So if you’ve been following along with the madness that comes with my obsession with writing, you’ll know that I took the jump from excel spreadsheets to a writing wiki to organize my writing. If you haven’t been, well, today is a fantastic progress update so I’ll explain the methods behind the latest stint at the wheel of a ship called creative madness!
As you can see in the title, I am talking about creating a writing wiki. You may wonder why that is any different than writing for a wiki. There are indeed many parallels, and I have enjoyed learning the wiki syntaxes alongside my writing. It gave me the perfect reason to take a break and think about something other than the world I am creating. Also writing an article for a wiki is fun, but using it for a story to organize your thoughts is an incredibly powerful tool.
The wiki page is simply that of a text editor, but through valid and important linking you create actual notes and links from one section to another. Planning foreshadowing and adding layers of depth to the story has been easier than just writing. Normally I do what I would call “free writing” where I have an idea where I want the story to go and start off almost on the adventure myself. As I write, new ideas present themselves and I begin to get distracted. This is the first time I have ever managed to plan an entire novel (just completed the chapter summaries). The fun thing is making the beginning of the story have significant relevance to the end of the story while both tie into the title of my story: Fabled.
As the hero, Brennet Vanniston, stuggles to understand why his brother left him before his eighth birthday, his mother reads him the story of the three monsters of creation (A lore I adapted to my story from stories from history). Within a few years, he quickly finds his life spiralling upwards and beyond his control. Finding himself travelling the lands of Ethos and uniting the kingdoms against Death himself, Brennet quickly finds himself the protagonist of his own story.
The story at the moment has a few possible endings (One definitive for a one off novel, one to set up a single sequel and one to set up a trilogy), I have been focusing on the trilogy ending in hopes of writing another story in the same world. After all, I’ve done lots of planning in this world, why wouldn’t I want to make more stories in it? Also the Vanniston lineage is a history rich blood line with a rags to riches story. The evolution of the name from as far back as the little known Nistons to the destiny changing Vlad Van Niston shows how one moment can completely change a family’s course forever.
To give you a bit of insight into the great ancestor of Brennet Vanniston, Vlad Van Niston was actually originally a blacksmith by trade. A man who saw forging weapons and wielding them as one and the same, he quickly became known through tournaments in the King’s name. He practised often with the weapons he crafted, and this lead to his advantage with many different types of arms. Also he was secretly ambidextrous, but he was afraid to use his left hand as it was considered a sign of evil lurking within. Vlad found himself recruited into the Kingsguard for his skill as a blacksmith, but eventually found himself fighting on the front lines after single-handedly fending off attackers at their camp.
Vlad’s defining moment was in the great battle for the kingdom of Anglia. He had just turned twenty and before they could celebrate, shadows fell over the camp, slaughtering half the men in mere minutes. Alarmed by the ambush, Vlad with sword and shield, leapt haphazardly into the fray. He met a man who met his every swing perfectly, and matched his speed and accuracy. As the two men danced in the flickering light of the camp fire, all eyes turned to them. The blades sung out as they sliced the air perfectly, almost in eagerness for the taste of blood. Suddenly Vlad felt his sword turning unnaturally in his hand, it seemed the other man was about to disarm him. In his panic, Vlad dropped his shield and caught the falling sword in his left hand; his sword sang as it cleaved easily through his opponent’s wrist. The other sword’s slight blue glow landed in Vlad’s right hand, and with both blades, he ended the war.
Vlad’s story continues as he learns from his captive enemies that the sword is ancient, its old master called it Revenant. Adopting the sword as his own, he continued fighting with the King’s armies until he passed the sword down to his son upon his retirement. The sword then was passed down through the ages, usually to the first born son, but only when the father retired from battle. As Vlad’s skill dramatically improved his family’s wealth and reputation, the tradition of naming your son or daughter with the middle name “Van” became a popular practice. This eventually lead to the surname of Vanniston, which brings us to our hero, Brennet.
This is one of the many pieces of history and lore I’ve added into my stories to enrich the experience and through the use of a wiki, added more than I probably should have. You see, whenever you are writing a note, lore, description or anything really; You simply make a link of anything that sounds interesting or important to you. Eventually you create this web of links which build the story and the events for the most part. The history of my story shaped the direction and conclusion of its main plot, while the sub plots describe things I want to tell you about through the eyes of my characters. Some animals are fantastic, and I can’t wait to discuss them!
If anyone is considering using a wiki to start structuring their writing, please feel free to email more or comment here and I will help you as best I can. Not only that, but on my back burner there I can see that I would like to create a tutorial for using one as a writer. I believe this tool has been incredibly useful for making me seem more organized than I am and most likely saving a forest of trees with the amount of notes I usually scribble haphazardly only to require rewriting(read: translating) them. I hope you enjoyed today’s post and feel free to drop me a line! I’d be more than excited to hear from anyone out there!