Ramblings of a Samurai and his Duct Tape

Results of first goal

Today is the check in for my first post class word goal.





And the stated goal is a failure. Sure there's still several hours left in the day, but I'm not going to write towards the story, or at least not enough that I could make 8k words.





However, secondary objectives have been realized.


First off, I've decided that I'm going to work on my Champions of the Astral planes story, and when I get sufficiently far in that take one of the subplots and rewrite that so it can be a stand alone short story. The long term goal is to have a finished novel, and that's on track, if a little behind schedule. That's okay though, as I expect it to take me a while to get up to speed on it





I've also discovered the biggest impediment to continuing that story, and have made some progress on defeating it. The Dream World/Astral Realm. At least 50% of the novel, perhaps far more, is going to be located there. And I've figured out very little of it. Sure I know some characters and demons that will be populating it, but where do they live/lair in there? What is the general geography? What kinds of places would even form in this realm?





Floating islands, and below those a nearly endless forest. Well, I had the forest thing earlier, but I had nothing around it. I knew there would be some kind of tower/fortress/whatever that would be the seat of power for the Guardians of the Astral Realm, but I had no idea what that would be. There's also gotta be a fortress of some sort for the powerful demons. The answer is floating islands.





Not just any floating islands, but Floating islands that are chained to the forest floor so they don't float away, and they also contain mythical places on their surfaces. What better mythical place for the Guardians to use as a seat than Asgard and Valhalla?





I've also come up with some interesting factoids in my research. Twelve is a very important number in both Greek and Norse Mythology. So there will be 12 islands (though not all need be under the Guardian's control) and 12 Elders in charge of the Guardians.





I have a lot more to figure out on this, but I think I'm off to a good start. Maybe I'll hit that 8k word mark this next week