Nightmare (Novel)

I didn't mean to imply that you were writing a trope-by-trope novel. I just noticed that a lot of people were/are doing that, and it isn't the best way to go about things, as writers generally complete a work first and then, by analysis, the tropes that were used are found. Which is what you said you already did, and now you are just playing with what you've found. So, I'm sorry.

It's ok. I have not written a lot, or much of it. I have 5 finished chapters I wrote before my most recent two major character reboots and main story arc polish. I have not gotten around to re-doing the first chapter yet. Most of the tropes are in these 5 chapters, but some I am playing with the ideas of before writing the work, seeing how they might add to what I have in mind.

I edited my last message without realizing a new page (and therefore a new post) was made, I said that:

So actually it was my fault for mis-understanding.

edited 9th Apr '11 6:13:53 AM by jasonwill2

I want to know if this 'sounds' sue-ish for my character on this scale of confirmed close/melee combat kills. (he usually has an AK-47, smoke grenades, .50 cal and .45 cal handguns, and a machete/other bladed weapon)

For each face-to-face kill a superior sees, a soldier is given a leg or armband that has some phrase in Latin on it as a type of medal. Keep in mind every single landscape on Mars in real life has a Latin name, so it just makes sense for official titles/awards to be in Latin/Roman.

scale (for CONFIRMED KILLS):

1 - typical, not very special. maybe 40% who have a military career have this if they see war.

2 - uncommon, but in more specialized units most have at least this many. 25% have in the military.

3 - rare, though in the areas with tribal culture it is MUCH more common. Less than 15% have in the military

4 - perfection, get this and you are a hero! less than 10% get this and live to tell of it.

5 - your lucky, your superior must of been constantly watching you for all of them to be confirmed

6 - 7, everyone hates you (for being even luckier), it's only cause everyone was watching your reckless antics anyone noticed. (HERO IS HERE)

8-9 you probably died, if not, look above.

10+ Only once or twice in the colony's history of 50 years over all three wars and skirmishes.

Keep in mind the culture he is from reveres military prowess and are avid warriors. It isn't unusual for one to get at least one or two close combat (hands or knife) kills CONFIRMED in their lifetime, but the whole team, and the protagonist in particular, take it up to eleven then again, for every confirmed kill, one could have as many as 3-6 actual kills.

so he is near the upper limit, killing anywhere from 21-41 through-out the story, while only 10% get 15-30 melee kills in their life.

Thing is, part of the reason he gets so many confirmed kills is his role as protagonist, he sets off a spark of inspiration that brings his whole homelands to fight back, and a demoralization of the enemy. The team he leads, "NIGHTMARE", is just that, even if a reincarnation of the original team from previous wars.

Though... I should note that the founder of the original Nightmare Team at least two decades earlier had 10+ of these bands... that's 30-60 kills close up, depending on who you ask (since it has to be seen by a superior and proven.

edited 9th Apr '11 9:52:31 AM by jasonwill2

YES! I figured out a simplistic and wide enough interpretation of personality for Tanya!

Getting anymore specific ruins it, but it boils down at most to THREE major qualities of personality.

Personality traits:

Aggressive Realistic introverted

I'll try this with another character, Logan:

Understanding friendly extroverted

yes! it seems to actually work really well, ill try another, Jason:

passionate charismatic intelligent

Lee:

Stoic Introverted dedicated

conclusion:

Limiting my characters to three arc qualities gives me just enough to tell me what I want, but not too much for the details to dictate what I am doing. When deciding on how they act, I will refer to these three base traits (which include sub-traits, but not necessarily all of them, but those are details!)

I already have a concept of how a person's personality is geared towards negative/positive. Essentially, my belief is that a person's personality is the same in a story/real life regardless if they are good or bad, it only manifests itself differently in accordance with their morals.

I.E. a passionate person can set themselves to a goal and stick with it (and therefore be dedicated), or be emotional and destructive. It just all depends on their ethics and environmental factors that shape their experiences.

Ok, so I have been for a while wanting to add a female antagonist, and I found out a way to kill three or so birds with one stone.

1) I get my female antagonist and add another female to my character pool.

2) I solve the need for some type of romantic feelings in the book.

3) I get to fix the problem with Jason and Tanya's relationship (with their personalities being inconsistent) by eliminating it completely.

Essentially, the idea is that Jason and this antagonist used to be lovers. For some undecided reason at this point, they broke up, badly. Somehow she becomes one of the bad guys, and Jason cannot bring himself to ever kill her when he really really needs to; he can't bring himself to do it.

Thing is, she is... crazy (like RL bipolar or something similar). She is actually really really consistent with the kind of girl Jason actually would get involved with, especially if it was back when he was much younger; the relationship isn't ever present in the book, but it is referenced and shown in their interactions. The relationship would pre-date the book by years, probably to the Second Mars-Terran war (Jason was a veteran of this war at about age 18-19, he is now about 25-26) And she is still crazy to dangerous degrees as she has went downhill over all the years. She also has a kind of love-murder complex when it comes to Jason.

I want to give a lot of sexual tension and hints that they both have very strong feelings for each other, even though they are not on the same side.

Does anyone have any advice on how I would do this? I have no idea how I should go about this or explore the ideas further.

edited 13th Apr '11 8:17:57 PM by jasonwill2

First of all, though this plot point sounds interesting, you don't absolutely require romantic feelings in any book (well, I guess unless you're writing any form of romance, but then that's the genre.) Also female/male balance isn't a requirement either. I'm not saying you shouldn't do it (it sounds interesting, in fact) but just putting that out there.

Also, it kind of worries me that you say you've been writing the book for five plus years and yet have not yet "sat down and wrote the actual book" yet. It's not only movies that go through Development Hell, and if you wait long enough, you may find that you just plain can't do it...

(then again you probably shouldn't listen to me, because I'm a certified impulsive pantser and just restarted a 75,000 word novel from the beginning because I'm fickle.)

edited 13th Apr '11 8:52:50 PM by OhSoIntoCats

I have written it, three times.

1) First version was at about chapter 5, second was to four/five and parts of others. 3rd version had 5 full chapters and part of the sixth at about half way through the book. I also have a lot of notes on the book revisions, and a complete first draft for a 30,000 word novella set between version three's chapters 6 and 7, spanning about two weeks.

I have written it, just not done the 3.5 version yet, the major re-haul of 3.0

2) As far as balance, I only have ONE female main character out of 7 main ones and 3 minor characters (two antagonists, 5 protagonists, and the minor characters 1 goes bad two stay good).

That's one female for 10 males.

3) Also I Want to include those emotions and situations into the work; it makes the whole war more tragic and draws in the reader more into another layer of depth into the main character. If there is no personal victim of the war for the protagonist, then people will feel nothing when a whole town is razed if they cannot relate to the protagonist. Political oppression isn't enough for it, nor the aftermath of the burning of his town in the first chapter.

Everyone can relate to lost love, and seeing one he still cares a lot about go to their side is supposed to be what first tragedy wrenches at the hearts of people to feel with the character.

EDIT: If I said I didn't write it, I probably meant I have not written a FULL draft, from beginning to end. I end up re-doing it when problems become aware, or I set it aside, coming usually a year later to it realizing what I wanted to really do with the book.

edited 13th Apr '11 9:21:47 PM by jasonwill2

why must I keep wanting to add characters?!?!?!? why must I want more strong personalities?!

Why?! I can't even figure out a third of the ones I got!!!!

figured out (mostly):

William Jason Logan Dickens November Andrew

havnt:

unnamed female Lee Tanya

guess I guessed that amount right... lol

before i forget: add lee to the mix when they go to the Arsian people. he is the ticket to them helping, they rescue him, the other surviving member of the old Nightmare team. it will be that Daniel Armstrong wasn't the only survivor after all.

Now I can fit Lee in! put this land-wise on my computer later.