This is a thread for all the writers on the board. What, if anything are you working on now? Are you stuck? Need inspiration? Character names? Just someplace to bounce ideas around? This is a place for that.

As the creator, I'll go first.

So I've started this project that includes Tarot as a thematic element, and I've realized that I don't know quite so much about the symbolism/meanings of the cards as I thought I did. I've done some light research using wikipedia, but can anyone recomend some books or well regarded websites on the Tarot, particularly the Major Arcana?
Thanks,
Hugh

Cool idea, Lone Phoenix! Are there a lot of writers on the boards? Hopefully, we'll all join in and be able to glean inspiration from each other. I can't wait to see what everyone else is working on. Don't know if I'll be able to help you out very much with specifics on the Tarot stuff, but if you need an extra pair of eyes to read what you've been doing, let me know.

Hope no one minds if I jump in. Right now, I'm trying to finish up my novel. I think I'm about 80% done with the first draft. It's somewhat political, making the organized church into a totalitarian government, but I wanted the protagonist to have some deep founded spirituality himself, but very different in practice from the rulers of the land. As a result, he gets branded a terrorist. I think Bono said something about organized religion being the antithesis of God and spirituality, and I'm playing with that idea. Hopefully, it'll be fun to read, too.

So yeah, 80% done, but I'm finding it very hard to finish that first draft. Gotta keep plowing away at it.

If anyone wants to read the first chapter, it won a contest over at http://www.pariahpublishing.com/winner_fallen.htm I posted it once before. Hope no one minds.

Thanks for letting me join in the discussion -- it's nice to know there are other struggling writers out their, trying to crack through.

I'm currently working on the 3rd draft of a novel, which is also Tarot-related. I would highly recommend 78 Degrees of Wisom by Rachel Pollack.

I'm working on a sort of weird novel, based on an idea I've had in my head for some time. That idea is based on the question of why there aren't any great superhero novels? They translate so well to comic books, film, and video games, but why aren't they found in old fashioned just-words-on-a-page books? So I'm trying to write a novel that explores basic themes and ideas of costumed crime-fighting. But in my spare time; I'm mostly just a student.

Thanks, Jeff. I'll look for it after I get paid tomorow.
I have about five different ideas that I want to work on all at once, but I'm not very far on any of them. They are all fantasy fiction set in the same Universe, although not all of the works happen in the same era. Mostly, I have a lot of notes, character sketches and first pages. Hopefully, after I graduate I will be able to devote more time to writing.

I am working on the script of a comic book called Ogre, itll sit as an allegory for the way americans treat forign people, namely middle eastern people. There is already going to be one great scene in a bar where Grigor(the Ogre) is face to face with skinheads who keep calling him either a troll or a gremlin and he explains that his part of the world is completely different from those parts. How he is Christian and fled his country cuz the Trolls(who recently plotted terrorist attacks the city where Grigor now lives) tried to force their country into debt, and a more extreme religion, and so Grigor, trying to do what was right for his family fled.

I have some interviews to conduct with many different Middle Eastern families before I finish the script entirely, but I want it to sort of be mystical and spiritual like Sandman and honest and compassionate like persepolis or maus.

Hopefully it all works well and when I get the script done, hopefully I can find the perfect artist.

Right now, am writing a piece of HP fluff as a gift to a good friend who lives in a different country. (Said friend's secret passion is HP fics. Weird.)

Also working on a fantasy story, but I'm having a bit of a trouble with the plot - and I do want to finish the plot before I start writing seriously..

i'm not writing but i constantly think of reviving this character from long again. she's too good of a character to let die.

Hi Phoenix,

This may sound dumb, but have you tried browsing through the local library? I prefer this to amazoning, because just flipping through the books gives you a good idea of which book is good and which is too shallow.
Don't know a thing about tarot, unfortunately.

I am writing alterative history: somthing set shortly before the March Revolution of 1848 in Vienna (yes, it's that specific). The premise is that psychokinetic skills and other things like "mindreading" are, well, not everyday, but more common than they are with us. Due to a past war and other stuff, people who have these formerly respectable abilities are being ostracised. I'm working all sorts of things like censure, absolutism and of course revolution into this. It's great fun, but I keep having to borrow huge piles about Biedermeier-culture from the library! For instance I now know everything about the life of whores (a major pillar of economy) in the late 1840s.

I could use more information about the state of installation, lighting and heating in houses of that period, though.

quote:

Also working on a fantasy story, but I'm having a bit of a trouble with the plot - and I do want to finish the plot before I start writing seriously..

Want help with that?

the end of the year is coming up, so i have the following assigments due: a 3,000 word Experimental Writing portfolio and a 2,000 word Professional Writing portfolio

i'm not sure WHAT i'm doing for the former... i might use pictures i've taken of the city and do something with that, but i'm really not sure. any ideas?

with the latter, i'm doing a review of a show i saw (written), a Gonzo account of a trip to a nearby city (will be written) and a creative non-fiction/immersion piece on the Sydney indie rock scene. i haven't started even researching it (beyond seeing shitloads of bands), though

none are really fantasy related. any ideas would be appreciated...

For your experimental writing, you should write either an FAQ/walkthrough or a rulebook for life as if it were an RPG.

...

that is SO not a bad idea

and my tutor is young and pretty nerdy, so he won't be all OMFG WTF?

I'm still working on Changing Paths..my baby, my novel. The first draft is finished, but I really have to get back to editing it.

Right now I am writing fragments: scenes, quotes, thoughts, feelings, some occassional poems even. Anything that really comes to mind. And perhaps, there may be a way to unify them. One day.

But right now, I'm just playing with them. And having too much fun. Way too much.

i just finished writing an article on hurricane katrina. that was tough.

now i have loooaaads of time to resume my short story writing... if it weren't that my computer's broken

i started a short story called "Guard at the Gate" its about the end of the world.

working on a few different things:

"Madelyna and the Land of Dolls", a novel
"The Greatest Love Story Ever Told", a novel
"Ilya", a novel
"Winter Butterfly", a short story
"A Lullaby Falls in the Rain", a short story
"The Reflection of a Broken Mirror", a short story
"Shiver", a poem
"December Frost", a poem
"Fear, Death, Anger", a movie script
"The Longest Night", a movie script
"Los Saintos", a graphic novel (with my cousin)

My friend the artist is still occasionally working on a graphic novel I wrote about a character in 1984 for AP English last year. We wound up showing the teacher my copious notes and his initial sketches and getting full marks, and I'm hoping Brandon will finish it before Christmas.

At the moment, I'm studiously not writing one of the two essays I have due in the next week. Maybe I should get on that.

I am rewriting the end of the version of A Christmas Carol that we do, giving all of Future's lines (yes, he talks) to Scrooge (so he doesn't talk like he's supposed to.)