Clarion 2011 Write-a-Thon, Week One

On the first week of the Write-a-Thon I had my focus on things unrelated to writing (but equally, if not more, important), so I am a bit late to answer the challenge for the first week. But here I go:

1. Who is the character whose actions and decisions most drive your novel?  (We will call this person the hero.)

My goal is to write a short story in English from srcatch, so my answers will refer to that (although I am also translating a piece that already exists in Hungarian as part of the Write-a-Thon). So my hero is Drenia, a veterinarian and a mother  whose husband and older child turned into avatars  so she decides to strike back and kill the god Mór.

2. Describe your hero in five words or less.

Strong, stubborn, resourceful, driven.

3. What has to happen for your audience to know that the novel is over?  (We will call this the goal.)

The god Mór must die and a new era should begin where  worshipping gods is not a biological drive (it is here in this world).

4. Describe this goal in ten words or less.

Drenia must kill a god to liberate mankind.

5. What is the one most profound or pervasive reason that your hero cannot accomplish the goal right away? (We will call this the primary obstacle.)

Gods have power and lots of fanatic believers who would do anything to keep up a status quo that provides miracles and instant healing, and Drenia is just a widowed veterinarian with a newborn baby to take care of.

6. Describe the primary obstacle in ten words or less.

Gods are not easy to kill.

7. What person most clearly drives, creates, or causes the primary obstacle? (We will call this person the antagonist.)

The god Mór, but the real antagonist is the system, the people who believe in their gods and would do anything for them, and the firm belief that this is the only reasonable way to live.

8. Describe your antagonist in five words or less.

Fanatic, inexorable, your neighbors and friends.

9. Look at the answer to question 2, and find three other sf&f novels whose hero could also be described in these exact or very similar words.

Tiffany Aching from the Wee Free Men books, Elphaba from Wicked, Mae from Air.

10. Look at the answer to question 4, and find three other sf&f novels whose conflict could be described thus.

Slaying gods is pretty common but the reason behind killing this particular god is something I have not encountered before (if I did I wouldn’t want to write it so much). If I am going after feeling, I would say It or Mistborn.

11. Look at the answer to question 6, and find three other sf&f novels with the same basic primary obstacle.

If by “god” we mean a very powerful being, Kingdom of Thorn and Bone and pretty much all the fantasy novels where the archenemy is a powerful mage/god/being.  Again: It, Mistborn.

12. Look at the answer to question 8, and find three other sf&f novels whose antagonist meets this description.

Where the system itself is the antagonist: Fahrenheit 451, The Handmaid’s Tale, Never Let Me Go and loads of others.

13. Which novels appear more than once in your answers to questions 9-12?  List them here by name.

It, Mistborn.

14. List the ways in which your novel stands in stark contrast to each of the novels listed in question 13.

The approach of my short story is  a very rational one, in spite of it being about gods and god-slaying. Also, Drenia does not face the god because she is forced to or else she will perish, but because she  wants to kill belief.

Clarion UCSD Write-a-Thon

Egyik nagy álmom, hogy egyszer eljutok valamelyik Clarion műhelybe, és végigcsinálom a hat hetet olyan írók keze alatt, akiktől tanulni maga a csoda (idén például a Clarion UCSD oktatói Elizabeth Bear, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Kij Johnson, John Scalzi, John Kessel és David Anthony Durham). Anyagi körülményeim sajnos nem olyanok, hogy ez egyhamar megvalósulhasson, viszont idén lehetőség nyílt arra, hogy itthonról is valamilyen módon csatlakozhassam a műhelyhez.

A Clarion West és a Clarion UCSD kiírta a Write-a-Thont, ami a tényleges műhelyekkel párhuzamosan fut. A résztvevő írók kitűznek egy célt maguk elé, amit a hat hét alatt teljesítenek, a toborzott szponzorok pedig annyit adományoznak a célra, amennyit akarnak. A pénz a Clarion Alapítványhoz kerül, hogy minél több írónak nyújthasson szakmai segítséget.

Idén azt vállaltam, hogy lefordítom a Saltimus Bór és az elfeledett kéziratok ármádiáját angolra, és egyik tervemet már eleve angolul írom meg. Remélem, sikerül határidőre. (Utána pedig jöhet az írótábor.)

A Clarion UCSD Write-a-Thonhoz íróként és szponzorként egyaránt csatlakoztam – szeretném, ha más írók is lehetőséget kapnának. Adományozz te is, hogy minél többen megkaphassák azt a szakmai támogatást, amit a több évtizedes múltra visszatekintő alapítvány nyújtani tud! Az én írói oldalam a Write-a-Thonon itt található.

Az írók listáján nem csak engem találsz meg, hanem egy másik magyart is, Körmendi Ágnest. Az ő vállalásáról itt olvashatsz. Támogass minket, akár egyetlen dollárral!