Welcome to the Weekly Fiction WIP Thread! This is a weekly community diary for writers here on Daily Kos to showcase microfiction, ongoing serialized stories, and pieces of larger works in progress. All DK fiction writers are welcome to post chapters and excerpts as comments in the Fiction Works-in-Progress diaries.
The above is the header button
At the top of those comments, use the header format button to embiggen the title of the work in progress from which your material comes, so readers can find it from week to week.
If you would like feedback, be sure to say so in bold (the format button next to H). Readers, please ensure your feedback is constructive (this does not mean it has to be only positive, but it should always be actionable and sincere advice; e.g. compare “this protagonist is terrible” vs “I didn’t feel a connection to your protagonist”) and limit it to writers who request it. Writers, please ensure you are comfortable receiving feedback and commentary before requesting it in your post. Together we can keep this a positive place to share our work, our progress, and indulge in our hobby.
A WORD OF WARNING
Many publishers and agents won’t accept a manuscript that’s been publicly available online in part or in whole, because of risk of getting sued for copyright infringement by someone ripping off your work there and claiming it as his own. So, if you hope to sell it professionally, you probably don’t want to post it in DK. If you plan on self-publishing, that risk is only to you. If you don’t plan to publish it anywhere else, then it’s probably no concern at all.
Click on any of the Readers & Book Lovers tags at the foot of each published diary in this series to reach our shared host-group and find today’s WriteOn series post.
Writers participating regularly are encouraged to share in posting these diaries.
It’s easy. Just coordinate scheduling with one another — usually in a comment headed “Schedule”. Then on the day, copy into your diary draft everything you see in this one you’re reading right now, add the tags one by one —FictionWorksInProgress ■ FictionWIP ■ Fiction ■ R&BL ■ R&BLers ■ Readers&Booklovers ■ ReadersAnd Booklovers ■ writing ■ WriteOnFictionWIP ■ FreeWriters — and hit PUBLISH! :)
THEN copy the published diary’s URL, which will always start with
and c’mon over to tonight’s WriteOn, and paste it into a comment requesting we reblog yr FWIP diary to the R&BL and FreeWriters groups. Can do!
FINALLY, put your own WIP exerpt into a comment at the WIP diary you’ve just published, and you’re rolling!
A Word of Caution
Many publishers and agents won’t accept a manuscript that’s been publicly available online in part or in whole, because of risk of getting sued for copyright infringement by someone ripping off your work there and claiming it as his own. So, if you hope to sell it professionally, you probably don’t want to post it in DK. If you plan on self-publishing, that risk is only to you. If you don’t plan to publish it anywhere else, then it’s probably no concern at all.
Without further ado, on to this week’s challenge!
When creating a setting for your ongoing narrative, the natural world or lack thereof can be an interesting way to make the setting your own. The natural world determines so much of our daily lives without even thinking about it.
Why are we American as apple pie, instead of say, pear pie? What did early explorers think when they reached the West Coast and its staggering redwood trees that dwarfed anything back in Europe? Now imagine if those redwoods were descended from baobab trees.
Do cats curl up on your protagonist’s lap after a long day? Maybe, but maybe not. In my fantasy setting, dwarves have kobolds as somewhere between house pet and servant, small gecko-headed reptilian humanoids that are somewhere around great ape levels of intellect. There are no furry friends in the dwarven halls, but kobold companions can be found scurrying up and down walls or hopping onto the backs or shoulders of their (by comparison) big dwarf buddies. For them, these reptilian literal hangers-on are their beloved companions and mischief makers.
Even though it’s still dwarves in caves, the image of lizard people scurrying about, chittering to one another and their dwarven friends, adding to the hum of background noise and activity...it’s a very different sight, to me, than the tomblike atmosphere of Tolkein’s dwarven cities in decline. But, more than that, it means there’s an entirely new element to dwarven domestic life to add to scenes in their cities and homes.
Even a few minor changes to what we know can impact your world in ways that make it distinctive and your own. It doesn’t have to be just the realm of fantasy, either: simple things like the discovery of sugar or pineapples have resulted in wars of conquest and annexation. What would have happened if a different crop than cotton became king in the south? What if cacao wasn’t a tropical plant, but instead temperate? What if a rare and exotic spice had grown in Ireland instead of India?
Of course, these aren’t just the realm of fiction. The natural world is an easy indicator of where your story is set, but can also be an indicator of when. Consider the banana: what does a banana look like when your protagonist buys one at the store? If you’re picturing a curved yellow fruit, you’ve dated yourself without even knowing it: up until the 1960s, the most dominant banana in the US was the Big Mike (or Gros Michel), but a blight cut through the monoculture plantations and drove it nearly to extinction. The resistant Cavendish banana, the one you see in stores today, replaced it. Gros Michels were sweeter and straighter; if you’ve ever wondered why banana flavored candy doesn’t seem to taste like banana, it’s because the earliest banana flavorings were based on the Big Mike variety.
It’s things like this that can transport your reader to another place and time, and since the natural world is all around them and inescapable, it’s an easy way to world-build without information dumps. Just a simple dinner, or a glance out the window, can say volumes. Dedicated readers might even start trying to piece together more than you’ve offered from clues alone.
Is there anything noteworthy about your setting? Are there any unusual sights or smells (well, unusual to the reader but familiar to the character) we might encounter as your protagonist heads to get a bite to eat or takes a walk to their destination? If we dropped something we were eating, what’s going to dash out and snatch it away from us or crawl on it? Or, perhaps just as or even more importantly, what ISN’T there?
