Aldernon

Aldernon is a healer, herbalist and doctor that Sharli meets on the river boat that takes her down river and away from her jungle home. He becomes her protector as they travel together when Sharli is ordered off the boat – read the story to find out why!!!

From the homelands of the Danveshi Empire (yes, it used to be the Dantarian Empire!) Aldernon has pale skin and grey eyes. Unlike the people of Azam. It’s quite fun to play with racial characteristics, seeing the white person as the foreigner. I’ve now written two chapters from his perspective and am enjoying seeing the world from his viewpoint. Makes for a more interesting story I believe to see things from different people.

I’ve also got new names for other countries and peoples. The jungle people of Azam are now known as the Jha’Hazee; what was Davesh is now Zhoresh.  Other things about the world have been revealed as I write, increasing my knowledge of Rohinval. As I’d hoped. I’ve been making notes as I go but will need to put them all into some kind of order. Later, probably, once the 50K words I need are written.

My word count now stands at roughly 11,700. Despite struggling yesterday! I’ve updated the NaNoWriMo page so that, if you wish, you can continue to follow the story…

Sharli

From being just a name, Sharli has come to life and is proving to be a worthwhile character in my NaNoWriMo ‘novel’. I love her. Already. And it’s only day 3!

She was never, ever meant to be a user of magic. But she is. It went completely against my plan. With the very first words I typed, though, I knew. Sharli set the scene for me. And since then she’s led me by the hand as I’ve written.

I’m almost enthralled by the unraveling tale, lol!!! And am enjoying the telling. Day 3 and already 8,263 words in, I’ve far surpassed my expectations. It won’t last, of course. But whilst it does, and the Muse as well as Sharli continue to speak to me, I’m riding with them.

I thought it would be a shame not to share. And so I’ve set up a page on this blog to publish the completely unedited rough draft of the story so far. Already the land of Azam is coming to life. I can see the village, the town and the river. I’m having fun. The writing is ragged, rushed and improvised. It will no doubt contain inconsistencies galore as I progress. If I ever decide to use the story it will be completely changed. I think. Who knows? Anyway, feel free to read and watch as the land and the tale develop.

NaNoWriMo

The latest edition of the map, with a few names. Still much to be done.

So for the first time, I’ve signed up for NaNoWriMo. No idea about a plot. In fact, apart from having a character’s name and setting the story on Rohinval, I haven’t got a clue what will happen. The plan is to get into the habit of writing most days, if not every day, and also to explore my world in the process using a character that I probably won’t use in any actual novel. Just taking part is, according to others writing this year, termed a success. No-one ‘fails’. So they say. As I can’t see me writing the necessary 50,000 words by the end of November to be classified as a winner, their view point is a relief.

As for my world-building, I’ve developed the language a little and tweaked the map. Partly because it didn’t feel quite ‘right’, partly because during my language construction I decided that my alphabet wouldn’t include C, K, Q or U. Which meant that certain names like Kerriton and Chen no longer fitted. I also wanted to have a few more countries and to work a little on the south-western area of the world as I think that’s where my NaNoWriMo ‘novel’ will be based.

During my research I came across 2 books that I bought. Both are proving extremely helpful: The Language Construction Kit (he has a website here) and the Planet Construction Kit. They’re helping me develop ideas as to the type of world Rohinval will become, as well as aiding in the development of the language – for which I still don’t have a name, lol.

So that’s where I am up to in my endeavours to create Rohinval and bring it to life. If you don’t see me here for a while, hopefully it’s because I’m actually writing!!!

Constructing language

I’ve been sidetracked. Not unusual for me – in fact, quite normal!!!

The reason for my deviation is that I’ve become absorbed in the research of language construction and my feeble attempts to construct a language for Rohinval. Not the common language, but an older one. It will feature (I hope) in certain areas of the story, probably mostly for names. Although it may well take on a direction and course of its own, as these things sometimes do.

During my ‘research’ I stumbled on a language that I’d never heard of before – Láaden. A language created for women. Certain aspects of it I find fascinating, not least the way that there are words at the beginning of sentences to depict emotion (see Rule 9). I’m not sure that will find its way into my own constructed language but it did give me something to think about. After all, we may see the emotion in someone’s face or body language when we can see them but when all we have to go on is a written script, emotions of the writer become much harder to decipher.

I’ve also looked again at Esperanto. Over 25 years ago I took their 10 week course, although I never finished it. However, I do have the materials here and it was good to go through them, and fascinating to see how the language works. Unlike more complex languages that can take years to unravel, Esperanto was designed to have relatively easy grammatical rules. But even some of them can be fairly tricky to get used to!

Anyway, that is where I am at in my attempts to build a world and tell a tale: enmeshed in linguistics and completely ignoring the actual world-building and the story. Although I have unearthed two creative writing books to study and am dipping into them during the evenings. So all is not yet lost, and I’m having fun.

A Political Map

Political map of Rohinval

Things have changed. As they do. After several notes and much thought, here is the political map of Rohinval.

There is now an Empire – The Dantarian Empire that dominates the northern and eastern ‘regions’ (they used to be countries) of the main continent.Although Maresh is a rather wayward region and one that causes the Empire enormous problems. Along with the Hill Lands, inhabited by bandits and ‘wilders’.

Then there is the Kingdom of Essantis. The countries of Ulla, Kazam, Dhakesh and the Isles of Nerian. The Lands of the Ho’ad. The Domains of The Kraggen. And Tarrigdu, of course, the lands of the Targ.

There is much here that intrigues me. Some, I confess, comes from previous worlds that I’ve considered or partially created, but done little or nothing with. I love the way ideas can meld into each other and grow into something completely new.

As for the story, I’m still working that out. The roots of the story remain. But, like the map, much is evolving. There are shifts in my mental vision of the land(s), and the characters within the tale are growing and moving in various directions. Once they settle and I have a better idea of where they all fit I’ll be able to write again. For now, there is much more work to be done

 

Map complete – for now!!!

Rohinval - the main map

This is the map that I’ll be working from. It looks a little crowded, I know, with lots of names now included. So I’ve cropped and printed off smaller areas for my reference.

There are gaps – Kazam and Ulla for example are completely void of town names. No doubt they will appear in time but for now, with no precise plan for either place at this moment, I’ve decided to leave the names to come to me in the future.

As my story stands there are places on the map that don’t actually have a role. Possibly they will; possibly they won’t. But without them the world would be a poorer place and they may yet find a reason to exist, even if a background one.

Looking at the map and sorting names made me realise there are huge gaps in my knowledge. Kerriton and Corim, for example, and the areas around them, didn’t belong in any nation or country. Whilst my story flowed within TAG, those two cities and the surrounding country played a pivotal role. Yet they had no need, in the TAG context, to be within a country. Now they do. And so Dantar has been born. It’s a kingdom that lays claim to huge areas, including that of Whittan Forest. You see, there were Wars in the past, that were to settle boundaries. The Forest, despite its wild nature, had to be ‘owned’ by one of the warring nations. Else why did the wars rage and end?

And so, you can see just a hint of how much background I still need to fill in. Even if the story itself can develop without the need to reference such things, it is important that the world exists with a solid historical and geographical base. Such things can influence much that happens. I find the process of creating a world extremely satisfying, even if at times I can get bogged down in things that may appear irrelevant to the writing of the tales. Hopefully I won’t become too intrigued by the world itself, or devote too much time to aspects that have no purpose or role within the story. It will, I know, be far too easy to become sidetracked, lol!!!

Creating the map

Map in progress

This is what I’m currently working on – a new map for the world of Rohinval. Based on the one that I created for the Travelling Artists’ Guild, this map is painted on acrylic paper using acrylic inks and pens. So far there are no names, towns or roads marked – that will be my next task.

Once finished, I’ll scan it in again and print a copy on to normal paper to use as my working map. On that I’ll mark other locations – ones known only to me. I’ll also crop areas and use them for more detailed information, allowing me to get a clearer view of the ‘close-up’ world. These, though, will be for me alone. After all, I wouldn’t want to give too much away by showing everyone the sites of secret locations.

I’ve also been writing. So far I’ve drafted just over one page for the first chapter. I was thinking of writing a prologue but for now have decided against that. Once I’m happy with the draft I promise I’ll publish here. But that may be some time in coming. I still need to make notes of characters, changes to my original tale, places I want to include and history. That is probably one of the most vital tasks for me to do. And quickly. Without knowing the full historical events (the major ones, at least) the world might unravel and fall apart as I write. It will be good reference. As will the detailing of races, countries and areas. Oh, and language. I must start re-looking at that too.

So, loads to do. If I’m quiet, you know why – I’m busy