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FFC #69 - The stories which won't leave

Posted March 13th, 2021 at 12:58 PM by TGRF
TGRF's Fan Fiction Chronicles - Entry #69

In the years I've been writing fan fiction, there have been a lot of ideas I've come up with for stories which - for one reason or another - don't make it. Those story ideas usually fade away as others take their place. But of all the stories I've come up with and failed to write, there are two (well really one) which refuse to go away. They keep nagging me, suggesting that there's more to them than I originally thought, and that they need to be written.

I wanted to share those two (one) story ideas with you, because for now, there's a good chance they will combine to give you the next fan fiction. And no, they won't spoil anything.

The first story was created back in 2017. I had finished aCoS earlier that year, and was casting about for any story which would stick. It would be nearly two years until HiS came around.

One such story I considered was originally the result of this post. TREX had the idea of writing a story which could translate into a scenario, allowing readers to then play along as the story unfolded. I liked the idea, and started looking for a story which would by its nature include lots of battles with varied armies and locations.

However, as tends to happen with my stories, the original goals got left behind as I delved head-first into the story. Any thought of scenarios vanished as I went through story iterations, and finally I had a premise which has lasted to this day (again, this won't spoil any future stories):

Einar, feeling the losses of the war and willing to go to any lengths to end it, has begun using his wellspring in a manner which he had until now avoided: channeling its energy into a beam of destruction, which he can summon anywhere on Valhalla. The beam is powerful enough to obliterate an entire city instantly. As no other Valkyrie knows how to summon such a weapon, Einar now threatens Utgar with it, saying that until he surrenders, his cities will be destroyed one by one. Utgar refuses.

In one such resulting destruction, the story begins as an elf, Nyri by name, finds a survivor. She takes this survivor back to where she lives so that she can heal him.

And this is, I believe, the part that I cannot forget: the characters. While the main story was about stopping Einar's swath of destruction, all of the characters had their own subplots.

Nyri is the daughter of elves who serve Utgar. Utgar summoned them for two reasons: firstly, they (like all elves) have magic which can alter life, and have devoted themselves to studying and creating powerful poisons and curses which Utgar can use. And secondly, they are related to Cormin (the C3V Cormin), and come highly recommended.

As their daughter, Nyri must choose whether she will refrain from the methods of her parents (and indeed Einar), or if she will use all the power she possesses to protect what she loves at any cost. Cormin plays a critical role, steadily moving her closer to the line she resists crossing.

Meanwhile, the survivor is no random soldier. He is the son of a random soldier, but this random soldier had the great fortune of (by some miracle) saving Sonya from death. Cyprien is since indebted to him, and on the soldier's deathbed, swore that he would look after his son as though he were his own. So naturally, when the survivor is found, a victim of Einar's new weapon, Cyprien feels obligated to stop Einar himself.

However, Cyprien is also conflicted, because protecting the survivor and fighting for him rather than himself are foreign motivators to him. While Sonya attempts to help him, there is an individual within Cyprien's castle who he believes is a spy, preventing him from trusting people as Sonya would have him do.

Meanwhile, Cormin and the supposed-spy are plotting unknown things together, leaving the reader completely in the dark on if Cormin is good or evil.

The final ingredient to the soup of subarcs is Runa, who (following her Mitonsoul ability) is chaotic and unpredictable. She too feels responsible for the survivor (I think she had a son who died but had befriended the survivor, and she vicariously sees her son in him), and is all for charging Einar's citadel outright. Due to her personality, she naturally goes about ruining plans and pushing people over the edge.

Everyone was connected somehow, everyone had their own private wars going on, no one was left out. And despite all the stories which have come and gone, the core elements of that story have stuck with me.

But what about the second story?

The second story isn't really a story. I get inspiration from all sorts of things, and this particular idea was really inspired by, and still comes down to, a single picture:

I'm always on the lookout for cool wallpapers I can put on my desktop, and this one gave me so many ideas for settings that I couldn't pass it up. It seems sci-fi at first - that's definitely a tank in the background - but then the guy's holding a sword. And look at his back. Is he... materializing out of shadow? And the sword is glowing with red?

And so the idea of Valhalla vampires was born. Wearing black armor, wielding weapons crackling with red energy, at one with the shadows themselves... unstoppable, unbeatable.

There was no story, but that idea just stuck. It wormed its way into nearly every story I came up with. I tried to write something with vampires several times, but every time, something kept the story from being completed.

-----

At the beginning of this (much longer than intended) FFC, I said a combination of these two ideas will probably lead to the next fan fiction. How is that going to work?

Vampires will have to be a key part. I've spent too much time theorizing and worldbuilding based on them. But the character relations and private agendas of the Nyri story are also something I can't forget, so something akin to that will have to be there also. And something about the initial premise of that story just sticks... I don't know what it is, but I sense there will be similarities in the fan fiction.

So where is this fan fiction? Currently still in my head. Yes, I have have an idea for how to write it at the moment, but I've had several previous ideas on how to do so off and on for a few months now, and they've always had problems. This one looks promising, but so did they. So as always, I can promise nothing.

This I can say: It is likely that there will be another fan fiction within a few months. It is likely it will contain vampires. If written, it will fully address the writing problems I have identified.

Beyond that, I cannot say.

Until then, keep writing, and let me know what you think of the Nyri-story, and if you have thoughts on the vampire picture.

~TGRF.
Posted in FFC
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TheAverageFan's Avatar
I think the Nyri story sounds really good, like a real complex web of characters with different motivations and end goals. That kind of story is interesting because it keeps the reader constantly guessing who is going to come out on top by the end. As far as successfully writing such a narrative I can only advise not to let your main character get lost in the mix.

~TAF, interest piqued
Posted March 13th, 2021 at 02:41 PM by TheAverageFan TheAverageFan is offline
Old
TGRF's Avatar
That's certainly one of the reasons the story never worked out. For some reason I developed a web of characters before anything else, so there almost was no main character. Worse, the main plot got instantly buried by all the subplots. Doomed to fail for those reasons, but definitely still a cool set up. I want to try to recreate a similar web in the next fan fiction.

~TGRF.
Posted March 13th, 2021 at 03:14 PM by TGRF TGRF is offline
 
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