Me: Well, I want to thank you all for coming today, this means a lot to me
Redpaw: *Snort*
Farjag: A honor, as always, sir *nods head in salute*
James: As say I
Paul: *sticking his makeshift boots on the table* Pshaw, I’m just glad to be here! I haven’t spoke with anyone for quite some time!
Rogart: And whose fault is that, Mr, Cortez?
Paul: *mumbles something about the scarcity of company on a caribbean island*
Me: Timber? You haven’t said anything.
Timber: Nothing needed to be said. *grins* They all said it already.
Redpaw: I didn’t say anything
Rogart: No, you snorted. Which counts.
Redpaw: You had better not start anything, young scamp, you’ve caused more trouble than the rest of us put together!
Rogart: That’s just cause my book’s longer than the rest of yorn put together!
Farjag: *cough* Your book, young sir, is only 29,000 words. Mine has 50,946, to be exact.
Rogart: 29,800, tiger-claw! And Stephan’s spent two years at least on me, you only got one month!
Farjag: So? My book’s finished! Yours isn’t!
Timber: *cough* If we’re comparing books here, I have the shortest, and I’m doing just fine, so relax.
Paul: And if we’re comparing trouble caused, you guys are all saints. *grins*
Me: All right, enough with the comparing, let’s begin, for starters… where’s Drelborn?
James: Oh, I forgot to mention, he said he’d be late. Busy filming his movie, he said.
Paul: Drelborn gets his own movie?!
James: Well his is the only story besides mine that could be filmed. And his got some serious cutbacks in the special effects department
Me: Yea, sorry about that, we couldn’t exactly have things blowing up or catching on fire
Paul: You could have done my story…
Redpaw: *snort* Yea, with all the wolf pups, and hawk, and monkey, and cougar…
Paul: Yea…. I’d forgot about those…
Me: Well, I guess we’ll start without Drelborn then. I’ll just ask two or three question, and you can each answer in turn, and then you all can have a turn asking me questions. First off, then, “What are some dislikes you all have about your stories?”
Redpaw: Well, if everyone’s going to be a fish-heart, I’ll start. *thinks for a moment* Well, you sure put me and Crestlen through fire for the first few chapters, and I think if you’re not careful you’ll end up with all action and no depth. But I think adding in Daegless you really took the story to another level. So make sure his story arc is just as important as ours, and you should be good.
Farjag: I would agree. And since Redpaw’s and my stories are so closely tied, I’ll just jump off of that for my story. I think in Freeborn and Freegiven you nailed the character depth pretty well, though you need to work on the overall grand scheme of things a little bit. Stay away from the stereotypical bad guy (Like you did in Warrior in Grey and you’re doing in Feather and Fang and make sure there’s a sense of urgency to our quest. Cause right now it seems a little forced. I mean, us five are risking our lives to stop something that’s already happened, and no one in particular wants to see ended.
Me: yea, I can see what you’re saying there. And since he mentioned Warrior in Grey, Rogart, why don’t you go next?
Rogart: Well, and this would hold true for most of your earlier stories, and even some of your newer writing *looks fiercely at Redpaw*, I would say the one problem you had in my story was the credibility and realism. I mean, you had me doing some pretty crazy stuff in there, stuff that just took away any sense of realism. And you fixed it later on, but the foundation was still there, so the story never went anywhere.
Me: True. But, you will be excited to hear, as will all of you, that I am completely overhauling the plot of Warrior in Grey, and renaming it Silver and Sable!
*cheering*
Rogart: Really? Awesome!!
Me: It will be in the same world as Quartorlen, that should excite some of you, and will feature an entirely new map.
Redpaw: *grinning* Excellent. Your old map… was interesting.
Rogart: Ha. Paul’s was the worst! I mean, “Monkey Jungle?” How realistic is that?
Paul: *pfft* You’re talking about realism? If Warrior needed realism, the On Grace Alone needed reality! But, since it was your first attempt at writing, and one of the few you have actually completed, I am willing to let that slide. ‘Sides I got to do some pretty awesome impossible stuff
Timber: You have nothing to complain about my friend, nothing at all. Well, I don’t know if I would change anything in Where the Wolf Howls, I’d say it’s pretty complete. Mostly because it was so short, there’s not much more you could do with it.
James: *chuckling* Since Timber and I share the same style of story…
Rogart: The short one!
James: *cough* same style of story, I would echo his thoughts, though of course, you have to finish mine. But I have to say, and this is not boasting, that I have the coolest story idea of anyone here. I mean, people who can change into animals is fairly common, being able to control elements is really common, fighting against a usurper/tyrant also quite common and riding on giant forms of well-known creatures is one of the most well-known facets of fantasy! But getting shot with twenty-seven bullets and waking up ten years earlier… now that is original!
Me: Agreed, though all of the stereotypical things you mentioned are not at all to be taken in the way you described them. I mean, how do you explain that people changing into animals isn’t shape-shifting, it’s part of who they are, just as a centaur is a ‘half-man, half-horse’, he’s a centaur. It’s who he is. So the freeborn are neither human nor animal, they are freeborn, which means they have two forms, one resembling a human, and the other an animal from earth
Rogart: Wow. Complicated.
Paul: You can say that again.
James: I still think they’re stereotypical… oh, here comes Drelborn!
Drelborn *rushing in breathless* Oh, hey guys, sorry I’m late. We were shooting the crowning scene and the director wanted a shot of my face.
*everyone looks hard at me*
Me: Heh, sorry guys.
Rogart: Wait, how can he be in two places at once?
James: He’s the writer, he can do that
Rogart: Oh. Seems rather fishy to me
Me: Well, let’s, um, move on. Sorry Drelborn, we were asking everyone here what they would have changed about their story, but we have to move on if we want to finish on time
Drelborn: Oh, don’t worry, I’m pretty happy with mine. It is getting made into a movie.
Me: Well, you can ask the first question of me then
Drelborn: Ask you a question, eh? Hmm. Ok, what was your inspiration for each of our stories?
Me: Oh, that’s a long answer. I’ll try to make it brief. On Grace Alone didn’t really have an inspiration, leastwise none that I can remember. I received a challenge for my 12th birthday, which I had to complete for my 13th. And one part was writing a story. So I took the few chapters I had written, renamed it, made it slightly more realistic…
Paul: *cough*
Me: ...and finished it off in time. Warrior I started writing in a gray notebook given to me by some dear friends of mine, hence the title. And it just kind of grew from there. Wolf was next, I think...
Timber: You think?
Me: For that one, I had just watched Kung Fu Panda, and just finished reading Jungle Book 2. So the colored fire, awesome fights, wolf-pack, albino snake etc, were all inspired by something I had seen or read. But I don’t think they show up as that. Disintegrator was next; that one, I’m not sure where the idea came from. I just started writing a chase scene with awesome special effects, and then came the story. Not long after I was planning out a battle to film, and needed heroes, so I borrowed them from Disintegrator, and it ended up being a full-fledged film two years in the making. And I will actually use the plot-line from the movie to finish off the book.
Drelborn: Too bad the movie couldn’t have all the special effects *grins*
Me: Yea, that would have been awesome. Freeborn was next, I had decided to do NaNoWriMo, (National Novel Writing Month), and needed a plotline, so I pulled out a story idea I had called According to Power and completely reworked it, created the world of Quartorlen in my spare time, and planned out a trilogy all before my month actually started. Then, during the month of November, I wrote from 9 to 12 each night, and wrote and completed my first ‘novel-length’ story ever, all in 30 days. That was fun!
Farjag: And a right masterful job you did too!
Me: Thanks, Farjag. Feather flowed out of that naturally, as a sequel, though the idea had actually come previously. Feather is more idea-driven story than character-driven story, with two enemies becoming friends and a father’s love being key concepts
Redpaw: *Snort* I still don’t like Crestlen
Me: That’s cause I haven’t gotten very far yet, furbrain!
Redpaw: *mutters something about laws against hurting writers*
Me: And finally, probably the one where inspiration is most prominent, is Second Chance. I dreamt one night of getting shot 27 times and thinking that I would get to see heaven, and then waking up. That, of course, became the basis for the story, along with the idea of redemption and a little bit of Jason Bourne thrown in. *grins*
Rogart: Wow. I didn’t know that.
Redpaw: Well, now you do. I don’t know about the rest of you guys, but that answered just about any questions I had before. What say you we all go russell up some grub?
James: I know a good coffee shop where we can sit in a corner without being stared at
Farjag: Who’s being stared at?
Paul: Ya’ll are the ones in medieval garb. Me and James look normal compared to you.
Rogart: Yea right! James doesn’t look at all suspicious in long black trench coat, and you look like just any other island castaway walking the streets of the city!
Paul: Yea, I hadn’t thought about that. *checks his makeshift wardrobe to make sure nothing has fallen apart*
Me: Um, guys, you could all just come over to my place… I’d love the company
Drelborn: Hey, why not? Not every day we can ransack our writer’s cupboards!
Redpaw: Sounds good to me! Last one there does the washing-up!!
*general stampede for the door*
Me: Rogart, you’re not going?
Rogart: Naw, I couldn’t keep up if I wanted to. They’re all master hunters, or assassins or warriors. Me, I’m just a boy who gets into trouble with his brashness.
Me: And that’s why I created you, dear boy. Paul was my first, but he was more an older me than anything else, and everyone else has sort of grown up past me. But you, you’ve stayed the same, always the young boy of fifteen I first met between the leather-bound covers of an new notebook. And you’ll always keep my younger self in you, the same brashness, stupidity even, but tenacity and energy I had. And trust me, I’m going to have fun writing you all over again in Silver and Sable. It’ll be like meeting an old friend, who hasn’t aged a day. You will always be my favorite.
Rogart: It’s an honor, and a responsibility, being your favorite character. I can’t wait to see what adventures you have for me in my new book.
Me: Me too. And when that one’s done, it’ll only be one more step on the road for you.
Rogart: Where will it end, do you think?
Me: I can’t say for sure, but when I’m an old man, I’ll want you at my side, holding my hand. Walking into the sunset together, with the shades of countless other characters standing with respect along the road. And mothers will whisper to their children, and warriors will whisper to their comrades, and villains will whisper to their servants, and heroes will whisper to each other, “There goes Rogart, the Grey Warrior, with the Writer.”
No comments:
Post a Comment
If you liked the post (or conversely, didn't) leave a comment! It helps me keep in touch with my readers, and gives you opportunities for constructive criticism and feedback! Thanks for reading!