forum mj's writing hell

Started November 02, 2022 by @larcenistarsonist group

tune

hi friends this is where i'm going to be shoving pieces of my wip that i'm currently working on for nano and screaming into the void

please feel free to ask questions because they keep me motivated but i just wanted a little corner to complain and bitch but also hype myself up like the god i am

HELPFUL WRITING TIP* get a to-do list and just bullet down all of the plot points you have in mind in chronological order and BOOM it's so much easier to get from event to event. also, it's just fine to skip something if you aren't sure how it happens. odds are, the answer will come to you later. you just gotta keep writing aslkdfj

2147 words today hehe I think I'm gonna call it here because I am tired

anyways, I've gotten through the first part! the protags have met each other and the deuteragonists have been introduced! MCs powers have been revealed and they're beginning to formulate a plan alskdjf it's all going really fast rn but that is okay because this is a very very first draft and I know that it's a process

ohoho i can't wait to switch to other POVs this is going to be so great

im back and i have introduced my secondary antags and i love them and hopefully the difference in voice between first pov and second pov are noticeable

hnnnnnnnnnnng i dont wanna do this but i do but i dont want to but i know i have to and im just gonna try to get to 9k today bc im just extra like that

Alas, I didn't get to 9k last night but I did hit 8k and that's still pretty good ajdjks My goal is 10.5k today and I have nothing going on so nothing should be stopping me

whoops forgot about that i have no fucking idea how anything happens after this first fight alsdkfj

it's like

• oo exposition
• PLOT
• all the main characters are introduced
• a little more plot
• EPIC FIGHT
• tiny plot
• uh
• oh
• oh god
• this was unexpected
• EPIC FIGHT
• help
• what am i doing
• help–
• PLOT
• FIGHT
• OHOHO SHIT GOES DOWN
• BIG BIG BIG TURNING POINT OOOOOOOOOOOOOOH SHIT
• uh
• shit
• hgn
• WOAHG CANADA
• PLOT ADN CHARACTERS AND EMOTION
• hm
• oh uhm
• hng.
• ENDING
• OH SHIT
• TEARS EVERYWHERE
• AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
• SET UP SEQUEL

absolultely fucking dying have not tocuhed my doc today aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa im so mad but i have hit a wall damnit

Good luck, you're going very strong so far!

hi welcome back to MJ's writing Hell.

I have stopped at about 25k on my WIP and I'll pick it up again at some point but right now WWIV (prequel) to my project has my attention and I also really want to overhaul my fantasy universe rn,,,

AAAAAA I'm gonna find good pieces of my WIP and shove em here,,, keep in mind it is Draft One so they will not be Great but I still like them :)

damn couldn't find any pieces I liked after reading through the whole thing :(

there were a couple good moments but I for sure have to finish the first draft before I get to anything else

(anybody want to ask me any super thought provoking (or not) questions about my story until I get the motivation to pick it up again 👀👀👀)

Mj I have a thrilling and thought provoking question ✋
What makes your favourite scrimbo the skrunchiest?

okay the stakes are different for everyone involved. there's about six different fights going on so I'll list the fight, who's involved, and the stakes for them

---

FIGHT 1:

Donovan: To get away alive and to continue his efforts for world domination. In his eyes, he's the only one capable of governing a peaceful world and everything will fall apart if he isn't in charge.
vs
Shea: To kill Donovan as an act of revenge for stealing her childhood and memories away from her, experimenting on her, and taking over free will of any global citizen.

Donovan wins Fight 1 by using Shea’s best friend, Abel, against her. He locks Abel in a room deep into the Compound where he's close to death and Shea cpuls either save Abel or kill Donovan. the stakes of her mission temporarily change as she chooses to save her best friend.

---

FIGHT 2:

Rhyda: to stop Bianca, who is in Donovan’s way to success. Rhyda is very loyal to Donovan and she would do anything to ensure his success. in a way, Donovan was a savior to her. he gave her sight and the independence she craved and Rhyda feels incredibly indebted to him. She can't let him down
vs
Bianca: kill Rhyda to avenge her father's assassination. To get one more obstical out of the way to stopping Donovan. she can't let what her father worked so hard to prevent go to waste.

Bianca wins this one by shooting Rhyda in the stomach after an intense battle. Bianca moves on the the control room, leaving Rhyda sputtering and gasping and bleeding out. Bianca avenged her father and got rid of Rhyda, a huge obstacle to Team Good ™.

---

FIGHT 3:

Pazia: Fulfill Donovan’s wishes and Kill Shea. Pazia has extreme high achiever syndrome with a devastating fear of disappointing her superiors. Donovan’s most recent task given to her was to kill Shea, and Pazia's fatal flaw is her loyalty.
vs
Abel: Hold Pazia long enough for Shea to escape and kill Donovan. Abel also sees Donovan for the shitbag he is and wants nothing more than to help Shea.

After Shea saved their life, Abel and Shea had a brief heart to heart and managed to mend some of the broken relationship between them, however Pazia is coming and the Compound is coming down. Abel tells Shea to go and he'll hold Pazia off. Pazia wins this fight, exhausting an already near-broken Abel to the point of mindlessness. She leaves Abel alone, for Abel was never a target and Pazia can't bring herself to kill them.

---

FIGHT 4:

Jeb and Bianca: They need to bring the Compound down so they can finally destroy all of Donovan’s facilities and his plans to take over the world.
vs
The Compound: its just a building, but the building holds all of Donovans resources–including his assassin team The Six.

Jeb and Bianca win and they begin detonating the supports as they evacuate.

---

FIGHT 5:

Grace and Drew: escape the Compound while Shea and her gang keep the others distracted. They want freedom.
vs
Felix: stop Drew and Grace from leaving. (he doesn't want to be alone. he loves Drew and Grace is one of his closest friends.) and prevent the fall of Donovan. (Donovan gives him everything and Felix is terrified if losing everything.)

In a way this fight is a win for both of them?? there's no violence and tmthey just talk with each other and it ends in Felix seeing that the Compound is coming down. Felix ends up going with Drew and Grace, escaping the Compound to a new life.

---

FIGHT 6:

Donovan: same as above
vs
Pazia: same as above
vs
Shea: kill Donovan to prevent world domination, but also survive and get back to Bianca, Abel, and her family that she just barely got back.

This fight has no true victor. Early in the brawl between Shea and Pazia, Shea successfully kills Donovan. Even though he's dead, Pazia refuses to budge on her task when pleaded to give up by Shea. "He's dead!" she screamed. "We're free!" but Pazia responds through tears "I can't stop." Loyal as a dog, Pazia refuses to stop, even as pieces of the Compound are falling around them. Shea continues to beg and dodge and try to reason, but there is no reasoning with Pazia. The Compound collapses. Shea dies embracing Pazia as the ceiling caves in and thirty stories of cement fall on top of them.

I hope I explained it good??? took me a while to type up akdhjsjshskk

Mj I have a thrilling and thought provoking question ✋
What makes your favourite scrimbo the skrunchiest?

omg what a question thank you seeb

of course, I have to say my personal favorite Abel, bc they're so gender and funny but also they're always actively trying to be better, esp after part one. Abels not afraid to break and cry and show emotions, which makes them so raw and true and honest and OGH yknow??? God they also have knives and severe psychological issues and a broken but healing relationship with their dad. they also funkin love raw celery and slightly freezer burnt I've cream and that's so funny to me Khdjsjsk Abel is also a proud Plant Parent to Many plants

I also love Sid akfhjsks my sassy Australian 11 year old who know more swear words than countries. he weilds a crowbar and always wears a backwards denim baseball cap. sid is also a nomadic apocalypse baby akfhjsjsk Sid is also the only person to ever get a solid hit on Abel which is really funny

GOD I also love Jeb!!!! my resident pyromaniac demolition expert. he wears funky teal coveralls with JESSE written on the laple (he does not know who Jesse is) and Jeb has both a metal arm and metal leg that he made and engineered to be so funky and advanced himself (they function as a tool AND a tool box) and he goes on a whole adventure to relive the adventures he would have with his mom in the backyard (she's in a coma and Jeb misses her :( )

Mj I have a thrilling and thought provoking question ✋
What makes your favourite scrimbo the skrunchiest?

omg what a question thank you seeb

of course, I have to say my personal favorite Abel, bc they're so gender and funny but also they're always actively trying to be better, esp after part one. Abels not afraid to break and cry and show emotions, which makes them so raw and true and honest and OGH yknow??? God they also have knives and severe psychological issues and a broken but healing relationship with their dad. they also funkin love raw celery and slightly freezer burnt I've cream and that's so funny to me Khdjsjsk Abel is also a proud Plant Parent to Many plants

HIMB!!!!!! I LOVE THE LITTLE GUY!!!!! He would love my Colton they would fuck shit up all-day they are besties your honour

I also love Sid akfhjsks my sassy Australian 11 year old who know more swear words than countries. he weilds a crowbar and always wears a backwards denim baseball cap. sid is also a nomadic apocalypse baby akfhjsjsk Sid is also the only person to ever get a solid hit on Abel which is really funny

I LOVE HIM CULTURE TWINSIE «<333 love him, I imagine he'd rock a mean cowboy boots. THE CROCODILE DUNDEE HAT WAIT OH MY GOD-

GOD I also love Jeb!!!! my resident pyromaniac demolition expert. he wears funky teal coveralls with JESSE written on the laple (he does not know who Jesse is) and Jeb has both a metal arm and metal leg that he made and engineered to be so funky and advanced himself (they function as a tool AND a tool box) and he goes on a whole adventure to relive the adventures he would have with his mom in the backyard (she's in a coma and Jeb misses her :( )

HIS OVERALLS STOP THATS SO FUNNY- makes me think yellow guy from DHMIS !!!! Momma's boy, we love some parental angst in this household !!!

This story takes place 200 years in the future and about 23 years after WWIV. There isn't anything super futuristic, granted there's been two world wars and other intense factors (the oceans rise and Florida is underwater and there are new countries and yeah). There's no magic, but there are six superhumans in this particular story and they're The Six.

The Six are Pazia, Abel, Rhyda, Shea, Grace, and Felix (all listed in the fights above) and they all have powers unique to them. When they were around eleven years old, they were chosen at random and kidnapped–wiped of all their memories and trained in the Compound. The Compound is Donovan's sixteenth facility (out of sixteen) and the Six live about a thousand feet below ground where they train and learn and live and yeah.

The powers I have for each of them are:

• Pazia: glass manipulation. if there's any sort of glass in her vicinity, she can control it telekinetically. she can also reshape and shatter any glass. also, Pazia's eyes are glass, so she can always use those as an emergency source of ammo. honestly, Pazia doesn't have a lot of weaknesses… that makes her p scary.
• Abel: vaporization. Abel can turn into water vapor at will, making it almost impossible to land a solid hit on them–but the vaporization comes at a price. the more Abel uses it, the more likely it is for his corpus callosum to connect wonky and turn him "Mindless" in which they have no coherent thoughts except kill, an urge Donovan put in there when Abel was fourteen.
• Rhyda: internalized mapping system. everything within a twenty-mile radius Rhyda can see if she concentrates a little. if she's given somebody's specific frequency, then Rhyda can track them even outside her radius. she uses this to her advantage–especially when sniping. Rhyda is blind, so if she's not concentrating on her mental map, she's left entirely blind to an enemy.
• Shea: fear. when making unobscured eye contact with another, Shea can hijack somebody's amygdala and send them spiraling into fear. the symptoms are different for everybody–hallucinations, running away, fainting, crying, screaming, and even stopping a heart. however, this wasn't the power Shea was supposed to have. this was an accident and because her body isn't built for it, the power rebounds on her when she's at her weakest–when she's sleeping. she gets nightmares and heart-attack like symptoms in her sleep as a result of her power.
• Grace: tar. from a valve implemented on the top of her spine, Grace can release a tar-like substance that grows rapidly with oxygen. it's sticky, inky black, and impossible to get out of when stuck. due to it coming from herself, Grace is immune to the hold of the tar, however it has scarred her in multiple places, including tear-track like markings beneath her eyes and a darkening of her sclera.
• Felix: light manipulation. using light available, Felix can warp it to turn into any sort of illusion he wishes. these illusions are impossible to tell apart from the real thing (from a visual view) and it isn't limited on scale as long as enough light is available. (do not want to go against him on a summer afternoon). however, this messes with Felix's depth perception and after pt 1 he needs thicc glasses.

As for non-superhuman stuff, everyone else uses weaponry that we know today! knives, fists, batons, guns, etc, all sorts of stuff.

Character relationships are a whole 'nother rabbithole, but you can find them on my character pages! (if you can find one that's finished alskdfj the best example I could give would be Abel's page beneath the people tab.)

!!
Okay so Pazia is a very middle-ranged fighter. if somebody gets too close she can't focus enough to do good damage, but if they're too far, then they're out of her range. Pazia is aggressive yet very calm and collected with her flying glass shards and does not relent. There's a reason she's number one.

Felix is also pretty middle-range, but he doesn't really use his power for fighting. Felix is used to long missions involving gathering intel and befriending people and then killing them all when it's all over. When Felix fights, he relies on doing it when the target's back is turned and using a switchblade or a revolver to end it quickly. He's not a good one-on-one fighter.

Rhyda is a long-range sniper. Her power is mostly utility so she chooses to take targets out from a perch and get out before they even know what's happened. Rhyda rarely misses and is usually the one sent out for "public executions."

Abel, Shea and Grace are all close-range.

Abel vaporizes to dodge attacks and get in close and ends it with a quick slash of a knife. Abel's the fastest of all The Six and moves almost effortlessly when fighting–especially against a big group of people. Abel's not the strongest, but they know how to hit weak points and make it hurt.

Shea relies a lot on her skill as a combatist to take targets down. She's the most overall athletic out of The Six and can only use her power when there's half a second of unobscured eye contact (this includes no windows, no contacts, and no glasses). She also doesn't like to use her power very much because of the negative effects on her.

Grace needs to be close to stick someone in her trap and then she has to get closer to flood them with the tar. Her way of killing is the slowest, often having to fill somebody's lungs with the tar via their mouth or nose.

These are kind of how they fight!! I'll elaborate more on the history of the world when I get the chance!

SO the history of this world!! I don't have a lot of it fleshed out, but I do have a vague idea of when everything happens:

WWIII happens in 2160. The United Nations shatters with alliances and torn allegiances. It's a brutal war, one that breaks all unsaid rules and draws the most blood. (I haven't decided what caused this war, nor who was on each side, but it's not too important to the plot, so I'm not too worried.) Afterwards, with hardly a victory on any side, pioneered by the Nation of Scotland, the New United Nations (or N.U.N.) is formed.

The catalyst for everything in the story is World War Four, originally titled the Eurasian Grey War, but was considered the fourth world war when the US joined on February 6th, 2202. The main factors for this war were regarding natural resources (and who gets what) and supply chain issues. The leaders had enough and waged war. The Gray War (as most know it) was titled this because of the dreary skies that never relented. Pollution, endless rain, and global environment issues lead to the gray skies. During WWIV, the man bad guy of the story comes into power!! With weakened countries, he manages to put his "puppets" into governments and slowly take control.

The Six Initiative–the main project–takes place in 2227, about 25 years after WWIV. I do have a prequel in the works that follows a small task force in WWIV as they struggle to complete a very high stakes mission.

Scotland, after years and years and years, gets their independence in the midst of WWIII. As a new nation, they take it upon themselves to show why they should of had their independence centuries prior. It's like a giant middle finger to England bc England sucks ass, man.

Also, one of The Six (Rhyda) was born in Glasgow and I want to make her home country have some level of significance in global affairs akfhjsjsk

I'm predominantly Irish but i do have scotch and German blood akdhksk

!!! okay so

1. Pazia – She's from the Utopia city of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. she's entirely middle eastern, mostly Arab and Pakistani blood
2. Abel – they're from a small Scrap city in the new country Srednyaya. Abel's mother is Russian and Polish, Abel’s father is Japanese
3. Rhyda – born in Utopia city of Glasgow. she moved around between Ireland, Scotland and England a lot. she's fully Scotch-Irish
4. Shea – was born in a Falling city in Eastern Canada but given the dangerous nature of the environment, she was given up for adoption and adopted into a family in a small Utopia City in Quebec. Shea is fully of Cree descent.
5. Grace – was born and raised in the Scrap City of New Orleans. shes African American and isnt quite sure where her heritage lies, but she's sure it's western Africa.
6. Felix – was born in a Scrap City near the Mexico-Belize border on a ranch. Felix is of Mexican and Central American descent

this is my favorite bit of world building alfjkdk

the terminology mainly applies to settlements of over 10k people, so usually towns don't use this labeling and are instead referred to as Small, Middle, and Large. The terminology is used mostly as a social thing, but based on a city's ranking, the citizens might get more assistance.

–

Ghost City: either a vacant city or a city with below 3000 people. these have either been entirely evacuated, entirely decimated, or even sunk. examples include: Los Angeles (empty and partially underwater), Miami (underwater), Manhattan (underwater), Shanghai (leveled), Sydney (destroyed), and many more.

Falling City: a dangerous city still stuck in wartime. violent and in danger of falling into the Ghost category, but can still rise to be a Scrap. the main example in my story is Vienna, but there's also Shea's unnamed birth place that I need to name.

Scrap City: a fairly peaceful place, but there's not too much innovation. a lot of rations are still being handed out. main examples in the story are: Moscow and New Orleans but there are many other ones that are unnamed or I've forgotten about them.

Stable City: A city that's doing well after the war(s). economically they're fine, but there's hardly any real innovation happening here. examples include Chicago, Ottowa, Buenos Aires, Cairo, and Canberra.

Utopia City: a thriving city with high tech and intense innovation. they're considered the capitals of the world. (of course there's no flying cars or teleportation or anything like that). examples include Glasgow, Tokyo, Riyadh, Seoul, New Manhattan, and Paris.

high tech here is basically lots of holographic technology (they make 3d maps and models, but also holographic full-body recordings). There's also lots of high-speed transportation like trains and elevators. Science and medicine has also evolved greatly. They're able to reconnect neurons through extensive neurosurgery. There's a cure for the common cold (huzzah) and they're able to fully give prosthetics that attach via neurons to act as a fully functioning limb.

There should honestly be much more advanced tech, but with WWIII being the worst world war (I don't have the details but it was bad and honestly knocked down the population spike by a huge chunk. there was chemical warfare and no mercy rules and yeah. yikes.), all sorts of innovations and tech were halted.

The vibe is much more post-apocalyptic throughout the story, but it definitely breaches that cyberpunk idea when they're in New Manhattan, Seoul and Dubai in the books!

It's a lot of the same nations, but I have created quite a few countries!

• Concordia: The main fiction nation. It sits in between Mexico and the US as a physical barrier. After WWIV, the US and Mexico couldn't get along and quit fighting, so the NUN elected to just smack a country to keep them apart. One of the MCs, Bianca Wong, was born and raised in Concordia. The beginning and the end of Part One takes place in Concordia.
• Entrepaix: A small country formed between Switzerland, France, and Germany. Not a lot happens here, but its creation is one of the reasons for the conflict in Vienna. Angel Donovan (main antag of the story) has a heavy hand in what happens in this country due to his puppets. There's not a lot of plot significance here, but I am brewing a potential idea with Abel and their step-sister working in Entrepaix to fix it's corrupt system.
• Vostok Rossii: or East Russia. After WWIV, it separated from Russia due to how the war went (haven't decided yet). Not a lot of plot happens here, but one of the MCs has family that lives here.
• Srednyaya: or Central Russia. Similar to Vostok, there's not a lot of plot here (yet?). One of my MCs spent the first eleven years of their life here before they were kidnapped by Donovan and turned into one of the Six. I'm thinking for the MC to return here for a little bit of plot.

I've created (and not named) a couple more and I have smooshed a few countries together. I don't know which ones yet, but there has been some mighty morphin when it comes to geopolitical stuff asldkjf

i'm back and with a very neat and cool piece of worldbuilding!! (the puzzle pieces clicked together aaaaaa)

---

so like,, starting in WWIII, superhumans became a weaponized thing done by governments to help them win wars. Basically human weapons. In WWIII, the most well-known soldier was a man by the name of Forrest Mant from the US. he was the leader of a Marine-based squadron titled the Devil Dogs, a callback to what the Marines were called during WWI. Mant was a super-strength/super-agility guy. Kind of basic superhuman stuff. It was due to the efforts of the Devil Dogs that the US managed to remain standing and survive the war.

However, it was quickly determined by the N.U.N. (New United Nations, a international committee formed after the fall of the UN during WWIII) that superhumans are only to be produced during wartime, otherwise it's considered a war crime and that country will have their resources seized and superhuman programs immediately terminated. WWIII (2160-2166) was considered the bloodiest, most brutal war to ever sweep through the globe and the N.U.N. was determined to finally have world peace.

In WWIV, officially starting in 2199 (ending in 2203), the first country to begin manufacturing superhumans again was Korea–their most successful project being a young woman by the name of Iseul Lee. During the first three years of the war, she served as a human weapon, widely considered the most deadly woman on the Eastern Front. She became a target. To protect her, the Korean government placed her in a small taskforce to deliver a hard drive disguised as a pin to Almaty, Kazakhstan. She never made it to Almaty. She died Achilles-Style on the Kazakhstan-Mongolia border after the love of her life was killed in action.

WWIV ended in 2203, but during those four years, a man by the name of Angel Donovan from New Manhattan, New York was working behind the scenes. Due to his family's trauma in both WWIII and WWIV, Donovan considered himself the only person fit to rule the world peacefully. While the world was trapped in a war, Donovan implanted spies and puppets into vulnerable governments, effectively secretly taking control of different militaristic and governmental agencies. However, by 2216 Donovan had gained many enemies. He needed protection. He needed superhumans.
Angel Donovan, using his connections, managed to find templates of superhumans from around the globe, but the process had to be started when the person was young, mid-puberty at best. So, he used every database in which he had access to and randomized every child aged 10-11. It selected six at random, and Donovan decided that those would be the superhumans that he would train to take out any threat against his power. These six children became known as The Six. They were wiped of their past memories, given superhuman abilities, and trained to be efficient assassins. The actual story starts in 2227 and follows 21-year-old Assassin Number Four–Shea.

Countries usually keep their superhuman things under tight wraps! some countries might have a "theme" going for their genre of superhuman, but it's not a guarantee. Donovan stole his superhuman templates from around the globe, so they could be of any origin. Usually, countries will do what they can based on their subject and their resources and what they want their weapon to do. It's also best to keep their superhumans quiet because I doubt Country A will appreciate it if Country B sent a superhuman to kill their leader.

That's another reason why The Six are so deadly. Nobody knows where their origin could possibly be (they don't even have an origin country). Nobody has ever gotten a good look at any of the Six to properly pinpoint them.

Iseul Lee is only known as the MetaEast, for being a Metahuman on the Eastern Front. Nobody knows her name, only that she wears a dusty green jacket and her blood vessels are black and that she's killed well over a thousand enemies in her few years in the military.