What a Novel Concept!

Nick and writing. You ask yourself, what’s the story? Originally I was never much of a fan of writing. School will do that to you when you are a kid. Same with reading books… “screw that,” I would say. Still to this day when someone tells me I have to read a book, it is the best way to be sure I will not even look at it. Somewhere in the annuals of high school I was forced to take a creative writing class. It was not what I expected in a class about writing. I expected to have to do essays and reports etc. What I got instead was the freedom to write what I wanted. First we had a journal. Once a week we would get half of class time to spend quietly writing in the journal, whatever we wanted. At first I just wrote stuff about the day or the week, like a “journal” typically should be, then I realized that anything really meant anything. I really enjoyed the class. When our assignments were about writing whatever we wanted as long as within the context of the assignment (poem, haiku, short story, etc.) I really grasped the pleasure of writing. Then time came for our final assignment. Write the first few chapters of what would be a novel. What I had was a class favorite, and the teacher had many wonderful things to say about what I wrote. I aced the class and it set me on a path towards better academics.

Now, not to switch gears, (and I am not) but bear with me. I was a huge wrestling fan during the 80’s 90’s and even after then. And in the mid to late 90’s something existed called “e-feds” or “e-federations” It was a fantasy wrestling league but also a writing competition. Let me spell out how this worked. Someone ran the website. We will call them the “president” all of the participants were wrestlers. You would have a character background, height, weight, entrance music, the works, all set up. Most federations had their shows on Mondays to simulate “Monday night wrestling” so on Tuesday the “Card” would be posted. This would state who was fighting who on Monday and what kind of match it was etc. For the next 5 to 6 days you would write out your interviews, your stories etc. Then the president or the committee who runs the site would vote or choose who did a better job. Then on Monday they would post a fully written show with entrances, move by move description, interviews, plots, run ins, etc. everything you would expect on a Professional wrestling show.

Not only did I participate but I ran one of these companies for a few years. It had become a very popular place. Let me tell you this was a lot of writing and a lot of chaos, but the writing in the early years was usually pretty bad. In the early years people would write more like a script and if you got a page you were awesome. Eventually over the years it evolved into something more. People wrote less about their match and more about the character story, only referencing their opponent or the match in retrospect to their story. Now some people would write multiple pages or even short stories, with in depth characters and full blown plotlines. However, there was still that link to your character and wrestling. Finally I quit doing it for good. Everyone comes and goes and then comes back I did this throughout the years. Sometimes for a few years at a time. But, now I am officially done.

About 5 to 8 years ago I decided I wanted to write my own novel. The story was about a young boy who had a destiny unknown to him unfolding. It was surrounded with an amalgam of roleplaying characters of all of my friends as background supporting characters. I finished the first 2 or 3 chapters and hit a dead end and lost interest. It was never edited or looked through much other than a few people who read it and really loved it. I was hounded for a few more years to continue or finish it but never got around to it until a year or two ago. By this point I had a lot more experience in writing and much more schooling. (yay college) When I looked over it I was almost appalled and how it was put together. I was not sure how anyone could have liked it other than the boiled down plot and characters. I still to this day do not believe I couldn resurrect the story, even if I were to start from scratch.

I have a love for telling stories. To the point I even sat down with people at the festival just to tell them stories of a roleplaying character that my persona Captain Drake was based off. Everyone I roleplay with has a thought of “lets write a book based off a roleplaying game” There are many problems to this. The first is that you better have a unique world and concepts because dungeons and dragons own things like Forgotten Realms, Eberron, and Dragonlance. Also, ideas and concepts from pop culture will kill it. Everyone likes to throw names and characters based of pop icons. The last, but not least big problem is, roleplaying sessions and games do not translate well into the outline and plot structure of a novel very well.

If I wanted to write a book, I would have to be able to avoid all of these issues. I would also need to write about something that I enjoy. I would also have to have an idea of the involvement of the characters and what they do. If you are going to write a story about a blacksmith turned hero, you better understand a bit about blacksmithing. You can only BS a story so much before it becomes obvious.

Enter Ash Stratholm. A cameo character in a game not played a lot. In a world completely created from scratch. A character who was played at the end of his story and died a crazy death with a great character background that wasn’t completely flushed out. And, a pirate.

I know a bit about pirates, pirate culture, strategies etc. This character isn’t bound to a history because he was already The Singular Pirate Lord in the world who was known as the greatest strategist ever to sail a ship. If I wanted to write about him, I had a whole lifetime of his to explore in a world who’s history isn’t developed with the exception of a few things here and there. My god this sounds like a grand idea for a character to base in a book!

Some of my favorite books are based on antiheroes who are not always good guys. I hope this matches stories such as “Heroes Die” and “The Legend of Nightfall.” These two series has very much characters that you can cheer on, yet know they are the classic hero/protagonist. I hope, I can do this project and follow through. The concept is there, the ideas are there, and the want and creativity is there. However the distractions are always there as well.. and well, not sure if the time is there. And now you know what my last post was about.

So, what will the first book be about? Very simply put, if you have read the post earlier about Ash’s background. You would know he is called “The Hangman.” This book will be the story of his hanging, escape and rise in the pirate world as well as the rise of his antagonist A man who will eventually become known as the Harbinger. However I am unsure if I will have him be the Harbinger in this book and hopefully if all goes well I can write another. Delusions of Grandeur? Perhaps, but everyone who wants to write a book thinks of doing a series. So I will just follow suit. Hehe