Try for a book or do a bunch of short stories?

[Katsunami]

Hi

Since I wrote the short story featuring the character Elani, for the anthology book (that sadly never materialized), I never stopped thinking about it and thought up and wrote quite some stuff, intending each of the parts to become a chapter in a fantasy book.

The problem is that each 'chapter' seems to be turning into a short story all on its own. I'll give a outline of the characters and the stories as I have them in my head (and a bit in the computer) right now.

Another problem is that I can't seem to get the story to go into the direction I originally intended: Although at first I intended Dragan to be the protagonist, it's always Elani that emerges somehow as the main character of everything I think up in the main story. Also, it doesn't seem to want to go in the 'get a bunch of heroes together and defeat something evil'-direction; the parts/stories completely and utterly center on character development each and every time. In most stories, there isn't even any evil to conquer but there are other problems/plot devices.

Main characters
Elani: She is a healer/cleric, becoming a high priestess at far too young an age (currently 27), at least according to herself. While competent, she's always in doubt about what she can and cannot do.
Kumiko: She is a assassin/ninja, born into an cult that trains its people to be assassins and killers for money. She doesn't fit in and eventually flees. (Think: Drizzt-like, but in a Japan-like setting.)
Dragan: Basically, Kumiko's counterpart, but a fighter/warrior. He's indifferent to everything but money. While he's not evil per se, and won't kill for sport or fun, he will kill and fight for everyone who's willing to pay.
Zarak: A wizard/sorcerer. He's a genius, arrogant, and disdainful of everything and everyone not dedicated to pursuing the knowledge of magic. He especially despises clerics because in his view, they are "given" their magic by the gods instead of having to study for it.

Secondary characters
Marlena: High priestess and predecessor to Elani. Very old, somewhere in the latter part of her eighties. Fights her last epic battle in Elani's story.
Koryna: She is a senior priestess and assistant to Marlena. Somewhat older than Elani, and every bit as competent, it comes as a shock to her that Elani, and not herself, is chosen as a successor to Marlena.
Elvira: A flying elf, nicknamed "Lady Thunderhawk" after a mythical burd, because of her incredible speed. She holds the prestigious but very boring position of Royal Messenger, flying messages to all corners of her country. However, she does lead a secret second life, of which nobody knows.

Gods
Lady Ariana: The goddess of healing and medicine. Her primary form is that of a white tiger with azure striping. Elani is one of her high priestesses.
Lord Eolas, the Forgotten God: This god was once the God of the woodlands and forests. He belongs to Elvira's people, but she (and they) have forgotten this. Therefore he's exiled from the pantheon. Much older than Lady Ariana.
The Overlord: Nothing is known about him. He's the god of the gods.

Stories (Origins series)
Crisis: An adapted version of the story "Crisis of faith", which I wrote 2,5 years ago. This story tells the tale of how Elani became a high priestess at the age of only 27.
Defiance: This story is only partly written. It is about how Kumiko struggles with the fact of being trained as an assassin for hire. When she gets her first assignment, instead of carrying it out, she flees. She is hunted by her former clan mates, until she finds a way to hide from them for some years.
Transformation: This is Dragan's story. While traveling aimlessly around several countries, he finally enlists into a raiding band that makes foray's into Kumiko's country. He is captured there, and in a twist of fate, he comes to respect the country's culture and values. (Think: The Last Samurai.) He decides to abondon the killing for money and instead becomes a champion for the weak. Dragan will have a run-in with Kumiko's cult.
Genius: This story chronicles the genius of Zarak the Wizard. Haughty, vain, and arrogant, he becomes enraged because his mentor does yet think him ready for some forms of magic. He challenges his teacher to a magic duel, insisting he is already stronger than the older man, even without the things he still has to learn.
Secret Life: Elvira leads second, solitary life of which nobody knows. Between assignments to deliver messages, she often disappears into the forests and woodlands for days on end. During one of these outings, she has a life-changing experience. Because Elvira is the pivot of the main story and changes from secondary to a main character, she has her own origins story.

Stories: (Pantheon Series)
Ascension: Tells the story of how Lady Ariana, who was once a mortal human being, ascended to become the goddess of healing and medicine. It will also explain why the primary form of this goddess is a white tiger with azure stripes.
Decline: I have no idea yet on how to write this as it would span 10.000 years or so. It would tell the decline of the god Lord Eolas. His people, the flying elves, are forgetting him to the point that his religion has become extinct and the Overlord is thinking about unmaking him, as he serves no purpose anymore.

Stories: (Lessons Series)
Trial: Lady Ariana decided a long time ago that Koryna should be a high priestess one day, although Koryna does not know this. She has one big flaw, however: Koryna is envious and sees herself as superior, the one thing that is utterly forbidden by Lady Ariana. As the time comes to choose another high priestess, Lady Ariana still settles on Koryna this time, but not before teaching her a very hard lesson first.

All of these stories ('chapters that unintentionally became stories') can be read in any order. The characters of one story don't feature prominently/as main character in another story, except for the Pantheon series, where Lady Ariana and Lord Eolas will meet in both stories, therefore effectively merging these storylines.

Main Story: Second chances
This story will have several real chapters, and it will tie into all of the previous stories, both forward and backward. You can read all of the previous ones, finishing with this one, or start with this one, and then read the others for more background information, in any order. You can even read this story and skip to the other ones as soon as a reference is made and then come back. (This setup looks very much like the Double Diamond Triangle Saga in AD&D: http://www.o-love.net/realms/head_dia.html. The stories will be shorter however, around 20-30 pages instead of 80. This main story could be longer than that.)

A rough lineout for this story is as follows, at this point:

Meeting:
Somehow, the four main characters of the story will meet one another, but I don't know exactly when and how. Elani will be on a mission for Lady Ariana, Dragan will be traveling back to his own country, Kumiko travels away from her country to try and finally escape her pursuers, and Zarak is scouring the lands for more magic and knowledge.

Events
?: Elani, who will be the main characters/protagonist of the story, continues on her assignment, but is now joined by the other three main characters.
?: The four main characters will encounter Elvira, who needs assistance ASAP; she has the 'honor' of being the classic damsel in distress.
?: Elvira is saved... at great cost.
?: Even though Elani is the main character, Elvira's plight, subsequent rescue and character will be the catalyst for the character developments of this story.

Character development:
?: Elani has a fight with her goddess about Elvira, risking everything she ever achieved.
?: This sort of altruism opens Zarak's eyes, and he realizes that not only wizardly magic and intellectual genius have a place in this world and it changes his views about Elani.
?: Even though Dragan now fights for the good of others instead of personal gain, he has never had a reason to love anyone. Kumiko gives him that reason.
?: Because of being hunted by so many people in her home country and even beyond, Kumiko is standoffish and aloof towards everyone, but Dragan's actions teach her how to trust again.
?: There will also be character developments for Lady Ariana, Eolas, and Elvira (she will be promoted to a main character in this story), and thus a short summary of their respective stories (or references thereto) will be given.

Ending
Let's just say that everything has to end. I have ideas about this already, but these are not written down. There will be options for more stories, with either some or all of the characters.

This stuff evolved into that "Double Diamond Triangle"-thing all on its own; I didn't particularly set it up like that. I could continue, keep writing, and finish it like this, ending up with 6x 20-30 page short stories (let's say 30, as Crisis of Faith is shorter than original, for the anthology), and one longer story of 60 pages or so.

That is about 240 pages of story, which is the typical length of an AD&D Forgotten Realms book, but spread over 7 stories readable in any order.

Should I leave it like that, or somehow try to stitch it into a single story? To be honest, I don't like the latter option very much, because I wouldn't know how to connect/mix all of them into one coherent story, and I don't want a 'book' that reads like a succession of short stories.

Thanks for reading

(edit: and I certainly should check for typo's.)

[Cinisajoy]

I would say go with the shorts if that is where the spirits are leading you.

[Katsunami]

It seems I finally needed to write this out to actually decide. I'm going with the short stories. I actually like the web as it is now:



Blue: Origins storyline
Green: Pantheon storyline
Purple: Lessons storyline
Red: Second Chances storyline

All the Origins stories share the same theme (origins... like.. duh ) and can be read in any order, the Pantheon stories are seperate, but actually merge up into one story from Ariana's and Eolas's viewpoints, and everything leads into the Second Chances story.

The "Trial" story is a side story to Elani's, in which Koryna learns a hard lesson. It is sort of an extra, because I didn't want to leave the character of Koryna somewhat unfinished, as she is now in Elani's story.

The extremely cool thing is (in my opinion) is that you can actually start this web anywhere, read anything in any order, and converge into the main story; or you can start with the main story and spread outwards for more and more background information.

Damn. This brainthing will be a lot of writing.

Until in about 7 years or so...

[arjaybe]

You could do the short stories, and then write the novel where your characters meet. Or you could do it all in one enormous book.-)

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by arjaybe

You could do the short stories, and then write the novel where your characters meet.

It actually evolved like that, but the 'novel' will probably be only a novelette... or possibly a novella. The rescue of Elvira is the main event of this story, and I don't think I can think up enough material to write a 300 page book around it

Most stories will not have an 'evil entity to defeat'; this will not be the traditional 'crap, there's evil afoot' -> 'assemble some heroes' -> 'do some journey' -> 'split the party' -> 'do separate stuff per group -> 'defeat the evil' -> 'reassemble the party' setup.

Or you could do it all in one enormous book.-)

As I said, as the idea's and the stories stand now, I wouldn't know how.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by arjaybe

You could do the short stories, and then write the novel where your characters meet. Or you could do it all in one enormous book.-)

Just write a whole bunch of short stories and then connect them, with a frame or episodically.

[Graham]

Yes, write the short stories. A new idea for a novel will likely emerge from the shared background.

Graham

[Katsunami]

Thanks for the input everyone

Graham: are you saying:

Write the short stories like stated, and then think of a completely new novel within this world (possibly with Elani and one or more existing characters again)

or:

Write the short stories as stated, and then try to merge everything into the first book, somehow?

For some reason, now that I've written it out and the more I think about this, merging things into a book feels wrong, as each of the stories already has a clearly defined beginning, story arc, and ending, at least in my head.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Thanks for the input everyone

Graham: are you saying:

Write the short stories like stated, and then think of a completely new novel within this world (possibly with Elani and one or more existing characters again)

or:

Write the short stories as stated, and then try to merge everything into the first book, somehow?

For some reason, now that I've written it out and the more I think about this, merging things into a book feels wrong, as each of the stories already has a clearly defined beginning, story arc, and ending, at least in my head.

Check out "The Three Imposters," by Arthur Machen.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

Check out "The Three Imposters," by Arthur Machen.

Episodic novels built on short stories as chapters. Cool. Didn't even know that something like that was actually a thing. Thanks

Now I wonder: I can make episodes of the Origins stories, an episode of the meeting, and then a big final one from Second Changes. Then where would I put "Ascension" and "Decline"? I could put them at the very beginning, before even the Origin stories, and then just refer to those stories or summarize very briefly. I don't know where I would put "Trial", as it would only be mentioned in "Second Chances", and thus comes later.

The group would travel from place A to place B after "Second Chances" to finish up; maybe "Trail" could go there, as a fill-in for the travel time in which nothing would otherwise happen.

[Dr. Drib]

You may also wish to check out "The Eyes of the Overworld," by Jack Vance.

Here's the Wiki on it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eyes_of_the_Overworld

And the cover (along with the Machen cover from the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series, edited by Lin Carter):

[Katsunami]

I just remembered something. I've bought a copy of Scrivener, just before I wrote that short story. I actually intended to use Scrivener for that, but after using it for some time, I didn't like it too much back then.

Maybe that was because I just wrote that story from beginning to end in a few days, and you can do that in notepad if you want.

My version is 1.60; I've seen that they're now up to 1.9.7 (and 2.0.x for the Mac already), and the 1.7.x series was the gargantuan mother of all updates ever created.

I think I'll re-install my copy, and import all the snippets that are now in seperate files into it. I don't write linearily (at least not anymore); often I think of something, work it out in my head, and then end up with a more or less finished scene, that I need to 'put somewhere'; that's how that set of short stories came about.

Everything is now scattered throughout TXT files in a folder.

Yeah. It seems using Scrivener would be a very good idea to actually get some organization and ease of use going. (I know, I know... 100 years ago, people used pen and paper. Even though I have a Sailor fountain pen, and like it a lot, I normally don't actually write, as I would then need to type it into the computer afterward.)

Maybe I'll take part in Nanowrimo as well and see if I can get some stuff finished to some degree.

[arjaybe]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Thanks for the input everyone

Graham: are you saying:

Write the short stories like stated, and then think of a completely new novel within this world (possibly with Elani and one or more existing characters again.)

This is what I meant. Two books.

[gmw]

I mostly agree with Graham, and the operative words of his post are "new idea".

The slightly tentative response is because I suspect it may be too soon for you to know for certain. Write what seems to be working best for you and the story/stories. Worry about what happens later, later.

Besides, short story collection and novel are not mutually exclusive. Think of Asimov's Foundation: originally published as separate short stories, but were eventually assembled into very satisfying novels. And he also came up with new ideas for full novels later. You can have it all, if you keep an open mind.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

Just write a whole bunch of short stories and then connect them, with a frame or episodically.

That's what Roberta Allen talks about in her "Fast Fiction" book. If you write enough flash fiction stories (or short stories) you can connect them together via common setting or character etc. and possibly end up with a novel at the end. I understand Game of Thrones is like that. A bunch of Novella's tied together to make a series of novels.