The Writer Who Could discussion

My little corner for all my ramblings and worries!

Just a little something about me and what my imagination has been cooking up of late.

If you picture a small room crammed with memorabilia and strewn with papers (and clothes!) you've got my work space. I am a chaotic worker, partly due to my need to visualise anything I work on. If you ever catch a glimpse of me at work on a project (a rare thing for anyone!) you will see me surrounded by hand drawn maps and detailed character bios, as I spend a great deal of time creating a world and filling it with people before doing anything else. Although this chaos helps me to create, I do think I may be in need of some form of structure to help me progress beyond conceptualisation.

Recently I have been piecing together a fantasy epic world (which I have yet to name) but alongside that I have been toying with another idea I have had in development for some time. For me, a novel is all about exploring the human condition (as I call it) and trying to determine what makes a human, human. Without wanting to give too much away, my second idea in development, is about posing that question by taking anything physical away from consideration. When I write I like to pose questions but let the reader answer them for himself.

As I progress with these ideas (and a few others I have lying around!) I will be sure to update you here. If you have any suggestions for getting more work structure I would love to hear them.

Wow, that sounds like what I've been doing! I already have another small book explaining the history of the world I've made. I also draw maps, and make character bios first :D.


Try making a procedure for you to follow! That usually helps the structure for me.

Thanks. I've just had a look at the snowflake method which had some helpful tips. I think part of my problem is keeping momentum. sometimes it ends up feeling like an impossible task and I need a big picture road map to look at in those moments!

So my little imagination has been at it again and I've found myself returning to an old but good character.

the character I have in mind is a little complex but basically I want to plunge him into a world that is dirty and chaotic and surround him with others who can display a vast array of emotions and motives; from self interest to self sacrifice. The purpose of this character is for him to learn and develop in this world, as he learns more about his own past and for him to face difficult moral choices to ultimately get the reader to question what makes people human.

It is rather an ambitious task but progress has mainly been slow as I have been struggling to find the right world setting for this character.

Initially I thought to place him in an out and out fantasy world but have been wondering if this might not distract the reader from the main thrust of the book. Instead I have been considering some historical time periods as a setting. The character has a slight mechanical/ steam punk feel to him and so I have discounted medieval as it just doesn't feel right for him.

A couple of possible runners I have come up with in the last week are; the american peoples move into the west; colonisation around the Caribbean or; some time during British trade and occupation in China.

I thought all of these had the potential to throw up conflicts and the chaos that comes with them, but If anyone has any thoughts on these or for some other setting I would love some ideas.

At the minute I quite like the feel of China with all the double dealing of the tea trade and the opium trade but I am reluctant, mainly as I am not good at "seat of the pants" and will probably spend quite some time researching, but this may not ultimately be a bad thing as I am bound to discover some relatively little known historical figures that may make excellent characters. If anyone has any suggestions for a task like this, I would love those too.

Well, if you are after china, a good place to start seems like the Xing Dynasty.