orphic - ideas

Title: Orphic Date started: [TBA] Date finished: [TBA] Place: pdf file Premiere date: [TBA]

Word count: 1274 - prologue [the rest TBA] Chapters count: [TBA]

Year: 2015 Place: New York, NY, USA; Asgard

Canon: Thor; The Avengers; Thor: The Dark World

Every five-thousand years, an event called the Convergence would take place in Yggdrasil where the spatial boundaries between the Nine Realms gradually decrease until becoming almost non-existent. This would result in the formation of portals between the worlds.

Heimdall of Asgard watches over the Nine Realms and other regions of space. He mentions to Thor that from his post at his observatory he can see nine realms and ten trillion souls. This is the approximate number of inhabitants throughout the Nine Realms or in the region of space the Asgardians preside over.

Asgard

Population: Asgardians Rulers: Buri †; Bor Burison †; Odin Borson; Loki Laufeyson Description: -

Midgard

Population: Humans Rulers: leaders of different nations Description: Humans refer to it as "Earth".

Jotunheim

Population: Jotuns (Frost Giants) Rulers: Laufey † Description: The planet is seen to be deteriorating due to lack of ice magic that comes from the Casket of Ancient Winters, which is in possession of Asgard.

Svartalfheim

Population: Harundheeniksel (Dark Elves) Rulers: Malekith † Description: Asgardians refer to it as the "Dark World". Located in a star system that is almost completely corroded with dark matter. The only source of visible light is a black hole.

Vanaheim

Population: Vanir Rulers: [unknown] Description: -

Nidavellir

Population: Dwarves Rulers: Eitri Description: -

Niflheim

Population: [unknown] Rulers: Hela Odinsdottir Description: -

Muspelheim

Population: Fire Demons; Fire Dragons Rulers: Surtur Description: -

Alfheim

Embarrass your protagonist. Make them seem weak and vulnerable in some way.

Shoot someone. That always takes the reader by surprise.

In relation, kidnap someone. Or, rather, make it seem to your protagonist like someone has been kidnapped.

Have one of your side characters disappear or become unavailable for some reason. This will frustrate your protagonist.

Have someone kiss the wrong girl, boy, or a person, especially if you've been setting up a romance angle. It's annoying.

To understand the difference between a good adverb and a bad adverb, consider these two sentences: "She smiled happily" and "She smiled sadly." Which one works best? The first seems weak because "smiled" contains the meaning of "happily." On the other hand, "sadly" changes the meaning.

Remember the song "Killing Me Softly"? Good adverb. How about "Killing Me Fiercely"? Bad adverb.

One for sorrow Two for mirth Three for a wedding Four for a birth Five for silver Six for gold Sever for a secret never to be told

list each main character's greatest fears and make it happen

move your ending to the middle - have the protagonists fail, then what happens?

bullet point the relationship development you have already - does it feel complete? maybe you need to add a scene of bonding, or maybe the character your protagonist distrusts needs to save them to gain favour

kill someone

ask the question: "what could go wrong? and write exactly how it goes wrong

switch the pov from current character to another - a minor character, the antagonist, anyone

stop writing whatever scene you're struggling with and skip to the next one you want to write

write the ending

use a scene prompt

use sentence starters

read someone else's writing

I have a problem when writing physical movement. It paints a clear picture, but not a very colourful description as to what they are currently doing. Usually it's something like "he stood from the chair and walked across the floor to the window". I constantly try to reword it but it always seems bland. Is this a normal description to movement, or can I improve and how?

Bland descriptions of bland moments are normal and necessary. The only thing you might grit your teeth over is not being basic enough.

He stood from the chair and walked across the floor to the window.

Too wordy for such a simple action. Make it even simpler, like so,

He stood and walked to the window.

Same action, same understanding, saves the reader's time. Also saves the hard creative thinking for the more captivating parts of your story.

If you have a gut feeling it should be more impactful than that, you add a little emotion into it.

He stood and stalked to the window.

He got up and trudged to the window.

He rose and hurried to the window.

It's the same short, basic sentence just with a little more storytelling involved. Still, both dry sentences and emotional sentences are needed in the same book. Too much of either and you end up with a court testimony or a soap opera.

1. Villains are clever and cerebral

Villains are the engines that drive suspense. They should be architects of the novel's inciting event and follow-up plot twists. They are insightful and clever. They excel at identifying their adversary's weaknesses and finding ways to exploit them.

2. Villains ensnare

Villains are devious. They should always be plotting and planning ways to catch the hero by surprise and make the hero suffer. If your villain is not laying "traps" and plotting pitfalls, then he/she is not doing their job.

3. Villains bring the rain

In other words, when things are going bad for your hero, a real villain doesn't let up. Villains kick heroes when they're down. They throw grease on grease fires. They show no mercy. They have no empathy.

4. Villains backstab

Villains can never be trusted. Most people are trusting by nature and authors should leverage this when plotting. Villains exploit the trust of others to gain advantage and always look for opportunities to backstab both their adversaries and allies.

5. Villains eschew law and order

Villains are driven by self-interest and do not believe that society's laws apply to them. They behave in ways that are either immoral or amoral. Villains lie, cheat, steal, smear, blackmail, and malign. They don't play by the rules because rules are for suckers.

6. Villains are sadistic

No way to sugar coat this one, villains are sadists. They take pleasure in the suffering of others. This suffering can be psychical, emotional, spiritual, psychological or, preferably a combination thereof.

7. Villains are willing to burn it all down

Heat exhaustion symptoms: confusion, dizziness, fainting, fatigue, headache, muscle cramps, pale skin, sweating, sunken eyes from dehydration. Do I need to remind you what he looked like during this scene [first scene in The Avengers]? He’s sweaty, his blood circulation isn’t working due to vasoconstriction (look at how pale his lips are) and he’s god dark, sunken-in eyes. Now we’ve got a point in which he trips and almost falls for some inexplicable reason. Well, let me ask…

How do you torture a Frost Giant?