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I'm in a semi-snarky mood right now, although I am dead serious about this concept.  Just advanced warning.

Okay, so something interesting happened one night when I was asleep.  Yes, it's a dream, and I know it was a dream because in this dream I was a singer (ha!) and I had a band (ha!) and we were successful (ha!) and I ended up richer than rich (the lols are killing me, seriously).  Anyway, in this dream me and the band were kicking over the last song for our CD and we decided on this one song, untitled at the moment.  So then I said, "It's about me and this guy.  I hate him, like so much I quite literally puke every time I see him.  Well, he didn't get the memo because he asked me to marry him."  Then one of the girls in the band said, "So maybe you should call it something like I Hate You So Much I Puke."  Then I said, "Yeah, no."  Finally we reworked the song and called it Prison or a Promise, because that related way too perfectly to the wedding aspect.  Dream over after that point (although later I have continuing segments, so...interesting, definitely).

So, Jess, what's that have to do with writing?  Well, I love the title Prison or a Promise  but it's obviously not going to be a song (I am painfully bad at singing, so there's that little issue).  Then I thought, hey, what if I used it as a chapter title?  And then I thought a lot more about it and thought, I know exactly how it fits in.  And now for the outline so I don't forget.

This is the third novel in my Slayer trilogy, so Callix Ruelo is a grown woman (anywhere from twenty five to thirty) and the only ranked female slayer (but she's dedicated to helping teenage girls develop their slaying so she's not so alone in that world).  The important thing that happens in this third novel is two men (of sorts, and I'll mention why later...for now, keep in mind that they are men in age only) propose to Callix (who is of course a slayer and would slay them if she could).  The thing is, one man (Toriaun, who is the man in age only; he's immature, can't make decisions for himself worth anything, relies on his mother to defend him, and so on) she absolutely, one million percent loathes.  At one point she thought maybe they'd have a future if he stopped keeping demons for torture purposes (having been tortured by her father from age 0 to 10, she knows it's not fun) and he's her age (okay, two years older, but close enough) and there are so many reasons she could use him (he's rich, he has influence, he's powerful, and so on).  However, being around him even in the name of business (she slays his problem demons, essentially) makes her want to puke (see a pattern here?).  Therefore, his marriage proposal (the promise), while solid, could trap her in something she doesn't want (the prison).  See how awkwardly I tied that in?  Well, the plan is to make it flow more smoothly when I write it.

By the way, the other man is Marius So-and-So (that is not actually his last name, I just don't have one for him right now) and he's a special problem of his own.  He's a serial killer, he makes sacrifices that hurt everyone around him including himself and he never realizes it, and basically he's like Callix's father.  On the count of three, let's all say "Ewwwww!"    
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Well, I have come to the conclusion that my Callix trilogy is never going to work in any form it's currently in.  She (Callix) really wants her story to be told and yeah, I want to do that, but it's just never happened.  So then today I thought, "Maybe it's not working because it's not her story."  I've been trying to force all the things I want to happen in all my previous drafts and such and it seems like just when I'm on a roll, I get trapped and don't know where to go.  Well, that's because it's not coming naturally to me.  All this senseless babbling leads me to a very important point, and that is the new outline for the trilogy.  As of right now, it is unnamed other than Callix Trilogy and none of the novels have titles.  This should come to me eventually, if this is really the direction I need to take.  And now, the outline for the three books.

Book Number One
Callix and her parents (not sure who they are) are going on yet another demon hunting trip.  Callix ( a preteen/young teenager) is all "Oh my god, my parents are such losers!" because nobody else's parents go demon hunting.  They happen to go ghost hunting, which is a lot less dangerous and kind of awesome.  And that logic is totally backwards, but that's the way things work.  So Callix is sitting in the car while her parents are all "Yay demon hunting!" at an abandoned house that looks exactly like the type of place you'd find a demon.  Boring stuff happens, so we flashfoward to maybe the third chapter.  Callix finished exploring around the house and thinks something demonic is happening right that moment, but there are no signs of anything alive.  The demon hunting trip is deemed an absolutely failure and Callix's parents are ready to leave.  As they're pulling out the driveway, Callix sees an unusual looking girl walk out of the house and sit on the porch.  This is Jillian (a demon of sorts who becomes important in some way in another novel).  End of introduction.  The rest of the novel is one evening Callix is attacked by a demonic shadow and a winged humanesque demon named Eriko (anyone who has followed my journal knows a little about him) rescues her.  He explains that she should not have been exploring near that house and that really kicked off things to come.  He also tells her you don't come to demons, they come to you, and very few people are lucky/unlucky in that way.  Because there is a barrage of demons waiting for Callix (some she sees, some she knows are around but that's it) Eriko suggests she visit the Simballa marketplace/business district (yes, the worlds are the exact same) on a certain date.  No other information follows.  Skip to why it's significant.  A man named Tatius Salzana (has been mentioned in context of anolder draft outline) is recruiting boys for a demon hunting/slaying/exorcism school and he happens to be in the marketplace that day.  Long story short, Callix follows him back to the school and becomes a student.  The rest of the book involves her training and creatures previously mentioned (Snip Snips and kadiups) reveal themselves and the end of the book has something to do with Callix and Jillian (of course, the very lousy author has no idea what it is).

Book Number Two
This book opens with Callix (eighteen, same body) in Toriaun Salzana's vacation house.  Other things happen at the same time concerning buddies she made, but that is glossed over in favor of more details on her and what she's looking at.  A lot of this stuff is what happened in an older draft.  Toriaun has a bunch of demons who are basically prisoners/there for him to torture.  Callix and her amazing picking-up-on-vibes ability know something is wrong (even though they are demons and that is the one thing she's againts, she doesn't like what she feels when she's around them).  Finally Toriaun comes clean and Callix leaves him.  Years pass (because the author said so) and Callix is now a twenty-five year old only ranked female slayer.  She is also a go-between for the demon realm and the human realm (and you can blame the kadiup who is still in her mind for that) which is contradictory with her slaying.  On one of her visits to the demon realm, she is randomly attacked by a demon who forgot/doesn't know she's protected.  She tells her demon boss she quits, which puts him in a rage and bad things happen to a bunch of people.  The end of the novel is dealing with the results of whatever he did.   

Book Number Three
After all the mental rebuilding is completed, certain worlds are ready to fight the demons for what happened.  Bare in mind, whatever Astrixto (Callix's former boss/demon king) did affected every human world and they're justified.  But not entirely intelligent.  You can't expect to fight the demons and win.  It just doesn't work out.  That leads to conflict within worlds and between worlds, because if you're going to go to war you need a leader.  Most worlds scrapped monarchies and such in the last twenty years.  Now it's a matter of who's going to lead, even if just temporary.  Lots of boringness ensues.  Long story short, Callix is selected as a leader and preparations begin.  In the first and second books, there is a slight romantic subplot (I promise it is significant) between Callix and Toriaun Salzana (okay, it's one-sided where Toriaun wants Callix and Callix can't reciprocate).  In this book, the romantic subplot concludes with Callix telling Toriaun to shove it.  Although he is a fantabulous demon torturer and they are both so abusive to each other they balance each other out (which means it's an equally negative relationship and that seems to work for them) and Toriaun isn't bad to look at, he is just like the demon king she's training to fight against.  More on this story later when I feel less distracted.
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Well, I've been all over the board with my novel (anywhere from DELETE IT ALL! to okay, there's one paragraph that just isn't working, I need to change it to ugh, I don't even want to see this thing to wow, this is awesome! and everything in between).  The new inspiration came from a dream, where I saw the first book's final title as well as the completed first chapter.  It was also a mass market book in bookstores, which was super duper awesome, but one of the least important details.  I'm going to write this novel based on my outline as well as what I saw in the dream, and the first step is to list the three novel titles.

First book: Slayer's Playground (where Callix has first exposure to the world of slaying and nothing is too serious)

Second book:  Slayer's Paradise (where Callix has a new life and slays, slays, slays)

Third book: Slayer's Battlefield (where Callix becomes a villain, makes some tough decisions, and faces death during the Ultimate Battle Between Good and Evil)

This way, I can free up titles like "Victim Hero" and "Downward Spiral" for related chapter titles.
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Title: Downward Spiral

Main Characters: Callix Ruelo (new life, so she's now a princess and is partially owned by demon king Astrixto because of a sacrifice her mother made) and Feryn Ruelo/*He has another name as well, but this isn't developed yet so I'm not sure what it is (isn't anyone in particular, lived with a group of ultra-poor desert folks before being called to the castle, is considered The Chosen One and chooses to go through training for it, ends up dead)

Beginning: Callix (Callixta) Ruelo wakes up one morning, remembering it's the first day she's meeting brothers Christien and Bricio (There they are!) and Feryn.  Lots of details of the first day and how it doesn't work well for anyone.  Feryn nearly kills Callix in the garden, and only failed because Callix fought him off.  In a month when everyone settles into a routine, Feryn becomes a major player as well as The Chosen One (both are related).  Callix's father forces all her brothers to join his military and tells Callix "ABSOLUTELY NOT!  YOU ARE A GIRL!" in all caps just as written.  Long story short, traumatic things happen to Callix and her father ships everyone to a government defender/slayer/leasher/weapons boarding school.

Middle: No mention of Toriaun until this point.  Right now, he's a "grown man" and is off doing some stuff with his mother, Marria.  None of that is important, however.  It is important to mention that Tatius (Toriaun's father) was so successful with his previous slayer/leasher school venture, he opens a bunch more in Escalli, Simballa, and Desean (desert world).  The school Callix and her brothers are going to is his, and Callix meets him again.  She doesn't recognize him, he doesn't recognize her, and the only thing familiar to him is her name.  This is semi important because he throws a bunch of difficult tasks at her, and Callix (of course) succeeds.  Callix and Feryn (who were thought to be related, but turns out there was a baby mix-up at the one Simballa hospital that is very behind on technology and does that all the time) shack up.  Keep in mind that these are two of the toughest people on Simballa and it's an abusive relationship, which makes it more and less creepy at the same time.

End:  Throughout the novel, there are mentions of three demons: Eriko, Raiden, and Vasilic.  Eriko and Raiden are upper-level demons that their boss, Astrixto, trusts almost unconditionally (except that they must always perform well or he'd kill them).  Vasilic is incompetent and unthreatening and the only way he gets anywhere with Astrixto is by sucking up.  One day, Vasilic makes a deal with a rabbit demon.  He was searching for a Snip Snip, but he was so incompetent/bad with directions that didn't pan out.  She'll get rid of Callix (who is Super Duper Amazing) in exchange for first choice of Callix's body.  Vasilic agrees and then backs out when he realizes rabbit demons can't be trusted and once they taste blood, they'll go on a killing spree.  The rabbit demon goes on a killing spree anyway and half the school's population is wiped out.  The school is on guard now, but is not prepared for shadow people who saw what the rabbit demons did and thought "Hey, we should do it too."  The shadow people destroy another half of the school population, including Feryn.  Callix realizes something important:  These creatures aren't going crazy just because they can; someone is putting them up to it.  Vasilic, of course, set off the rabbit demons.  At the end of the novel, she discovers Toriaun and Tarquel (two men from the previous novel) have nothing to do with the shadow people EXCEPT the man who does gives them a few bucks for every kill (which leads to some problems in the third novel).  Also, her discovery leads her into dangerous territory, where she tangles with *possibly that man, possibly someone else, it isn't clear because the person's face is well covered* and dies.

Problem with the ending:  The biggest concern I have with this novel is the ending.  I'd really love the shadow people to wipe everyone out.  The initial version involved demons wiping everyone out and nearly killing Simballa, turning it into a demon world above ground.  There was a section where Callix learned the last purge resulted in certain people building an underground world, or so the story went.  Turns out, that is true and is important to the third novel.  Or, it was.  See, I'm not sure how to end this novel.  I don't want to do anything that might seem like "Oh my god, she's following everyone else's lead!"  I want things to be a bit more my own.  There were other problems with the initial version, as well.  Callix is tough, can handle herself well, isn't afraid to ask for help but prefers to do things by herself at first.  The thing that sets the demons off would suggest her toughness is just an act, and I absolutely do not want that.

How I'll Fix That:  Okay, I'm not sure this is absolutely the ending, but here it goes anyway.  Callix finds out about Toriaun and Tarquel profiting from kills and researches that.  When the man who pays them finds out about Callix, he summons either Eriko or Raiden (it doesn't matter which one).  The demon begins stalking Callix to make sure she's not plotting against the man in any way.  When they find out she is but she isn't (well, there's no "plotting" involved) they alert the man as well as other demons.  One demon (maybe Vasilic, since he's the one who hates Callix most of all) takes that as the go ahead to kill Callix.  Eriko, formerly Callix's guardian as well as instructor, saves Callix from an unpleasant death.  In exchange, he gets to claim her.  Which is essentially possessing her.  When Callix rejects that idea after he rescued her, he decides someone needs to get rid of her after all.  There is a mass purge on Simballa and Callix dies.    
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Title: Victim Hero (which is the original title and has been changed from that to Borrowed Life and back again.)

Main Character: Callix Ruelo (changed from Caprice Ruelo, although Caprice Ruelo is used as a psuedonyme...and I apologize for butchering the spelling of that word)

Beginning: Callix Ruelo has an unusual life, and there's detail on what that means.  Death, demons, and a serial killer father, for those folks interested in specifics.  We learn that Callix looks like a horror movie dead girl and her appearance is so scary she frightens the demons who drop by to see her.  We learn that she is abused and should've died, except said demons are keeping her alive (as well as turning her into a sometimes cannibal).  We meet Eriko (demon who is an instructor at a demon slayer school, and yes the irony is intentional, and who commits to guarding Callix even though it is a bad idea/illegal) and Simmons (spirit guide who created Callix's body and cares about her, although he has his own agenda).  There is details of Callix getting cleaned up for the first time ever, and how it's a dramatic difference.  There is talk of the slayer school, and Eriko suggests maybe she goes to that.  Throughout the beginning, Marcell Ruelo (Callix's father) talks about buying his own circus and building an ultimate death machine and becoming the greatest serial killer in the world.

Middle: More talk of ultimate death machines and circuses.  Callix is torn between Eriko and Simmons and what they both want from her (in short, the two disagree with each other and take it out on her).  Callix has a run-in with a demonic shadow and Eriko swoops in, saves her, and begins teaching Callix about demon slaying.  Astrixto (demon king and Eriko's ultimate boss) visits Callix and makes her an offer to join him in the demon realm, which she rejects because "It's scary!"  Note that in this novel, Callix is never what you'd consider tough, although she survives ridiculous amounts of pain and towards the end, stands up for herself.

End: Callix, a slayer-in-training, returns to Marcell Ruelo's house because she feels like she needs to finish something.  Marcell Ruelo introduces her to creepy new wife Melissa (a clown) and his ultimate death machine (a funnel slide that has three blades at the end, which raise from a flap and chosp you up unless he decides against it).  Callix notices ultimate death machine is bad quality and will break the first time anyone uses it.  Callix uses it, dies, and Simmons takes her back to the spirit realm to work on her reincarnation.

Things to Keep in Mind: 

Callix is no older than sixteen by the end of the novel.

Callix is friends with these people: Garret, Jin, Zoello for boys and Karielle, Delivia, Debora, Ellia for girls.

Callix is in competition with these people: Tarquel, Anquil (although it's relatively friendly), possibly  Christien and Bricio if they still exist

There is mention of a girl named Henrie, but Henrie is more of a possibility rather than someone that exists.  Henrie does exist in books two and three, which are set one thousand plsu years later when Callix reincarnates, some of these other characters are dead or have their own children who are her age, and Callix's relationships with everyone from book one change.  So, there is that major thing to keep in mind.

There is a Briella and a Toriaun, and there is relationship drama because Callix wants Toriaun for herself.  In this version of the novel, Callix is a bit more interested in guys, but not much.  At the end of the day, the only thing she can be is Toriaun's buddy.  This leads to books two and three, when Toriaun is much, much older (keep in mind, he is a semi immortal and much, much older still puts him at about age thirty in human years) and falls for Callix in a different body.  Things get weird because he has an adoptive parent relationship with Callix, who was spirited away from her human mother the day she was born, before any other type of relationship.  That, however, is a more appropriate outline for books two and three.  In short, there is a love triangle of sorts and is it convoluted!

Karielle is a human/robot hybrid and it makes perfect sense in context.  Later, Tarquel becomes a hybrid as well.

Zoello is the first cambion Callix meets, and looks very much the way she looks in books two and three.  This is more a note to self because I have no idea what that is right now.

The creature villains of this novel are most definitely Snip Snips, but I'm torn between demonic rabbits, which was in the original draft.  This is something I'll have to work in.

The primary world for this novel is Escalli (water/forest world) but Simballa (desert world) is mentioned frequently, as are Baltian and Antareas (water worlds).


            
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I am getting so tired of all my noveling coming to absolutely nothing.  To put another way, if I printed every version of this novel out, at this point I'd burn all the pages of each version in a ridiculously large bonfire.  I am just that sick of things not working! 

Well, today I realized what's been going wrong.  I'm not writing the story that wants to be told.  I'm trying to force an old version and a new version into a merged version where okay, I like bits and pieces of what I'm writing BUT they just don't blend.  I think I need to do a total rewrite using ideas (but no copying and pasting from work I already have) from the novel Victim Hero as well as the novel Borrowed Life

I'm not sure whether to set this novel in a fantasy human realm or a fantasy death realm, and there is a major difference as to how those stories would work.  On a fantasy human realm, the concept of death is perfectly believable (the female lead, no matter which variation, is a slayer) but death after death is a weird concept and human characters have little interaction with death creatures.  On a fantasy death world, death after death is a weird concept but exists on a daily basis and death creatures interact with other death creatures.  The problem is, slaying would work much differently.  How, for example, would an already-dead creature/person die?  Right now, the idea is that yes they can die and yes there is blood, but it's a much cleaner death and blood is more solid than liquid.  I'm thinking regeneration happens frequently, but that would make it seem like Caprice (female lead) accomplishes absolutely nothing if the thing she kills pops back up.  I do think it would be more fun writing how a death world works, however.  Then again, this completely destroys a lot of needed concepts.  For example, Caprice becomes a cambion (thanks to human Dakada and demon Zenaro) sometime in a life.  In order for that to happen, someone must be able to give birth to her.  If everyone is dead, I'd think their reproductive systems wouldn't function period or normally.  Maybe I could mesh my two ideas (for example, the majority of my characters are human living on a human realm, but death creatures cross over).

I'm also debating about the time period I set my novel in.  I want to start out in 1990 (the year I was born, interestingly enough) and end with the novel being super duper futuristic, but there are some problems with that.  The biggest is that in the second novel, royalty plays a huge role.  That would mean in this novel, royalty is more than figureheads.  Okay, fair enough, but in the true 1990 I'm pretty sure most royalty wasn't all that important in the roles they were involved with.  That's what fiction's for, I guess, but it'll mean a lot of research and/or writing everything the way I want and then in ten years when this is published, hearing from readers "But that's not how it works!"  I'll have to work out my time period issues later, I think, because while it's important to the novel, it'd going to slow me down if I don't just write.

There's a million other things bothering me about this idea, but I need something to keep me busy until the day I a) go to school or b)get a REAL job .  Today, my goal is to get the first chapter mostly written.  I think a good goal would be to start it out at ten pages, which I think I could do.  
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Well, I have some fantabulous non-novel related news!  I pulled it together and applied for college!  I have no idea if I'll get accepted, but they seem to take everyone so...let's just say if I'm rejected, I'll be super duper sad.  So, there's that.

Now on with the outlining.  Downward Spiral (please ignore the bad html work; my laptop froze on me right here) is the second novel in my currently-unpublished Caprice Ruelo trilogy and I honestly believe I can write it.  These are some names and notes I've written specifically for this novel, and I'd love to throw away the napkin I wrote them on, so here we go.

Names and Significance
Dakada: Caprice Ruelo/Caprice Dakaetri's biological mother.  Succubus and founder of an unnamed race of people.  Former buddy of Marria Salzana, evil queen of Escalli and two other planets (currently not sure which ones they are, but probably one is Baltian).  Formerly married to Zenaro (demon), currently living with Kaetrini (Caprice's "aunt", big, long, boring background history).  In and out of sanity for this entire novel.

Kaetrini:  Caprice Ruelo's "aunt"/stepmother if the rules of Escalli weren't so traditional.  Demon.  Slayer.  Quick to anger, even if you're Caprice/other family, so watch out.  Hates Marria, has an evening job that involves unraveling her rule.  Is always armed with some sort of weapon (will come up with what her favorite is).

Note: Caprice Ruelo is Caprice Ruelo from Zenaro Ruelo (in that lifetime, as well as Caprice Ruelo from Marcell Ruelo in a previous lifetime) and Caprice Dakaetri from a blended name of her biological and step mothers.  This is important later on.

Sansone: Caprice's human father.  Note that Caprice, as a cambion, has four parents.  Not particularly signifcant, other than a brief conversation with Caprice at a birthday/costume ball.

Nikolina: Caprice's human mother.  Snobby, had to be paid off to give birth to Caprice.  Gets eaten by a Snip Snip, and the world is so much better for it.

Eriko: Demon.  Met Caprice Ruelo in her borrowed life.  Is the entity that almost tempts Caprice to the side of evil just because he can.  Black hair with blonde streaks.  Torn black wings.  Dresses in tight clothes.  Nearly kills Caprice at a school she went to for a few years (haven't come up with how, but it was a close call).

Raiden:  Demon.  Somehow tied to Caprice.

Vasilic:  Demon.  Somehow tied to Caprice.  Is incompetent, which will eventually be a plot point.                    

Janique: Beautiful human Caprice meets at a school.  Wears a lot of ice blue.  Janique is one of the few white/blonde characters, which makes perfect sense in context (based on where she lives) and is one way I think this novel will be different from a lot of novels in the genre I'm writing in.  I'm split on this next part.  Janique is either sugar and spice, mostly sugar, and internally hates Caprice but acts all nice to her...or Janique tries to kill Caprice and acts all nice to everyone else so they don't believe she's so horrible.  Either way will come to the same conclusion.

Avianca:  Interesting story behind this character.  Avianca used to be Caprice's slayer name, but in light of Caprice not acting or sounding like an Avianca, the name was freed up.  The new Avianca is the old Valetta.  Okay, so the confusing parts are out of the way.  Now then.  *Takes a deep breath*  Avianca is super duper beautiful.  Like, model beautiful but everything is completely natural.  She knows she's super duper beautiful and is a big snob because of it.  She's also rich, so even more big snobbery going on.  A lot of people dislike/loathe/want to kill her for being horrible without any pay off, so there's that.  There's a lot more concerning her, but, well, it's convoluted and not well planned out yet, but because these are notes to myself as well as everyone else, I'll eventually get around to talking about it.

Overview of Downward Spiral
This novel follows Caprice from birth to age sixteen, when she leaves an absolutely wrecky school situation.  Last scene is of Caprice sitting on a hilly...hill, being moody and reflective and panicking over where she's going to end up.  being strong and independent can only take you so far.  Before any of that garbage, Caprice is shuffled from Nikolina's mansion to Toriaun's vacation home to a run-down house owned by the worst women in the world to the wrecky school/good school (they happen at the same time, especially towards the end of the novel).  In the process of all these dramatics, Caprice is thrust into the position of slayer/leasher by an improbably entity (either Excellon, the demon king in the dream world or Charillo, a merman (basically) that took residence in her head a thousand good years ago and wants in again).  She's no more than twelve when this happens, but she's no younger than when she started in the first novel.  Because she's already slayed and leashed, it comes more natural to her.  So, instead of origin scenes, we see Caprice slaying and leashing and all that good stuff.  Meanwhile, the evil queen Marria is power hungry and does a bunch of nasty things in the name of getting more power, which is problematic because she already rules a bunch of things and everyone's already terrified of her.  So there are scenes of her and what she does.  In order to develop her character, as well as a big bombshell for the third novel, Marria is obsessed with a woman named Dakada (Caprice's mother).  Other than the name Dakada mentioned often (and that I already spoiled Dakada being friends with Marria a long long long long long time ago...oops) there's no good indication of what the relationship is.  Also, we re-meet Toriaun, who is a much older character now and is obsessed over the Caprice Ruelo from the first novel.  He meets new Caprice Ruelo and things go downhill from there.  Hence the name Downward Spiral.  A lot of other things happen (maybe) and I'll be working that out as I go.     
 


future_guardian: Evil fairy in black and white (Default)

Well, I have been making progress on this chapter in Borrowed Life

So, I'm writing this particular chapter, called "Caprice Gets Wet" which I swear is nothing dirty.  Female lead Caprice, a slayer-in-training, encounters all sorts of demonic sea creatures, hence the "wet" aspect.  I'm specifically at the part where Caprice has just met a giant octopus (who insists that everyone call him Valero, his name) and her slayer instructor freaks out.  Because apparently, giant octopi can't be slayed.  They can, however, be leashed.  So he says "Hey Caprice, we're changing out format from slaying to leashing.  Isn't that exciting?"  Caprice rages because this is not what she signed up for.  Things happen (sorry, it's a boring part).  Then we see how a friend of Caprice reacts to the news.  Hint: he burns the school down.

Now for the thoughts, because these are new.

1. I want to add a bit more detail to Caprice's experience with the giant octopus.  He wouldn't be a problem unless her slaying instructor knows their past history (one million or so years previous to this, a younger Valero tortured skeleton entity Caprice).  Right now I have the bare bones (which I'm happy with) but I want to tell an actual story.  So, here's what I'm thinking: The instructor, who threatened everyone with leashing instead of slaying, isn't entirely sure it's the right decision.  So he gets a segment devoted to investigation of Valero, and learning from the source (Valero) that a version of Caprice was once his prisoner.  There will be some detail of what Caprice went through, as well as the instructor making a threat to Valero (like "Leave my student alone or I'll slay you myself!" even while he knows you can't slay a giant octopus).

2.  Caprice has a dream sequence about the school being burned down.  Instead of the demonic creature in her dream being a random character I threw together just for that, I should change him to a demonic version of the guy burning the school. 

3.  I need to name these three armed pointy starfish things that come in later (besides my "three armed pointy starfish things" name I currently have).  It's great for word count (this was initially a NaNo novel) but now I'm writing it for eventual publication.  So, a name is needed.
future_guardian: Evil fairy in black and white (Default)
Mostly this is a note to self post, but I'm more than willing to share.  And hey, if anyone's writing a novel and want to take some ideas from the old version, help yourself.

So, the old version is this: Caprice (female lead) has discovered lust/love at eighteen.  Turns out, her spirit guide has been manipulating her body which also manipulates her mind, and she's not really feeling those things.  Whether it's real or not, she acts on that by moving in with a guy she "loathes".  All the while she's suspicious of him (this guy, Toriaun, has a whole family of essentially serial killers), but who's she to question him and find out for sure?  Things don't pan out and she once again becomes a free woman.  At age twenty-one, she reunites with him over her job (which is specifically demon-slaying, where he is a demon owner).  Once again, she moves in with him.  Because her thoughts and body isn't entirely her own, more lust/love ensues.

The new version will explain things better as well as hopefully tell a good piece of the story.  Caprice used to be a skeleton spirit (basically, a "living" "breathing" self functioning entity) on the spirit realm, but she wanted a human body and being sent down to the human realm.  In order for that to happen, her self-appointed spirit guide had to devote all his time to controlling her human body.  Because the life she's living is very temporary, as Caprice is beat over the head with.  All that is explained in earlier pieces of the novel.  The new information is that up to age eighteen, Caprice's body switched genders every five hours or so.  She never got used to it and wanted a set gender.  Her spirit guide was able to make that happen, but in doing so, it changed her personality in major ways.  The old version of discovering lust/love comes into play here.  We go back to the new version, where Caprice has much better control of herself.  She can lust and love, but when she's suspicious of Toriaun, she's more than willing to investigate.  Yep, she was right to be suspicious.  While they're an ideal couple in Toriaun's head and Caprice sometimes wonders what would've happened if Toriaun wasn't a crazy serial killer like the rest of his family, their real-life relationship goes nowhere.  Then the meeting him again at age twenty-one does happen and it ends with him thinking she's too tied to her job (demon slaying/leashing) and her thinking he's a total waste of flesh.  Demon-based issues come up (to be honest, I haven't thought out the new version for what they are), and the chapter ends with Caprice moving into the demon realm.

Basically, I'm getting the story back to its original concept.  There is eventually a relationship of sorts between Caprice and Toriaun (it's creepy) and other characters have genuine romantic relationships, but this trilogy is not supposed to be a romance.  It's also not going to be horror fantasy (assuming that's a real thing) and that's unfortunate, but you have to make sacrifices and go with it.  Genre woes aside, when I initially came up with the idea, it deeply involved supernatural creatures and all that slaying/leashing was kind of essential (as opposed to, it sounds cool, it makes Caprice appear tough when she isn't, the usual stuff you'd find in some fantasy subgenres).  If I use this particular journal as a guide, I think I can make this a decently usable first draft.       
  
future_guardian: Evil fairy in black and white (Default)


Well, I have made a difficult decision concerning my Dream Trilogy novel.  Actually, once I got over the initial "Grrrrr" of starting over, it was the easiest decision I've ever made.  I have decided to combine my Dream Trilogy with my Leasher Trilogy.

Here's what I'm keeping from my Dream Trilogy:
-Callix Ruelo is the main character.
-Callix Ruelo is a cambion.
-Callix Ruelo is a quirky looking cambion.
-Callix Ruelo meets a man named Marius.
-Callix Ruelo is royalty of sorts off and on.
-Callix Ruelo has friends named Fiona, Jelena, and Desiree.
-Callix is a regenerative spirit.

Here's what I'm using from the worldbuilding for the Leasher Trilogy:
-Callix Dakatri is the main character.
-Callix uses the name Caprice Ruelo for slayer/leasher business.
-Callix Dakatri begins life as a demonic skeleton and is born as a cambion.
-Instead of developing independent thoughts and feelings at the age she died, Callix the cambion gets normal functions at age seven.
-Callix is illegal royalty, which causes problems with neighboring countries (but not so much her own).
-Callix also has friends named Laura, Axle, Jennifer, Zamantha, Jordana, Sadie...and so on.
-Callix starts her borrowed life genderless (in context it makes slightly more sense) and develops somewhat more feminine characteristics as she gets an official body.
-Callix's job as a supernatural creature leasher is more important than her job as a slayer.
-Callix eventually does get married (not necessarily by choice) to a man named Toriaun.
-The second novel, Downward Spiral, talks a lot about Callix's school years.
-Callix has two offspring (literally spawn because of her half demon background), tentatively named Divinity (thirteen) and Karma (three), and both girls are important to the third novel, Shades of Villainy.

The novel titles are as follows:
-Borrowed Life
-Downward Spiral
-Shades of Villainy

More information to come as other ideas are deleted or merged.

future_guardian: Evil fairy in black and white (Default)
All important outline points on my previous writing outline have been worked in.  That was eleven pages of editing and I'm satisfied to a point. 


-A Night to Remember-
1. Callix Ruelo is at the costume ball she was not invited to, and she makes short observations on how everything's perfect.
2. Then she realizes there is way too much tension for it to really be a perfect evening.  She gets the feeling that Queen Esseme is going to snap and kill someone and Teyva (her former best friend's best friend, also a girl who hates her, makes her life miserable, etc.) is around the castle when death world rules usually dictate everyone killed together ends up on separate death worlds.
3. Teyva shows up and the evening goes quickly down the toilet, so to speak.
future_guardian: Evil fairy in black and white (Default)

Today is a hardcore editing day for me.  Basically, I already cut 40 pages out of my 80 page novel (uh, beginning of a novel) Shades of Villainy  and I'm ready to cut, cut, cut some more.  But it's not a true cut, because I have most of the words I want.  They're just in the very wrong place.  This is what I'm thinking of working on today:

-A Night to Remember-
1. Main character Callix Ruelo wants so badly to kill someone.  We don't know why other than that it's her nature/personality.
2.  Callix Ruelo usually calms down after thinking about her father and what would happen when he feels like she feels.  Except that night.
3.  Callix Ruelo randomly strips down and looks at herself in her vanity mirror.
4.  This is the third novel in a trilogy, so we already know what she looks like and that she's a cambion (half human-half demon hybrid thing).  Now we get an infodump on cambions in general.
5.  Then it gets Callix Ruelo specific.  We find out that she killed her best friend and her best friend's best friend in a semi-intentional car crash.
6.  Callix Ruelo wants to kill someone because her best friend (who is on the same death world as Callix) won't talk to her and gets strangely upset when Callix makes the first attempt.
7.  The point of the chapter is that finally after ignoring her, Callix's best friend grudgingly invites her to a costume ball at their new housing (a castle).

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