Wulfstan's Warband Forum Novel Writing Blog

Welcome to my forum-blog on my novel.

I began writing my novel in 2002 after watching "The Fellowship Of The Ring" in Swindon. The novel was a fantasy novel and i spent 24 hours straight plotting it out. Well, a long time passed and it was never finished then coming to Japan ruined the whole thing. The original computer's files were erased and my back up files corrupted.

So in June this year i began again but this time the novel is set a thousand years before my original and a thousand miles to the south.

I was inspired by Tolkien to write a fantasy novel based on Anglo-Saxon England and its heroic ideals. Having a background in archaeology and history has really helped me to write this novel.

If you have any questions feel free to ask them in this forum thread.

Today i finally sat down and plotted out the whole novel.

Previously i had worked on ideas for 3 threads in the novel and had written odd bits here and there, as well as extensive character lists, a brief (unfinished) history of the Kingdom and a few maps.

But, there had been no overriding plotline for me to follow when writing.

After reading an interview with George R.R. Martin i decided it was high time i did so. While i dislike the Da Vinci Code intensely i liked the idea of shorter chapters than the long ponderous ones George R.R. Martin uses.

But, i needed to balance out the number of POVs and the number of chapters in the book.

GRR Martin uses 8 POVs (Bran, Jon, Arya, Sansa, Eddard, Tyrion, Catelyn, Daenerys) spread over 807 pages in his first book.

I am aiming to have a shorter book with 7 POVs (Osten, Esten, Dega, Morre Staeld, Lewcan, Lornar, Tortrym). Though, some of them have very few chapters and fill in gaps in the narrative.

The plotting took a few hours to sort out and i am feeling that 6 years of writing practice has improved the way i plot out stories.

I have now a huge amount of respect for sci-fi writers and for JRR Tolkien.

Well, the latter is nothing new.

Why?

Well, i have spent the last few days wrapped up on the couch purging myself of the last scraps of pneumonia while also researching for my novel.

The novel contends with our past and our possible future. The former taking place on an artificial world and the latter involves us. lol. Though it's no Dr.Who.

I have to say that if you tak the time to thoughtfully construct a new world which actually works in terms of climate, economy, religion and society it is not easy. Kingdoms do not pop into being based solely on racial and ethnic stereotypes (take note David Eddings) or rip off high medieval culture including names (George R.R. Martin...tsk). If done properly like JRR Tolkien then the research and details needed are phenomenal.

This week i have worked on plots, new characters, plausible monsters based on a real working ecology, and a functioning and realistic pagan religion... Not to mention the difference between freemen, oathmen and bondsmen.

But, i have learnt that being half-arsed in fantasy is easy when you compare it to Science-Fiction. Working on realistic light-speed space enginges (cheers Stephen Hawking) and actual space ships, shuttles, renewerble energy for ships that cant just go to a petrol station etc.. was mind bending then came research on terraforming mars, finding planets, potential developments in science and health, the nature of the universe interms of quarks, quasars, black holes, anti-matter and dark-matter nearly melted my brain.

Hats off to those who do the real research unlike my internet skimming for their books.