Brennus Big Book (help needed)

[Brennus]

As long as you're not writing to make a living...

Do you mean because of the dangers of writing for ten years and not working or because you are unlikely to make your fortune from writing? In both cases I agree.

Keep us posted B.

If you lot like I will post two sections I am planning to write as "testers". They won't really reveal anything but just so people can critique my writing style. What do you think?

[Blxz]

What do you think?

Hell yes, do you even have to ask?

[SoFarSoGood]

Names are not too hard, the only problem being that the names we refer to Persian or Celtic people by have been Romanised or Hellenised. The problem with writing anything similar to War and Peace is that alot of Tolstoys observations in the main body of the 'story' are based around the social customs of the day. Since he was himself a Russian aristocrat writing about fictitious Russian aristocrats 100 years before was not too hard. Doing the same for an alien culture divorced from today by 2000 years is another kettle of fish. I suggest you read any and all contemporary materials to get a good 'grounding' in how they thought and acted.

I found Xenophons Anabasis a pretty good idea of how a basic campaign might have been but he, like Caesar in his Conquest of Gaul, are great self publicists. Ciceros letters to Atticus are not bad for everyday trivia and concerns. On the fictional side Robert Graves is not bad for intrigue (I Claudius et Claudius the God). His Greek Myths 1 and 2 is also very good. There's also some good lists of Delphic prophecies online. I always found the last statement very sad... [Julian 'the Apostate' asked the Oracle it's advice before marching east and the reply was (in stylised English); "Fallen our fair built temples lie. Phoebus has left his temple, his laurel of prophecy, his speaking spring. Yea even the spring that spoke runs dry." Julian died in the east.]

As for writing... I set out to do something similar a few years ago before work intervened. You need to force yourself to write a set amount each day, words or pages or whatever. It's best to start at the beginning in my experience (though you will almost certainly have to rewrite the beginning several times as the story develops).

As for 'commercialism' in the ancient world... It didn't exist as we know it. About the nearest thing to 'left-wing' politics in Rome was the Gracchi land reforms. A great book for explaining the legacy of the Gracchi is 'From the Gracchi to Nero: A History of Rome from 133 BC to AD 68' which you can get on pdf. Of course tax was not as we understand it and the poor never payed any tax.

For a later and Eastern Roman source I recommend 'Constantine Porphyrogenitus: De Administrando Imperio' which is mega detailed and deals with everything. Another good 'pagan' but very stoic moral book is 'The Golden Book of Marcus Aurelius' (yep the Emperor himself!). The only surviving Roman 'novel' (as far as I know) is the The Golden Ass (Lucius Apuleus) which again is available by pdf.

Like I say, Tolstoy is, in many ways, a social critique. To attempt the same from a period vastly different to ours you have to understand what was socialy normal then. Read it all and (which is damn interesting anyway) and if possible visit a few sites. Then get started and force yourself to do 10 or whatever pages per day.

My historical fiction is still half way through book 1... Good luck!

[moonburn]

herm the game of thrones dude is up there with eddings and even for some with tolkien so no bashing his writting only his hability to deliver what he promissed in the set amount of time

and sorry brennus but i guess you´re right a decade should be enough to get it done but for me it would be impossible to think in such long term comitements when i consider writting i put it in terms of 6/12 months to writte something decent

as someone stated here take some time everyday and forçe yourself to writte sometimes when i do writte i take up to 3 hours to writte 5 decent pages others it´s 1hour for 20 amazing pages

remember to set the right kind of music to set the rythm of the story i advice classical to writte about politics and metal \m/ for batles and ofc comercial rock/pop to writte about romance

[moonburn]

herm the game of thrones dude is up there with eddings and even for some with tolkien so no bashing his writting only his hability to deliver what he promissed in the set amount of time

and sorry brennus but i guess you´re right a decade should be enough to get it done but for me it would be impossible to think in such long term comitements when i consider writting i put it in terms of 6/12 months to writte something decent

as someone stated here take some time everyday and forçe yourself to writte sometimes when i do writte i take up to 3 hours to writte 5 decent pages others it´s 1hour for 20 amazing pages

remember to set the right kind of music to set the rythm of the story i advice classical to writte about politics and metal \m/ for batles and ofc comercial rock/pop to writte about romance

[Brennus]

Thanks again to everyone for the suggestions and advice, especially SoFarSoGood. I am getting a little bogged down with other stuff at the moment but I shall aim to provide a taster by the end of Septembder.

EDIT: What crazy month is that?! September.

[SoFarSoGood]

You're welcome. I look forward to the 'taster'.