It seems that individual progress threads have become quite popular, so at the risk of missing out on being one of the cool kids, I shall start my own.
My aim is to write at least 50,000 words of a novel set in an ancient Roman colony called Liternum. The premise is that the town has been cursed by the goddess of fever (Febris) and the main character Apronia is afflicted by visions of the goddess.
So far I have nearly 7,000 words and very little of the supernatural content that I was expecting at this stage. The main character Apronia and her immediate family, her step-mother Ninnia and her father Quintus Apronius, as well as the household slaves have captured my imagination and I'm finding it hard to segue into the interesting ideas about disease, death, and visions.
My inspiration for this came from my Masters Thesis when I was writing a chapter on Seneca the Younger's visit to the villa of the great Republican general Scipio Africanus (he's the dude who beat Hannibal). In my research about the place I discovered lots of interesting snippets of information about just how prone to malaria the area was. As my thesis became more and more concerned with ideas of death and disease (and text as a kind of disease :-X) this novel began brewing.
Wanderer Ward
13 years ago
Wanderer Ward
Dreamscape Artist
That sounds really interesting Ashta. I've read your snippet in the other thread, but give us more soon! :) It sounds like your characters are taking over your story! Let them have free reign and I'm sure you'll be able to gradually work the supernatural in :)
Oooh, intriguing! It's great that your characters have so much appeal for you. You'll get to know them so well that, by the time the supernatural stuff turns up, you'll know exactly how they'll react and what they'll do in response to it. It's all very, very good.
Don't you love it when the characters just fall into place? I'm liking your first snippet Ashta, keep up the good work over the summer! :D
Thanks for the encouragement! Here's another snippet, the one where the characters took over:
'Let us go into the peristyle garden,' Marcus said, offering me his hand.
I took it, suddenly aware that there seemed to be some grease on it. I cursed myself for such stupidity, but he didn't seem to notice. I rose from the couch and he offered me his looped arm. I noticed a patch of purple from where he had obviously spilled some wine. His cheeks and his nose were rosy. I placed my hand through his arm and rested it on his wrist, suddenly feeling very strange. We left the triclinium and descended into the sunken garden. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was lit with a few torches. The flickering light let the shadows dance and play in the undergrowth. As we walked towards the fountain, I began to feel very conscious of the fact that we were alone. He sat me down on the cold stone and I resisted the urge to dip my fingers into the cold water, aware of how childish that might seem.
He looked at me and I struggled to meet his eyes. It took more will power than I thought it should just to hold his gaze.
'I have a gift for you, Apronia,' he said, 'but first, I have a question.'
A chill ran up and down my spine and I did not know what to say, so I nodded.
He took a deep breath in. 'Apronia, I have spoken with your father,' he placed a hand on my knee, 'and he said that the choice was up to you'.
I suddenly realised where the conversation was headed and began to feel light headed. He continued.
'I want to ask your hand in marriage.'
Time stopped. I swallowed. I thought about opening my mouth to form some kind of answer, but I had no answer. There were no words.
He clasped my hands.
'Thank you Marcus,' I managed to say.
'But?'
'No but. I would like to take you up on your offer, but I cannot commit myself to it right now.'
'Ah.' He looked slightly disappointed and I don't know if I imagined it. The corner of his lips twisted up into a wry smile. 'What was I thinking believing that you would be daft enough to say yes?'. His tone was, or at least seemed to be, heart shatteringly genuine.
Feeling more foolish than ever, for I still felt more like a girl than a woman, I pulled my left hand from his and reached up to touch his coarse chin.
My heart rate quickened unbelievably. This man was a good friend of my father and I had known him all my life.
I stood up, my hand still on his chin. I reached down and gave him a light kiss on the cheek where his soft skin ended and his stubble began. I could taste the saltiness of his sweat, despite the fact that it was quite cool outside. As I took my hand away, he grabbed it.
'You will learn why, sooner or later,' he said.
I could think of nothing else to do but nod. Gathering my dignity and the hem of my tunic I ascended the stairs back into the house, not daring to look back.
Such a tantalising glimpse into your story!
Wanderer Ward
13 years ago
Wanderer Ward
Dreamscape Artist
I agree with Bunne :) This snippet makes me want to know so much more about Apronia!
Thanks Bunne and Kaede! I look forward to learning more about her myself :)
I'm almost at 9,000 words and the story was moving swiftly until I had to go back over my notes on malaria :-|.
Here's another snippet. Unfortunately it tells you very little about Apronia...
[ligne][/ligne]
I went to the temple of Fortuna with a few meagre offerings for the goddess. The temple is in the forum, next to the theatre. I looked up and saw the goddess balanced serenely on the apex of the the pediment. I began to approach the temple, having to push my way through the general forum crowd. I bumped into a wooden cage which a woman was carrying and the hen inside clucked in loud protestation. The crowd thinned at the bottom of the stair, but I noticed that there was a line of people waiting to go in. Priests were serenely taking coin and letting each person through one at a time. I rubbed the small bronze as between my thumb and forefinger anxiously. When it was finally my turn, I dropped the brass coin into the metal bowl which the priest proffered.
'May Fortuna bless you,' he murmured.
I threw back the hood of my cape and hurried across the pretty mosaic floor. Torches flickered in the niches behind the columns while the faint daylight glowed around the entrance behind me. I hastily approached the altar of the goddess. Her statue looked serene, her eyes had a certain glazed peacefulness to them. I knelt and kissed her feet. A feeling of deity danced across my skin like thin streams of fire and I placed my offerings beside the others.
When I looked up toward the goddess, purple splotches filled my vision and I nearly fell backward. I blinked to try and clear my sight, but the blotches only deepened and spread. Before too long, I was in complete darkness. There was a strange high-pitched whining noise, like that of the culex in summer. I struggled not to cry out to the attending priest for help.
The whining seemed to grow closer and I wanted to swat it away.
'She is not here,' a voice rasped from somewhere, 'your goddess has fled.'
[ligne][/ligne]
I'm not 100% happy with this scene, but it's better than yesterday's attempt!
Dreamweavers' Guilden
13 years ago
Dreamweavers' Guilden
Rebel
I agree with Bunne and Kaede! such very tantilising snippets!!! Cant wait to read more!!! :)
Thanks Bam :)
Now, my excuses for why I'm 10,000 words behind.
Teaching: I've been frantically trying to put together my lesson plans and lectures now so I don't have to be frantically running around in Jan.
Computer: I updated my OS last week and all of the previous settings I had on the old OS were lost. I'm not a programmer and I'm still very new to Linux, so this took A LOT of time :(
Summer School: Along with some fellow postgrads I am going to run a community access summer school on the reception of Classical studies. This will run for a week in Jan but we've been frantically hoop-jumping to get things moving. Plus, all the research I have to do for my session (I'm running a 3 hour session called 'Ideal Places: Cosmopolis and Utopia'). It's just been all :-?
But I left my story hanging on two major plot developments:
Apronia starts to have a relationship with her slave (I don't know where that came from, it was a moment of crisis, cling-to-whoever-is-close situation)
Apronia has just met two of the priestesses from the cult that she will end up joining.
So, hopefully these two things will inspire some words!
Wow, Ashta - that's not what I call a holiday! That's a very busy Summer you have planned there.
13 years ago
Thu Dec 16 2010, 06:16pm
Good luck with your large amount of work, Ashta! So far all your snippets have been very enticing, and I don't think I'm the only one eager for more Apronia. :)