Archive | November 17, 2014

Doomsday Intro: Pick a Card (@vundablog)

Nov17

Nano project #5 is the first novella in a series of 8, following 8 students through their 8 years at Doomsday Academy.

That means, of course, I need to figure out 8 students. Three I had pregenerated: The Catboy Samurai and his best friends Sianna the dancer and Sweetbriar the prickly. The other five…

Well, here’s a little something about one.

“Okay, pick a card.”

The caravan driver was being very patient, and you could tell. Then again, you’d been dropped on the caravan with two bags and a crossbow, and you were pretty sure that she felt bad for you.

And, really, you’d been dropped on a caravan with two bags and a half-sized crossbow, you were (you were pretty sure) just a few weeks away from your 10th birthday, and, while you didn’t really count the people that had just dumped you as parents, they were the only family you could remember. If you were going to take advantage of the fact the caravan driver was tolerating you, well, who could really blame you?

Besides, when you did particularly good magic tricks, she gave you an extra treat. You were a growing kid, right? Hopefully. You needed all the food you could get.

“All right, you’ve got your card in your mind, now put it right back in here, and I’ll just shuffle these up, just like this.” The guy you’d once thought was your father had taught you to shuffle, as well as several other card tricks. “And there we go. Is this your wallet?”

The cute smile was the trick. If you got that wrong, then you weren’t doing adorable magic tricks, you were a pickpocket. It was a thin line.

You held your breath. Slowly, the caravan driver smiled.

Today, you got to be a cute kid doing cute tricks.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/849667.html. You can comment here or there.

Doomsday Intro: Leaving Home (@inventrix)

Nov17

Written this way so I don’t have to put specific characters w/ specific intros until I’m ready

“All right.” Mom was being more cautious than normal, which was saying something. Three holstered weapons showing, never mind how many were hidden. Behind her, Uncle Tedd had the rifle out of the holster and his free hand on the gate.

Until today, the gate had been the end of the world. Until today, the world had consisted of two hundred acres of woodland and pasture and garden, fenced in with 10-foot-tall wire fencing and then with a wall twenty feet inside that and something magic and weird inside that. Until today, the world had been ten people, fifteen during the wintertime. Until today, the world had been very small.

Today, a woman in a wagon was waiting by the gate, and Mom and Uncle Tedd were checking all their weapons. Today, Uncle Tedd was staying home – which never happened – and Mom was leaving. Mom, and you. Leaving the farm. That never happened. That was never supposed to happen.

You clung to the bag Mom had handed you, and tried not to stare at the lady driving the wagon.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/849591.html. You can comment here or there.

Trying this a different way- help me build a cast #nanowrimo

Nov17

Tell me something about a character for Doomsday (example, via Trix: They have never been to a city or large town!) and I will write a bit of an intro involving that something.

Other ideas: who their ancestor is and how that happened (Addergoole ancestry, famous person ancestry, what have you), why their change is going to be xxx, hobby, fear.

Reminder: this is approx 35 years post apocalypse, and the world they are growing up in is a mess.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/849230.html. You can comment here or there.

Nanowrimo – First and Last Lines

Nov17

last line of last night: “And spunk. It’ll be interesting to see if that lasts. I hope it does. It’s always more fun when they have spunk.”

First line of yesterday: The bell downstairs rang. They were out of time to argue.

I’m at 32,561 words! And I wrote 2,460 yesterday.

Par for yesterday was 30,000, so I’m back on my trend of being one day ahead that I started on the second day of the month.

I *did* have to back up and start again from another direction, but all the words count. I can use most of ’em in revisions!

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/848975.html. You can comment here or there.

Cast My 3rd Novella: Help me flesh out Doomsday

Nov17

A While Ago, I asked for suggestions for what sort of traits would you enjoy reading in Doomsday students.

I got these suggestions:
Someone who was raised thinking Faeries Are Bad.
Someone who is Really Damn Good at Workings.
A purebred Mara Change. (those 3 @inventrix)
kid with some kind of special needs? Physcial handicap? (@dahob)

I’m coming to the time when I need to have these 5 characters fleshed out – 3 boys and 2 girls, to go with Sianna, Sweetbriar, and Austin.

So wanna tell me something about one of these five 8-year-olds?

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/848779.html. You can comment here or there.