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Because of You, I did it

Posted on May 20, 2015 by Loni Townsend

This happened:

facebook
May 18 at 12:39pm
*virtual high five to everyone* I may have just figured out book 2.

I owe all of you a big THANK YOU. All of your comments helped stir the mental juices, and I ended up with my solution.

Last week, I was pretty much at my frustration breaking point since I’d been stuck for quite a while. I plead for help, and all of you responded.

Southpaw suggested I look at my mythos again. When I wrote my mythos, it was very general: Sibling 1 wants to kill/rule siblings 2 & 3, so siblings 2 & 3 left and hid. I realized a flaw in that of these 3 siblings, I didn’t know how to get to the 5 deities I had per sibling. I’d envisioned the 5 (total of 10) deities as extensions of the siblings 2 & 3. But then, what happened to siblings 2 & 3, and why are they not in the story?

That’s where I had an ah-ha moment.

Thanmir War establishes my existing deities—the Drethamir and the Miasho. So there was no going back on that, nor did I want to. But I never went into great detail about the Drethamir.

Last Monday, I decided that the Drethamir weren’t created by sibling 2 (as I had in my working plan that had me stumped). Instead, they were sibling 2. The siblings are deities; they can be whatever they want, including breaking oneself into multiple facets to manage everything because one is a control freak. In fact Dreth (as the sibling is called) is a bit OCD, so much so that s/he needs separate compartments for all of his/her creations, thus the world layers established in Thanmir War.

How did this solve my problem?

Instead of the monsters being loose power of the deities (working plan), the monsters are the deities themselves—the major deities, not the minor Miasho that were created by sibling 3.

Dreth’s power (Monsters A) is running amok, trying to stop a disease created by the niniers (pre-book 1, after looking at my mythos again), compounded by Hero #1’s action in book 1 which fractured Dreth and broke the strands holding Dreth together. And Mia, sibling 3, is just trying to help Dreth by consolidating Dreth’s power. First step: yank Dreth’s power out of the humans that have it. And there we have Monster B.

Previous version:

Monsters A already existed, but because of a hole created by Hero #1, get loose and are hunting food, which is filtered power from Deity B, but can be harmed by pure power from Deity B. Same applies for Monsters B and Deity A.

Since Monsters A & B are unkillable, they have to be trapped, which I had no clue as to how to do, because the monsters would surely kill Hero #1 before he closes the hole, or he might get trapped on the other side and then how would they bring him back?

Current version:

Sibling 2 uses power from Sibling 3 to stave off a disease caused by power from Sibling 1 (see how I tied these guys together?) Hero #1 steals part of sibling 2, thus fracturing sibling 2 into Monsters A which is still trying to stave off the disease by collecting sibling 3’s power, which exist as filtered power from the deities sibling 3 created (Deity B). Sibling 3 (Monster B) is trying to collect sibling 2’s power. Because both sides are weakened, pure power from either side hurts the other.

Since Monsters A & B are unkillable, Monsters A need to be consolidated back into a single, undiseased entity, thus nullifying either side’s need to collect the other’s power.

This, I can do, because the niniers are gateways to the Drethamir’s power. Don’t worry, that makes sense in my brain.

So what about the abducted beloved? Yeah, that’s just not going to happen. But since the Heroes don’t need to collect pure power to fights Monsters A, Monsters A wouldn’t have the opportunity to steal the beloved right out from Hero #3’s nose in order to send him off the edge with uncontrollable power… and his power changed too! Before it was “from another world”, but he magically could influence beings from this world. Now that Sibling 1 is in the equation, that gives an explanation as to where Hero #3’s power comes from.

Good things are happening. I even salvaged about 30K in writing.

Thank you, everyone! How are things going for you?

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21 thoughts on “Because of You, I did it”

  1. Sarah Foster says:
    May 20, 2015 at 9:39 AM

    It’s awesome when you figure things out! I’ve been trying to do that a lot lately. πŸ™‚

    Reply
  2. Mary Pax says:
    May 20, 2015 at 10:29 AM

    Woot! Glad you’re unstuck!

    Reply
  3. Melissa Maygrove says:
    May 20, 2015 at 11:49 AM

    Yay!!! You did it!!!! πŸ˜€

    I’m paragraphs away from being done with draft 1 of book 2. πŸ˜‰

    Reply
  4. Chrys Fey says:
    May 20, 2015 at 11:56 AM

    “the monsters are the deities themselves…” That sounds pretty awesome!

    I’m so happy that you figured out what to do. πŸ™‚

    Reply
  5. Alex J. Cavanaugh says:
    May 20, 2015 at 12:06 PM

    Glad you figured it out! Sometimes it just takes a little creative brainpower from others.

    Reply
  6. Liz Blocker (@lizblocker) says:
    May 20, 2015 at 1:14 PM

    GO LONI! I’m so glad you were able to untangle all of it! I have to admit I still can’t fully follow everything you’re working on (damn, your world is rich and complex) but I’m so psyched you’re able to move forward πŸ™‚

    Reply
  7. Sarah says:
    May 20, 2015 at 4:46 PM

    So happy to hear you worked this out! I knew you would. Though I agree with Liz…your world is incredibly complex. I don’t know how you do it. Extra chocolate chips in your cookies. *sends cookies* (I won’t send hummus unless you are really desperate.)

    Reply
  8. Southpaw HR Sinclair says:
    May 20, 2015 at 5:37 PM

    Way to go! It’s amazing what that a-ha moment does. It’s a great feeling. Congratulations. πŸ™‚

    Reply
  9. Mason T. Matchak says:
    May 20, 2015 at 5:39 PM

    I had a little trouble following that, but I’m dead-certain it made sense to you, which is what matters most. ^_^ And I’m glad you figured all that out. There’s nothing quite so frustrating as getting caught on your own work like that and being unable to figure out how to make it all work in the context of what you’ve already established.

    As for how things are going for me, I’m 3-4 days away from finishing my first draft of a new book, so I’m in that mixed state of happy and freaked out that comes with being so close to done. Oi!

    Reply
  10. CD Gallant-King says:
    May 20, 2015 at 8:54 PM

    I don’t know if I can follow everything you laid, nor do I know if I want to for spoiler reasons, but I’m still excited for you that it worked out!

    Reply
  11. Aldrea Alien says:
    May 21, 2015 at 12:05 AM

    Whoo! Go you!

    Reply
  12. Leandra Wallace says:
    May 21, 2015 at 5:20 AM

    Woot! Writing breakthroughs are the BEST feeling. I’m glad you’re back on track, and hope you celebrated with something fun or yummy. =)

    Reply
  13. C.G.Coppola says:
    May 21, 2015 at 6:19 AM

    Yay Loni! Breakthroughs DO exist! I’m so happy for you πŸ™‚

    Reply
  14. ChemistKen says:
    May 21, 2015 at 12:57 PM

    Glad it worked out. Of course we all now expect due credit when the book comes out, along with a share of the royalties. πŸ™‚

    Reply
  15. Cherie Reich says:
    May 21, 2015 at 1:31 PM

    That’s awesome! I’m glad you figured it out.

    Reply
  16. Beth says:
    May 23, 2015 at 11:00 AM

    best feeling EVER and it flows way more this way! yay πŸ™‚

    Reply
  17. Sandra Cox says:
    May 23, 2015 at 1:36 PM

    Congrats:)

    Reply
  18. Lori L. MacLaughlin says:
    May 23, 2015 at 3:29 PM

    Hooray to you, Loni, for figuring it all out! Those halleluiah moments are priceless.

    Reply
  19. Jay Noel says:
    May 27, 2015 at 8:44 AM

    You’re lucky you got unstuck. I’ve been stuck for months and months until I had my ah-ha moment.

    Way to go Holly! Awesome example of the blogging community coming to the rescue.

    Reply
  20. Julie Flanders says:
    May 27, 2015 at 9:37 AM

    Hooray!! Always great to read posts like this. πŸ™‚

    Reply
  21. Debi O'Neille says:
    May 29, 2015 at 11:28 AM

    I’m glad you got it all figured out. What a wonderful feeling that must be. I’m hoping for one of those moments myself soon. πŸ™‚
    Best,
    Deb

    Reply

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Welcome to my blog. I post here on Wednesdays most of the time, but you can find me on social media any day of the week. My topics include my stories and writing, life at the Town's End, creating and tinkering with graphics, things I learn and think might be helpful to others, and the occasional amateur photo. Thanks for stopping by! I hope to see you around.

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