If you have multiple stories, it’s your choice: you can tell me five things about each one individually, or five things about all of them together.
This is for motivation to keep writing the WIP. To spark joy in writing it.
Here’s mine as an example.
About the survival of bipedal lions.
Takes place in ancient Elgana.
Has a three-way enemies to friends.
One of the characters has a colorful swearing vocabulary and his favorite word is “kiggi” which is the f-word in his species’ language.
There’s a common rodent called a mussa which is hunted for food and it is a type of two-headed mouse with bugged-out eyes. Very ugly but apparently, quite tasty.
You can also reveal book titles or inspiration or favorite characters in the story, or some interesting lore, or something you love about your story, or whatever if you want.
Bipedal lions sound cool I wonder how they’d go about their life. Like humans would? Elgana came across as Egypt to me at first (I’m half-asleep XD), what was the inspo for the name? As someone who doesn’t swear, that 4th point makes me laugh. That word reminds me of our local noodle brand “Maggi” tbh, but it’s very interesting! It doesn’t seem like a swear word at first until I imagine how it’s used as such. Mussa is a very pretty term!
Here goes, and this is for Death’s Façade
Has both lovers-to-enemies and enemies-to-lovers
Lots of illegal stuff going on
Spoiler alert and potential trigger arranged marriage to die
Features an extremely sadistic female lead
Lots of mind games (extreme manipulation in internal and external relationships)
Excellent tropes, we love to see it! It’s also refreshing to see sadistic as a quality in a female character, usually most writers default that to men and make their women nurturing and compassionate. I like the swap and am doing the same with the antagonist in my story.
Here are my five things about Hollow Conscience
The main character isn’t a good guy. He’s a protagonist in the sense that you are supposed to root for him, but you’re rooting for him to become a better person and change his goals rather than for him to actually reach his original goals.
The love interest has a daughter and brother so the MC can develop familial relationships too, not just a romance.
The MC has clinical psychopathy and low (not zero) empathy. I see too many people use this as an excuse for a villain, and would like to see it as a challenge a protagonist overcomes instead so it is a mental disorder that is portrayed in a better light.
Deffinitely advocates for redemption for people who have done bad things, so long as they are willing to learn and change. Heavy focus on character development.
It’s fantasy but takes place in modern times, so fantasy species are living in secret from normal humans of what they are… For now.
They are an endangered protected species living in a giant enclosure created by Humans. And they do live like Humans with built houses and a written and spoken language. Some adapted to the Human way and wear clothes, but they don’t really need to. Fur covers them.
You asked the best question.
The actual word in our world, Elgana breaks down to “el” (comes from “helm” meaning protector in Proto-Germanic), “gan” (magic in Proto-Germanic), and “a” (comes from “aus” meaning “radiant” or “goddess”). All together, it means goddess, the magical protector.
When you get into the meaning of the name Elgana in the story, the natives see the moon as their magical protector. The moon wanders the skies. So, now Elgana means, “wandering goddess, a magical protector”.
Thank you! Although it’s a very ugly creature
Same characters or different characters?
What’s the worst one?
How do they live in secret?
Yes! A more positive portrayal of this is what we need! I have a kind of gray villain in another story with psychopathy, but it’s not the reason for his villainy, in fact, he’s kind of suffering from it. I didn’t want to make psychopathy a villainous trait either.
Mostly by blending in, though I’m sure some species have other means of hiding. But most supernatural species in my story can use magic to disguise themselves as human. However, I have plans for that magic to suddenly stop working and everyone will be exposed for what they really are eventually.
For some reason it makes me thing about the Raft of the Medusa. It had the good twist on vampires surviving a nuclear winter with sort of their own herd. I am not as versed in the lore as to know what dhampir is, but I am curious about the ending. I feel that ‘they all died’ might feel like a let down.
My WIP
Spartacus only gay
Started because I really liked an article about the burial of two Roman lovers, possibly gladiators. Also, wanted a story with chars named Maximus and Roman
I don’t actually like writing fighting scenes, but end up writing mercenaries, gladiators and mafia with sword, ax, spear, magic and gun fights Even a werewolf fight once, for which I watched YouTube bear fighting vids
This is, obviously, a gladiatorial enemies to lovers story. Or portal historical lgbtq fantasy.
I wrote it for ONC and it was 22.2K words completed novella. I kept obsessing over I till I decided to make it into a novel. This wasn’t how I planned to spend my November.
How many planets are habitable as far as the creatures of your universe know?
I thought you were going to say “wolf”, but bears make more sense with how big werewolves are supposed to be. Speaking of animals fighting, have you ever seen a video of Komodo Dragons fighting? It looks like a real-life dino battle.
That is cool. How much of the gladiator history are you taking? Have you made up a lot of it or used a lot of the old stories?
Did you incorporate the original Rumpelstiltskin? If so, how?
There are so many Grimm Fairytales. Are you taking inspiration from any of them?
Pantser! What’s the recent thing that happened that made you go “WHAT is going on here, seriously?”?
Twists are fun Bring 'em on.
What’s your favorite thing about each of the characters?
Uhhhhh zero except for their own? sort of like how us right now have only found one planet that’s really habitable, and that planet is Earth. It’s sort of like the same thing for them. They haven’t really found another planet that’s habitable yet
Some of them do! The main character is a faerie, so he’s got delicate dragonfly-like wings that will appear without his glamour spell in effect. Which will not be comfortable when they suddenly appear under his shirt. I imagine they’ll get a bit bent up, but will heal. Which, I suppose, is better than someone with spikes or something getting their clothes all ripped up because of it.
Uh, actually yes. There’s Seth who’s loosely based on the Frog from the Princess and the Frog (he’s actually a Prince of Hell, too). There’s the two queens – Blanche and Ebony – who are loosely based on the White Bride and the Black One (the twist is both of them are married to the King). There’s Elley – Cinderella – who is a vengeful princess looking to take the throne. There’s Hans, who is based loosely on the Twelve Hunters and the Twelve Brothers (he has 11 brothers, who die during hunts, and he slowly goes insane.) There’s Gretel – Hansel and Gretel. There’s Maddox and Maxon – the Wolves (Maddox lives. Maxon might die. Gretel is Maddox’s mate).
Basically as if I was making a video game. In initial draft I tried using real gladiatorial styles, but then book got peppered by unfamiliar words, so I made conventions similar to video games and the fights use a lot of gaming mechanics. I kept rudis and rudiarius concept, and that is explained a fair bit.
a lot of staples are still there. sacred games, fights vs beats, entertainment mock fights, private fights, gladiators being rented for the night. My ruling couple uses an AU take on Claudius and Messalina’s union.
Also, I have an epilogue-like short that makes a portal appear during a historic event and the guy is the real centurion whose fancy tomb can be viewed on wiki (though he wasn’t buried there).
So, it’s fantasy, but with some historic what if stripes and my gaming background helping.
And, of course I kick it off with a quote from Cicero. No wonder nobody reads it, lol
I wonder how they’d go about their life. Like humans would? Elgana came across as Egypt to me at first (I’m half-asleep XD), what was the inspo for the name? As someone who doesn’t swear, that 4th point makes me laugh. That word reminds me of our local noodle brand “Maggi” tbh, but it’s very interesting! It doesn’t seem like a swear word at first until I imagine how it’s used as such. Mussa is a very pretty term!
but anyway, my current WIP:
Even a werewolf fight once, for which I watched YouTube bear fighting vids
And it sounds cool!
What’s the recent thing that happened that made you go “WHAT is going on here, seriously?”?
sort of like how us right now have only found one planet that’s really habitable, and that planet is Earth. It’s sort of like the same thing for them. They haven’t really found another planet that’s habitable yet