I apologise for my barrenness in posts lately. School has just returned and I am crowded with homework as though I'm famous and the homework is my fans. I believe I have at least one more World Building post to write, and updates on my progress still to come.

In that respect, I will now announce that I have finished the prologue for Aundes Aura (the first draft anyway), and have begun work on Chapter One. In fact I have taken a week-long break from writing to get back into the swing of school.

If anyone is interested, my Aundes Aura prologue is now up in the Fantasy queue, so please feel free to have a read.

Here is where we finished off last time:

Two days later, the Duthonians attack. Eoin goes down into Emareus Village to fight, but is knocked out. When he awakes, he is in the back of a locked cart with Faine, who had been taken from the dungeon. There is no sign of Saera or Echo.


Eoin and Faine are thrown into a dungeon. Eoin discovers that Faine knows these people. In fact, that he used to be involved with the group. They are the Order, sworn to protect the land of Válkia in the name of the Gods. Their spies had been tracking Eoin, Saera and Faine. Eoin discovers that the Order has taken Saera to Arlea, the island country to the west, and are on their way to a particular volcano, at which a ritual called the Cleansing must be performed in order to release the Aura from the world, and thus return balance. But the only way to complete the Cleansing is to stab Saera in the heart with a ritual blade drenched in holy blood.
 
Echo, who also used to be one of the Order, shows up and frees Eoin and Faine from the dungeon. They ride back to Emareus, and then travel to Ortuaire on the western coast.
 
Briefly, we switch to Saera's point of view, and discover how she is being treated. Back to Eoin, Faine and Echo, they arrive in the port town of Mengerikaan, having crossed the small stretch of sea. When they reach Saera she is tied to a tree, a man's dripping blade raised and prepared to strike. Faine lets and arrow loose and pierces the man's hand before he can complete the ritual.
 
They escape with Saera back into Meira. In a forest along the way, they encounter a group of enigmatic men wearing cloaks. They decide it would be unwise to alert the men of their presence and sneak away. They come across one of them astray from the group. He speaks to them with a hissing voice, and then from his hands he wills a stream of fire towards them. Saera blinds him with her light and they run. Once they escape the forest they can see smoke over the trees where they had been set alight by the man in his fury.
 
Who are these people? Echo explains that they are Naeveri, creatures sent from the Fires Below to solve the imbalance in the world caused by Saera having Aundes Aura, while someone else, somewhere, has another piece of it. Only one person must have an Aura at any given time.

They are told in the next village that Tarne, Eoin and Saera's home village, has been destroyed. The Naeveri spawn from volcanoes, and Tarne sits near Mount Vaenor. At the time the ritual was not completed, all the volcanoes in Vàlkia erupted, and Tarne was destroyed.

The group continue to Emareus, and the Queen has been preparing an attack on the Naeveri base. They tell her it is an impossible battle, that they are too powerful. The Order arrives and requests a teaming up with the Queen.

The Queen sends an escort of one hundred soldiers, including Faine and Echo, to accompany seven High Priests of the Order. They will go to the main volcano from which the Naeveri spawn, and recite a prayer which will send them back to the Fires. At that point, though, a great, fiery demon appears and largely decimates the escort and a number of the priests before they can flee. Echo is injured.

They return to the Queen with news that the attack was unsuccessful. She doesn't know what to do now. The Duthonians are well on their way. The Naeveri are still on the loose. But she must protect the Descendent of Light.

Saera.

The next day the Duthonians attack. The Meiraan army meet them in battle. It begins. As they fight, an army of Naeveri arrive, coming over a hill. Fiery hell ensues.

What happens next? That would be telling.

Background
Aundes Aura is a tale of the lengths people will go to for those they love. Much of the background is based on the concept of the Gods. The Gods are:

Elcalades the Giving, Father of the Gods

Aundes the Shining, Goddess of Light

Kathes the True, Goddess of Nature

Taemus the Blissful, God of Dreams

Careus the Convictor, God of Time

Endures the Great, God of War

Maechre the Escort, God of the Passing

All the Gods sent down their Gifts into the world, that Humanity may use them to solve its problems. But once upon a time, a war broke out as Humanity was using the Gifts to its own ends. That war has since ended, but it lives on in people's hearts.

The Church of Duthonne teaches that Aundes, the Goddess of Light, is evil, because she blinded Humanity, and caused the Great War of the Gods. This is in fact just an excuse created by the Church, a false "reason" for their dislike towards her.

Southern country: Duthonne – Capital: Parthon

Northern country: Meira – Capital: Emareus

Island: Arlea

The Abominations from the Fires Below:

Naeveri (coming from the Albanian word for abomination, “neveri”) are “abominations” sent from the Fires to solve the imbalance in the world. They look like humans, but have red slits for eyes, always wear black, hooded robes and throw fire. Singular form: Naevera.

Their soul intention is to solve the problem of the imbalance by killing either Saera or Eoin. The world is imbalanced because both of them have a fraction of Aundes Aura inside them (although Eoin doesn't know it), while Aundes Aura itself is meant to be a complete element.

Pronunciation: nay-vear-uh (vear rhymes with fear)

nay-vear-ie (vear-ie rhymes with query)


Plot Synopsis

When Eoin's sister Saera absorbs the Aura of a goddess considered evil, her life is instantly threatened. Seven years later, the Aura shows signs of resurfacing. Someone discovers her dark secret, and their only option then is to escape their home town before word spreads. On the travelling carts, they meet the traveller named Faine, who appears learnèd in many travelling arts, as well as in combat.

They arrive at the capital city, and Faine will be competing in the Grand Arena Tournament. Eoin and Saera go along to cheer for him. But during Faine's match, a great burst of light suddenly stuns the Arena, and all turn to look at Saera. Now all know of her secret, and they close in. Faine climbs up into the stands to help Eoin protect his sister. Encountering a score of guards along the way, Eoin, Saera and Faine make it to the stables and ride out from the city, heading for the town closest to the Duthonne-Meira border: Tierra.

This town is not what they expect, though. It has recently been under attack, and is in the process of rebuilding. They discover that the town had an attack ordered against it by the Church because it had been trading with a nearby town in Meira, across the border. This is because the Church consider it a sin to deal with non-believers, and especially those who believe the evil gods are the good.

Faine tells Eoin and Saera that the quickest way to get into Meira is by taking a passage underneath the White Ranges. But it isn't necessarily the easiest. Still, Saera's life is under threat, so they decide to take the plunge.

They emerge on the other side of the White Ranges, and after walking for perhaps half an hour they reach the small town of Efisae. Here Faine introduces them to Echo. Efisae is attacked, and Eoin, Saera, Faine and Echo go down and help drive the Duthonians back out of the town and out of the country.

The group travel to Colette, a village that sits in the middle of a forest, and then up to the capital city of Meira, Emareus. In this country, Aundes is a revered goddess. So when they ask the Queen to help protect Saera from the Duthonians, she promptly agrees. She is not so quick, however, to accept Faine. For reasons unknown to Eoin and Saera, the Queen locks Faine in the dungeon.

Two days later, the Duthonians attack. Eoin goes down into the village to fight, but is knocked out. When he awakes, he is in the back of a locked cart with Faine, who had been taken from the dungeon. There is no sign of Saera or Echo.

The plot synopsis will be continued in part two.

I have just passed 20,000 words!

My 20,000th word was -- wait for it -- a.

Yes, the first letter of the alphabet is my 20,000th word.

Today I am going to tell you all about where my writing of fiction began, where it developed, all the way up to where I am am now.

Grade One:
The first time I ever picked up a felt-tip pen and wrote my first story was sometime in Grade One. At that time I was seven years old (as is common in Australia). My first stories were very short and minimalistic. There were no settings, no plots, only characters and their situations. These stories were based on either experiences I'd had, or experiences I wished to have. My friend and I would collaborate on stories. He used to want to be a train driver, so we would write stories about him being a train driver. I always wanted to have powers, so I would write stories in which I had them.

The first story I wrote which had a unique (albeit shallow) character whose name I didn't take from someone or something I knew was called "The Whole New World". Does that title remind you at all of Aladin? So, this character named Cersty (Kirsty) had powers, and she fought her sister and won. Then she travelled the world fighting many evil people, and eventually she lost. Then she went to heaven, and references were made to Moses, Jesus and Mary. I don't remember if she ended up staying in heaven or going home. It was written nearly ten years ago after all.

Grade Two:
Grade Two was perhaps my proudest year. I wrote a story with a plot in a small notebook called "A Magical World". This was back when I was reading Harry Potter for the first time, and a lot of inspiration came from that. The setting was a castle where witches and wizards were trained. There were three friends: Sam, Peter and Ashley. Firstly I wrote Sam's story, which was three parts. I completed that. Then I wrote Peter's story, and that also had three parts. I completed that. They were each sixteen pages long. I came to Ashley's story, though, and only reached four pages before I stopped writing. The last word I wrote on "A Magical World" was and.

The perfect cliffhanger.

Grade Three:
I wrote nothing as notable in Grade Three, but I continued to devise short stories that were mostly unfinished.

Grade Four:
I began to rewrite "A Magical World". This rewrite was completely fresh. The names were changed to James Pendower, Mitchell Buller and Misty Peppermill. There is no shade or sliver of the plot of the two-year-old original to be found. But it drew countlessly more parallels to Harry Potter. When I say countlessly, I mean there were so many parallels that it is in fact funny. Apart from the talented main character, the not-so-talented male friend and the very talented female friend, the school itself is a blatant Harry Potter reference.

Pigsnouts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

I had some original ideas, though, whether bad or horrible. Like the under-developed Quidditch replacement, which I called Forequest. Students would fly on Unicorns and fight mid-air with swords. Wait! Unicorns don't fly! Also, in Transformation class (Transfiguration) students were taught to merge with their Unicorn to become a Centaur.

Towards the end, for no given reason the Manager (Headmaster) makes the children the Manager's Assistants. They help to take down the evil Logan Cuesty on Mayfair Island (Monopoly). James uses his knowlege of the elements to battle him, but in the end Cuesty gives up. He gives a device to the Manager, saying it will show him where all the evil wizards are. Then Misty spontaneously remembers that it is her birthday tomorrow.

The next day they have a birthday party for Misty and Logan Cuesty is there, laughing with them as though he had been their friend the whole time. I don't think I was going to write much more than that, but it stopped there. I never got to write "The End".

In the whole story I never went into description of the setting, and nor did I write any interior monologue. It was in first person, too. At the time I stopped writing it it was just over ten thousand words.

Grade Five:
Early year five. Eleven years old. I wrote a story in a completely unique world, as in a world that was like Earth, but was not Earth. I called it World War. Here is an excerpt:

I picked up the phone and dialed the number. It felt very odd; there was a strange sensation in the pit of my stomach. The Richelieu was going to fight against the Abonasians. The city of Osmocryland, Richelieu, was going to face the city of Nalyrk, Abonasia, and then venture down to the city of Mothorituar, Richelieu, and then face Fialmu, Abonasia.

I wrote only four pages of that story.

Towards the end of the year my friend suggested a collaboration story involving pirates. I quickly agreed and we began to brainstorm plot ideas.

Grade Six:
During the hoidays before i started Grade Six I worked on the new story, "British Pirate". The thing is, I never did any research. The novel was horribly historically incorrect, with crossovers between pirates and Vikings. This time each chapter was exactly three pages long in a Word document. Still, my characterization improved, and I entered interior monologue a few times. I described the setting more as well, and got an idea for how to set out dialogue.

Year Seven:
During this year I continued to work on "British Pirate".

Year Eight:
I didn't quite get near the end, and stopped writing it at around twenty-two thousand, three-hundred words. For as slow a writer as I was back then, I got pretty far.

Year Nine:
It was possibly towards the end of the school holidays when I came up with the idea for a new story. I think the first thing that came into my head was the title: Until They Unite. In my mind this was the One that finally had a chance at being published, with a plot that was interesting enough for people to keep reading, charcacters that were believable and an actual backstory. A world that was interesting and different from the one we know. I created a language, which was simply a code of switched alphabetic letters, and called it Hewa (mine). Brec ec ha, c'xaypewz Hewa. I really don't like that anymore; it looks horrid. I now prefer just to make the language up, on a basis of Latin. So for different regions I can have something more Italian, or something more Germanic, French or Spanish.

Alas, once more I failed to complete the story. I had it all planned out, but somewhere along the way I lost confidence in myself. I stopped writing Until They Unite at nineteen-thousand, three-hundred words, sometime early 2009.

Year Ten:
This was the beginning of my current work-in-progress. One day in March I had a cold and took the day off from school (which I rarely do). It was incredible. I lay there in bed, my eyes closed as I tried to rest, and an image popped into my head. It was an image of a girl in a cave, standing by a mystical, glowing stalagmite. There was a great flash of light as she touched the stalagmite, and she had now absorbed the light. The fact that she had this light would change her life. She was no longer safe.

I have much to say about Aundes Aura, so you can look forward to that in my next post.

Finally I believe I have a story with enough backstory, enough depth of world, enough depth of character. The characters have their own histories, enough that I could tell the story from a completely different perspective. I have been writing this since September, and already I am past nineteen-thousand words. I am speeding past my other attempts, laughing as I go.

These past ten years have all been leading up to this.

Just now after much, much pondering and calculating, I have finally decided upon a new daily writing goal for myself. This new goal is absolutely shocking. You would never expect that I would be lowering the count!

My goal used to be 300 words. Then it was lowered to 200 words. I am now lowering it once more to just 160 words.

My reasoning behind this: It is easier to write 160 words than 200, no? My aim for before the year's end is to have reached very near the end of my novel by the 31st of December. This new 160 word aim gives me 4,800 words a month, and in extension I would have more than 75,000 words by the end of the year!

What are your thoughts? Am I thinking too much? Should I have a higher goal?

I have officially passed 18,000 words! I am creeping up to the quarter-point of my goal.

I am less than 200 words away from finishing my fourth chapter.

I suppose this doesn't mean much to you, though; you don't know anything about my novel yet. Soon I will give you some details about the work, so please look forward to that.

For starters, you will want the country within which your characters will be travelling. If the journey spans a number of countries, you should include those as well. The best way I've found to visualise my world is to draw a map. It doesn't matter whether it looks good or bad, all that matters is that you can see where your characters are or where they are headed. Below is an image of the map I drew for my latest work-in-progress, Aundes Aura.



I have called this world Válkia. I believe there are more details to the world, particularly in Arlea, but considering my characters have only just left their home town, I don't think it is absolutely vital that I have those details right now. For the names of my towns and my countries, you may or may not have noticed that I have borrowed heavily from other languages in my quest for interesting names. The name "Tierra" comes from the Spanish word for "earth". The name "Arlea" bears a resemblance to the French "Arles". "Robarre" is what I came up with when thinking about the French pronunciation of "Robert", being "Robear". The capital "Parthon" comes from the French words "by" and "tuna", mashed together. The name of the southern country comes from the phrase "Du thon" meaning "some tuna". Finally, "Mengerikaan" in Arlea borrows from the Indonesion word for "horrible", being "mengerikan".

This is all very random, no? The roots of these names are meaningless to the point of ridiculousness (tuna, anyone?), but they help me name the places nonetheless. Who says that the names have to mean anything?

As you can see, though, each country has a different linguistic influence. Duthonne is very French driven, and Arlea so far has island-like influences, almost like a tribal language. Meira is far more subtle with its names. One town I have not found the right name for is "Anoria", near the mountain range, but for now at least I have something to work with.

Even more so than what I have drawn on my own map, there need to be differences in your landscape to make it feel more realistic and keep it a little interesting. I think my map may be geographically incorrect, but I doubt that matters much. Which is more important? The story? Or whether or not that mountain range can be there due to the placement of tectonic plates on the world? Like I said, the aim here is to keep the adventure interesting. Grassy fields are nice, but if the whole book were set in grassy fields... well, it hurts me inside to imagine that, both as a reader and a writer.

Within or between the countries you have created, you will want some conflict. This outer conflict will be very much related to your World History, and having one will help you with the other. For example, in The Lord of the Rings, there are the creatures of Mordor who act in the favour of Sauron. Pure Evil. But beyond that, there are the men of the east. Then, stacked on top of that, there are the quarrels between the allied countries, between their own countries, and between their own houses or clans.

Maybe in your own novel, there are two equally fit candidates for the Throne--how do we decide who will be King? Someone assassinates one of the canditates, perhaps? But this is not in any way related to the main characters, it is simply backstory to the world, or history. See how thinking of the outer conflict has brought us to create some history, some reality to this world?

Finally, what do you want your villages, castles or landscapes to look like? Will you go early medieval with small, stone houses? In my case, I have chosen an Elizabethan style for my world. To make sure I understood what I was talking about, I did some research to find out how the buildings were made. Elizabethan buildings had a squared wooden frame, between which was woven a "wattle" (sticks and twigs). A white plaster called "daub" was then spread over the "wattle" to create the walls.

Momentum is important. I know when I lose momentum, my story stops flowing. In the months of October and November, I lost my momentum. Below I will list the word counts I reached for each of the months since I have started wring "Aundes Aura".

September - 7,904 words.
October     - 846 words
November  - 1,341 words

And finally,

December (so far) - 2,635

Something incredible happened in the very beginning: I just knew exactly what to write. In that first month I wrote a phenomenal number of words when compared to the other months. There are still about ten days left in December, so by then I should have more than 5,000 words done for the month. I'm feeling great!

My daily goals are small, but it seems they have been effective. My goal is simply to write at least 200 words a day. It keeps the story moving, and having a goal helps me move on through the more difficult sections. The number of words I do usually sits somewhere between 200 words and 1,000 words. For example, last night I wrote 600 words.

Unfortunately, I have not written at all on some days of this month. I am completely determined to reach my goal, and thus I have begun a "word debt chart". Every time I miss a day, I write down the date on the list, and next to it 200 words. Every time I write 200 words more than I needed to to reach my goal for that day, I can cross that date off the list, having "paid back the debt". It is difficult to explain, so I will give an example.

On the 14th, the 17th and the 19th I didn't write anything at all. Those dates went onto my debt chart. Last night I wrote 600 words. That is 400 words more than my 200 word goal. So I cross off the 200 words from the 19th, and the 200 words from the 17th. Then that's 400 words of debt paid back. This will help me reach my 200-words-a-day goal.

Am I crazy? Have I gone too far?

It is evident that I will at some point run out of ideas for posts on the technicalities of writing. After that, this blog will be much more based on my novel and other musings. My question for you is: What would you like from me?

1. To continue posting on the technicalities of writing until I run out of ideas, and then move on to my story.

2. To begin revealing things about my novel now, and interchangably write about writing.

3. To write mostly about the novel, and every now and again write about writing.

In addition, I invite you to add any ideas for what you would like to see from me. Character interviews? More on publishing? More about random things? Synonyms for overused words? Anything that comes to you, please put it in the comments.

Thank you for reading my blog!

So, today I decided I wanted to write four hundred words, but I was really lacking the motivation to do it. "What's the point in writing four hundred words? It's only a tenth of a chapter, and what's the use in that?" But if I didn't write those four hundred words, tomorrow I would have to write that and more to make up for my lack of writing today.

But that won't be happening. Not this time. Four hundred words isn't much, but I am a slow writer. This is because as I write, I read over to make sure it makes sense, and if it doesn't I edit it until it reads easily. (In fact I just edited that last sentence, and I am already up to the next paragraph.) People who have read my work have said that it is a good first draft. It's good to know the time I put in isn't being wasted.

Anyway, today I wrote exactly four hundred words, and I wouldn't have followed through with it if I hadn't used this motivational method. I found three motivational methods for writers here, and the one I used today was the second one: "The Carrot". The premise of "The Carrot" is that you have a reward which you will only recieve if you reach your goal.

So, I walked down to the milkbar in the 39oC heat, bought two packets of Skittles, came home, put them in the fridge and told myself I wouldn't get to eat the Skittles unless I reached my four hundred word goal. Of course, the reward will need to be something you actually want, or you won't really be motivated to work for it. With the reward in mind, I sat down and wrote for just over three hours (yes, three). Then, my goal having been reached, I took my reward from the fridge and devoured it contentedly.

Mission accomplished.

People will tell you that the word count of your novels doesn't matter. This is largely true. While you're writing, you should be worrying about the writing and not the word count. However, what it doesn't say is that word count really matters if you seriously want to be published.

So, as I didn't wish to recieve any nasty surprises (namely my novel being too short), I sent queries out to a number of agents in Australia where I live. I am writing an epic fantasy novel, and I believe it is also young adult. So here's what went down with the agency, Australian Literary Management:
_______________________________
Me:
When it is ready, I plan to submit my manuscript to Australian Literary Management. I was wondering what kind of range would be acceptable as far as word count for an Epic Fantasy novel.Also, when stating the word count should I be using the word count that Microsoft Word tells me? If not, which method should I use?

ALM:
Dear Ryan,

A word count given by microsoft word is fine. As a rough guide fantasy novels can be anywhere in the range of 100, 000 words to roughly 160,000 words.

Best regards, Karen Colston
_______________________________
That was where I started to get worried, because for my novel I am aiming for between 70,000 and 100,000.
____________________________
Me:
Thank you for your prompt reply. If the novel was marketed as a YA Fantasy, would 70,000 to 100,000 words be too short? I may have to integrate the idea of the sequel to reach the 100,000-160,000 mark, which is entirely possible, but I'd prefer not to.

ALM:
Dear Ryan,

Yes that word count would be fine for the YA market, unfortunately though, we are not looking at any YA material at this time. A list of literary agents can be found on the Australian Literary Agent's Assoc website; www.austlitagentsassoc.com.au/index.html

Best regards,

Karen Colston
____________________________

So there we go. This agency wouldn't accept my manuscript if it wasn't within the range they were looking for. As you can see, the number of words that are needed are dependent on the genre you are writing. A young adult, epic fantasy novel would have a word count of 70,000 to 100,000, as opposed to a general fantasy which would be 100,000 to 160,000 words.