The way I am pronouncing it is (Kai-ah-see-ta), but I don't make a pronunciation key for my novels like Tolkien does. In my Spiritual Warfare Sage, I depict my bad guys as a large class of creatures that I call Fallen, which essentially represent demons or a personification of evil characters/things. I give each one some kind of animal physical characteristics mixed with some others so these are not meant be good looking things. Caecita is a spider-like creature somewhat smaller in scale to Shelob from LOTR, but very different in terms of function and character.

Caecita is a legion which from studies of Mark 5 reveal a large multitude of demons. Her character works great with deceit so to make her a very formidable foe, when she shows up, so do 1,000 or more identical copies of her, which are all puppets under her command. My heroes are going to have to find a way to identify which one is the real one, while not being poisoned or blinded in the process. And in the first battle with her, she easily defeats four heroes at once. To defeat her, my characters are going to have to learn true faith by fighting blindfolded (as to not get blinded) and putting their trust and their skills in the hands of the Lord. It's going to be deep stuff and I'm excited to see how it's going to turn out.

I’m so happy to hear about the progress your book is making FencerforJesus!
I can’t wait to see what the cover is going to look like!
And Caecita sounds like a very interesting character , I can’t wait to read your story when it comes out!

I on the other hand I have make zero progress on my story , November and December were very busy months for me, I had to do a painting for my uncle so he could give it to someone as a Christmas gift. So all my time went into that!
One of my New Year’s Resolutions is to complete a very good first draft for my book. I really want to get going on the writing and get what has been in my head on paper!

I was thinking of making a Narnia- reminiscent book. What I mean by that is I was going to follow C. S. Lewis' style of writing: simple, un-descriptive (for the most part) and child-understandable (not really a word, I'm sure ). Anyway, it was going to be about kids going to other worlds, but NOT Narnia, or copying his works or anything. DO you think reading about something like that would be interesting?

So far I've decided that two rich children who hate their way of life (Alice and Arthur) meet up with a poor boy (George), who is jealous of their money and their father's political power. The children meet when Alica and Arthur uncover a map under an apple tree in their yard that leads them to George's house, and they discover that they need to find a certain key. George finally finds one in his yard, and the children are thrown together on a quest in search of what is really important.

That's what I have, and some of it was "decided" on the spot! Anyway, what do you think of a work like that?

Lu

I think that has potential. It sounds like an interesting story.
Right now, I'm getting bored with my story. Two characters have just nearly drowned in an accident with an overturned canoe, someone who was thought to be dead will turn out not to be. I think the title doesn't fit but I can't think of a new one. Another one will have to be totally rewritten, and I have developed a strange tendency to hit my characters with financial penalties. Weird.

Thanks! Will have to keep writing (wrote a TINY bit yesterday night...)

I hope you work things out, Lady Haleth.

Lucy of Narnia, that sounds very interesting! Update us as your story develops.

I'm going to break up my story and reorganize it. I got some work for 2011! Can't wait until I sort through all the mess and clean it up!

I was reading Creating Gollum: How We Made Movie Magic (er well, I think that's the title) and Andy Serkis mentioned how he saw Gollum as someone in the latter stages of a terminal illness and Frodo in the first stages and how Frodo has to be able to save Gollum to save himself and this gave me an idea to tweak!

Not sure yet if this will be in my C. S. Lewis-reminiscent-book or another but I got two characters, and the one is literally terminally ill with some strange disease (in another world) and he is trying to save the other terminally ill man, his friend, who is so close to death. He himself is at the earliest stages, only having just found out, and he tells himself he'll either save his friend or die trying- which is really him trying to prove that he can save himself, so he thinks he will die trying not to die, but he doesn't realize how silly that is. So that's going to be his story-line. Hey, I think I might put it in this one...course I was thinking about also making a Tolkien-reminiscent-book ...don't think I'm ready for that one yet! If I make it too deep I might never finish it! And so I think I'll put it in this book.

Lu

Might I join you in that New Years' Resolution, 7? My draft needs work, and it still has a gaping hole where words should be! It's a strange feeling, really. I want to write so bad! But the words won't come, and I've taken to reading instead for long periods of time.

That sounds interesting, Lu! My, you seem to have lots of ideas floating around in your head. I wish I was as inspired as that.

Right now, I'm at the part where two characters get into an argument, which ultimately ends with one character leaving the group and running away. In my first draft, the reason for the argument was different. But now that I'm rewriting it, it seems I don't have enough substance to compensate for that character's actions. I feel that the argument should be longer and more heated than it is, but I don't know what else to add. I'm stuck. Any suggestions?

Hmm, can you tell me the previous reason, and a little about the characters? I'd be thrilled to give it a go!

Oh, and Silver (may I? ), it is not like this always, aha, no. What I typed so far seems funny, and I mean I wrote a tiny bit so far. None added today-yet. But you've inspired me!

Off to write, Lu

(Yes, feel free to call me Silver )

Well, let's see. The original reason had to do with character #1 trusting someone that character #2 did not, so #2 was trying to talk #1 out of trusting them. But the person in question got taken out during my rewrite because he really didn't have any other reason for being in the story. It took me a while, but I finally came up with another reason for the argument that fit perfectly into the story.

Character #1 has a habit of making rash decisions and trying to help people without necessarily taking into account the consequences of his actions. He's a bit spontaneous. Character #2 is sort of quiet, bitter, hesitant to trust. He keeps his emotions bottled up until eventually they explode all at once. Basically, #1 made some rash decisions that nearly got them killed, and as a result, their enemies discovered their camp and stole all their provisions and their horses. #1's choices were really for the better because they saved the life of a different character, but #2 blames #1 for what happened. The argument then progresses to the two of them reminding each other of how they've saved each other's lives in the past - the whole "Don't forget, I saved your life! You owe me this! You owe me that!" type of deal. Eventually they start insulting one another's linage, and one of #1's remarks hits #2 too deeply. They scuffle, another character breaks them up, and then #2 runs off.

It sounds like a lot, but it still feels too short of an argument to make #2 want to run away. I have foreshadowed this a couple of times though, where they almost start to argue but then something stops them. Hmm....

Let me give that some thought, Silver, but I think if you do as more foreshadowing and explaining ahead of time, even a few words can make someone go off. Like for example, how Peter says to Caspian "You and your father ..." and with those simple words, it was all over with. Maybe you can show them resisting arguing, but at last it hits too deep. Also, you might try to make sure that the person who leaves has no other reasons to stay anymore (don't know if that's possible as I don't know what the "team" is-he might be forced to stay, or have reasons to stay that can't be broken, like other people, etc.). But anyway, that's my first take on it. This is fun! Does this help any?

Lu

*edit* My story's actually kind of fun to write! Yay! It's coming...

Might I join you in that New Years' Resolution, 7?

The more the merrier!

I was just wondering, does anyone else write the history of their world?
I find myself wanting to have the whole world laid out before I start writing my story to give the story some depth.
Book two of my three books has a lot to do with the lore of my world.
I was just curious if anyone else liked to write their worlds history as well.

hello fellow writers!
just wondering, has anyone ever heard of One year adventure novel? it's a curriculum designed for the begining writer and helps with learning story techniques and pretty much anything else a writer wonders. I'm doind it, and there is no way I would have ever written anything if it weren't for OYAN.
www.oneyearnovel.com

my novel's coming along pretty good. don't know if anyone wants to hear about it?

I was just wondering, does anyone else write the history of their world? I find myself wanting to have the whole world laid out before I start writing my story to give the story some depth.

I certainly agree that doing so can give the story added depth!

Almost all of my recent writing has been set in the same world, so some of its history has been developed already. I'm lazy though, since the setting is a world very similar to ours much of the work is already done.

However, in my longer works, such as my NaNo stories for the last 2 years, I've been exploring the past experiences of my 2 main characters - especially in this year's story, which was largely devoted to a detailed development of past events in their lives that I've only hinted at in earlier stories.

So I've developed a timeline of the major events in their lives (not only ordinary events like how they meet, their wedding, and the arrival of the kids, but also some of the more dramatic things that happen to them). It's helped me keep track of things, though it's very much a work in progress. It isn't quite a history of the world, but it's history nonetheless.

Will have to check out One Year adventure, narniahannah, and I'd love to hear about your story!

I haven't written the history, but that's a great idea! *starts thinking about her story...*

I have decided to try to write 5 books in the series. The first three books have Alice, Arthur and George in them; then they are never to comeback, except for Arthur who has become a sort of legend and who can be called back any number of times. (sound familiar in a way? ) So he comes back for book 4, with his 'adopted sister', Leona (she's almost like a sister to him but they are not actually in the same family), and in book 5 just Leona comes back, as Arthur has transferred his call-ability to Leona. I may write more, but 5 is ambitious enough, right?

The Series is called The Burgeodoen Chronicles (a random creation, which thanks to my sister trying to say it ( ), plus me looking closely at is is now to be pronounced 'burg-ee-oh-doe-en'. The place the kids visit is Burgeodoa 'burg-ee-oh-doe-uh'. And I have sort of a mini-thought for each book, like what happens in Burgeoda to the kids.

So, things are looking up.

Lu