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Stevie's Plot Rant.



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Thu Jul 09, 2009 11:15 am
SteviexOctopus says...



I've been running this story through my head for a long time now, and I have yet to get down to writing it. I figure the reason for this is (1) I put way too much stock into what people think, (2) I've want to write the most awesome novel ever and (3) the plot is way to complex to keep organized in my head.

Reasons 1 & 2 have been easily solved by not caring about my readers as much as wanting to write the book that I've never read but am always looking for (after all that's what a lot of authors have done). So I'm sorry to tell you but I no longer care what you think. Take no offence because I don't care what my mom thinks either. Though unlike my mom you have a brilliant mind and can help me because you too are a writer.

So I'm sorry if I offended you.

Reason 3 has yet to be solved... which is where you come in. I need to get my plot down on paper and in a way that makes sense, unfortunately this is something that I need opinions on. So while I don't want to hear that my idea stinks, I need to know if it makes sense or not. I'm just going to jump right in and tell you what I know:

Characters

The main character is a girl named Guinevere Millicent Galen, she has curly, chocolate brown hair and bright blue eyes. She has four siblings; two older brothers: Rupert Theodore and Trevor Jonathan; an older twin: Marion Anastasia, and one younger sister: Penelope Beatrice "Poppy".

Rupert is the eldest, but Guinevere has never actually seen him because he is a spy for the Alliance (yeah I know it's a stupid name but it's the best I've come up with...) Rupert takes after their mother, Beatrice, and has red hair and emerald eyes.

Trevor being the second eldest, and not obligated to his country, takes care of the girls on Earth. He is stubborn and hard headed but can have a big heart - especially when it comes to his sisters - and has kept them away from anything that has to do with their home. No matter the cost. He also looks a lot more like his dad then Rupert (which basically makes him look like Guinevere's older male look-a-like.... except he has hazel eyes.)

Marion her story is pretty tragic, since despite Trevor's efforts, she was kidnapped and is now residing in the Janvrin Manor where she is being kept prisoner. She looks a lot like Rupert.

Guinevere is Marion's twin, and they look identical in every way besides the hair and eyes. Guinevere is the main character (as I said above) she's very odd - kinda a Luna meets Doctor Who - but a little less knowledgeable about paranormal things as her brother keeps her sheltered.

Penelope is the youngest of the Galen Clan. She's about 12 years younger then Marion and Guinevere. She's very quiet and strangely tiny for being four years old. Not much is known about her since she is shipped off soon after the story begins to otherworldly orphanage for her safety. (I told you Trevor would do anything to keep them safe)

Besides the Galen Family, there is Prosper and Felix - who kind of act as the family body guards. They are best friends with Trevor and are the most influential members of his little "gang". The other members of the gang are: Jaden (a friend of Rupert - and also a spy), Ginny (Jaden's sister - she acts as a sort of messenger) and Zac Silas (A cousin of Guinevere's).

I guess that covers all the major good guys of the story... Now let's move on to the bad, shall we? :twisted:

The main bad guy is called the Ringleader and if you want some spoilers about him I'll but them in the nice little spoilers box thing below. Basically he is what he sounds like he is, a Ringleader. The head of the circus. And while he his the main bad guy of the novel, he isn't the big bad guy.

[spoiler]To be cliche, the Ringleader's real name is Jonathan Galen. That's right - he's Guinevere's dad.[/spoiler]

The big bad guy's name is the Ace of Spades - who I can give another similar spoiler about below. The only thing I really know about him is that he has two kids - J. Frank and Adrina Elle.

[spoiler]He's Guinevere's uncle... on her mother's side, and on another attempt to be cliche, Jonathan's best friend[/spoiler]


As you can see I'm very much a good person and have hardly a bad bone in my body... The bad guy's don't really have a chance, that is if only numbers mattered.

Setting

It starts in a modernly, generic Chicago.. but eventually it goes to the Manor. The Manor is basically this building, well it's more of a door if you think about it, that leads to anywhere and everywhere in the universe. The reason I say that it's more of a door, is that it's not really a physical building. The Manor is not just one place. But what it does is take up the inside of a building, and replaces the door with it's own. It traps the people who were in the building and anyone who enters the front door is actually entering the Manor.

So far there are two known locations in America of this door - one is in Chicago, it's an old abandoned hotel, and the other is an actual manor in the middle of a forest somewhere in New England.

The abandoned hotel isn't much to talk about, it's the Manor that's the fun part. =D The Manor was a fancy old school house, but then there was this science teacher who was obsessed with quantum physics. Well you can probably guess what happened - he was working on an experiment, trying to create a portal to an alternate reality, when it backfired and the manor consumed the inside. They say the manor is guarded by quantum locked statues.... okay yeah I stole that idea off of Doctor Who, so sue me. At least it's not a dumb idea.

Plot

Yep, so finally I get down to the interesting stuff... and you were probably thinking that this was a character driven story. =D (Actually it's more setting-driven... if you think about it.. *ahem* anyways...)

This story is mainly about two things: (1) Guinevere and (2) the Manor.

Let me start with the Manor, after the science teacher made the school into the Manor there was a bit of a power play. You see with all this new excitement of another way out of the Manor, the Ace of Spades took over the thrown. I'm sad to say there was no real fighting. After all it's hard for a bunch of different universes to fight a common enemy when they know nothing about each other. Some resisted the take over, but for the most part the Ace of Spades had a pretty simple time going about it. The only place he couldn't get to was Earth - this is because Earth is the purest timeline of all of them.

You see every time a decision is made the universe splits, but Earth's timeline is exactly how it should be. Every decision, every choice, everything - good or bad. In this universe, everyting happened how it should. That also means that there is no physical way for the Ace of Spades to enter - he doesn't belong here and he can't. So this leaves Earth free and safe, and a lot of Manorian's flied to earth because of this.

This is a problem for the Ace of Spades because one of those families was the Galen's. The Galen family is important because centuries ago they made a promise that there children would be the Children of Janvrin Manor... which I haven't mentioned yet, so check under the spoiler section for more info... I guess it would be more of a curse, and maybe I'll change that if anyone thinks I should.

[spoiler]The Child of Janvrin Manor

Janvrin Manor cannot simply be. It has to have a power source, the biggest power source it can possibly have is human children. This is basically where we get stories like the Pied Piper from. Years ago the King or Queen of Janvrin Manor would send out the "Pied Piper" (for a lack of a better name) to Earth to collect children. From there they would select one child who would simply live in the Manor until they became an adult. At which time there would be a celebration (whatever was the fashion of the day - a ball, feast, parade etc.) and the child would be replaced.

The problem with this was that the children who were taken could never return home. (This was mostly due to the fact that they would eat something at the celebration, and since they didn't have any Manorian blood in them they became stuck.) Eventually the Galen Family decided to protest. They thought it was unfair that the kids never got to return home and didn't want such a fate for such innocent little kids. They vowed to give there child up to be the Child of Janvrin Manor, considering that they had both royal and human blood in them, the King and Queen agreed.

This made the kids uniquely special since the Manor could make it's choice noticeably clear by keeping the universe intact whenever they made a decision.

Now with every agreement like this there are certain rules: (1) The Ruling family of the Manor got to pick which child, and since there children were both of the Manor and of the Earth they would be able to return to their families. (2) They were banished from the Manor, except for the ones who became the Child of Janvrin Manor, who got to return whenever they pleased.

(I think there should be more rules but I can't think of anymore... help? .... also the problem for the Ace of Spades is that he has no way of "summoning" the children because he can't enter Earth.)
[/spoiler]

I think that about sums up the Manor's role in the plot... let's move on to what's going on with Guinevere:

Guinevere's tale start's with her twin sister Marion, who was chosen to be the Child of Janvrin Manor. This happened when the girls were little - probably around the age of 7. They both entered the Manor, but only Guinevere came back. And when she returned, there was two strange things (1) She didn't remember anything. (2) She returned a year after all the other kids.

Everyone decides to not tell her she had a twin sister, (I probably should think of a motive for that other then they didn't want her to be upset...) and she lives happily until her sixteenth birthday, when she discovers that she does indeed have a twin sister. For on her sixteenth birthday (yeah I know it's cliche) she receives a warning from a little girl (who I am not ready to reveal yet.. even to you.).

Anyways, she decides to go to Janvrin Manor to save her sister. The problem being that she is not supposed to enter the manor unless she's the Child of Janvrin Manor. So she's put through the defense system - which is the Maze of Realms. This takes up most of the book and is very Alice in Wonderland crazy and random.

- - -

That is really all I have for you, so I hope all of that made sense because I stayed up all night writing it (no seriously, I started writing at midnight and now it's 6AM... I know that sounds ridiculous but it's true) and Best Wishes!

& DFTBA!

- Stevie
.:~|The Red Ink Emporium!|~:.
"What's the point of being grown-up if you can't act childish sometimes?"
  





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Mon Jul 13, 2009 7:31 pm
Horserider says...



The number one rule of writing is always write for YOURSELF. Stop worrying about what anyone else is going to think because if you let that get to you and never finish the book, then no one will EVER read it. ;)

It sounds interesting and I think I get it. So go write the story! Just have fun. :) Because if writing wasn't fun, then why would anyone do it?
  





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Tue Jul 14, 2009 5:50 am
SteviexOctopus says...



Yay! Someone responds! =D

Thanks, umm... yeah I have been trying to write for myself but writing is not fun unless your comfy, not too comfy but just enough that it doesn't consume your thoughts, and I'm not very comfy atm... =/ but onwards...

anyways, thanks for the whole pep talk, because as far as writing for myself goes I think I'm feeling better (especially since I told ya'll that I don't care about ya'll anymore and started feeling guilty about that the next morning...)

Anyways, between feeling guilty for that and all the busy-ness that's been going on around here I've discovered that I have a HUGE problem with beginnings... and that is bad, especially with this other thing that I have a HUGE problem with - starting somewhere that is not the beginning. So yeah... I need to do some major brainstorming (right now I'm voting for either starting with a flashback, vision or dream... something that has nothing to do with Guinevere, then cutting to a scene filled with Guinevere-ness. =]) That and the POV thing... I want multiple books and Guinevere is not going to be the MC for all of them (I can tell you that for sure right now).

I'm glad that you think that you get it... because honestly I didn't think any one would have the capability to get that much (I hardly understand it myself... + I had to fill in a lot of gaps on the spot while writing that^)

And good point! =D
.:~|The Red Ink Emporium!|~:.
"What's the point of being grown-up if you can't act childish sometimes?"
  





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Wed Jul 15, 2009 1:39 am
Angels-Symphony says...



I agree with horserider ^^

First drafts are for fun. Second drafts are where you get serious :P

Make sure to make hard copies of your ideas ;) Use a notebook just in case you come up with an idea on the spot. You might also want to participate in JulNo or NaNoWriMo when writers all over the place write a novel to get a novel done, not for quality xD

Also, make sure to make lots of copies of your novel because if you lose it, it's gone @_@ Save it to gmail, give it to your friends, print copies, and save it to your flash drive.

-Shina
You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself into one.

The writer, when he is also an artist, is someone who admits what others don't dare reveal.
  








Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.
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