SlaveMasterUK
Really Really Experienced
- Joined
- Jan 4, 2003
- Posts
- 339
...don't you find life outside of the writing desk suddenly becomes so dull and boring compared to life behind it..?
This is a story of how I found myself totally smothered when a "small project" went supernova on me...
Over two weeks ago I realised I was running late to start my entry to this year's halloween contest, but I was completely out of ideas, so I posted a request on another forum (actually a biker's forum based in the UK) with the following topic:
Wanted: idea for lesbian halloween horror story
The response I got was enormous, ranging from hilarious to insane to totally inspiring. I ended up taking tiny ideas from almost every suggestion, but in the end this one cinched the deal:
And so, just over two weeks ago, I began writing. My plot synopsis was very very simple at this stage; I didn't know where I wanted to go, just that I had to somehow include a zombie. To give you an idea, this was my complete synopsis at that stage:
Set in a cold, dark castle/monastery type thing on top of a forrested mountain, in a fantasy world. Main character (Seyani) is a female servant at the monastery who is caught masturbating, and is sacrificed on the altar for her sins.
Seyani's spirit does not ascend, but she remains trapped in the monastery. She gains ghostly power by drawing on the sexual energy of the monks by raping them as they sleep. When she has enough power, she resurrects her sacrificed body and wreaks havoc, bringing the castle to the ground.
I started the first scene (introducing Seyani and a female mage, Lorus, to whom Seyani is sexually attracted) to build tension. I hoped it would also give me an idea of what Seyani was really going to become. I hoped the rest of the plot would emerge from there.
I spent a week working on that basic idea. I'd written the introduction scene, the masturbation scene, and the "found out" scene. I even skipped writing the sacrifice and jumped straight to the waking-up dead scene. And this was where I encountered my first real problem.
I wanted Seyani to be scared and naieve as a ghost, at least to start with. It made sense - it's all new to her. She's never been dead before. The problem is that I needed to find some incentive for her to try things before she realised those things made her more powerful. By this time, it was Saturday 15th, and I knew I was only 1/4 to 1/3 of the way through the first draft. Time was running out.
My solution was an empty house, a bottle of red wine and a wedge of scrap paper. I drank and I scribbled and I listened to music, then I drank and scribbled some more. I awoke the following morning to find my spare bed littered with sheets of A4 covered with doodles and character names and plot suggestions and ideas. More to the point, I had a plot
Worse, it's still evolving. New characters have appeared in the last 2 days that I had never intended to include. I now have to go back to rewrite most of the opening scenes to incorporate them. I'm not even sure how I'm going to do that without introducing new scenes...
What started as an entry for the halloween contest is now 20,000 words, and Seyani's zombie hasn't even finished laying the explosive that will destroy the monastery. I haven't even wound back to the second scene to introduce living Seyani to the barrels of explosive in the store cupboard, or to the two lesbian guards she finds making out in there, who she later devours in a fit of blood-lust to turn into her zombie-slaves of the afterlife...
It's a damp Sunday morning here in rural outskirts of Bath. I have one motorcycle that needs a tune-up. I have another that broke yesterday and needs some work to get it running again. I have a car that needs a new brake calliper installing, and another car that needs to be tidied up and sold before my house move is completed. And yet, I daren't drag myself away from this desk, because I have become hopelessly besotted with a lesbian zombie on a mission from beyond the grave...
Yes, this is a completely pointless self-indulgent thread, but I feel better now that it's off my chest.
SlaveMasterUK
PS many apologies for my lack of entry in this year's halloween contest
This is a story of how I found myself totally smothered when a "small project" went supernova on me...
Over two weeks ago I realised I was running late to start my entry to this year's halloween contest, but I was completely out of ideas, so I posted a request on another forum (actually a biker's forum based in the UK) with the following topic:
Wanted: idea for lesbian halloween horror story
The response I got was enormous, ranging from hilarious to insane to totally inspiring. I ended up taking tiny ideas from almost every suggestion, but in the end this one cinched the deal:
And so, just over two weeks ago, I began writing. My plot synopsis was very very simple at this stage; I didn't know where I wanted to go, just that I had to somehow include a zombie. To give you an idea, this was my complete synopsis at that stage:
Set in a cold, dark castle/monastery type thing on top of a forrested mountain, in a fantasy world. Main character (Seyani) is a female servant at the monastery who is caught masturbating, and is sacrificed on the altar for her sins.
Seyani's spirit does not ascend, but she remains trapped in the monastery. She gains ghostly power by drawing on the sexual energy of the monks by raping them as they sleep. When she has enough power, she resurrects her sacrificed body and wreaks havoc, bringing the castle to the ground.
I started the first scene (introducing Seyani and a female mage, Lorus, to whom Seyani is sexually attracted) to build tension. I hoped it would also give me an idea of what Seyani was really going to become. I hoped the rest of the plot would emerge from there.
I spent a week working on that basic idea. I'd written the introduction scene, the masturbation scene, and the "found out" scene. I even skipped writing the sacrifice and jumped straight to the waking-up dead scene. And this was where I encountered my first real problem.
I wanted Seyani to be scared and naieve as a ghost, at least to start with. It made sense - it's all new to her. She's never been dead before. The problem is that I needed to find some incentive for her to try things before she realised those things made her more powerful. By this time, it was Saturday 15th, and I knew I was only 1/4 to 1/3 of the way through the first draft. Time was running out.
My solution was an empty house, a bottle of red wine and a wedge of scrap paper. I drank and I scribbled and I listened to music, then I drank and scribbled some more. I awoke the following morning to find my spare bed littered with sheets of A4 covered with doodles and character names and plot suggestions and ideas. More to the point, I had a plot
Worse, it's still evolving. New characters have appeared in the last 2 days that I had never intended to include. I now have to go back to rewrite most of the opening scenes to incorporate them. I'm not even sure how I'm going to do that without introducing new scenes...
What started as an entry for the halloween contest is now 20,000 words, and Seyani's zombie hasn't even finished laying the explosive that will destroy the monastery. I haven't even wound back to the second scene to introduce living Seyani to the barrels of explosive in the store cupboard, or to the two lesbian guards she finds making out in there, who she later devours in a fit of blood-lust to turn into her zombie-slaves of the afterlife...
It's a damp Sunday morning here in rural outskirts of Bath. I have one motorcycle that needs a tune-up. I have another that broke yesterday and needs some work to get it running again. I have a car that needs a new brake calliper installing, and another car that needs to be tidied up and sold before my house move is completed. And yet, I daren't drag myself away from this desk, because I have become hopelessly besotted with a lesbian zombie on a mission from beyond the grave...
Yes, this is a completely pointless self-indulgent thread, but I feel better now that it's off my chest.
SlaveMasterUK
PS many apologies for my lack of entry in this year's halloween contest
