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So I'm going back in for NaNo this year.
This time, it's an original novel. China in 650AD, at the start of the Tang Dynasty, featuring a bastard Chinese Princess, successional politics, an Egyptian embassy from the Second Ptolemaic Dynasty, and possibly a land war in Asia. I'm thinking it might lead into another novel - either about the journey from China to Egypt, or possibly that Chinese steampunk novel I so wanted to write.
The thing about Chinese steampunk is that, with a more Mohistic school of thought driving Chinese science rather than a Confucian/Taoist one, it's likely to have produced the kind of steampunk technology several centuries earlier than the Victorian era. As in, around 1400AD. Which presents all kinds of interesting possibilities in writing fic. But also several logistical difficulties.
Right now, we're in the 'research phase' - working out the little details of Chinese life and living circa 650AD. It's slightly ironic that the times that Western History counts as 'the Dark Ages' and skims over were times of great scientific, technological, and philosophical growth for China and the empires of the Middle East. But one doesn't learn these things in school - or even think about them.
Next up is the 'plotting phase' which will probably start to happen next weekend in the gaps during the Armageddon convention in Melbourne.
But I am so going to write that Chinese steampunk novel. Someday.
This time, it's an original novel. China in 650AD, at the start of the Tang Dynasty, featuring a bastard Chinese Princess, successional politics, an Egyptian embassy from the Second Ptolemaic Dynasty, and possibly a land war in Asia. I'm thinking it might lead into another novel - either about the journey from China to Egypt, or possibly that Chinese steampunk novel I so wanted to write.
The thing about Chinese steampunk is that, with a more Mohistic school of thought driving Chinese science rather than a Confucian/Taoist one, it's likely to have produced the kind of steampunk technology several centuries earlier than the Victorian era. As in, around 1400AD. Which presents all kinds of interesting possibilities in writing fic. But also several logistical difficulties.
Right now, we're in the 'research phase' - working out the little details of Chinese life and living circa 650AD. It's slightly ironic that the times that Western History counts as 'the Dark Ages' and skims over were times of great scientific, technological, and philosophical growth for China and the empires of the Middle East. But one doesn't learn these things in school - or even think about them.
Next up is the 'plotting phase' which will probably start to happen next weekend in the gaps during the Armageddon convention in Melbourne.
But I am so going to write that Chinese steampunk novel. Someday.
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I would read either, actually, but Chinese steampunk sounds pretty awesome.
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And little Chinese dragons that curl up and roll around. Iron crickets/locusts that steal food from the enemy. And a dragonboat that snarls fire from its snout and 'farts' steam from its orifices to propel itself along.
So many possibilities!
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Not that I'm pushy or anything.
I'll be doing NaNo again this year, after I get done with my polybigbang story. I'm working with a friend (we're both doing it) and we ended up setting up a wiki for research and notes. Should be interesting.
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Except I really do need to work out the plot arc and the character growth arc. Or else I'll be writing blind, which never works well for me.
Cool! What's your NaNo going to be about that you need a wiki for research and notes?
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Although right now, I'm thinking that this novel will be the precursor to the Chinese steampunk novel.