Know the Novel: Part One

 

I'm so excited for this fall writing season!

And this is my first time doing Know the Novel, which is also exciting! (For me and for friends, that is.)

First of all, let me explain what Know the Novel is, if any of the (should I say my? :D ) readers don't know.

Know the Novel is a 3-part linkup series for writers, one for each of the last three months of the year. Each part will feature ten questions. The questions will be focusing on different parts of your novel and how the writing is going.

(And yes, that was a copy and paste.)

And also thanks to Christine Smith for making Know the Novel and continuing the good moments when we can all share a little piece of our lives & stories to others! 

This first part is the introduction; the part where you get to introduce the novel and the characters and plot inside of it! I'm not sure I'll be able to put as much content as to satisfy you all, however, so just accept the content I've put here. Grumble all you want in the comments, but know that I'll not listen to any of it.

(Of course before we actually get to the questions I have to do a bit of chitchatting, just because I like it and that's generally how my brain works for writing things down. I have a goal and then I get distracted and ramble off, case in point.)

I'm not a very morbid writer. (We shall see.) This means that I don't like to kill so many characters or people in the books that I write. 

Anyways, let's get on to the questions before I chat myself to extreme distraction.

1. What first sparked the idea for this novel?

Multiple things. Firstly, I've been meaning to write a dragon book (Ooh, accidental mini spoiler before the spoiler section!) for a very long time. Secondly, Christine Smith loves dragon books so that inspired me also because I do too! And there's nothing like high enthusiasm on a subject that can motivate others!

(Also I have some loose characters I wanted to put somewhere so this will work.)

2. Share a blurb (or overall summary)!

(I don't really have one yet, and there are a lot of things this story is lacking currently, such as character names, city names, etc., so don't mind me if I sort of gloss over some of it in this raw explanation of where I am in the story so far. (It's almost like reading it yourself, except that you get to choose which way it goes!))

Anyways, let me do my best.

Essentially, my main character arrives at the large city in the mountains (I'll explain the map in another paragraph) looking for work. (He came from a very small village farther north to the Mountain of Eternal Night.) He gets a job at the university where he helps out the professor with analyzing and gathering samples. The professor is currently studying dragons and their origins, as they appeared about 500 years ago, seemingly out of nowhere. He's also studying the relationship between dragons and their human impressers.

My other MC or protagonist recently has impressed his own dragon, and has been living at the "dragon castle" for about 3 months as a candidate and 4 months as a rider. (well technically not, as his dragon has just grown enough that they can fly together. Also these times are based upon the time starting at chapter 1, whereas the prologue is 4 months before chapter 1.) This is where the relationship between dragons and their riders are. Generally, since their bonds are so strong, they share meals. Which is cute, come to think of it.

I'd say that's good for an overall summary.

(Also I might include some blurbs later but I don't feel like sharing any right now. So sorry, but also be hopeful because I'll share some in the future, I promise.)

3. Where does the story take place? What are some of your favorite aspects of the setting?

The mountains of the continent split the country around it into an O shape (though the accessible area is more like a U shape because the land to the north of the Mountain of Eternal Night is too cold and harsh to be hospitable to humans or any other creature). To the west and east of the mountains lie two kingdoms, and the bottom O section is another kingdom. There are about 18 mountains in total, the northern mountain being the Mountain of Eternal Night (sorry, can't abbreviate it or it would lose its splendor), and the southern one (which is separated from the other mountains by a gap of about 15 miles of plains) is the Mountain of Sunlight. The 16 mountains sandwiched between the two regal mountains cover about 6000 square miles of area (an estimate, of course). On the edge of the U there is barren desert that stretches as far as anyone has been. The word "Ocean" is as foreign a word to the people of this land as the word "dragon" is to us. (That is, they've heard of it in books, just like we've heard of dragons in books.)

I'd say my favorite part about this is the mountains. I really love mountain cabins, and being snowed in, which gives plenty of opportunity for reading by a cozy fire (which is one of my favorite things).

4. Tell us about your protagonist(s)

I have two protagonists.

My main character's name is Farell. You can pronounce it anyway you like, as long as it isn't around me. (I'm not one of those Pinterest geeks, by the way.) Farell came from a small mountain village many miles north of the larger city, which is called Kalend. (I'm also not one of the people who go into immense detail about their characters.)

My second main character's name is Grayalder, and you can call him either Alder or Gray (he does prefer to go by Gray, however.). His dragon's name is Falchor. (Really I should say that they are two main characters in one as the dragon-rider relationship is so closely knitted (more on that later).) Falchor has blueish gray scales, which sort of fit the whole Gray aspect.

Of course there will be semi-protagonists, but I don't need to include them in here...

5. Who (or what) is the antagonist?

Honestly, I don't know. This worries me a little bit, as I have to add something antagonist-y into the book in order to make it proper and exciting enough to satisfy me. However, I'm a pantser. I'll find a way.

6. What excites you the most about this novel?

Definitely the dragons. And their relationship with their impressers. I've read several dragon books with different types of impressions in them, and I want to do something a bit different from the normal types you would see.

What I was thinking instead of a semi-mental relationship, that dragon and rider share the same mind, in essence, a mindspace. That way they can communicate instantly and almost act as one. (This is also adding to the sharing meals concept I mentioned earlier.)

7. Is this going to be a series? Standalone? Something else?

Well, this book isn't really a part of a series, but it is in the web of other books. I'm sure I'll add more books to this universe sometime, but I don't have any good ideas yet.

I'd classify it as a sequel.

8. Are you plotting? Pantsing? Plantsing?

I don't have enough motivation or effort to plan, so I'm a pantser over here. (Like I said earlier.) But I always manage to come through, right? Right...? *grins unsurely*

9. Name a few unique elements in the story.

Well obviously the fact that humans and dragons pair up isn't exactly unique, but I'd certainly say the manner and the bond are different. Firstly, I've decided that the dragons grow slower, taking about a year to reach full size, if not longer. I've adapted to this because the problem of feeding the greedy things would have been too big! (Oops, did I spoil it?)

(Or am I just giving away a false start? Now that is the question.)

Anyways I think the world is unique as well, all though not totally so. I do admit to having stolen the main idea from The Thief, with the two countries being separated by mountains. So, scrap that from the list.

Other than that I can't think of anything right now. But I'm sure it's unique in many ways.

10. Share some fun extras of the story (a song or full playlist, some aesthetics, a collage, a Pinterest board, a map you've made, a special theme you're going to incorporate, ANYTHING you want to share!).

So, I have to admit that I'm being quite boring here. I literally have nothing except from a few words on a page (maybe more than a few, maybe more like a thousand,) to mark my story. I might work on a pixelart map, but other than that, I've got nothing for ya. (Like I said, I'm not a Pinterest person.)

However, on sheer whim, I decided I'd add pumpkin as a delicacy. Recently my godmother gave me two boxes of pumpkin spice pancake mix and I can't wait to try that out. (In case you're wondering, pumpkin spice is one of my favorite flavors. After that comes chocolate. And that's basically the only two dessert flavors I care about. (Except for citrus... but no lime. Only lemon or orange.)

~w~ ~w~ ~w~

Anyway THAT will wrap up my Know the Novel post, hope you all have a wonderful day/week/month/season/year. 

Happy Writing!

Please comment if you would like to! I appreciate all comments (well, except those with grumbling about how little I've given you to feast on. But maybe I'll appreciate them anyway...).

Also please give me feedback on how the color scheme is going on. If it hurts your eyes too much, please let me know and I'll see what I can do. The reason I set it to that color was because the gold writing didn't pair with the plain white background.