Story/novel idea

[Dark_Crozius]

Hi all. After reading quite a few Black Libary novels i've decided to try my hand at writting for myself.

 

After several failed attempets to come up with something 100% original and then failing to write it in a decent way i've decided to take a friends advice. Put simply, use an existing narrative from somewhere else and use the bits you like in a 40k setting. At first i was very against this as it's basicaly ripping someone elses work off but my friend ( a rather good writer) put it to me like this: When you first start out your trying to develop your skills at story telling. Setting the scene with words, conveying characters etc- untill you master these skills it dosent matter what your story is, it's not going to live up the potential (i think he put it like 'an amazing spider-man story with stick men- learn to draw first')

 

Ok, so i was thinking i want to use the basic outline from the Star wars force unleashed game, but then tweek it into something more 40k and hopefully more original (and cooler in the process) Heres what i came up with:

 

 

Blades of Horus

 

Basicaly the sorcerer Zaphistion (sp?) assembling himself a secret team of powerfull psykers, training them up and putting them threw trials so that the numbers dwindle threw 'survial of the fittest' till only one survives to furfill the mission- kill Abaddon.

 

I know this is'nt the coolest idea around, but theres two things that excite me about it that could be intresting.

 

First of all this is a story set in current day 40k, but looks abit into the history of the Black Legion from a diffrent perspecitve. Zaphistion is assembling this team to kill the leader of his legion. Why? Because he hates him with a passion as do many of them. Theres a group within the Black Legion who still cling to the idea and dream of Horus and resent the fact that the legion has been turned from trying to unite humanity under Chaos to strengthen it against the threats of the galaxy, a 'dark imperium under chaos' kind of thing which i believe was Horus goal originaly, he did'nt want to simply destroy the imperium, he wanted to rule it and over throw the Empeoror- at least thats the way me (and in this story Zaphistion) see it. Now the Black Legions goals seem to be simply destroy the Imperium in the name of vengence.

They also resent the fact that the legion they where proud of serving, the Sons of Horus, is now gone. The painting of the legions armour black seen as extreme desecration to the armour they wore with pride.

 

This is only a small unhappy group so they lack the strength to do anything about this untill Zaphistion starts building his small cadre of potential pychic assasins.

 

The second thing i think may be intresting is the fact that the story follows the team (and more importantly the main characters 'two', 'six' and 'seven') as they are training to be chaos space marines. The Gene seed of Horus is still being implanted into them and they wear carapace armour. I'm trying despratley not to use the term 'chaos scouts' but basicaly thats what they are. They get sent of on suicide missions to toughen them up whilst training.

 

To my knowlage theres never been any fluff/ novels written about chaos marines in training (let alone ones who are all high level potential pskers) so would be intresting. If i'm wrong and there is fluff about chaos training please let me know!

 

 

Ok rant over. Now the big question: Is this total rubbish and there for not worth the time it would take to write or is this something people may actualy be intrested reading? Please let me know.

 

P.S Do any writers on this have any adivce of writing your first novel?

[Warsmith Aznable]

I kind of like the idea of Horus loyalists scattered in the current Black Legion. Or, if that doesn't jive, a hidden enclave who split when Abaddon changed the name, maybe existing in sanctuary somewhere but using old contacts and knowledge to get into and out of Black Legion strongholds. I'm working up a series of short stories about a couple of characters becoming Chaos Marines myself, but it's a different idea than yours, so it might be interesting to read your take on it.

 

It's said that there are seven stories in the world, and Shakespeare wrote them all. The idea is that basically nothing is really all that original, everything being a variation on the same few basic themes with just enough twist thrown in to make it different enough to read. The hit movie Avatar, for instance, was more or less a retelling of the story of Pocahontas, just set in space with sexy blue aliens. The Horus Heresy is just a retelling of the Jewish 'war in heaven' myth, with Horus playing the part of Satan taking a third of his angels in war against Yahweh and then existing in the hell of the 'Eye of Terror' to wage corrupting war on mankind. The WH40k universe is almost nothing but re-tellings of other stories, so absolutely do not sweat that. Just write something fun to read and nobody will care much. One place to look for all kinds of fiction conventions is tvtropes.org One could spend hours reading through that site getting ideas of what might work how and maybe what to avoid as cliché. It's also just entertaining.

 

And writing your first novel: I wrote an entire book of about 100,000 words using an outline. Outlines are essential to keeping organized and sane. They also help break up the writing into manageable chunks. Without an outline I started about a dozen projects that never got finished, but with an outline and a plan I was able to slog through to the very end. I learned a lot writing that awful, awful story, and what I did after that was to use what I learned to write much better short stories, with an eye toward working my way back to writing a much better second novel with the experience.

 

With writing it's practice, practice, practice, which in turn is writing, writing, writing.

[Yogi]

"training them up and putting them threw trials so that the numbers dwindle threw 'survial of the fittest"

 

Stopped reading there. If you going to be a writer, perhaps using the right words is a start.

[Lady_Canoness]

My advice for writing any novel is to not actually set out to write a novel. Start with a short story, then build on it and build on it some more. The great thing about this take is that it starts the ball rolling (which I find is one of the most important parts in writing) and lets you begin with a highly interesting sequence that can set the stage for what is to come and get your readers excited about it.

 

Next thing is definately style, structure, and imagery. This is, in my opinion, a huge sticking point - I have seen a lot of fanfics (lets face it, everyone's work starts as a fanfic) that absolutely suck because they have no style, structure, or imagery. You MUST set the mood and draw people in - not just report action and happening. With these three you can make the mundane life-like, or (if you fail at it) the thrilling very, very dull. Don't expect to be able to write worth a damn cold turkey (reading does not translate into writing) but work your way up to it. Even now I look back on some of my earlier chapters and find myself shaking my head.

 

Third is character development: 2D characters will kill a story faster than anything ever witnessed. Get in their heads and in their hearts - make it so that you reader feels as if the character is living and breathing just next to them (unless you want them to be hostile, in which case make everything about them rub the wrong way.)

 

Also, I suggest doing some background research and reading into different styles, techniques and ways of thinking. Reading philosophy and classical literature from multiple eras/cultures is a great way to get the creative juices flowing.

 

Writers often talk about the 'muse', and in this regard they could not be more correct: either you catch it or you don't. Inspiration and the flow of words onto paper (or screen) is very hard to get right, and even if you once have it you can lose it only to refind it. Don't force it, but let it flow. I've spent about 3 years working on my series and am still not satisfied (and as such it is still burried in the Inquisition forums rather than gracing the shelves), so don't think you can get this all in one go. Writing is a skill, and not everyone comes to it easily.

[Rain]

The idea sounds a lot like the plot from the Force Unleashed Star Wars game, and sorry but I really don't like it. There may be a way to spin it to make it interesting, but I doubt it. Oh and I really disagree with LC that reading a lot does not translate into writing. Of course writing is important in of itself, but I think that one should read quite a lot and quite often to consider picking up the proverbial pen, and that that reading does indeed help a lot when it comes both to plotting and style.

 

Which brings me to my last point, sorry, but as Yogi (kind of) pointed out, your style, at least in your post, seems very amateurish which is a big turn-off in fan fics in general, especially as writing fiction is in my opinion extremely hard unless you have a natural gift for language and nurture that gift with continuous reading and writing. That said, whatever floats your boat man and if you're just doing this for fun and not for attention/money all the more power to you.

 

If you are going to do this though, I recommend you read Honor Among Fiends, a short story in the Heroes of the Space Marines anthology which features disillusioned Black Legion characters in a kind of Sisyphean cycle that is pulled off very well.

 

Edit: Must be going blind, I see that you mentioned that you are using TFU as a template somehow I missed that sentence when I first replied. In any case, I still don't think it's that great of an idea, you should try stealing from better sources that a mediocre hack n slash.