This thread is only for the writing team!!

Looks like my plot was chosen. I will be submitting a detailed plot and prologue in a few days. This thread is to discuss where we can take this plot to. This include some possible events and new twists. How can we try to incorporate Noir7's setting into this plot since it was popular in demand. (This does not mean to try to force it in either.:heh: )


Plot: A girl's parents were falsely accused and taken away under imperial orders. (She was middle class. Daughter of a small prefectorial officer). She went to her aunt's house but after realizing the troubles she was giving her, she ran away. She is picked up at a prostitute house and that is where she works so that she can live on.

Years later, a prince arrives at the house as a place of secret meeting with a few of the officiers. (I believe there are 14 princes at that time.) He hears a beautiful song played on the "Gu Zheng" (A popular instrument at the time) and that is how he met the girl. The girl tells a small bit about herself (Leaving out much unspeakable details) and the prince decides to buy her and bring her back to the palace as one of his servants.

Threats of war is heard and at the same time, the prince finds himself falling in love with the girl. The Emperor is extrememly appauled by this because she is a servant and was a former prostitute.

One final twist: She realizes that it was this prince that set up her parent's accusation.

A little on the side to remove confusion: Prostitutes back then were not what they are now. They were more like bar girls who talked and poured drinks for the customers. However, they were not looked too highly back then as they are today.

I thought about it for a while and here is what I got. I think we should keep the time period as what I wrote and the "fully controled" civilization will be incorporated since the word of the emperor was definate. The fusing of China's "magical" side can be easily incorporated during fight scenes where characters use fanci "qi"(Chakura if you watch naruto) attacks. Though we cannot have atomic bombs if this is the setting, we could have magical items such as "The Orb of the Silver Dragon" or something that we can let it sound just as powerful.

What you guys' opinion?

Mmmm, I tought we were going with a dystopian romance, but it looks like we've changed our minds. I wish we could make it more futuristic.

We are going with a Dystopian Romance. Dystopian doesn't necessarily mean futuristic (I think)...

We could include someone else's plot/idea, the one that said that the place was secluded from the outside and secretly practices magic and wages war against all technology, and we could have the prince from the outside technology side and the girl from the inside magic side, forced into poverty with the capture of her parents who were fierce mages. That way we could include the future stuff and the magic stuff.

Am I making up an entirely different plot? Sorry, was just trying to mix some more ideas together :sweat:

dystopia

1. A vision of a future that is a corrupted (usually beyond recognition) utopian society
2. State in which the condition of life is extremely bad as from deprivation or oppression or terror

I was only fimiliar with the second definition, I ddn't know it had futuristic as a meaning too

Well, the timing can be in the future. People could make a mixture of modern and ancient technology/items. Who says that the palace need to be old and all? And of course, the prositute house could have a guzheng. ( Also, prostitutes back then are not just bar girl, they do err... provide that sort of service.) With that people can use their advance tehcnology. Magic could be secretly practice or something.

Death in the Family, will be gone for the next few days...understand this ok...

Hi guys, I'm back. I will post the prologue in the next few days.

Um, I don't think you should, I think we should talk that through first!

Well, he did come up with the plot, so the prologue should correspond with the original ideas concerning the plot, which come from the person who made the plot. We could talk it through if it's a problem, though...

We could talk it through if it's a problem, though...

I think that's a better first step.

Aparently, me word file for this was too big, about 3KB too big. This prologue is a lead in to the actual story. There might be some typos and it's the reason why I didn't want to be an editor lol. But I thought by doing this, we can actually see how well this type of writing style actually works. It is in a drama format, not necessarily for movies because I did not include camera angles and stuff so it is probably closer to plays but read it as though you're watching a movie.:)

I will submit the detailed plot summary after a little more discussion on what people feel about this prologue, what should be changed interms of settings and incorporating other plots and ect.

Plans from here on:

I will let the discussion continue for 1more week(May Change), and submit a detailed plot summary based on everything people have discussed on which may take me a few days to write. Once the summary is done, I will divide the team to intro/rising action/climax teams.

Of course, by then, I would have made sure that all members of the team has no unanswered questions on how the story should progress as well as all the characters that will be involved in, all twists to come in all sections to preserve consistency, ect ect.

The writing process I'm hoping will be done in 2-3month involving a submission of progress once every 2 weeks. More details on this matter will be posted once writing actually begins.

Here is one subplot...

Contrary to the prologue I submited up there, the story will be AU(Alternate Universe). Perhapse not too futuristic but it can be modern. The emperor had forbidden the practice of magic and Qing Liang's family was amongst the few that still practiced it against the law. Because magic is believed to be only fantasy to most commoners, they could not make an arrest and say it is because they practiced magic. Thus, they made up reasons for their arrest whether it was true or not. he thought about letting the prince(Age 12) have some field experience and thus, he sent the young royalty to carry out the arrest. Through the years, the prince begins to think that perhaps this "witch hunt" is wrong and begins to wonder why his father forbids them. He begins a secret investigation with a few of his most trusted generals and decided to make a prostitution house the location of meetings because it is a place no one will suspect him of going.

They just finish discussing their information they've gathered when the song on the Gu Zheng is heard. The melody immediately catches the attention of the prince and he asks the mistress of the house to bring him the the one playing the instrument. He brings her back as his servant and blah blah blah...(my orignal plot)

Sub plot 2...

China formed an alliance with Japan and Korea against the former two superpowers. The alliance known as "The Triad" consisted of China as the man power, Japan as technology, and Korea as resources. The war began when Japan managed to hack into the US's and Russia's security system and activated all photon weaponry. Korea and Japan was taken down after a surprise submarine assault and Air strike but thanks to Japan's advanced radar systems, much of their citizens managed to escape. Both country's leaders died during the war. The Korean leader Kim Tae Hong was killed while attempting to fly out of the country and the Japanese Emperor was assasinated by a bomb that was secretly planted in his drawer. Because of these facts, China has decided to make Japan and Korea a part of their nation until the two countries regain their strength.

Also, because of the two strikes, China was given more than enough time to build its defences on their coastline. The war continued on longer than what US and Russia had hoped. No resource, no military, no weapons, the two countries surrendered and spiraled down from there. However, China takes a tole from the war as well. Trying to support its own nation would not have been too bad but trying to support 3 nations after a war was a struggle. When the new emperor (The current) took over the throne, he decided to cut the support for the two countries by half. His intentions were to recover China back to its full strength, then put everything to Korea and Japan once China is well off. This thought was not too welcomed by Korea or Japan however and it seemed China was the center of all hatred in the world.

The two former superpowers, though badly wounded, still seeks a chance to take their revenge and this is when they hear rumours about a secret cult in China that practices their ancient magic...(I am still thinking of some way to smoothly incorporate why the Emperor does not want magic to be practiced and why he would go to such extent to destroy all trace of it. Of course, Qing Liang's family ancestry was believed to be the most gifted Qi masters and the typical gifted child thing. [they kept their knowledge VERY SECRETIVE!])

Anyone there? Extending discussion time by another week...

So after that, it will go 10-20 years into the future and talk about the prince and all that good stuff, right?

The second subplot is a good idea and the composers could go crazy with that one with Asian elements in the song, each trying to take over the song, but, like you've already mentioned, it gives no reason not to practice magic. The first subplot is okay and flows better, and I like the idea of the setting in the future because it gives the reason to hide magical knowledge and stuff, and composers could do great stuff with these ideas.

Overall, the first/original one is better choice :)

What I meant was the two plots are all part of the same story. Maybe Qing Liang becomes the center of attention after being realized that she was a heir of a powerful bloodline. As to the reason, the emperor purhaps realized that magic was a force too powerful for man to practice and started the ban. Also, he knew if the use of magic was to leak to other nations, there would be far greater catastrophies.

A bit out of order but here is what I have for the rest of subplot two, which also fuses in with subplot 1.

The prince and Liang falls in love and Liang tells him about her secret magical past she hid from him for all these years. (She still does not know it was the Prince who took her family's life). The prince refuses to believe her at first but after a long argument, he agrees for her to let her prove to him by showing her "magic".

Here is where the prince could tell her about the epic war involving the triads and how China had a secret society of magic that they were just about to send in when the two countries surrendered.

The Prince's story he uncovered after his years of research: At the time, the current emperor was still a child and when his father, the former highness, showed him of the magic users, he realized it was something too dangerous to continue on the spot. The moment he took his throne after the former's death, he tried to think of a way for the mages to stop their practice. However, he knew that if he simply told them this, it could cause a revolution that could tear china apart. This is why he organized an elite group of assasin to wipe out the entire team, quietly in stealth. The plan went with great success and all mages on the record was slaughtered. The night was never recorded into history but the prince had found this information on a journal that one of the previous mages kept. (There can be a whole story on the journal entry as well but we do not have to go into that with this sub-plot). The emperor later realized that many of these mages, though forbidden to marry, had secret families and that was when the witch hunt begun. There was one particular family that was repeatedly thought after and is also one of the most ancient. The family's name was lost but they possesed eyes that would turn to a misty blue when they used their magic. (Because one cannot see their own eyes, many of the family member did not realize this fact either, including Qing Liang.)

Here is where an interesting character can be added. Linjie Long (James Long) A double-agent (agent who works for bothsides) over hears their conversation. I see this agent as someone who is kind and caring and always smiling normally. He was born in the US who's father was an american agent and mother who was chinese, making him have the appearence of chinese. He is a character that no one would suspect to be a double agent and thus making him the perfect agent.

Because of the witch hunt, he was unable to submit a report on China's use of magic due to lack of proof. After hearing this and seeing the girl cast her spell, and also realizing she was from the elite mage bloodline from her eyes, he submits a report back to the US. Once receiving news of this, the US begins to organize their army once more, cutting their economic budget by half and putting the rest into military. This is the threat of war.

The prince is sent all over the country for preperations in the different regions for he was the one who was most knowledgable in battle tactics. While the prince is away, Long works his scheme by passively telling Liang about how the prince is the one who killed her family by telling her of the incident pretending not knowing that she was from the family. He had built his trust with Liang throughout the years, ever since the prince brought her to the palace for he knew the prince and her may very well fall in love from day one. Liang is devistated and this was when he tells her of an exagerrated tale about China slaughtering innocent people simply because they were suspected to know mages and tells her how he has been secretly freeing mages to a remote island.

The prince returns before Long is able to convince her to leave but he has gouged a huge scar on the two's relations. US continues to build its forces and began to send secret messages to other countries including Japan and Korea to join them in brining down China, though keeping their knowledge about mages in secret. Japan and Korea refused but replied saying they will not interfere if the US chose to attack and that was all that the US needed to hear. Because Russia is right beside China, the damaged they received during the war was too devestating so it could not participate. However, the US had created enough force to give China sufficient damage. To insure their victory, they needed to know the secrets of magic and for that, Liang was necessary.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooo

This should give you all a pretty good idea of what I see for the story. I have written the just of the story's rising action. Since I will not be writing the climax, I am leaving the actual even of the climax to the writer him/herself.

Me, RD, SBmocyarpir are the writers. Ajamesu, Clairnetist, Deathraider are the editors for us repectfully. All works finished by the writers will first go to the editors. I would greatly appreciate it if you could reply to tell me you are still interested in writing by submitting your idea for the portion you are writing.

Writing portions: I will be writing the introduction and the rising action. This is because I believe I know the main characters the most well and by having a good rising action, climax and ending would naturally come to other writers.

RD: Climax. This is simply because you were second to apply for the writing position. I would love to hear what you have planned for the climax after reading these plot summaries I submitted for rising action. You are writing the highest point of suspense of the story but I trust you will be up for the challenge. Please respond with this info so that I know you are still with us and wanting to write.

SBmocyarpir: the same thing goes to you as RD. You will be writing the ending, whether it will be happy, sad, tragedy, and/or any thing unexpected is up to you to decide. How the readers will feel once they finish the story will be fully under your control. It's going to be tough to think up something intreguingly unexpected but I'm sure you can do it. Please respond by submiting what you have planned for the ending of the story.

Also, to all members of the writing team, if you have MSN then please pm me it. It will be much easier to speak to you real time to clear up confusions or discussing ideas. I know the project is going slower than what some may wish it to go and I appologize to the composing team that is still waiting for some actual story contents to be written. I ask for your patience and dedication for I know this project can be done!

Oh, you're gonna incorporate both? Wow that's a good idea, I like it a lot :)

When you say Qing Liang is the heir to a powerful bloodline, do you mean her birth parents? How would she find out? Will her aunt tell her?

Other than that, wow, it's gonna turn out great :)

Lol it feels so sad though haha. You can still tell its the Bday song, kind of oxymoronic (sp?)..."wtf this was suppose to be a comment for Noir7's Bday song. How did it get on this thread?"....

Alright it doesn't look like the writer's are replying. Therefore, I've decided to look for new writers. If you wish to join the writing department of the project still, please either pm me or post that you wish to join as well as your idea for the climax or ending depending on the area you wish to write.

Please and thank you.

Sorry, I've been gone. I just am not liking the way this is being executed. I was REALLY hoping that ALL the writers would be involved in every step of the writing process. I don't know if that's the problem for everyone else, or if everyone else just doesn't care, but I really feel like you have taken over too much. Obviously, you know what you have in mind, and so I don't think the story will work in any other way but the way you write it. We can give you constructive criticism, but...

Edit: I just remembered that I'm not technically a writer, but still...

Steps to writing a story involves, brainstorming, planning, writing, revising. Brain storming was done through everyone on the forum in giving ideas of what kind of story they wanted to have. Planning is the stage we are on and about to finish.

Everyone must remember that the ideas I've given are only my ideas. I did not in no way order people to follow them. That is why I wanted to hear people's opinion on whether the way I planned it will work or not. People seem to assume that since I'm now the leader, they must follow the ideas I give. That is not the case at all. I am the leader so I am obligated to submit some sort of story idea whether they'd be accepted by the rest of the group or not. Then atleast I can say I did try to help even if my ideas are shot down.

It is not that I'm not giving people say. No one seemed to object, saying "No I don't think this story idea follow through will work because..." or , "Would an alternate plot twist such as...work as well." I wouldn't mind if someone else would come up with the entire rising action. So far, we've decided that the plot would follow the prince meets a girl in a prostitute house and brings her back with him and that they fall in love but she finds out that he was the one who killed her parents.

The detailed rising action plot I submited was after thinking how I could incorporate as much of other people's plots so that the story has something from all of the ideas each member submitted while keeping my own as the base idea.

It is impossible to have every member of the team to work on one chapter than the next. That is the same as doing a research paper with the entire group gathered around 1 computer. I initially wanted only 3 writers but after seeing how there were four who seemed to want the position, I increased it by 1 more. After the poll, it went to 3, which was a pleasant surprise for me and coincidentally, 3 editors were there as well. I have spoken with our BB through pm and I think he understands what his position is and what he must do now as well. Since we only have 1 BB, he can choose to do both bridges himself or ask for a writer for help.

My way of splitting will only work if all three writers understand the story completely and in the same way. If another writer wish to submit a different rising action to the base plot then by all means, he/she can write the introduction+rising action for he/she would know the storyline more than myself.

If as you say, we did this so that all writers are involved to create each section of the story then the story will not finish. At least not within the year. As we see here, people come on and off to this site and will usually check once every two three days. I also do not think people would stay with us all the way if we let this drag out for too long.

I have also asked for everyone's MSN on the writing team but so far, I've received two addresses and none of them are the writers. I have not heard from our two other writers for a long time now and that is why I've decided to look for new writers.

I've received no complaints on my plot after posting it for two weeks and so I assumed that people did not have problems with it. This is a discussion thread and if anyone have anything to say, no one is stopping them from saying it. In fact, I welcome any comments/criticisms/change of idea/new ideas. There are countless possibilities that can come from this base idea and I've only given one of them.

I gave specific instructions incase people didn't know what they need to do. If they disagree with my idea than they can just tell me the reason why. If they agree but does not know what to do then they can follow the instructions I've given them. In MY OWN OPINION, I thought this was the most efficient.

It's not your fault or anything, KK. I understand your position, since I see that hardly anyone is contributing other than you. I think people are just busy lately and forgot about this project.

I also understand Deathraider's perspective to some degree, though as the guideline I set before states: composers shouldn't really get involved with the writing.

I propose that Ajamesu or KK should organize each and every participating member to a role of some sort (so that they won't be lost and eventually lose interest), but because I'm not too familiar with the story or situation you people have so far, I couldn't really do anything except wait until everything is done, sorry.

Well, I am on the writing team, just I'm technically an editor. I like Sir_Dotdotdot's idea though, because I guess I'm feeling lost in your ideas at the moment. I guess I should shut up, though, since I'm not a writer...X_X

KK already emailed the two other writers with their roles and also posted them up here. They're not really that active, too, but the editors are, so we could have some or all of the editors become writers/editors if they're willing to. Tell KK or me if you want to help write.

Yes, if you are an editor and want to become a writer, just tell me. and don't worry deathraider, just cause you're an editor doesn't means your comments will be ignored. You are part of the writing team so it's all fine. The reason I limit to only memebers of the team is because I don't want 100ideas from random people cause that will just make things unable to move forward. But the 7 people we have in the team is fine. Also, composers are welcome to give ideas to help them create their music or how to establish some mood once chapters are comming out.

Am I still considered an "editor"? :unsure:

I like the story so far. I need to think about it some more until I can make some suggestions. I thought it over and I really think there's no better way than the one we came up with for what you we are trying to do than the way we are doing it because of lack of initiative in the people that committed to the project.

If you need me to help writing, I would be happy to do so.

Clairnetist: That depends, do you want to transfer to the writers group or stay as an editor? If you want to transfer to the writers group then I would need you to give your idea on either; how to change the current idea; a climax; an ending. One of the three, preferably the latter two cause it would save some time lol.

Deathraider: If you would become a writer that would be great. Req is the same as stated above though. :)

Here's an idea: two writers could write the climax and two writers could write the ending. It'll be hard to write it together, so how about they write it individually, looks over the others and then decide whose ideas should be used (or we could have another poll). Then the editors look over it, then blah, blah, blah...

Would that idea not make one of the two writer's work meaningless? Plus, the writer who did not get his/her idea used will not be feeling too welcomed if we were to do a poll. If the two writers write in discussion base, the project will be delayed alot longer. I thought that once the writer finishes, the editor will be the one who will discuss with the writer to some possible alterations if necessary. This is also why I wanted one editor per writer. Editing does not only involve spelling and grammar.

Writer writes the first copy--> First edit: Checks for story content, flow, plot organization, characterization, setting complication, ect ect-->Writer rewrites accordingly once the terms are agreed with the editor--> Second Edit: Editor re-reads and do a db check on all aspects on the story indicated above--> Writer fine tunes---> Third Edit: Grammar, spelling, wordchoice, sentence structures. (This editor will change this on the copy the writer will send.)--->Writer reads over the story to make sure no ideas were changed while correcting sentence structures.---> Final copy is submited on Ichigos.

This was the type of discussion I was thinking of between writer and editor. Once these are completed, two bridges will be necessary between the rising action and climax; and the climax and ending.

Bridgebuilder writes the bridge-->Sends to the designated editors. (Please discuss about the bridge over a live chat. Make an appointment with eachother.)--> Once grammar, spelling ect is done then the bridgebuilder will send the final product to me. I will put all 5 files into one and the story is completed.

oooooo

This is a summary of what my plans were. There are still a minimum of two people to discuss over each section of the story and I think that is enough. In MY PERSONAL opinion, I think this is an efficient way of organizing this project.

If all goes smoothly, I am hoping to finish everything before summer ends. Once school starts again, I'm sure things won't go as quickly. Also, I'm sure there are people who will be leaving for summer vacations so given those possible conditions, I believe the end of summer is a logical goal for us to aim for.

OK, one suggestion I have: could you tell more about the double-agent character (such as developing/telling his motives and also developing/telling the reason that no one would suspect him of being a double agent).

Also, in my opinion, we need to straight out, right now, name what themes we are aiming to express through the story (they don't have to be extremely profound). Also, we need to think about some writing style elements such as symbols that we want to appear throughout the story.

Oh, ok, that works out better.

Deathraider: I take it from this reply that we are following the rising action I planned? Give me some time to answer this post. I am trying to think of a good background for the agent. I have troubles when it comes to summarizing my stories into themes haha.

Clairnetist: That depends, do you want to transfer to the writers group or stay as an editor? If you want to transfer to the writers group then I would need you to give your idea on either; how to change the current idea; a climax; an ending. One of the three, preferably the latter two cause it would save some time lol.

I think I'll stay with editor, because I just had to take a graduation test on writing, and I think I may have failed it x_x . I can't get too creative with writing, basically -_-.

I have troubles when it comes to summarizing my stories into themes haha.

Why don't you post some of your ideas and we can discuss it here on this thread (or you we can debate them a bit after you finish them, I just thought it would help if you got some of your ideas out there and then we helped you solidify them).

Another issue: I personally think that the writers should discuss (possibly away from this thread so we don't ruin the ending for people) exactly how they want the story to end. Many authors say that this is the best way to write a story.

BTW, sorry if I sounded too harsh earlier, I just was kind of disappointed that I didn't get to help more with the making of the plot. It couldn't really have been helped, though.

Na. I did tell the writing team to give me their MSN but I still only received Ajamesu and Meim's so far. Aja says that he wouldn't mind helpin as long as he can go at his own pace which I agreed to as long as he tells me what his plans are for the climax or ending. I've been busy with my finals these days so I haven't had too much time to come on the thread. THey will be done next week so if I have been kind of in and out these past few days, that is the reason.

Well, what kind of ideas do you see from the two posts relating to the story plot I posted already? I'm still thinking about how to establish the agent's character and his past.