Beautiful Books #1: SlavicNovel

Well, it's that time again - Cait and Sky switch up their normal routine and change Beautiful People into Beautiful Books in preparation for NaNoWriMo!

Today I introduce you to what I am (rather unaffectionately and boringly) calling SlavicNovel:


1. How did you come up with the idea for your novel, and how long have you had the idea?

Approximately... three? four? years ago, I was thinking about my culture, and how fun it would be to write a novel about the creepy dark things of Ukrainian folklore. I was also thinking about how little I remembered of the folktales my grandmother would tell me when I was little, and how the only ones I remembered involved (a) so many anthropomorphic animals or (b) retellings of western European fairy tales with a bit of Slavic culture thrown in. Someday, I thought, I'll write a story about a girl who disappears into the forest and has to face the demons and mermaids and Baba Yagas that live there.

And then I forgot about it.

Approximately... two? three? months ago, Cait mentioned she was writing a Slavic fantasy. Yay, more Slavic fantasy in this world! I thought. Then, more recently, she mentioned she needed culture-help, and I inundated her with a rather long comment, since, if you ask me, I WILL SHARE THE STORY OF MY PEOPLE. I mean, seriously, cultures are cool, and I love sharing mine (and hearing about yours).

And then I thought - wait. I know a crap ton about Slavic culture. I've been wanting to write some high fantasy for a while now. And I still have that tiny plot bunny hopping around in my brain whispering darkness! forests! magic! evil! folklore!

And NaNo was approaching. So here I am.

2. Why are you excited to write this novel?

Many reasons:
- MY CULTURE (see above)
- Dark magic
- Badass women
- Sexy mermaids (i.e. badass women)
- Witches (i.e. dark magic combined with badass women)
- Warrior queens (i.e. badass women)
- Lots of Ukrainian-style food (pierogie, fluffy bread, cheese-butter, and possibly the only delicious ways to eat beets and cabbage)
- A splash of Turkish culture (which I have no idea about HALP)
- Clever thieves (i.e. badass women)
- A dark sexy immortal villain
- And did I say SO MANY BADASS WOMEN

Also, I plotted out approximately 80% of this novel in a single weekend. This is a RECORD for me, people.

3. What is your novel about, and what is the title?

Well, this novel is about the things I bulleted above. It also involves people falling in love with the wrong people (and occasionally with the right people), a neglected youngest prince, and a lesbian mermaid who wants to seduce women, instead of men like the rest of the mermaids do.

I'm gradually realizing I don't really have a good summary, just a lot of exciting components.

I also have no title. The Raven King would actually be quite a perfect title, no lie, but I'm not trying to compete with Maggie Stiefvater here.

4. Sum up your characters in one word each. (Feel free to add pictures!)

Characters are possibly my favoritest thing in the world so I kind of went overboard on this one and threw nine at you. Enjoy!

Tanya (my darling MC) - confused

Baba Yaga (old lady of the forest) - manipulative

Oriana (warrior queen) - blunt (in word and deed)

Damla (adorable thief) - underestimated

Stefan (neglected youngest prince) - enthusiastic

Koshiy (SEXY VILLAIN) - perverted (what? he is! the creep)

Rusalka (mermaid queen - aka SEXY VILLAIN #2) - vengeful

Laryssa (lesbian mermaid) - longing

Tania's grandpa  (as yet unnamed) - solid

5. Which character(s) do you think will be your favorite to write? Tell us about them!

Laryssa's my sad little lesbian mermaid, and I'm very excited to write her. However. I think my absolute favorites are going to be Oriana (my badass warrior queen) and Damla (my quiet, sweet, adorable, cunning thief). Actually, I think my favorite thing to write is going to be the dialogue and scenes involving them both. They have some fun conflicts in store - both with words and with weapons.

Stefan is adorable and mildly snarky too, so he may quickly rise in my favor. We shall see.

6. What is your protagonist's goal, and what stands in the way?

My protagonist is Tania, and she's possibly the only character I don't have fully fleshed out. She's a little foggy right now, but ultimately, she wants the safe adventures of the fairy tales - as in, adventure without danger, where she can return to her grandfather and tell him all about it. (She doesn't realize that yet.)

Physically, she wants to find Koshiy, steal the golden box which holds the secret to his immortality, and bring it back to Baba Yaga, so that Baba Yaga will clear her of her commitment to work for Baba Yaga. It's complicated, and all kind of goes back to Tania's mother not realizing what happens when you make deals with the dark things of the forest.

A lot clearly stands in the way. Koshiy himself, for one. Also, a lot of politics surrounding Koshiy - both magical and non-magical politics - that Tania doesn't know about. There are many people/things who want Koshiy dead, but they can't agree on how/who gets to kill him/why the heck this mortal girl is involved in the whole mess.

Also, her grandfather can't really take care of himself so she can't be away from home for too long. So many complications.

7. Where is your novel set? (Show us pictures if you have them!)

It's kind of a fictionalized version of Ukraine/the Black Sea/Turkey. I'm slowly making a crappy map on microsoft paint. Here's what I have so far.

Told you it's crappy. But hey, it's functional.

8. What is the most important relationship your character has?

I'm guessing this is about the main character? Tania is super close to her grandfather, but he's not present for a lot of the book, even though his well-being is the driving action for a lot of Tania's decisions. A second relationship that is important for Tania is a growing friendship between her and a stray prince named Stefan who is really not cool with being a youngest son and so decided to run off.

Everyone in Tania's village is kind of suspicious of her since her mother had dealings with the forest folk and Baba Yaga. Because of this Tania has put up barriers to close relationships in order to stop herself from being rejected. Friendships aren't an option in Tania's mind-world, so when Stefan comes along it really requires a lot of lessons to be learned on her part.

(I'm still deciding if I ship them or no... Do I want it to remain a friendship? Hmmm we shall see.)

9. How does your protagonist change by the end of the novel?

She has a friend now - yay! She discovers that her agenda isn't the only one - her "quest" overlaps with someone else's "quest." And as cliche as this is: she learns teamwork actually works and sometimes working alone can be selfish.

10. What themes are in your book? How do you want your readers to feel when the story is over?

Some potential themes (though these are hard to determine for me before the book is actually written):
- selfishness destroys things
- revenge destroys things
- breaches of trust destroy things
- racisim and ethnocentrism destroy things
- don't destroy things.
Also
- dark things have reasons for being dark
and
- there are always two sides to the story - sometimes three

By the end of the book I want readers to be interested in Slavic (and potentially Turkish*) culture. And I want them to feel mildly creeped out but simultaneously alert for adventure every time they enter a forest.

*if I actually do the Turkish parts right OMG HELP ME GUYS SERIOUSLY

BONUS! Tell us your 3 best pieces of advice for others trying to write a book in a month.

Okay *deep breath* here goes:

1. DON'T EDIT - yet. I feel like everyone says this but it's worth saying again. November is for word-spewing. December is for editing. Repeat after me. DECEMBER IS FOR EDITING. If you don't write the thing you can't edit the thing.

2. Tell the people you see habitually that you are doing This Thing. Then maybe they'll forgive you if you disappear from all social life for a month to write your NaNovel. But seriously - it's awesome to have a support group that understands and can encourage you. My dad is totally into me doing NaNo and is the best cheer-er-on-er. My mom is a bit more hesitant but is cool with it as long as I tell her I won't let my grades fall and I won't destroy my eyes by staring at a computer screen too long. So if I disappear into my room for an hour or two - she knows what I'm doing, and will bring me grapes and cheese and water. That got off track - basically the people you tell will either support you (great!) or know to avoid you (still great!).

3. Consider taking a social media break. Yes, I know it's hard because part of the NaNo experience is Twitter with it's word sprints and encouragement, and the NaNo forums with a little bit of everything lovely. But think about assigning a certain amount of time where you turn off the wifi and just write. After your time is up, you can hop back onto Twitter or the forums and announce your newly-increased wordcount - won't that feel lovely?

SO FRIENDS! Tell me about you writing projects! Are you doing NaNo? (Add me as a buddy if you are.) Do you have any advice for other NaNoers? And do you have any insights into the Turkish culture? (seriously I need help here so badly.)