magemadi

[magemadi]

Planetary Boundaries
An original science fiction screenplay

banner by @pirate grumpy cat

Quote

Drs. Terra Olivier and Nathaniel Borovitch are on a long-term, deep space exploration mission. When they discover a new planet with intelligent life and receive worrisome orders from their commanding officers, they must choose what they're standing for.

Setting

Set in the future year of 2512, Terra and Nathaniel are longtime friends and coworkers for Cressida Corps, a deep-space exploration organization based out of several interplanetary space stations throughout the known universe, one of which is near Earth in the Milky Way Galaxy. Humans have been partaking in long-term space travel for 300 years now, but there is still some lingering resentment on the part of humans for their "alien" friends not contacting Earth sooner to jump start humans' efforts to explore the universe and discover new planets with things other than telescopes.

Clashes among different species do still occur, which is when the Cressida Corps was formed after humans entered the space travel game, in order to be able to broker peace when necessary and bring more peace and connectivity to the universe. Cressida Corps was formed in the year 2207, and initially was comprised of mostly humans, but has since expanded its board to include the four largest non-human sentient species who signed the Interplanetary Treatise on Cohabitation and Colonization.

____________________________________________________________

Welcome to my novel nest for NaNoWriMo 2020! This year, I'm *gasp* working on only one project, my screenplay!

Now, a screenplay is obviously not a novel, but as this is meant to be a feature-length film, I think I can get pretty close to 50k words, or at the very least, 30-40k words of the screenplay itself + some extra worldbuilding content I'll be coming up with and my usual miscellaneous words from reviews and the like.

Right now you can read the first drafts of the first seven scenes on the archives here+ but once I've gotten it all figured out, these scenes are more than likely going to change significantly, and I may or may not end up hiding the story shell after I get to a certain point with the script.

I'll be detailing more of my writing process during NaNo in my Multiverse Discord server+ along with putting a lot of my worldbuilding details there, so feel free to come hang out and wallow about NaNo there with me, if you're so inclined!

Now let's get to work! 🚀

[RonsGirlFriday]

Hi Madi! I know you’ve put a lot of love and work into this screenplay.

What was the initial inspiration for Planetary Boundaries?

What motivates Terra and Nathaniel?

I admire all of this worldbuilding you’re doing! What’s the most challenging part of that? What do you like about it? What kinds of issues or dilemmas have you run into in worldbuilding for this fic? 

What do you anticipate having to change about your initial drafts/scenes?

Do you think you’ll continue to write screenplays after finishing this one?

Good luck with NaNo! 💙

[shadowycorner]

Hey Madi and yay for posting your nest! I really like how you support OF writing, setting up and inviting us all over to your discord. It's wonderful to have the hpfanfic community blend together with OF writing as well.

Planetary Boundaries is a great title by the way. How many different planets do you think you'll visit in the span of this one story?

Can you tell us more about the non-human species?

I'm also really fascinated by the fact that you're writing a screen play :)

What inspires you to write this story in screenplay form rather than as a novel? Do you have plans on sending it to a film studio?

What are the advantages and disadvantages of writing a screenplay instead of a novel?

[prideofprewett]

This screenplay sounds fantastic! There are so many shows/films I love that deal with space! I feel like it's a great medium for this type of story because the visuals are so breathtaking. I'm definitely going to have to check out what you have on the archives so far because I wrote scripts (granted for commercials) in a former life, so I feel like it would be fun to go back to reading in a similar type format. (Seems like I'll have to do it before you hide it though hehe )

One question I did have was, do the same laws of space apply in this fic (i.e. you can't breathe outside a space craft or without a space suit)? Or have you changed anything like that to fit in this specific universe?

Another thing I'm wondering about is how many different species you created for this story? Are any of these characters largely featured? How do you go about introducing details about their species since this is in a screenplay format?

I can't wait to hear more about this story! 

💖 Courtney

[Gryffin_Duck]

This looks so cool! Here's a few questions for you.

1. Is this the first screenplay you've written? Do you like it more or less than writing a novel? 

2. Do you read a lot of space fantasy/sci-fi? 

[magemadi]

Ahhh so many friends, hello!!!

15 hours ago, shadowycorner said:

Hey Madi and yay for posting your nest! I really like how you support OF writing, setting up and inviting us all over to your discord. It's wonderful to have the hpfanfic community blend together with OF writing as well.

Planetary Boundaries is a great title by the way. How many different planets do you think you'll visit in the span of this one story?

Can you tell us more about the non-human species?

I'm also really fascinated by the fact that you're writing a screen play

What inspires you to write this story in screenplay form rather than as a novel? Do you have plans on sending it to a film studio?

What are the advantages and disadvantages of writing a screenplay instead of a novel?

Thanks for the title love, it's actually the first thing I came up with after I got the idea in my head, and I sure hope it sticks around! As far as the number of planets we'll visit is already at two (Earth & Estea 6C) and we'll probably visit one more that I haven't settled on yet.

The non-human species I am still working on figuring out, and deciding which primary ones to have actually present in the screenplay versus just as background information. So not yet, unfortunately, but I'm working on it!!

I got inspired to write this as a screenplay (for the time being, at least) from this wonderful show on YouTube called SONA+ (M bc YT) and my general love of sci-fi things that definitely need more women in the writing room. So I figured, why not try this out?

The advantages are that you really get to use that visualization tool in your brain a little bit more as you have to be concise with your descriptions while also showing some of that "scenery" type stuff through the dialogue as well, which is a unique challenge. A major disadvantage is obviously the length and lack of ability to write full-out descriptions of some things or excess/unnecessary worldbuilding because there's just no need or room for that sort of exploration in a screenplay.

Thank you for the lovely questions!! ❤️

12 hours ago, prideofprewett said:

This screenplay sounds fantastic! There are so many shows/films I love that deal with space! I feel like it's a great medium for this type of story because the visuals are so breathtaking. I'm definitely going to have to check out what you have on the archives so far because I wrote scripts (granted for commercials) in a former life, so I feel like it would be fun to go back to reading in a similar type format. (Seems like I'll have to do it before you hide it though hehe )

One question I did have was, do the same laws of space apply in this fic (i.e. you can't breathe outside a space craft or without a space suit)? Or have you changed anything like that to fit in this specific universe?

Another thing I'm wondering about is how many different species you created for this story? Are any of these characters largely featured? How do you go about introducing details about their species since this is in a screenplay format?

I can't wait to hear more about this story! 

💖 Courtney

Courtney, ah thanks so much for stopping by! I'd love any thoughts you have on composition, omg 💖

Ooh yes, the same laws of space do apply -- you gotta have a spacesuit if you're going outside! The spacecraft also have to carry enough air and such with them, so the bulk of the back half of the ship is actually all just life support systems, especially on the Allurian as that is such a long-term travel space vessel.

I haven't quite gotten around to creating all of the different species I want to have yet, but there will probably be at least 2 or 3 non-human species featured in the screenplay at some point. Overall there's definitely a loooot more species in the universe but the important ones will be created first 😂 What I'll do when introducing either mention of the character/new species or the character/species itself, is I'll probably interject a little description bit just for everyone reading the script to get an idea of what they look like/how they hold themselves compared to humans.

Thank you for the wonderful worldbuilding questions! 💛

2 hours ago, Gryffin_Duck said:

This looks so cool! Here's a few questions for you.

1. Is this the first screenplay you've written? Do you like it more or less than writing a novel? 

2. Do you read a lot of space fantasy/sci-fi? 

Duckie, hi friend! 🦆

1. This IS the first screenplay I've written! So far I am struggling not to wax poetic in my scene settings but otherwise I quite enjoy the pace of it compared to a novel as I don't then get bogged down in descriptive writing. We shall see how I feel about this at the end of the month

2. I do read a lot of sci-fi and fantasy in general, and taking a look at 3/4 row sof my bookshelf right now that is *all* sci-fi/fantasy books, I think it's safe to say that with confidence 😂

2 hours ago, victoria_anne said:

Ahh, Madi! Just wanted to pop in and wish you luck! It's so great that you're working on this. I've read the first chapter and absolutely loved it and I can't wait to dive in again. Looking forward to hearing how you go with this! 🤗✨

Ahh hello Bianca, thank you for stopping by!! I'm so happy you've enjoyed it so far, and I hope you like the changes that are inevitably coming to it 💙

[magemadi]

happy tuesday friends, here with an update!!

First of all, I decided I'll add any words I write for my first ever scientific publication to my NaNo word count, as a lot of work and research and time will be going into this paper, so I figured it should count!

I was able to complete my outline for this screenplay yesterday, along with writing the first two scenes. Tonight I've been writing more scenes and thinking about more worldbuilding things I need to do for future parts of the screenplay, so I'm very excited.

Current word count: 5413

Edited November 4, 2020 by magemadi

[magemadi]

It's Friday night and I've just hit my 10k mark right on time!! (well, it was actually hit at 12:24 am on Saturday but I count it as Friday words still, so shhh)

Yesterday was a super low word count day so today I wrote some of my paper (~850 words) and then the rest of the 2300 words I wrote today was alllll screenplay!

I'm introducing some new characters, and one of them has even allowed me to introduce an important planet that hadn't yet been talked about, which is very exciting for me. As it sits at the moment, I'm about 30 pages in to the screenplay, so I estimate I've got about 100 left to go, so some pacing will definitely have to be adjusted. But for now, I'm just happy to be coming up with new material and scenes for this lil idea of mine.

[magemadi]

On 11/8/2020 at 6:16 PM, victoria_anne said:

I just answered your lovely questions in my nest, so now it's my turn to pop in here! 😁 I'm so happy you hit 10k! That's amazing! 🥳

I can't believe you're on fresh pages and coming up with new characters and ideas, that's so exciting! Can you tell me a little bit more about this new character? What happened in the scene you last wrote? What's been the most challenging thing to write so far, and what's been the most fun? ✨

Keep writing! 😍

The main things I can tell you about this new character (as the scene is v short) is that her name is Shirane, she's a Yidaran, and she works for the Yidaran government on Yidara, so her character provides us a third (and new) location!

The last scene I wrote had Terra and Nathaniel in Engineering trying to decode their buddy Lari's messages and they do so, then get an unexpected video message from him that has news for them 😱

The most challenging thing to write so far has probably been the Cressida Corps HQ scenes -- I'm not familiar with military-type stuff at all, so just trying to figure out chain of command/who has authorization to do various things has been difficult, but we'll get through it!

Writing the science-y parts of the few scenes that have contained science has been the most fun because it lets me be my nerdy, scientist self but imbued in a character with very different attributes to me!

Thanks for stopping by and for the great questions! 💕

[inmyownlittlecorner]

Hi Madi! This project sounds so cool--I really enjoyed the scenes that I've read on the archive so far.

So you've said you really enjoy writing the science-y parts of this screenplay. In what ways (if any) have you stretched or extrapolated the science into fiction? 

Who is your favorite character to write? Which character will change the most over the course of the story?

Happy writing!

[magemadi]

17 hours ago, la_topolina said:

Hi Madi! This project sounds so cool--I really enjoyed the scenes that I've read on the archive so far.

So you've said you really enjoy writing the science-y parts of this screenplay. In what ways (if any) have you stretched or extrapolated the science into fiction? 

Who is your favorite character to write? Which character will change the most over the course of the story?

Happy writing!

Hey Noelle, thanks for stopping by!

1. I think the things I've probably extrapolated the most so far are also the things that are stretched most frequently in science fiction anyway -- the speed at which travel can occur and the method of traveling long distances. In this case, I've decided for them to use wormhole jump gates to move within space and time much more quickly than how it would work in real life. Although, I do enforce a communications delay between the different groups and locations of a few days, even traveling at faster than light.

2. Oh man my favorite right now is probably Nathaniel. He's such an awkward man but will stand up straight and put on his Captain's hat when he needs to, for sure. As far as who will change most over the course of the story, I think Terra will definitely be up there, right with Vice Admiral Werner, actually, if his character arc goes the way I think it will.

Thank you for the lovely questions! ❤️

[magemadi]

Happy Sunday and the halfway point of NaNo! I have a couple of updates

Words from the 8th included finishing up the final chapter of my short story Friendly Correspondence, which is now up on the archives for your reading pleasure!

I've written an entirely new opening scene to my screenplay, and for that I must give a big shoutout to @victoria_anne, my penpal, for helping me talk through it during a virtual write-in we had on Friday night!! 🥰

Some more random words this last week have come from some FFT DnD planning and story creation, which has been lots of fun to think of so far, and I can't wait to start the campaign!

As far as the screenplay in general goes, I'm really happy with where it's been taking me so far, and we're about halfway through now, so the action is really starting to pick up. Overall, the screenplay is now just under 16k words and 19 "scenes" plus the outline counting towards that word count. The "pages" count is 65 currently, and I'm aiming for about 130 pages total based on an approximately 2-ish hour run time plus some extra wordage due to needed world-building within the script itself (because space, y'all).

CURRENT WORD COUNT: 25204/50000

Edited November 16, 2020 by magemadi

[prideofprewett]

Congrats on making it halfway Madi! I'm really excited for your screenplay.  It sounds like you have a good plan for executing it the rest of the way through.  

[magemadi]

16 hours ago, prideofprewett said:

Congrats on making it halfway Madi! I'm really excited for your screenplay.  It sounds like you have a good plan for executing it the rest of the way through.  

Courtney you are so kind ahhh thank you for your support and belief in me! If you can believe it, I have a vague outline/idea for where I want this to go, so we'll see if I manage to stick to it or if the characters take me someplace entirely new! 😬

[magemadi]

Well friends, we're approaching the climax of the screenplay and while I am a few thousand words behind the target, I do believe I will get to 50k by tomorrow night! We're just over 100 pages into the screenplay so this is really the peak of the action and will hopefully culminate in a nice, solid ending. Let's do this!!

CURRENT WORD COUNT: 44169/50000

[magemadi]

I DID IT, FOLKS! FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 7 YEARS, I HAVE OFFICIALLY WON NANOWRIMO!!

FINAL WORD COUNT: 50,170 WORDS

This has been a truly crazy NaNo for me, and I definitely couldn't have done it without the support of my penpal @victoria_anne and our weekly virtual write-ins and discussions!

I have officially completed my very first draft of this screenplay with completing NaNo, and that draft turned out to be just over 30k words and close to 150 pages! This is obviously way too long but I'm going to just wrap up the last few bits and then NOT TOUCH IT for at least a month to let it settle.

Here's to a successful NaNo season and hopefully to a strong editing and second drafting process of this in early 2021. 🥳

[RogueSlytherin]

Hellllooooo intrepid explorer and fearless DM 🔥

So....this might be left of center, but I actually wanna ask some DnD questions cause like it totally is world-building and writing and I'm having so much flipping fun on our campaign but also like HOW DO YOU DO THIS?!

1. How different is writing for a game like DnD than a novel/story/play? There has to be so much undetermined?!

2. How much of the world is built before you start a campaign? 

3. Are there plots, threads, choices, that just aren't up to a dice roll? Things you've decided are going to happen or events that will take place regardless of the party's efforts to counter them? 

4. When you build a DnD character, where do you usually start? Stats and then build a personality or do you have an idea in mind for who they are and then build them out to fit that archetype? 

5. Have you had a moment in DnD (any campaign) that was seriously so unexpected it made you re-plot? 

6. Critical Question: You have to choose only three. From any of the three Critical Role campaigns, you get to pick 3 characters to go into battle with - who are they and why?

6. Second Critical Question: From any of the three Critical Role campaigns, you get to pick 3 characters to go on a heist with - who are they and why?

7. Third Critical Question: From any of the three Critical Role campaigns, you get to pick 3 characters to LEAVE BEHIND before going on a shopping trip - who are they and why?

[magemadi]

hello friends and welcome to another chaotic edition of madi tries to write too many things and ends up finishing none of them, with left beef, for nano!

so first of all, what the fuck am i working on this month, you ask?

projects:

1. Fairies and Forests - chapter 1 has been up for a few months now at this point, and chapter 2 has been languishing in my documents, unfinished, for longer than it really should be, so we're going to try get another 2-3 chapters out of this novel! 🧚‍♂️ 🍄
2. James Holden/Naomi Nagata (The Expanse) entry for @RogueSlytherinCadet's "I'll Read Fluff If I Want To" challenge - I got bullied persuaded (namely by @grumpy viper pilot) to not only enter this challenge, but to write about the lovely ship of James Holden/Naomi Nagata from The Expanse series because they're precious and deserve the UNIVERSE! (get it, bc ~space~) Ideally, I'd like to get at least 1/3-1/2 of this written during NaNo just to have it written and can edit it down after the fact if necessary.
3. Planetary Boundaries - okay folks, this one is more of an editing project rather than brand new writing -- I've currently got all of Act I of the screenplay up on the archives, with the beginnings of Act II posted as well. HOWEVER, what I currently have in my draft for the rest of Act II and Act III is honestly kind of hot garbage and left a lot of things loose ended that I don't like. SOOO the plan is to rework my outline and do some restructuring so the last 2/3rds of the screenplay make more sense while still keeping the stakes high in the right spots and all that.

"but madi," you say, "that seems like it's a lot! aren't you busy with graduate school and everything??"

yes I am but who cares!!! all put together, my ideal goal for total words between these three projects is thus:

25,000 words

feel free to ask me questions throughout the month or just watch as I descend into utter madness with these projects!!!!

[grumpy cat]

4 minutes ago, Admiral Celestial de Rocinante said:

got bullied persuaded

you were gently nudged in the right direction

obviously i am very ~~~~excited!!

[starlitcastles]

Hi Madi!

I love the way you always have colored words for each of the projects that you're telling us about while also having gifs that go along with it!  It's always a fun time while visiting your novel nest for any Camp NanowriMo and or NanowriMo and just thought you should know before I continue along with mentioning a few other things in regards to your works! Anyway, moving onto your actual written projects, I think that both Fairies and Forests and Planetary Boundaries have me piqued in interest especially the latter with the fact that it's a screenplay and also need to read the chapter for the former as I'm curious about the title.   I do hope that the editting the 2/3rds of it goes well for you for Planetary Boundaries and you'll get a chapter in for Fairies and Forests too!  Admittedly I can't truly comment on The Expanse fanfiction although I did see it's part of The Fluff challenge which sounds awesome and wishing you good luck with that too! I also hope that you'll also be able to reach the 25,000 word goal that you mentioned as well!  

I also decided to drop you a few questions for not only curiosity's sake but also hoping these questions help you, say, if you're ever in a bind while trying to get some words down or need something to ponder about as you're exploring your story! Enjoy, maybe? 

1.   Do you have a playlist for any of you written projects? If so, what songs are on there? If you don't, what genre of music, artist/musicians, and or songs would put on there?

2.   Out of your projects that you mentioned, which project is the most challenging, least challenging, and or one that you're enjoying writing currently?

3.  So pretend you're a casting director and you're wanting to cast somebody or two for Planetary Boundaries like if it was ever made into a movie per se, so the question is: who are some of the actors and actresses that you feel would either fit for the roles of the characters in your screenplay? Why?

4.  What is your favorite and least favorite thing about Camp NanoWriMo?

5.  Do you have a quote, song, random media scene, or just something that helps you stay motivated as you're writing or you go to when you need to write?

Those questions aside, I'm not only rooting for you but also wanted to leave you with some motivation and encouragement in the form of these two words:  You can do this! You got this!  

-Diana/Di 

[prideofprewett]

Moor Fairies and Forests pleeease?

Ok, I am done begging. But I seriously love the way you write fantasy, it's so colorful and charming and lush and...I just want more of it, ok? Alright, alright, some questions for you just because I caaan. 

• Where did the idea for Fairies and Forests come from?
• How do you approach world building? Do you do a lot of upfront planning, wing it as you go, or a combination?
• How do you write fantasy so well? Do the ideas and elements come to you naturally? Or are you well read in the genre and pull familiar elements from things you've read/watched and add your own spin to them? (Hopefully that makes sense 😅)
• Who is your favorite character in Fairies, so far? Why are they your fave? 
• What can you tell us about Alri and Kikian? Is uhm...there something more™️ there? Or are you going to pull the rug out from beneath me there LOL? 👀 about them at the moment. And also, totally ok if you cannot share things about them. Just know I'm sort of shipping them based on one chapter. Yes, you did that. Congrats! 🎊 
• What trips you up when writing original fiction or causes stalling? Is it real life stuff or do you think there are other things that "block," you? How do you work through those things and keep forging ahead? I ask because I always get super frustrated with my own original fiction, so just curious hah.

Again sorry for so many questions, hope it's not too overwhelming 😅 Good luck this month! 

💖 Courtney

[magemadi]

omg hiiii!  thank you so much for these questions jacque

On 2/16/2022 at 1:10 PM, RogueSlytherinCadet said:

1. How different is writing for a game like DnD than a novel/story/play? There has to be so much undetermined?!

It is extremely different! The way I go about it is that I first start by building the "outermost" part of functionality for the story -- aka the general world setup and creating a map of the place. Then, I get the basics of political situations and once I feel that is in a good place, I narrow down into where I'm going to have the party start, and basically build out from there based on their decisions. For example with the campaign I'm running for you guys, I have very little written out about the Elvish cities on their islands at the current moment, but as soon as y'all want to go there, I will write things up. Really it's about cutting up your time into smaller chunks and not writing too much.

On 2/16/2022 at 1:10 PM, RogueSlytherinCadet said:

2. How much of the world is built before you start a campaign?

This is a very good question! I feel like I kind of answered it for your campaign in the previous question, but for my in person campaign, we had a pretty good idea of the two main factions that would be where our party spent most of their time and the political issues there and other related tensions. I'd say we had probably about 75% of the overall story arc figured out before we started, but that's just big picture.

On 2/16/2022 at 1:10 PM, RogueSlytherinCadet said:

3. Are there plots, threads, choices, that just aren't up to a dice roll? Things you've decided are going to happen or events that will take place regardless of the party's efforts to counter them?

Of course! I was *always* planning on your group encountering both a nasty dragon and a friendly dragon -- the nuances of how that played out was something I looked forward to happening. The ritual was always going to happen, but it just depended on when you guys got there what stage it was at. But many things are left up to the dice.

On 2/16/2022 at 1:10 PM, RogueSlytherinCadet said:

4. When you build a DnD character, where do you usually start? Stats and then build a personality or do you have an idea in mind for who they are and then build them out to fit that archetype? 

I usually start with a personality/character concept in mind first, but it is usually loosely tied to a class or two that I'm thinking of playing. Then once I've settled on a class, I move my stats accordingly and take it from there with personality. It also significantly depends on the party makeup as well.

On 2/16/2022 at 1:10 PM, RogueSlytherinCadet said:

5. Have you had a moment in DnD (any campaign) that was seriously so unexpected it made you re-plot? 

Honestly I haven't yet encountered such a left-field type of thing in either of the campaigns I run, but when I was a player I made a very in-character choice (which was for my druid to leave the group and join our supposed enemies) and then our warlock/sorcerer killed my character -- so then I had to make a new character but regardless I think that shocked everyone, including our DM.

On 2/16/2022 at 1:10 PM, RogueSlytherinCadet said:

6. Critical Question: You have to choose only three. From any of the three Critical Role campaigns, you get to pick 3 characters to go into battle with - who are they and why?

Hahah I see what you did there I would probably go into battle with Caleb, Fjord, and Keyleth. Yes they're all magic users but they're also powerful as fuck so like,,, duh! tbh it was difficult deciding between Fjord and Grog bc goddamn do I love a Travis character 😂  

On 2/16/2022 at 1:10 PM, RogueSlytherinCadet said:

6. Second Critical Question: From any of the three Critical Role campaigns, you get to pick 3 characters to go on a heist with - who are they and why?

Well certainly not any of the campaign 3 crew 😂 JUST KIDDING I LOVE THEM ALL SO MUCH. Um but really it would probably be Fjord once again, Vex, and Imogen. Fjord and Vex can do a great job disguising themselves and Imogen is very charismatic but also has magic useful for heists, I think.

On 2/16/2022 at 1:10 PM, RogueSlytherinCadet said:

7. Third Critical Question: From any of the three Critical Role campaigns, you get to pick 3 characters to LEAVE BEHIND before going on a shopping trip - who are they and why?

Don't do this to me, Jacque! Also please don't come for me for who I say either 😂 I will probably leave behind Caleb, Grog, and Mollymauk, all for different reasons. Caleb, because he would take too long counting his money, Grog because he wouldn't count his money correctly, and Mollymauk because he'd probably try to steal something while flirting with the cashier and I don't need that kind of heat in my life 😂

Thank you so much for these lovely questions!! 💖

 

I also come back here to revive this thread because behold: a new story! this is my entry for jacque's "i'll read fluff if i want to" challenge, so it will be updated with at least 14 more prompts, but I'm hoping to do all 30  

you make it look so easy+

[magemadi]

On 3/30/2022 at 1:50 PM, grumpy viper pilot said:

you were gently nudged in the right direction

obviously i am very ~~~~excited!!

now that I am two prompts in you are totally correct!! also, thank you for the beautiful banner for the story, i love it (and these two idiots) so much!

On 3/31/2022 at 1:07 PM, starlitcastles said:

Hi Madi!

I love the way you always have colored words for each of the projects that you're telling us about while also having gifs that go along with it!  It's always a fun time while visiting your novel nest for any Camp NanowriMo and or NanowriMo and just thought you should know before I continue along with mentioning a few other things in regards to your works! Anyway, moving onto your actual written projects, I think that both Fairies and Forests and Planetary Boundaries have me piqued in interest especially the latter with the fact that it's a screenplay and also need to read the chapter for the former as I'm curious about the title.   I do hope that the editting the 2/3rds of it goes well for you for Planetary Boundaries and you'll get a chapter in for Fairies and Forests too!  Admittedly I can't truly comment on The Expanse fanfiction although I did see it's part of The Fluff challenge which sounds awesome and wishing you good luck with that too! I also hope that you'll also be able to reach the 25,000 word goal that you mentioned as well!  

I also decided to drop you a few questions for not only curiosity's sake but also hoping these questions help you, say, if you're ever in a bind while trying to get some words down or need something to ponder about as you're exploring your story! Enjoy, maybe? 

1.   Do you have a playlist for any of you written projects? If so, what songs are on there? If you don't, what genre of music, artist/musicians, and or songs would put on there?

2.   Out of your projects that you mentioned, which project is the most challenging, least challenging, and or one that you're enjoying writing currently?

3.  So pretend you're a casting director and you're wanting to cast somebody or two for Planetary Boundaries like if it was ever made into a movie per se, so the question is: who are some of the actors and actresses that you feel would either fit for the roles of the characters in your screenplay? Why?

4.  What is your favorite and least favorite thing about Camp NanoWriMo?

5.  Do you have a quote, song, random media scene, or just something that helps you stay motivated as you're writing or you go to when you need to write?

Those questions aside, I'm not only rooting for you but also wanted to leave you with some motivation and encouragement in the form of these two words:  You can do this! You got this!  

-Diana/Di 

Hey Diana, thank you so much for the compliments and the questions!

1. I surprisingly do not have any playlists for any of my projects, though I do have one that I use for my DnD character creation process if that counts I've got lots of variety, but generally some indie rock/alternative type music is pretty regular for me, also lots of folk rock as well. For my sci-fi stuff, I'll often put on movie/tv scores of favorite sci-fi films/tv shows of mine.

2. I think the one that is the most challenging is probably my edit of Planetary Boundaries, while my least challenging is currently the Holden/Naomi fluff challenge entry because it's lots of fun to write these two in different "fluffy" situations

3. Hoo boy I mean, I love Dominique Tipper as a choice for Terra, but I'm not sure who I'd like to have play Nathaniel, particularly if I decide to make some sweeping character changes and possibly add a third crew member to the Allurian. Dominique Tipper played Naomi Nagata in The Expanse, so she's obviously got some great sci-fi acting already under her belt.

4. My favorite thing about Camp NaNo is that you can work on whatever the heck you want and for whatever the heck kind of goal you want to achieve! My least favorite thing is that April is often a very busy month for me, and this year is no exception 😢

5. Honestly I've never really thought about it like this but I don't think I do? Or if I do need motivation, it's often easy enough to provoke that by listening to my fave playlists or putting on an episode of something that I want to write about to get back into the vibe.

On 4/1/2022 at 7:09 PM, prideofgalactica said:

Moor Fairies and Forests pleeease?

Ok, I am done begging. But I seriously love the way you write fantasy, it's so colorful and charming and lush and...I just want more of it, ok? Alright, alright, some questions for you just because I caaan. 

• Where did the idea for Fairies and Forests come from?
• How do you approach world building? Do you do a lot of upfront planning, wing it as you go, or a combination?
• How do you write fantasy so well? Do the ideas and elements come to you naturally? Or are you well read in the genre and pull familiar elements from things you've read/watched and add your own spin to them? (Hopefully that makes sense 😅)
• Who is your favorite character in Fairies, so far? Why are they your fave? 
• What can you tell us about Alri and Kikian? Is uhm...there something more™️ there? Or are you going to pull the rug out from beneath me there LOL? 👀 about them at the moment. And also, totally ok if you cannot share things about them. Just know I'm sort of shipping them based on one chapter. Yes, you did that. Congrats! 🎊 
• What trips you up when writing original fiction or causes stalling? Is it real life stuff or do you think there are other things that "block," you? How do you work through those things and keep forging ahead? I ask because I always get super frustrated with my own original fiction, so just curious hah.

Again sorry for so many questions, hope it's not too overwhelming 😅 Good luck this month! 

💖 Courtney

Hi Courtney! 💖

1. So Fairies and Forests came from my insatiable love for Dungeons & Dragons, and also for a lack of having adult-aged fantasy novels that have well-rounded characters and aren't full of romance plotlines (no offense to those who love that type, it's just not my thing). This line of thinking happened to dovetail with Paula's 2 spice 2 archives challenge, where the prompt about a librarian having to follow the breadcrumbs left them by an adventurer really piqued my interest. So naturally, I decided, fuck it, let's come up with a really cool mystery fantasy novel based off of this prompt, and build out an adventuring party that way.

2. It's honestly a combination -- with this novel, I really need to properly sit down and come up with a map before I get too far out of the initial location or I'm gonna get all jumbled around as dear Kikian makes her journey 😅  But often I'll just wing it with ideas for groups of people or city/tavern/shop names and then just make a note of it so I can be consistent later.

3. aw shucks, that's so kind of you to say! 🥺 I think you can see above to my answer to question 1 for part of it but also i've just read a wide variety of fantasy books over the years, know what i like/don't like/what is missing, and am working to fill those gaps.

4. I think Alri is going to be my fave, ngl, even though he's not the main protagonist. he's a soldier, but one with smarts and a good heart, and who is also besties with Kikian (and maybe more? 👀 ) and I am excited to explore his character throughout the story.

5. see above comment 👀 haha jk, no I haven't quite yet decided if they're officially an item or if they're more unofficially together but are shit at saying things to each other but it's not quite mutual pining if you know what I mean? idk though i'm glad you like them as a couple! 😂

6. often times it is real life that trips me up, or i just get in a bad headspace for creative writing for a few weeks so have to manually force myself to just put something on the page to start my creative engines back up. i also find that sometimes taking that step away for a bit can refresh the brain and let me come at it from a better angle with a new perspective, which often helps me get out of the rut i may have been in.

I hope I answered your questions well enough!!

 

Chapter 2 of the Holden/Naomi fluff prompt piece is now live and it is *smutty* y'all 🔥

[magemadi]

am I behind? yes. have I written at least something almost every day? yes. did I finish another chapter of fairies and forests? yes.

FAIRIES AND FORESTS CHAPTER TWO IS LIVE, FOLKS! magic+

I'm currently sitting at 4.9k words so if I really want to go crazy tonight I could attempt to write 4200 words all in one day, but if not, I'd be happy to hit 1500 words tonight just to try and steer myself back to a bit more on track. With chapter 2 finished currently, I am going to hop back into my fluff challenge prompts for a few days to see if that helps me get some easier words done to get back to where I need to be.

[magemadi]

oh look, i actually almost hit the fake goal for tonight's word count!!

i wrote 1325 words tonight, which ended up being two more fluff challenge prompts!

ch 3: you never think about the carpet+

ch 4: crash couches are not as comfortable to sleep on as they really should be+

to tally, the prompts I have done so far are as follows:

• meeting family or friends
• up against the wall kiss
• bare feet
• sleepy kiss

 

this puts me at a current total word count of approximately 6.2k, so I'm currently about 3k behind (not counting the new day's words). I think if I keep writing about 1500 words the next couple of nights, that'll put me back on track!

Edited April 12, 2022 by magemadi