Camp NaNoWriMo is here.
Dear readers,
As I mentioned last week, my goal for this week is to provide an outline for the first stage of Crow & Soul. Before I do this however, I feel that it’s only just that I bring attention to a very particular event that is taking place in April. What is this event, you ask? Is it an ice cream social hosted by Jazzy the Taco Bell dog, or a Hooters convention, with unlimited wings? No my dear readers, it’s something better. It’s Camp NaNoWriMo month. Now for all my readers who are not writers or have yet to hear of such a glorious event, allow me to enlighten you. November is typically known as NaNoWriMo, a national novel-writing month. The goal is to achieve fifty-thousand words. Camp NaNoWriMo is a minor version of that. So my personal goal for the month of April is to reach thirty thousand words. In the extent of this writing, I hope to bring the novel to its conclusion, or near to it. At the same time, I’ll continue working on this project every Thursday night as my weekly blog. And hey, who knows, the cards still may play in your favor, and in the future, you could go to a Hooters convention or be served Ice cream by a squeak toy. Perhaps you can even write about your experience, and with a bit of tweaking, you can produce a short story or novel about a Mafia squeak toy that has an addiction to Ice Cream and hot wings served by a barely clad woman…
Sincerely,
Richard M Polk
Background.
Give a background to the story. The intent of this is to draw the reader in, and set the atmosphere for the rest of the story.
Name of the world.
Corvus: Give description of the planet. More specifically, the same place many years later that Amos makes his debut.
Time.
I’m thinking of staging the time frame to a time where Crow first tries to make the Corvians worship him. Something along these lines. Is Crow more prominent in this story line, or does he play in the background as he does in the novel, and put a puppet figure in place, as he did in Amos time?
How did the Corvians come to be ruled by Crow?
I don’t quite know. I’m not even sure if it matters. There are people who are resistant to the rule of Crow, so this must be earlier on in his rule; but after Tinnese is trapped in the fiery vortex.
Religion.
I believe at this point in time, Crow tries to implant/enforce a law that requires that he is to be worshipped, that the young would be indoctrinated into Crow& Company. This is an old tactic that is used to weaken the will of the people, to discourage uprisings. So at a very young age, Corvian children are taught about Crow, his unquestionable sovereignty, and the role they play in serving him.
Names.
To discourage individualism, generic names like ‘Father’, ‘Mother’ ‘Son’, ‘Daughter’ are used. Only in rare exceptions where the individual is old and has no children, by natural or unnatural means, will the name ‘Old Man’ or ‘Old Woman’ be used.
Well dear readers, this is all I have for the time being. Next week I plan on writing the background scene for Crow & Soul.
Sincerely,
Richard M Polk
