Young Writers Society

Copying and pasting this summary from the last Camp:

A messy little fantasy draft about social class, balancing personal values with connections, and rituals.

Might end up changing the title when I revise, I'm not sure, but the main goal for this Camp is to draft up to the middle of Chapter 12. (The point where Gerhard and Bryn discuss a questionable theme for Golzar's inauguration dinner that they know will be popular with the nobles attending, but not so much the other heroes and their own people.)

To achieve that, I'll need around 11,400 words approx., so I will aim to write 380 words a day.

Whoo!! Here for a reprise of April Camp and moving along with your story <3

Thanks so much @Carlito!

PlanMo Time

#1: Elevator Pitch

Miscreants: Inauguration takes place in the fictional kingdom of Woodlands, loosely based on early Medieval Europe and the Byzantine Empire. Golzar, member of a newly created social class known as the 'heroes', must confront entrenched tradition and competing leaders to bring reforms to her guild. To do this, she will have to pull some strings and forge uneasy alliances with people in power. Together with wartime comrades Bryn and Gerhard, Golzar navigates a tightrope between conflicting loyalties that recall the complexities of weaving through layers of society as an individual. Her encounter with the young Queen Lucretia creates a challenging and intense relationship that will test her prior convictions.

#2: Character Tweets

These were supposed to be 'first tweets' but some of them might not sound like first tweets . . .I don't know, I'm not on Twitter. xD

Golzar

Somebody: My favourite figure of Woodlandian lore is the Lady of the Red Cowl, did you know she comes from Besiv?

Me, today: *is from Besiv* I didn’t

I am bamboozled and will hand over my Besivian card to the next person

Golzar as a modern-day Twitter user would prefer to talk in memes and history/folklore/ mythology jokes.

Lucretia

Happy anniversary to Lord and Lady Skyroot. The whole kingdom of Woodlands should emulate your enduring commitment to virtue and the arts. I always know I have in you a loyal subject and a great servant to this crown and country.

Lucretia's introduction is a piece of PR. She would never air any of her real opinions on social media.

Bryn

why does nobody care about minerals in the city? they are literally supporting the earth you walk on.

Bryn posts very rarely, and also never uses capital letters.


Gerhard

Does anybody know how to fix wheels after you've broken them by trying to repair them with sub-par instruments??? asking for a friend.

Gerhard would love Google if he had it. He'd Google it and then also ask Twitter.

Myra

tmw someone you've known since you were both children suddenly has a love interest who's CLEARLY big trouble smh

Myra only gets away with statuses like these because Lucretia is really really dense when it comes to her handmaiden's feelings.

Miriam

Hello Twitter! Joined up here because of my acting friends, love you all so much <3 XOXO

Miriam is a bit like Lucretia. PR stuff on social media, real stuff offline.

#3 Describe a Theme

Performance and concealment together are 'one theme' I think, so I'll just discuss them as one here. A lot of the story is about how people hide their true intentions, thoughts and feelings from one another. For example, Lucretia has to hide her vision for the kingdom from the nobility, because many would be opposed to it. Golzar has to hide her real opinions about a lot of things because in order to get what she wants, she needs to find a place within the existing power structure of guild members, nobles, clerics, etc. Ideally I want this theme to run consistently from the beginning to the end of the story. It's probably somewhere in between being overt and covert. The reader should have to look for it in many scenes, but the reason they'll be looking at all should be because I've shown that it is important in at least one scene.

#4 Outline a difficult Plot Point

At one point in the story, Golzar and Bryn realise the Queen has a spy following Golzar around and have to figure out how to deal with that. This is how I've described it so far in my chapter notes:

They cook up a plan to mislead the Queen by making feints and false moves, while meeting their true allies in secret.

All very vague so far. I guess the way I'd make it more specific is as follows:

Who:

Golzar's true allies at this point would be some nobles sympathetic to her cause. I didn't actually create enough noble families to spare a few 'extras' here to flesh this part out, but later on in the story she appeals to the Skyroot family, so maybe I can show her talking to Dene Skyroot's aunt or something like that.

Golzar's fake allies would be the same ones that are secretly being controlled by the Queen. The only named character for this is Lady Branchlee, so we'll go with her.

How:

Golzar and Bryn could feed false information to Lady Branchlee that Golzar wants to recruit Ashley, the leader of the Bold Hundreds, as an ally to her reformist movement. In reality, Golzar wants to do no such thing because Ashley is a close ally of William, who is opposed to her reforms. But this could distract Lucretia into plying Ashley, while Golzar is actually trying to get the Skyroots on her side. (Lucretia already thinks Golzar is in a bad position for causing internal discord within the Heroes' Guild, so it would make sense for Golzar to be trying to make good with Ashley -- or so Lucretia would think.)

Where:

I don't think I've done any scenes that take place in the interior of the House of Red Roses, so it might be good to try that here. They could just be in the private study of Lady Branchlee, where she would have materials on architecture and religion.

(Not me trying to come up with the concept of this building for the first time, haha)

Colours: dark reds, lilacs, silver, with a shock of blue here and there

The concept behind the colours would be the colours associated with the royal family (red) and those associated with landowning nobility (the rest) coming together. While much of Lucretia's palace has this sprawling, ancient feel, with a lot of old mosaics and tiles, the House of Red Roses is meant to seem slightly more 'fashionable'. The windows are long and vertical rather than being wide and circular. There's also way more windows in the House of Red Roses, though they're less intricate than the decorative materials in the House of Periwinkles.

The House of Red Roses is all long hallways and really tall ceilings, but unlike the other palace buildings, it seems packed and busy, with many small but lavish accommodations being provided for nobility. Nobles often bring with them amenities from home, so there is an appearance of 'newness' in this building. The candles here seem to glow brighter. Incense is burnt in a dizzying array of scents from all across Lucrece and beyond.

#5 Supporting Cast

Miriam

Miriam is the lead actress at a theatre company that frequents the villages around Lucrece and Witchfield, as well as the capital city and palace itself. She has a commanding aura, especially when around her fellow actors and stagehands. She is also fiercely protective of her people and of the villages they perform at. Though she is a freeperson, like most of the theatre company, acting is looked down on as a profession due to the role of actors' guilds on the wrong side of the political coin. She tends to associate only with other actors and serfs.

She had heard of Golzar and rumours of her fairness/ alliance with serfs over those of her own class. So after a group of thieving heroes raided one of the villages she works in, she sought Golzar out. Golzar had been on her way to Witchfield for a meeting. Golzar promised to help her by introducing a reform in the Heroes' Guild that would rein in the behaviour of the heroes. In this way, Miriam kind of starts the story and Golzar's main character arc.

Lord Stephen Skyroot

Stephen is the head of the Skyroot family, an important land-owning noble family, whose manor resides in Witchfield. Golzar first encountered him at the palace, after she had been corresponding and meeting with Queen Lucretia for some time. He was accompanying his daughter, Dene Skyroot, who is a big fan of heroes and the hero culture.

Stephen is important as a major player in Woodlandian politics. For Golzar to achieve her reforms without giving too much ground to the nobles that want the heroes dispersed as a class, she needs to control Stephen's actions.

#6 Most Challenging Character

I think there are challenging research-based aspects to quite a lot of my characters. Read the spoiler if you want to laugh at how unprepared I am to write this story:

But I've made a commitment to finish writing the basic character arc first in this draft so I can build on it properly later.

So for this answer, I'm going to narrow in on one thing I want to improve on since the previous chapters I've drafted, and that is Golzar with regards to her sword fighting. I'm planning to listen to some podcasts on HEMA (Historical European Martial Arts) so I can get a semi-accurate and still exciting duelling scene between her and Dene. I might also try sketching out the scenes before writing them, if I have time. I remember doing this when drafting Mutant Families fight scenes, and it does seem to 'help' -- at least in avoiding getting stuck.

#7 Question & Answer

Okay so this one is more plot and logistics based: regarding the scenario I described in 'outline a difficult plot point', would it be believable enough if Golzar disguised herself as a servant and snuck into Skyroot manor to talk to her 'real' ally? I was thinking this might throw the handmaiden/spy off her trail if it's a good enough disguise . . .

Then a more character-based one: I know I'll have to make some adjustments with the way I write Miriam to actually fit how I envisioned her as a character (some of it looks like it fits, some of it just looks . . .random or there's gaps there). But how much do you think I should focus on developing Lord Stephen Skyroot as a supporting character? So far I've scraped by making him quiet and suspiciously knowing. His main motivation is to secure the power of his house, which could go two ways: 1. he helps the other nobles dissolve the Heroes' Guild to eliminate a potential threat to aristocrat-exclusivity to power or 2. he helps Golzar and continues the profitable weapons trade between his region and the Heroes' Guild. Golzar is going to try and sway him towards option 2, mainly by using his daughter Dene and her love of heroes. Does he need to be a super fleshed out character or would I be better off spending more scenes on Dene?

#8 Song Challenge

I'm going to put in two of these!



This song might be the most motivating. It has the 'dark' vibe I sometimes find myself slipping into with this story, and the vibe that I might be aiming for when I revise it.



This song fits the story's current vibe best. Honestly 'The Crane Wives' music inspired quite a lot of Miscreants early on, so I think it's fitting to have it hear. The lyrics work pretty well with some of the themes and Golzar's character arc too, I think:

Tell me once again
I could have been anyone, anyone else
Before you made the choice for me
My feet knew the path
We walked in the dark, in the dark
I never gave a single thought
To where it might lead

These lyrics kind of vibe with that feeling of uncertainty she has about the future yet also the sense that she has to push forward. It's also fitting because Golzar is someone who is shaped by the 'quests' other people give to her, even if it's her own qualities that bring her to victory.

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Code: Select all

[bebas] Day X[/bebas]

[b]Words today/ goal:[/b]
[b]Words this month:[/b]
[b]Words overall (give or take):[/b]

Haha feel free to just copy-and-paste mine if it's useful to you!

Day 1

Words today/ goal: 407/380
Words this month: 407
Words overall (give or take): 90580

Day 2

Words today/ goal: 418/380
Words this month: 825
Words overall (give or take): 91-ishK

Day 3

Words today/ goal: 872/380
Words this month: 1,697
Words overall (give or take): 91, 856

I feel like something wild went wrong when I was calculating these big word counts, so I think I'll just . . . stop tracking them.