap.
...makes me think of a physics problem.
Person 1 - weighting 200lbs jumps off a cliff of height X
Person 2 - weighting 110lbs jumps off the same cliff but from the bottom at height X
a.) Knowing that gravity is 9.8m/s^2 at what time does the second person have to jump for both people to hit the ground at the same time?
b.) colide in the air?
Anyways on to your question. I have a crazy idea. What if you do this. Write 2 journals: one from the priestess' POV and one from some other person's POV. Have them write about events that occur on the same day but from the different perspective they see it from. For example the priestess got ready with her helpers and went to some event where she was carried around or something. The priestess can talk about responsibility and the clothes she hates or the parade or something. The random person can talk about shopping through the market that they day on the same day, at the same time the priestess was getting ready, and then talk about how they saw the parade and pushed through just to get a glimse of the priestess.
Now here's where my craziness comes into play and this might not work unless it was published as a book. I'm think have the priestess story on the left pages of the book and the other person's story on the right pages of the book. I'm not sure how this would work out for NaNoWriMo or on a word program. You could keep entries to about a page, obviously taking up more pages if they are big events or something, but make sure the events line up on the same pages. I guess you could leave some pages blank for the priestess or some pages blank for the random person depending on if they didn't write on that day or what. I'm also guessing that they might not talk about the same thing if there was no event that day but it could relate like the priestess could write about what it would like to be a normal everyday person whereas the normal person would wonder what it would be like to be a priestess or something.
What do you think? Too crazy?
Hmmm. That's definately an interesting idea, though I'm not sure this will work for this story. The reason the priestess has a journal at all is integral to the story's plot and theming. All sacrificial priestesses in this story keep one, then shelve it with the others when it's time to make the sacrifice. Since there is only one official sacrificial priestess at a time, it can be pretty daunting and lonely, so this is a way for those who have passed to give words of wisdom, comfort, etc to the current priestess. The reason this particular jounrnal is special is the key to some of the twists in the plot.
I'm not sure why the other character would keep a journal. (Hereafter let's call him by his name, Cal, to make things less confusing.) Among other problems, I'm not even certain Cal is litterate, and even if he was he isn't the introspective sort who would write things down. I'll keep your idea in mind though, in case I have some revelation into how that could work because that certainly would simplify matters.
You could always just use that idea for a different book.
If it isn't normal for Cal to keep a book then why don't you just do the 3 perspectives: 3rd person from Cal, 3rd person from Priestess, and 1st person journal from Priestess. Could you make the 3rd person perspective from Cal and the Priestess into the normal chapters 1-whatever and then put the journal entries between the chapters or is it necessary to have the journal entry be during the chapter?
Without knowing your story it would seem that you would want a POV from both the Priestess and Cal as well as the journal entries.
I think that's what will be best for this story. Well, for the first draft of it. I'm mainly trying to settle on this decision now, because I've started things in the wrong point of view before and it results in having to start all over which is very bad for NaNo.
I'm thinking of making the journal entries sparse compared to the third person stuff. Basically only using them when something very important is happening. One of Robin Hobbs' books... from The Tawny Man series I think... has a journal entry / paragraph at the beginning of every chapter. It took me most of the book to figure out what the heck was going on with those, and since I never finished the whole trilogy I never discovered if they were at all relevent. If I use journal entries in this project I want to be damn sure that they belong there and aren't just some artsy add on.
Thank you so much for your comments on this! It's helping me pull my thoughts together.
I like the idea of the three POV's. It makes it more interesting and makes you think more. Good luck!!!
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