Pompadour's Pre-writing Jungle

I have absolutely no clue what I'm going to be doing with this, but since I've gotten tired of untangling all the threads of complex plot-lines, I've decided to stick to something simpler for NaNo. That is to say ... I shall probably take part in NaNo this year, although I'm not sure how much I'll be able to write, seeing as school is killing my brain cells and stuffing them some place where creativity's a dead squirrel.

Anywhoo, here's to hoping this jungle-journal of sorts will help to jump-start the project. As of yet, exactly 998 words of the first chapter have been squeezed in through senseless schoolinating, but I have as of yet to delve into the story. I'm standing on this little island called the Beginning of the Beginning of the Beginning of the End. Or the B.E for short.

Note: This will probably contain a lot of senseless rambling and not make the slightest bit of sense. I'm just spewing all my thoughts in one place, and there might be several aspects of plot and person that go in circles/the laws of Physics/pasta. Also, I'm shoving grammar to the side for a while. Coherence? Psshh.

Randomness is not to be questioned.

*Steps forth into the wild*

Quick notes--

~*Things that have been set in stone and not mossed out yet:*~

There will be conspiracies--Rose Petal Conspiracies (called the R.P.Cs for short). There will be nineteenth century England with a twist. Fantastical wanderings and goopy lightheartedness as well as a smidge of satire. A cohesion of styles--vacillations--and characters that make me laugh. Random smatterings of dialogue that poof into ze mind when stuck in the car. Purpose and underlying sobriety. Society's spittle. I'm sorry I had to stick stuff about gender inequality in the nineteenth century and other shtuff in there somewhere because I have Sociology on the brain.

Ooh, and time-traipsing of course! I'm thinking about an actual time stream. That's going to involve some world-building, which I totally suck at.

And one of the main characters is going to be called Trevor because I like that name very much, yes.

In fact, I'm intending for the story to begin with Trevor. There will also be a Reggie, and a Loretta, and a Gretel. I already love them very much. I think that's a terrible thing at this point, although I can't tell you why. Just one of 'em gut feelings.

Character profiley thingies to be posted later on. In blocks rather than short notes since I find it hard to stick to one stark definition of who my characters are. History and quirks and attitudes and shtuff mostly.

I haven't had much time on my hands lately, but I managed to squish some pre-writing in. It's a garbled mess of mass confusion, but it's a start, at least.

So. Entry One: Pounding at Foundation.

What is the story called? Its temporary name, whilst it hangs in the limbo of ‘being written’, shall be ‘The Amazing Time-Traipsing Adventures of Mr Hampshley.’ Original, is it not? At some point in the not-so-distant, distant future, I hope to be changing the title of the story to something more … fitting. For now, however, I think this works just fine.

Setting: All right, so the title’s probably managed to convey the fact that the story shall take place in a number of different settings across time; for the sake of avoidance-of-brain-combustion, though, I have managed to narrow the ‘backdrops’ to three major ones:

1] England, East Sussex, Countryside. (District: Hastings? Probably.) 1855. Picture this as a stepping-stone before we nose-dive into the bigger picture. Or—a foothold with which we shall climb. As it is, this is the setting with which our story will begin. Quick notes: A decent amount of rain, but not the typical ‘goodness-it-only-ever-rains’ image that old England portrays. As Wikipedia has ever-so-graciously informed me: “East Sussex, such as most of the southern counties by the south coast, hold annual average totals of around 1,750 hours of sunshine per year. This is much higher than the UK's average of about 1340 hours of sunshine a year.”

Strangely enough, I’m thinking of beginning with a rainy scene. Rain against the windowpane is an absolutely delicious image, isn’t it?

2] 21st Century England. Somewhere closer to the north—exact location unmentioned. We won’t be hanging here much, save for attending school and home and typical everyday life scenes with Reggie, Gret, and Justin/Gus. This is pretty much the easiest to sketch out in my head, although at this point the details are hazy and strange. I see gravel. I see stone. I see a local Comprehensive school and cloudy skies. Not much else to build upon at this point. Will return to later.

3] Empasse, alternatively known to me as ‘The Kingdom of the Time Stream,’ but that’s too blatant to actually use, innit?

Ah, this is the fun part. World-building! I’m not getting to the long, tedious (and potentially frightening) process here, but some quickie-quickies:

~ Empasse is basically like a doorway between The Happening Reality and The Happened. It isn’t a ‘void’ or anything, but just your average caught-within-time kingdom. People have no special powers unless they choose to learn (like Loretta) how to walk between one time-warp to another. [As a side note, the process itself is rather difficult, as it requires the twining and untwining of various time-threads, and could prove fatal if done incorrectly. This is precisely why most Empassians prefer to lead a merry existence, and living and dying in all its normalcy.] Empasse is surrounded by a kind of mist, with intricate web-like structures weaving in and out of it; it looks like smoke, but in reality, it’s like a brick wall. No one can go in. No one can go out.

Unless they know how. (I’m sorry; I couldn’t resist leaving that line break there!)

As mentioned before, some people know how to manipulate the time-warp; that art is called ‘The Traipsers’ Mechanics’, and is also a subject taught at the Ercha (University), although not many people opt for it. The royals, however, have to have mastered this art. It’s kind of essential, you know, when you’re the ruler of a caught-within-time kingdom.

Right, so seeing as I am making some progress here, I’ll (vaguely) attempt to do part of Challenge the Eighth for Empasse. (Empasse isn’t a small stretch of land; let me make that clear. It’s a large kingdom with varying topographical features [both natural and man-made].)

Spoiler

Resources: Farming on the flatter plains; fishing near lake Ortrea; coal and natural gas mines near the Kyen mountains. (Very vague stuff, I know. I’ll work on this more after everything’s mapped out since Empasse consists of a few larger cities and other, smaller towns, and I find it easier to write resources to a certain area when I know where it is.
Language: English. (Yahreian is the old language, in which a lot of the old towns and cities are named; but it’s largely extinct, and not a great deal of its literature survives. Hence, not many people speak/write it.)
Government: Monarchy. King Edrian is the current ruler. His son, Ier, is the heir to the throne.

That's it for now. Tomorrow, I shall talk characters!

Feel free to leave criticism/comments on what I have so far; it'd be a great help! ^^

So I'm a little crazy when it comes to my characters; I tend to free-write everything I know about them until it leaves me drained, and since I have quite a lot of characters, I'll probably be dealing with them in parts. Like, I deal with one character on day one, then take a break and switch to something like world building/style, then I move on to maybe two more? I think that'll work out. I'm not too fab when it comes to character development, so if several aspects of personality clash, please tell me! As it is I intend to make as many mistakes as possible, yay!

Also, if you want, you can skip the huge blocks. TRUST ME THEY WILL BE HUGE BLOCKS ARGH.

Let's start out nice and neat--with a list!

~*~

CharactersMaybe.

A double asterisk (**) means that a character will probably be playing a massive part in the story; a single asterisk (*) means that a character is important, but less so.


Protagonists:

~Hailing from 1855:
1) Trevor Hampshley**
~Hailing from the 21st century:
2) Reggie Dewitt**
3) Gret Myre*
4) Justin/Gus Taylor *
~Hailing from Empasse:
5) Loretta Rene ________{last name not yet known to me}*

Antagonists:

1) Vaisth {He’s the one calling all the evil shots.}**

Neutral/can bend either way:

1) Mownie—Vaisth’s son. Largely supports father, though.*
2) Neina—Vaisth’s sister
3) The Rower*
4) Ier*

Others: (who don’t play much of a role in unravelling the plot itself).

1) Trevor’s eight aunts
2) Uncle James
3) Trevor’s bumbling buffoon of a friend, Christopher.
4) Droalags—Vaisth’s mindless droids. Also referred to as ‘Wranglers’ by the Empassians.
5) Numerous others I’m too tired to mention right now.

Bonding Session 1.1

1] Trevor Hampshley’s my reluctant hero who’s allergic to roses and cats (although he’s rather fond of the latter, he can’t go near one without coughing up a storm). He’s around twenty years old, pale-skinned, with wavy, dark brown hair and eyes that are a slightly lighter shade. He has a ski slope nose and long, tapered fingers, which are inherent features, and I’m being detail-picky so I’ll stop now. Of average height and build, he’s often told he’s handsome by his aunts (all eight of them), who are intent on getting him married off before he turns twenty-four.

Trevor’s rather introspective and socially-awkward, and he hates the fact that he’s expected to be ‘perfect’ when he’s at home. (He also disagrees with quite a lot of his aunts’ ideas, but never says so, poor child.) It isn’t often that he’s at Harrowridge, though, since he’s away for most of the year for his studies; but when he is, he has to live with his aunts constantly gushing over him and expecting him to ‘mingle’. His ‘social image’ is similar to that of Jane Fairfax, in that he is seen as having no faults. This might be why Trevor often feels rebellious, although he has as yet to actually take part in an openly rebellious act; his shyness and his inability to displease his aunts is what keeps him from causing a ruckus. (‘Keep tha’ frustration bottled, Trev,’ I says. ‘Keep it in.’) As it is, his aunts have absolutely no idea what he gets up to when he’s away from home, and right now I’m not delving into that pit-hole of information either. [Teehee.] Anyway … the reason behind him being unable to displease his aunts, as I mentioned before, is because they’ve basically raised him and although they can be a bit—alright, a lot—overbearing, he respects them and loves them. Also, he never really gets the chance to air his opinions with them around, seeing as they never let him get a word in edgewise!

Spoiler

~* Tripping back in time: Trevor was born in the 1830s to Eugenia and John Hampshley. Eugenia Hampshley (nee Grafter), was the daughter of Thomas Grafter, a man of good social standing and wealth. Both Eugenia and John were more or less equal in terms of status and wealth, and their families were located on the landed gentry. (Meaning they owned land and the men did not need to work for a living. Even so, John dabbled in politics for a while.) Both were fond of travelling, and Eugenia, especially, was of an adventurous spirit; it was during their return-journey from London that Trevor was born.

Picture this: A bumpy country road winding into the distance, the wind blowing the trees like bits of cardboard across the landscape. It is dark, and the scene is similar to a cup of very strong, murky brown tea. In fact, let’s just think of the entirety of the landscape as a cup of tea. The clouds are swirling dregs—soggy tea leaves—and mud sloshes like a miniature river across the road. Apply a layer of grease over the picture as the rain pelts down incessantly. In the corner, draw a small hostelry. It’s not too fabulous, but it’s not super-shabby either. If it wasn’t rainy, and the wind wasn’t batting against the sign so viciously, you’d see that the name of the inn is ‘The Wild Lily.’ There’s a carriage that is almost-but-not-quite a speck in the horizon, trundling along the road—grease and all.

Okay, so now that that’s been established, I’m getting a pretty good view of where Trevor was born. The carriage we dropped in the middle of the ‘scape was Mr and Mrs Hampshley’s. It also inconveniently kept them from reaching aforementioned inn. Aaand as the carriage got stuck in the mud quite a way away from the inn—I think you probably know where this is going—Mr and Mrs Hampshley had to trudge through the mud to reach it. They got drenched in the process. Lemme squish this into a nutshell: Mrs Hampshley ended up getting pneumonia. (Note to self: How long does it take for one to catch pneumonia? Three to four hours? Dunno.) A few hours later, Trevor was born. A couple of hours following that, Mrs Hampshley died.

Whoa. That was long and complex and unneeded. I probably won’t be narrating this long-and-lugubrious story in the actual novel, but eh. I feel like I know Trevor a bit better now.

Right. Moving on: Trevor’s mum was buried near the inn the next day, when the storm had waned. His dad was devastated. Took Trevor back to Hastings. Insert mourning and aunts. Aunts offer to take care of Trevor. Dad refuses politely. Then Trevor’s Uncle offers to raise the boy, since he has no children of his own/think of something that is not cliché, please. Dad accepts because, frankly, he does not trust the aunts to bring up his son.

Flash-forward two years. Mr Hampshley dies in a carriage-crash. Ooh, irony. I shall expound on this event later. Or he could die of some fever, or … [!] Note to self: explore Mr and Mrs Hampshley’s lives more fully someday.

~*Meet the family: Trevor has eight aunts. Yes, eight. All old maids. He also has an uncle (his father’s brother) who became his guardian after his father died. Anyhoot, I’ll try uploading a family tree later. Character relationships to be covered separately.

~* Okay, so I’m already very attached to Trevor. Very, very attached. It’s a horrible situation, but I can’t judge him harshly, even with all the mistakes he makes/is going to make. It’s a bit ironic, since the situation I’m tossing the poor dear into includes tons of people not-judging-him-harshly and holding him in good graces, yadda yadda. But Trevor’s always had a low self-esteem—or that’s what he tells himself—and he’s always harsh on himself. He’s also a perfectionist and a stickler for the rules—which might be one of the things I do dislike about him, actually. He tries to keep an open mind about things, and he enjoys looking at things from different angles/perspectives. At the end of the day, though, it’s Trevor’s daily rituals, the familiar sights and the comfort of a world that’s not about to change—that’s what gives him assurance. It’s safety. He isn’t very good at dealing with change, either. He tends to over-analyse things a lot, gets worried easily—but is also rather impulsive; this might seem contradictory, but his mind shuts down on him in moments of panic. His views on things vacillate quite often, since he’s forever challenging himself to think differently. So, yeah, he’s introverted—he thinks quite a bit, but he’s okay with that—he takes some time to get used to company—change does not suit him well.

On the other hand, Trevor’s also eager to please those people he’s close to—those he loves, respects, or admires. He has a quiet sort of teasing side to him, and can be sarcastic on occasion. It takes him some time to warm up to people, but once he’s acquainted with them and thinks they’ve ‘been through enough together’, he is ferociously loyal towards them. He’s also ferociously abrasive when angry with someone he’s close enough to yell at. Trevor is usually less reserved when in a time other than his own—goodness, I haven’t even gotten to that yet!—and this might be because he feels less trapped in other societies than he does in his own. (Also, he figures other societies don’t give a dime what he says, and it’s okay to let down your walls because these people can’t judge you.) Some people’s opinions matter more than others, Trevor reasons with himself, and it’s home where he’s got to prove himself. Sometimes, though, he wishes the society he lives in was less narrow-minded, and he’s always had a desire to cause some kind of … trouble. He hates how people expect him to act in certain ways—yet at the same time, he hates how he feels obliged to act that way himself, in order to please them. He’s pretty conflicted at the moment, so instead of creating more confusion, I’ll just let this be to look back on during the actual process. Characters are, after all, subject to change—drastic change, too.

So while I’ve gone on a long enough spiel concerning Trev’s thoughts and who he is, I haven’t explored the ‘Why is he like this?’ factor/s: Ze cause to the effect! I’ll be nice and try to keep this concise. XD

Trevor’s always been pushed into situations; ever since he was a kid, people have expected him to be like his father, a politician, or do something great. Trevor’s uncle never pressured him into anything, though, and he was always there. Quiet and ready to listen, even with his nose in a book. (He encouraged Trevor to develop a love of reading; while he never made much of a headway with Literature, Historical Studies fascinated him, and he figured there was more to them than the biased view-points of British historians.

I feel a free-writing mood coming on. *twitches with impatience* Not now. Not now. But it shall include Trevor and his uncle’s relationship expressed! Especially because Trevor lived with his uncle ‘til he turned eleven, until the man became too ill to look after him. The aunts were a nightmare to poor Trevor. A comical nightmare, but a nightmare all the same. He was always a bit intimidated by them; they frightened him. He was also intimidated by all that they expected him to do—which I shall not be talking about now, since I’m having trouble keeping to ironed-out facts here rather than conversations. *sigh*

The problem here is this, I guess: I’m keen to know as much about Trevor as possible, because there’s enough gloop here to make a prequel—not that I’m inclined; that information just exists to exist—and his adventures with the Time Stream are kind of important to the adventure which the book is basically about! So even though I won’t be going all: Oh, he had a tense childhood with his aunts and all that you should know about. Then he went to University and escaped and ohmygod stuff happened and he met Loretta askldjk and why all these run-ons anyway?!

So, basically, he’s had experiences with the time-stream before. And that’s all I need to know.

Right?

I'll upload a family tree tomorrow~

<EDIT>


Ah, so I mentioned that Trevor is less reserved in times other than his own--but that he's also fond of permanence, and that he doesn't like change. But I didn't say he time-traipsed because he wanted to, and that's a matter I won't be elaborating one here. Let's just say that he's a 'reluctant' hero; I think that's enough in itself to explain why he might act differently towards the entire concept of time-traipsing, etcetera, etcetera.