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The Sorcerer -Draft 3

by toshi 

Posted: 10 June 2008
Word Count: 360


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So far:

Completed first draft of The Sorcerer in May 2007. (174,000)This was very rough, much of it written very freely with no attempt at continuity, just bashing out scenes.

Completed second draft of The Sorcerer in September 2008 (165,000) With any luck I've pulled the strands together to form a coherent, if rough, whole which can now be smoothed and polished.


Current Goals: Complete Draft 3 by Xmas 2008

anticipated length - not more than 150,000

1 Read through entire typscript for overall view

2 Outline plan of where I go from here.


Brief Outline:

Dunan despises and loathes the careless and irresponsible Prince Kiadh, so when he is assigned to be his junior officer (essentially no better than a nursemaid) and dispatched to the furthest quarter of the Kingdom following the Prince's fall from grace, he cannot help but view his future with pessimism.

But nothing could have prepared the companions for what was to happen at Fort Wesetch. A mysterious stranger arrives warning of an impending invasion by an ancient enemy. Suddenly Kiadh is called upon to save his Kingdom from annhiliation. But how could the man who up until now has been a drunken, lazy fool possibly lead the army to victory over this terrible enemy?

Desperate to survive the onslaught, Dunan is prepared to accept any help he and the Prince can get, even if that means allowing the Prince to fall under the spell of an undoubted Sorcerer, Lammas. Magic has been banned in Onnare for a century and just the mention of it can lead to imprisonment and execution. However, none of that matters in the face of the monstrous Haddan.

But what exactly does Lammas expect in return for his help? He and his origins are a mystery. Who is the unnatural creature that rides with him? How deep does his association with the outlawed Escuittan race go?

Acclaimed a hero, in full control of the Prince (who has become little more than a puppet) could it be that Lammas has set his sights on the throne of Onnare?

Perhaps the greatest enemy here is not the Haddan, but the Sorcerer himself.







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Comments by other Members



Steerpike`s sister at 20:43 on 10 June 2008  Report this post
Mmm, sounds intriguing! I do find synopses of fantasy novels hard to read, though. Somehow it's a difficult genre to reduce to a synopsis.

funnyvalentine at 11:54 on 11 June 2008  Report this post
I wish I could write a synopsis as well as that. It sounds fab! Good luck with it.

toshi at 15:58 on 11 June 2008  Report this post
Hi Leila and Hannah, thanks for looking and for your support.

I tried just to concentrate on the main theme/story in this synopsis without getting too bogged down in description of the world/culture and other characters. It is very hard writing synopsis for Fantasy novels. They all sound completely bonkers in isolation. I heard an agent say that even the Lord of the Rings would sound unpublishable if you put it in synopsis (four hairy footed friends set off on a quest to throw some jewelry in a volcano...), so I hope everyone will treat them as merely a guide!

Best wishes
Toshi

Steerpike`s sister at 17:17 on 12 June 2008  Report this post
I think that' s it, they do sound bonkers in isolation, perhaps because the thing that grabs your attention (and bogs me down) is the wacky names and not the characters, the emotional motivation, etc... But I do think yours is good in that it' s very clear about ' what' s the story?' ' who' s the main guy?' ' what' s the threat?' ' why does he do this?' . And well done for leaving out the sub-plots.

Steerpike`s sister at 17:18 on 12 June 2008  Report this post
150 K words is pretty huge. Are you going to split it into a trilogy?

toshi at 11:18 on 13 June 2008  Report this post
Hi Leila,

The intention is to make this the first in a trilogy, so not to split this particular volume. Publishers seem to demand at least 100k for fantasy novels, but I read recently that 150k was a max for first novels. It seems like you are between a rock and a hard place. Once you' ve started inflating your story to epic proportions, you have to cut it back down again.

Anyway probably not much point in worrying about all that just now considering a lot of what I have read of it so far needs some serious re-writing (oddly enough the bits that I have spent the most time on before!)

Thanks once again
Toshi

Steerpike`s sister at 15:53 on 14 June 2008  Report this post
100K minimum...Wow... it' s a whole different world from 50K children' s books... she says with mingled awe, respect and fear

Jill Lanchbery at 10:37 on 15 June 2008  Report this post
Hard to judge a book by a synopsis. Your timetable sounds impressive and I hope you are able to stick to it.
Would like to actually read what you have written, though. I don' t read fantasy fiction from choice but good writing is good writing.
Good luck,Jill


toshi at 09:39 on 16 June 2008  Report this post
Thanks very much Jill, I think I may be over optimistic with the timetable too, but I should have more free time at the end of July than I do now. Still if you don' t set yourself a deadline, you' ve nothing to keep to.

Best Toshi

PS Personally I find sticking to 100k hard going. I keep adding in new plots and characters. Of course I am not saying anything about the quality!

Doyaldinho at 22:25 on 29 January 2010  Report this post
Intriguing, I'd like to read a sample if possible.

I agree with you though, fantasy plots, especially ones with multiple arcs are hard to sum up. You keep wanting to explain things in order for them to make sense as the bullet points end up sounding rather random!


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