tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-937390557356997344.post5934323347673255185..comments2024-03-22T03:59:39.188-07:00Comments on Dive into Worldbuilding: The Inciting Event and Your World - RevisitedJuliette Wadehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02879627074920760712noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-937390557356997344.post-4691921164571410232009-11-23T15:59:10.165-08:002009-11-23T15:59:10.165-08:00Thanks for the thoughts. Definitely gives me ideas...Thanks for the thoughts. Definitely gives me ideas. Sorry it takes me so long to comment. My main computer time is at work and the filters won't let me talk to you. I'll get cracking. You two posts up there, by the way, are awesomeness. I'm reading and studying and grinding my axe. :grins:Megshttp://writing.smeganpayne.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-937390557356997344.post-40750667258677607152009-11-20T15:58:18.080-08:002009-11-20T15:58:18.080-08:00Megs,The main issue as I see it is to determine ho...Megs,<br>The main issue as I see it is to determine how much of Salory's memories have been wiped. Has she forgotten who she is? I assume so. Has she forgotten she has powers? If so, that gives you the opportunity to show her rediscovering them. Does she have any particle of something to make her suspicious of her captors? The advantage of having someone ignorant is that the character can try to figure things out as she goes. Everything is new, so nothing is "normal" and it will be easier for her to think about things consciously as she works them out. Does that give you any ideas?Juliette Wadehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02879627074920760712noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-937390557356997344.post-58344907515527397712009-11-17T18:23:19.803-08:002009-11-17T18:23:19.803-08:00Hmmm... Not sure where to start. Salorý is a membe...Hmmm... Not sure where to start. <br><br>Salorý is a member of the Pure, a Lightbearer, and the only one trained from her childhood to be able to put aside all of her negativity and use lightforce to shield and affect physical and mental surroundings. Her land, Vas'her, is being raided by Chirrith at the borders, and her Heirarch heard that they wanted to kidnap a Lightbearer for their own uses, not knowing that to use the power amiss is to destroy the one using that power. So Salorý was chosen to go because she learned as a child and the Heirarch feels the knowledge of how to use lightforce rightly is more a part of her than any other Lightbearer.<br><br>Salorý is captured by the Chirrith army and mindwiped. They attempt to turn her into a shield for their own army and convince her that she is one of theirs. Because she speaks their language, it might have worked, except that the language Vas'her has no negative words and concepts are radically different. She constantly finds herself balking at their concepts and because of this is eventually able to regain access to her powers, if not her memories.<br><br>She escapes Chirrith and ends up in a Riloren "convent" (for lack of a better word), and the story goes on from there.<br><br>So I'm dealing with an entire immersion into native culture (no parties outside it), but a bit of a clash between cultures (especially once we get to Riloren), especially when you get into the microculture of the Pure. But at the same time, my viewpoint girl loses her memories and makes it really hard for me to explain why things happen the way they do, UNLESS I start all the way back with the Heirarch choosing to deploy her.<br><br>:head in hands:<br><br>We're working on it.Megshttp://writing.smeganpayne.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-937390557356997344.post-30963882025349873142009-11-15T09:51:30.392-08:002009-11-15T09:51:30.392-08:00Please do that post! I love these posts as I'm...Please do that post! I love these posts as I'm knee-deep in this kind of world that has to be implied and it's tough because it's so different from our own. And on top of it, my main character has FORGOTTEN what makes her world the way it is, so it's really tough to explain why her mind works the way it does and how she uses it to do so much.<br><br>:sighs:<br><br>I definitely want your post on backgrounding. Still trying to find my inciting event. I see so many causal factors, and currently, I've just settled on the most pivotal event: the moment when she's fighting the mindwiping drugs and loses her memories. I'm still not sure I can start so late though.<br><br>:growls in frustration:<br><br>And I can't even pick the moment when cultures collide, because that's waaaaaay too late. Still scratching my head and plugging away.Megshttp://writing.smeganpayne.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-937390557356997344.post-88852195624257176092009-11-13T19:32:06.895-08:002009-11-13T19:32:06.895-08:00No matter how involved or outrageous your story...No matter how involved or outrageous your story's background/setting/worldbuilt parameters might be, your POV character is already there in an active way. He/she isn't waiting for the reader to arrive. Conveying that sense of a narrative already in motion is a great way to grab your audience. It's rather like that cowboy exercise we see in the movies of the rider reaching down a hand to snatch someone onto the back of their saddle as the horse gallops past. If we're going to use our own writerly examples, here's one from a recent acceptance of mine at STRANGE HORIZONS. It's a near-future s-f story entitled "After We Got Back the Lights," concerning the resurgence of civilization after a period of governmental and societal collapse. The POV is a stand-in sheriff who has assumed protective duties for his small town. It opens with said character confronting a man who has arrived at the town in a working police cruiser with news that the national government is reorganizing. Civilized society is returning! The sheriff doesn't buy it. This is a shuck, a ploy by raiders who want to plunder the town. Now--this character doesn't actually say these things in so many words. His incredulity is plain, but I don't spell out what lies behind his doubt of this spectacular news. I only offer the reader the reactions relevant to the scene. The sheriff just wants this presumed huckster to go away without fuss, and that's where I put the emphasis. That the world around this small town is in such a regressive state is merely implied, not hammered on. Thus, infodump is avoided.Eric Del Carlohttp://ericdelcarlo.comnoreply@blogger.com