The Ildin Saga

[TheArcaneAxiom]

@jonas

I’m probably not going to be the best at giving advice on color and character. Color I feel is arbitrary unless there’s something special about it, like the combination of the two metrics in some way. Character we’ve discussed in the past in many ways. I’m not really sure what advice I could give that you don’t already know.

As for the last question, I think there’s a whole lot of ways you could unfold it. This reminds me of The Reckoners by Brandon Sanderson. All the powers were assumed to be random, but over time, specific parallels seemed to arise. Perhaps you could stretch out the series enough to introduce enough of the elements for people to begin picking at, and introduce different theories.

He is perfect in Justice, yet He is perfect in Mercy, even when we fail Him. For this, He is good.

[Cloaked Mystery]

@thearcaneaxiom

Hmm… yeah. That could work. The easiest way to do it would be to simply introduce a few entire rows. That would show a pattern and then let people work out other powers on their own.

Thanks.

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[Cloaked Mystery]

@highscribeofaetherium @thearcaneaxiom @savannah_grace2009 @rae @grcr

Okay, I’ve run into an issue that I should have realized was an issue earlier.

So, when I decided to work on this instead of the Adonial Saga, I thought, ‘I’ve got a fully developed magic system, an interesting and fairly complete setting, I’ve got some characters…this should be easy!’ However, I forgot about the third element of stories: plot.

I do have some plot ideas for this story, but not much, and what I do have feels stale and uninteresting. With a lot of the other stories floating around in my mind, I’ve got a lot of cool plot ideas, but with this one…basically nothing.

So, I have a dilemma to which I see three possible options:

1. Keep working on this. Make a good plot exist. The problem is that I have no idea how to do this. I’m bad at forcing ideas to exist, and plot ideas don’t come up for me frequently.
2. Go back to the Adonial Saga. Sure there’s a lot of things to work out still, but at least I have a rough idea of all the aspects. However, this one will be difficult to write—overall harder than most of the other ideas I have.
3. Start a different story. I could do the Oldonar Saga or the Razath Saga. For Oldonar, I have a couple of characters planned, a couple of plot ideas, and a bit of setting. All of these need some significant work, but they at least have a good foundation. For Razath, I have a pretty good idea of the setting, some loose character ideas (characters tend to be the easiest for me anyway), and a very general idea of the plot (but it’s an interesting general idea, so it would probably be easier to fill in than Ildin.)

There are downsides and benefits to all of the options, so I don’t know what to do. Any advice?

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[RAE]

@jonas

Whatever you do, do NOT go with option one! I started writing Guardain Angels before I even knew what plot was, and I am paying for it now! The lack of plot in the first draft means my story bounces all over the place, and trying to tame that and weave my plot has created such troubles that I highly do not reccomend writing a story with no ideas of plot.

For writing, go onto something else. For working on the Ilden Saga, I suggest something I call “talk play.”

“Talk play” is something my brother and I created. It’s basically taking our charries, putting them in a setting, situation and such, then talking to each other as if we are the characters themselves going on an adventure. It’s faster than an rp, since you don’t type anything out, and you aren’t waiting for someone to respond, but just as effective. You can do it with your sister or just by yourself, it doesn’t matter, the principle is the same.

Talk playing out your scenes may help round out your story before you write.

"You need French Toast."

[Sara]

@jonas

Oof…yeah, I feel that. Plotting can be really hard! I’ve definitely struggled with that A LOT in the past.

The sad truth is…there’s really no “perfect formula” to make a gripping plot.

What I have done, is followed the advice of Abbie Emmons (on YouTube) and gave my story a theme, the truth I want to show in my story. In my story, the truth is basically the verse “resist the Devil and he will flee, and its basically about how the Devil tells us lies to throw us off our faith. This made the plot a lot easier, because I had a goal I was trying to incorporate into my story and wasn’t just making things up on a whim. It gave everything a purpose, and made everything seem more necessary, if that makes sense.

The best way to solve your problem is simply to just sit down and plot. I know, I know it’s hard and there was a while where the mention of plotting would give me a mini panic attack (okay that’s exaggerating a little bit…but not by much!)

When I plot, I always turn on some music and plot in my notebook, which seems to make it much easier. Also, researching and watching YouTube videos and reading articles helps a lot!

I hope this was helpful?? I’m not the best at giving advice XD

Lukas&Livia
#Lalbert
Sef&Chase
#HOTTOLINE
LEFSE FOREVER!!!!!! <333

[Cloaked Mystery]

@rae

Whatever you do, do NOT go with option one! I started writing Guardain Angels before I even knew what plot was, and I am paying for it now! The lack of plot in the first draft means my story bounces all over the place, and trying to tame that and weave my plot has created such troubles that I highly do not reccomend writing a story with no ideas of plot.

I wasn’t planning on going into it without a plan. I’m definitely on the same page as you on this one. I’m definitely a planner (unfortunately to the extent that I plan instead of writing a lot.)

@savannah_grace2009

Yeah, thanks! Part of the problem with this particular instance is how little I have to start with. For me, plotting comes from my characters and conflicts. Starting with a conflict makes it a lot easier, but I really don’t have any idea what the conflicts are in this story, except for the whole ‘evil villain plan’ which is only a vague idea in my head, and I don’t know what it will look like in concrete form.

I made the dumb mistake of assuming that because I had the setting worked out well for this story that it would be easy to write. But really, plot and characters are more important than setting, and both of those are currently pretty weak in this story.

I will wait to see what everyone else has to say, but at this point, I’m thinking that I might try Oldonar or Razath. Oldonar’s setting is quite weak at this point, but I have some interesting plot details in mind, and a few characters to start with. It might be refreshing to work on something that is still so open-ended but has a place to start. Razath has a more developed setting than Oldonar, but I have less ideas for characters and plot.

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[-GRCR-]

@jonas

Oof… that is a problem.

I see you said that you may try the other stories… which might be a good idea if you have more to them. Sometimes it seems that when we’re more excited about one thing more than another, the ideas kinda just stop floating/coming. I don’t know if you’re more excited/interested in any of your others, but that’s how it is for me often.

(Side question/note: Are you leaning more towards Oldonar? I mean… unless I’m understanding this wrong, it seems that you’ll reach the same problem that you have right now if you work on Razath…??)

_____

Okay… to be honest, I’d say you should do the first option. I don’t know a lot about the other (obviously), but this one seems really interesting so far, even without knowing much.

You did say that you have some plot ideas, even though they seem uninteresting (right?). If so, build off of those! Try adding random facts/ideas to them—that’s what I do. Throw random ideas onto a scrap-page and then just connect the dots, if that makes any sense. Ask yourself “what if”. Or try using the personalities and backgrounds of your characters to shape those ideas. If a random idea doesn’t really fit, just don’t use it.

(I feel like I said “ideas” too much…  sorry lol)

I really agree with what Sara said about just sitting down and beginning. I know that is kinda hard but it does work. Don’t force it, just sit and think.

 

Sorry if that doesn’t help very much. 😅 I, too, am not the greatest at giving advice (especially about plotting lol).

 

🤍 Ira | Jara | Evelyn | Flaz | Blaine 🤍

[-GRCR-]

@rae

“Talk play” is something my brother and I created. It’s basically taking our charries, putting them in a setting, situation and such, then talking to each other as if we are the characters themselves going on an adventure. It’s faster than an rp, since you don’t type anything out, and you aren’t waiting for someone to respond, but just as effective. You can do it with your sister or just by yourself, it doesn’t matter, the principle is the same.

Hey, my siblings and I do that too!! We call it “movie-ing” though, lol. XD

🤍 Ira | Jara | Evelyn | Flaz | Blaine 🤍

[Cloaked Mystery]

@grcr

I see you said that you may try the other stories… which might be a good idea if you have more to them. Sometimes it seems that when we’re more excited about one thing more than another, the ideas kinda just stop floating/coming. I don’t know if you’re more excited/interested in any of your others, but that’s how it is for me often.

A while ago, I was more excited about Ildin, but now I’m less interested. I’m guessing whatever I choose will end up becoming less interesting, which is annoying. But I haven’t really started working on it much yet, so I could still switch to something else.

(Side question/note: Are you leaning more towards Oldonar? I mean… unless I’m understanding this wrong, it seems that you’ll reach the same problem that you have right now if you work on Razath…??)

I am leaning towards Oldonar, but Razath wouldn’t have as much of a problem as Ildin, because I have an overall plot idea for that one that is a lot more interesting to me.

You’re probably right that I should work on Ildin, but I don’t really want to. Maybe I should just try coming up with plot ideas for a while and if something clicks then I can continue. If not I can switch to something else.

🏰 Fantasy Writer
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[TheArcaneAxiom]

@jonas

That’s a tough one. It’s hard because sometimes ideas seem to come naturally, but when you try to get knew ideas, that’s when they stop. I’ve faced similar struggles in the past. Like Omialia is a very well developed world, but when I try thinking of a story, all I can think of is uninspired tropes, whereas the worlds for Lucid Wraith and Blades will started with intriguing plot ideas. I wonder if that’s an actual phenomenon that occurs where your essentially trying to fill a cup that’s already full, but I don’t know.

Regardless, I’d say you can perhaps think about how the setting you’ve developed might produce a unique conflict that you can then tie into what a good conflict for one of the characters might be, then move on from there. Although, it may be good to simply take a break and move on to another project. What it comes down to is what you actually want to do. If you don’t want to work on Ildin right now, but are forcing yourself, then you’re killing your passion for it.

He is perfect in Justice, yet He is perfect in Mercy, even when we fail Him. For this, He is good.

[Cloaked Mystery]

@thearcaneaxiom

Yeah, the more I have the harder it is to think of more ideas, which is quite annoying.

Regardless, I’d say you can perhaps think about how the setting you’ve developed might produce a unique conflict that you can then tie into what a good conflict for one of the characters might be, then move on from there. Although, it may be good to simply take a break and move on to another project. What it comes down to is what you actually want to do. If you don’t want to work on Ildin right now, but are forcing yourself, then you’re killing your passion for it.

Thanks. I don’t really feel like I want to work on it right now, but that could easily change in a few months or weeks, so I don’t want to switch just because at the moment something else sounds more interesting. I’ll probably try thinking of ideas for a while, and if something excites me I’ll go ahead with this. If not I’ll do something else.

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[Cloaked Mystery]

@thearcaneaxiom @rae @highscribeofaetherium @savannah_grace2009 @grcr

There was a mechanic in Resonancy that I had in it originally but kind of faded put without me realizing it.

It would make things more interesting, but I don’t think it will really fix my problems, because it probably wouldn’t really come into play in the first book.

Basically, the idea is that Resonance Crystals:

1. Exert a mental pressure on the host. For example the destruction crystals make you more destructive. (It might be kind of hard to come up with 18 different effects, so some may not have these, perhaps the neutral powers won’t.)
2. Slowly spread, eventually beginning to manifest on the outside of the body. As they grow, the mental pressure increases until that’s essentially all that’s left. The more you use them, and especially the more you succumb to the pressure, the faster they spread. I’m not sure how you would counter this, which is kind of important.

This should help a bit with character development, and it would add a plot-line, but like I said, it probably won’t come into play in the first book.

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[TheArcaneAxiom]

@jonas

Yeah, that would be something good to build towards later on, but you’ll still need a more immediate plot.

He is perfect in Justice, yet He is perfect in Mercy, even when we fail Him. For this, He is good.

[HighScribe]

@jonas

Wyoh ate your post.

Any noun can become a verb if you don't care enough.

[Cloaked Mystery]

@highscribeofaetherium

I’m painfully aware. I’ll rewrite it later. *sigh*

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