The 2nd Writing Group Files Storage Thread

[The Stranger]

The 2nd Writing Group Files Storage Thread

In this thread I will store all the assignments you've PM'd to me and here I will also post all the new assignments. Please do not post in this thread, if you have any questions or you want to discuss something, please do so in the Discussion Thread.

Active Members:
Mrdun
Edyzmedieval
Innocentius
Meldarion
Stephen Asen
Motep
Roadkill
The Stranger
Julian the Apostate

Inactive/Semi-Active Members:

Previous Assignments:

Current Assignments:
Letter of your Character

Current Deadline:
-

Helpful Websites:
http://www.fictionfactor.com/characters.html
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=35723
http://www.utoronto.ca/writing/wordines.html
http://www.scalzi.com/whatever/004175.html

Related Threads:
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=97064
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=97727

[The Stranger]

The Files of Mrdun:

Favorite Genre: Fiction, Comedy
Favorite Writer: JK Rowling
Favorite Book: lotR
Writing Experience: minimal
Strengths: Imagination
Weaknesses: Motivation

First Assignment:
Dear Mr Stranger,
It seems odd to me, making idle references to an outsider, one who is not of, shall we say, Noble blood. I have a rather repetitive life, you know, get up, eat, walk the faithful and loyal hound, dine again. Always the best culinary delights for me, nothing that is not fit for a king shall not be placed before a king, as the old saying goes. Well needless to say, Stanger, I am worshipped, a Lord of a never ending realm. That may be propaganda, harmless hyperboles, I am sure you have your own thoughts, as you are entitled to of course. I would like to remind you that open criticism will not be tolerated. The joys of tyranny, my friend. Yes I have spared you. Be thankful that you have not endured my wrath. Some have likened me to Herod, some Beast of the East. I am offended, I see no likeness, there again, I would not. My people have a right to the best, we are ambitious although I am the most ambitious of them all. I have eyes for everything, it is not greed, it is merely optimism. I see good, I want good, I see bad, I see no bad. If you understand me, I would be more than happy to knight you. Able advisors are always welcome. If we meet, it shall be a good day, a very good day.

Yours, Lord of the Realm

[The Stranger]

The Files of Edyzmedieval:

Favorite Genre: Adventure, Historical Novel
Favorite Writer: Clive Cussler
Favorite Book: Atlantis Found, Red Storm, Sahara
Writing Experience: Medium (I started my story about 2 and a half years ago)
Strengths: Fast paced action, imagination, image-creating
Weaknesses: Too much description, action is too short sometimes

First Assignment:

[The Stranger]

The Files of Innocentius:

Favorite Genre: Naturalism, Realism, Historical, Philosophical
Favorite Writer: Dostoyevsky
Favorite Book: Crime and Punishment, Notes from the Underground and Tuntematon Sotilas (The Unknown Soldier)
Writing Experience: Minimal (in English); basically what I've written here in the Mead Hall
Strengths: Characters, good imagination
Weaknesses: Not a native speaker, so everything really

First Assignment:
All the characters in my story would probably be illiterate, so this is more of an "inner" letter.

Who am I? Not even I know the answer to that question, at least not any more. My name is Peter, that is who I am. Peter. Nothing more, nothing less. Surnames are not much use to keep, all they do is help people get to know you, something men like me avoid at all cost. Is it because we must, or because we want to? Both, of course; for we are always afraid of familiarity, of friends, of bonds and of stabilization.

But who am I? Once I knew perfectly who I was, but things change… to the worse. As I said, I am Peter. That is what I call myself, and that is what others call me. We usually don’t ask for more than a name, and
why would we? I have known men for years without knowing more about them other than their names, and they likewise knew nothing about me other than my name. “A man is what he does”, isn’t that the saying? If that is true, then I am a bad man, and will, if what the priests and friars say is true, end up in the eternal fires of Hell. If it really is true, that I will leave for others to contemplate over.

Yes, I am a bad man. A horrible man. A soulless man. A murderer, rapist and a thief. Some say I will not go to hell, because I fight for God, but I know as well as any other man of my profession that I don’t. Our enemies, don’t they also fight for God? Will they too rise to the heavens once they are lifted from their brief and miserable existence here on Earth? I don’t know what to believe. What I believe in is what I see, hear and do – and nothing that I see, hear and do is pretty.

I guess what it comes down to is: Did I chose to be who I am? and Do I like who I am? The second question is the easiest, for the answer must be No. The first one is more difficult however. Maybe… No, I will not speak of it. What has happened has happened, and my past remains the past. I have the most wonderful, but also the most horrendous of memories, and all of them should remain where they are, locked up behind iron gates. There are times when I would like to erase them all, but I can’t and I won’t. No, they had best remained locked up where they are, where at least they will pain none other than me.

That is who I am. Ask no more, for I have no answers to give.

Second Assignment:

Peter sat down next to a young man, or rather a boy, who was sitting by himself on a log in the outskirts of the camp. The autumn night was clear and the stars shone, but the moon was out. The campfires were lit, but the other man sat in the dark. Peter took a zip from his bottle of wine and offered it to the other man, who declined the offer with a vague gesture.

“Tomorrow is the day” Peter stated and avoided looking at the boy. “Have you seen it before?”

“No” the boy whispered uncertainly.

“Oh, it is beautiful. Should you live to do it, the wine you will drink tomorrow night will be the best you have ever had.” He drank some more of his own wine. He was finally beginning to get drunk. Everything went quiet for some time. “Are you afraid?” he then asked, breaking the silence, now looking at the boy for the first time. The young man did not answer, nor did he look at him.

“Are you afraid?” Peter asked again, this time a little irritated. The boy shook his head. “You are afraid” said Peter maliciously, but then regretted what he had said and added: “There is no shame in that. You would be the first not to be afraid. I was terrified myself…” he paused, turned away and had some more wine and mumbled something to himself. Again he offered the bottle to the young boy, who again declined. “Do you believe in God?” Peter asked in a thick voice, again not looking at the boy.

“Yes…” the boy answered in an uncertain tone. “Of course I believe in God. What else would I do?” For the first time he now looked at Peter, the stars were reflected in his eyes which were filled with tears. Peter turned to him and looked him deep into the eyes. His recent uncertainty and shame was all gone.

“You must not”, he said in a very serious tone. “God is your worst enemy, for he fights both with you and against you, just as he fights both with and against our enemies!”

“But… but how could I not believe in God? How could I resent him at a time like this?”

“You must do more than that, you must kill him!” Peter exclaimed with great indignation and stood up, gesturing with his bottle of wine as he spoke. “God is hope. God is forgiveness! Those things you must kill within you, for otherwise they will kill you. Tomorrow you will kill more than just that, but before you can kill a man, you must kill God! We all must!”

”That is blasphemy!” the boy too stood up and stepped away from Peter. “You will burn in Hell for uttering such things!” His voice was thick with tears. Peter only looked at him and grinned.

“Hell? Yes, perhaps. Or there is no Hell, just as there is no God… I do not know.” He threw his head back and laughed and then more or less collapsed as he again sat down on the log. “Do not listen to me” he said resignedly. “Perhaps you will understand one day… or it is I who am the fool. Do not listen to me.”

The boy again sat down next to Peter. “Can I have some wine, please? I am thirsty” he asked and Peter gladly handed the bottle over to him.

[The Stranger]

The Files of Meldarion:

Favorite Genre ~ Realist Fiction and Fantasy
Favorite Writer ~ Tolstoy
Favorite Book ~ Anna Karenina or Venus in Furs.
Writing Experience ~ Tales of a Wandering Knight and some erotica (thats it).
Strengths ~ Over active imagination.
Weaknesses ~ Perfectionism, Grammar and tending to let previously stated imagination get ahead of itself.

First Assignment:

[The Stranger]

The Files of Stepthen Asen:

Stephen Asen
Favorite Genre: History with a little mystery
Favorite Writer: James Clavell; Umberto Eco
Favorite Book: Shogun; The Name of the Rose
Writing Experience: I'd say beginner, though I started my own story almost two years ago.
Strengths: passion for writing and the ability to develop a story from a single flash of inspiration
Weaknesses: too much thinking ; grammar; and often lack of organisation

First Assignment:

The letter of Manuel Dooukas, only one of the main characters in the story " Byzantine intrigues: The Struggle for Power "


My name is Manuel Doukas. It is hard to say why I started this letter as nobody will read it. For there will be nobody to send it. This is a letter which is doomed to be destroyed just like its writer.

Many things I can not remember since that mysterious accident I have survived, and many things seemed to have been so unreal for a man in my position. Now I feel myself as a wrecthed prisoner in one of the towers of the Palace of Mistra, the main city of the Roman province of Morea. But I am the heir of the old and large Doukas family, which gave to the Empire emperors and generals. Before the rule of the cursed people who were Crusaders only by name my ancestors lived in this province.When Constantinople was brutally pillaged by these barbarians they fled and established in Morea. It was at the time of the first emperor of the Palaelogus dinasty Michael the Eighth who managed to restore the Roman power on these lands. He also returned our old lands to my family.

The story of my family was as glorious as it has always been. The family that gave to the Empire emperors and generals continued to produce capable politicians even now in the fouteenth century after the birth of the Saviour. My father Nicephorus Comnenus Doukas was definately very skilful man or at least many people claimed this. He was one of the most powerful men in the Empire and was married to the niece of the Emperor Andronicus Palaelogus the Second who inherited his father Michael as ruler of the true Roman Empire.

I was born in October in the year of our Lord 6803 or 1295 years after the birth of the Saviour. My childhood was happy feeling I was loved by my mother and her maids. My father was distant and he was always busy with more important things at that time. But my mother managed to compensate his absence. Then the time to prepare for my mission as a heir of the Doukas came. In the age of six I started to attend one of the best teachers in the Empire. I was learned to write in modern Greek and in Ancient Greek, which were the languages of the world culture and then Latin, the language of those who founded the Roman Empire before they saw the Greek was the most civilized language. At the same time I was given to a mysterious man called Constantine Matsakes. I have heard few about him and my mother seemed to avoid pronouncing his name. However, he was an excellent teacher and he learned me not only to fight with sword but also to some Italian language. I have heard he was a bastard of the noble Loukas Matsakes, who had come from Venetian Crete.

At first, everything went well but at the time I was at the age of eleven many things should have happened and my life became very difficult. I could not bear all the hopes of my family and I failed pathetically. Few years after my mother died and then I was left to cope with my father alone. It was true Constantine tried to improve our relations but he was not very successful. In a few years time, my father became ill. Many people said he deserved his leprocy and probably these were right. And he moved in Morea, the land of his ancestors. He became its gopvernor and I suspect he was still very influential man,though he was far from the capital. But I little cared about it. In fact, I hated him and he hated me. But I met my love there. Her name was Helena. She was a hetaira, a member of the elite companion class. She helped me to look at the world in a different way. It was not as black as I thought and my nightmares did not happen as often as they used to. We all felt good and we little cared about the world. But it seemed it cared about us. My father died few days ago but he did not die of natural death as many people expected. He was poisoned. But I was arrested at the same since I was suspected of his assassination. And in order to make the things more complexed, I had that mysterious accident which costed me some of my memory and put me in a physically weak position.

And here I am closed in this solar hoping the only man who is able to help me, Constantine Matsakes, will find a way out. Helena is a weak woman, my brother Alexius is too young... the others are not very interested in my fate... and some even wish my death. I know I may be more than a simple observer since I might have the key in my memory. The physician said it would be a matter of time to regain it. But in this case it is the time that matters. I fear I may regain my memory when it is too late... Or maybe I should fear from what I will remember...

[The Stranger]

The Files of Motep:

Favorite Genre: Mystery, Sci Fi, Fantasy
Favorite Writer: David Eddings, Weis, Hickman, Robert Jordan
Favorite Book: ...thats really mean...
Writing Experience: Cant really say...
Strengths: Ideas, maps, histories
Weaknesses: names, focus

First Assignment:

[The Stranger]

The Files of Roadkill:

Favorite Genre: Horror, Action, Mystery
Favorite Writer: David Michaels
Favorite Book: Zero Hour
Writing Experience: Average
Strengths: Creativity and ideas
Weaknesses: Grammer

First Assignment:
“No mother, no father. No friends, no siblings, no relatives. I have no one but myself; the only soul I can trust. I don’t know how, where, or even why I have such skills. The skills to kill. This knowledge I possess, where have I been taught it. It is a vagueness of forgotten memories, even for the person I trust most; myself.”

The commissioner put down the wrinkled piece of paper that was stained from what seemed like coffee or perhaps blood. He looked over to the side and lifted up a binder revealing another letter. He picked it up gently scanning over it.

"The slightest memory of child hood doesn’t even linger in my head, nothing, not even if I had parents, or anything a normal person’s memory should possess. I woke up, in the mist of nothing. Who was that man. Why did he help me, where did he come from, what did he do to me. The effort of even trying to remember causes my head to ache in unbelievable pain. I have to find him, he knows things about me, I know it. He knows why my mind is crammed with all this knowledge that I have no perspective of. It’s painful not having reasons for questions. He knows why these skills are crammed in my body, skills more deadly then a gun. My hands, my legs, my head, my heart overflow with these skills that I discover more about each day, each minute, each second. It’s coming back to me, I can tell; the memories I remember more and more, but not enough. That man, he knows who I am, what I am, and why I’m here.”

The commissioner was confused at what he was talking about. He looked up onto the rusty dirty bulletin board above him. It was smeared with blood. On it was pinned another note that was also covered in the same blood. He read it in his head. Focusing sternly on it.

“Scarlet, I’m sorry. I don’t know what to say, but that I feel it Scarlet, I know it, and the clues are so close I can touch it. Please, believe me trust me. Once I get my answers, I’ll come back to you; I promise. I’ll be by your side for the rest of our lives, trust me. I need to know who I am; who I used to be. I’ll come back.”

The letter had no name, no signature, and no reorganization of any publisher. The commissioner put his hands on the table and looked down straining.

“Commissioner? Did you find anything?” one of his men asked him breaking him out of his trance. He secretively pulled the letter off the bulletin board and slipped the letter into his pocket and replied.

The commission hesitated to answer “Yah. End the search there’s nothing here.” The officer shook his head in acknowledgment and walked off to bark at the other men.

Quietly the commissioner whispered to himself in a deep grudge filled tone, “I’ll get you, Dawnson, I swear I’ll get you.” He clenched his fist viciously, his veins exposed on his skin, bulging out. He exhaled.

“Move out regroup at HQ.”

[The Stranger]

The Files of The Stranger:

Favorite Genre: Medieval, WWII, Thriller
Favorite Writer: -
Favorite Book: -
Writing Experience: Average
Strengths: Ideas, Storytelling (narrative style)
Weaknesses: Conversations, Storybuilding (getting ideas on paper)

First Assignment:
My name is Leonin, son of Trakis. I hail from Midwest Himakadur, where I grew up on the estate of my parents... Enough of that, the past is dead... So are my parents and the estate anyway... I focus on living, staying alive is all I have time for. In my profession every distraction can prove fatal and I don't want to die yet.

I am slight of hand, steady and skilled with the sword, because of that I am perfectly suitable for what I do, despite my age and thender body. The fact that I am not frightened by blood or death is also a major advantage. It has been a part of my life ever since... ever since I have been a child...

Due my lifestyle I have no friends but my horse, but I'm not bothered by that. Friends only mean you have to keep an eye, or maybe two, on them, and as I have said before, every distraction can be my last. My horse, however, I am sure of, will never betray me. Nor am I too good with women, besides that they only mean distraction, they also mean obligations. I do not want to be tied down, my freedom is sacred.

Many people see me as a rogue, an adventurer, a beggar or plainly a murderer and a thief. I do not care, words do not hurt, definitely not nearly as much as my sword. However I do not see what is wrong with my profession, I make my living by lending stuff from those who have enough and by collecting depths of other men, sometimes, by swordspoint.

Easily offended as I am and always in for a fight, you can always find me where there is trouble. Trouble always manages to find me and I always manage to find trouble. It is a vicious circle, but it keeps my life from getting a drag.

My country is at war, at war with herself. Many men now fight for their cause. I wish I had a cause, something I would fight and die for. But I have no such cause. However I still decided to join this war, I mean, there ca not be any fighting done without me near it. Therefor I have decided to become a mercenary, I will kill for the highest bidder. Not exactly the noblest of causes, but at least it's a bit like my old job.

This is who I am and this is my story.

[The Stranger]

The files of Julian the Apostate:

Favorite Genre: History is nice fiction and nonfiction
Favorite Book: Pilliars of the Earth
Favorite Author: Tolkien, Dostoevsky
Writing experience, a fiction class that produced this: https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=71861
Weakness...editing and grammar as well as a tendency to get carried away
Strengths: I'm relatively descriptive in my writing

First Assignment:

[The Stranger]

The First Assignment:

Letter of your Character:

With this first assignment I want to develop and introduce the character of your story. For those who are already busy writing a story, and not just some meadhallstory, but a serious effort, they can use the character of that story for this assignment. For those who will start fresh, well, they will have to come up with a new character.

As the title of the assignment insinuates, you are going to write a letter. In this letter you will pretend to be your character and you will write a letter of recommendation. In this letter I want you to introduce yourself and tell stuff about yourself, but I only want you to tell the stuff that matter for the story. What is your name, is there something special with that name, does it mean something. Do you have a family, do you have pets etc, if your family is not important for the story, don't mention it. Do you have a job or are you looking for one. Did something happen in your past that made you do certain things or makes you want to do certain things. Etcetera Etcetera.

An additional thing you can do, is to write the letter in the style you normally write. If you use long, detailed sentences, do so now as well. If you use very short and powerful sentences, same story. Modern or archaic words, use any frequently, use them now as well. For those who like to write dialogues and who can do it, may also make a dialogue of it instead of a letter.

Keep in mind that this is about the character and his background, not about the story and it's background

The letter must be between 300 and 500 words, if you think it is too much or too few, please tell me in the Discussion Thread (will be up in a minute). The deadline will be next week saturday, January 19th.

[The Stranger]

The Second Assignment:

A dialogue of your Character:

Dialogues are an important part of storytelling, we all know that, though it's very hard to do properly and entertaining. Therefore, you must write a conversation between your character and another important character in your story (if your story has one, if not, just skip that requirement). The idea is that you use the character you described in your letter.

From the dialogue some things must become clear, what kind of person your character is (implement what you wrote in the letter). If he is an aggressive person, make him look, act, stand, even breath aggressive, if he is shy, same story. The same must be done for the other person he's talking to. Also it must become clear wether the two know each other for a long time or wether they just met, and it must be done without using the sentences: we just met/we knew each other for ages (or something in that direction).

Dialogue is more than just talking, it's also everything that has to do with the conversation. I'm talking about tone, intonation, how a person looks, how he stands, how he breaths, if he makes any weird gestures etc. Try to implement that as much as possible.

This link (http://www.fictionfactor.com/bolts.html) might be helpful. Scroll down a bit for the dialogue part.

The dialogue must be of a minimum of 300 words and of an absolute maximum of let's say, 1000 words. I think this will take a while to do properly, so you get two weeks to do it. The deadline will be February 10th.