Need some urban legends about ye olde london towne...e
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So, my novels gathering pace. Just blasted through the 50,000 word mark with sign of slowing down. It's not perfect, not by any measure, but I'm going for quantty over quality right now, just making sure the story advances. I have my plan ahead of my also, ready for the end of the first draft: second draft is making sure all the lose ends are ties up and smoothing out the characters. And number 2is .... Where I could do with a little help.
You see, it's set in regency London, in 1802, and the history is a little different to our own. I wanted a london, and a Europe, that was bigger, more colourful, louder and magical than reality. So, in my Europe, Europe is bigger. Much bigger. No sailing Round the bay of biscay in a day in this continant, oh no, and that's not factoring in the steam submersivals napolean may have waiting for you.
So, a little bit steam punk and a little bit magic. I've got both in there, but only as they count toward the story. I know that I want to expand on those, and that will form part of my edit. So, if anyone has them I'd really like to hear about Ny legends or stories you have heard about London. Old ladies who collected street children, princes who masqueradef as a commoner to fulfill their nasty desire to see what it feels like to kill someone, stuff like that.
Thanks in advance. -
This actually sounds like the sort of thing I would read. If you ever want someone to cast an eye over it let me know.
Are you after real urban legends? I only wonder because having allowed yourself to take certain liberties with the setting and history, you could embellish existing tales or at least make up your own to fit the story. I don’t know if you’ve ever read Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke (I highly recommend to anyone who hasn’t) but in it the author created an alternate history Europe as the setting and then peppered the story with footnotes and book references. All these references are complete fiction, however they add a huge amount of authenticity to the world that has been created just by being consistent to the story. If you’ve created a world in which steampunk and magic can thrive then shouldn’t the legends spawned from your world reflect that?
Either way, I might have a book at home with some useful legends in so I’ll see if I can find it. -
Sounds interesting mate. I don't have any Urban Legends and I live nwhere near London. However, in Huddersfield there is a crazy dude who changed his name to mangle worzel, reportedly married his dog and made a motorbike with a toilet as it seat.....
Also, there is another dude with a little house in the middle of the M62 between Huddersfield and Manchester who (urban legend states...but is wrong) refused to move home when they wanted to build the motorway there...so the moterway had to go round him!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M62_motorway#Stott_Hall_Farm
Perhaps something like this could be moulded into a little side anecdote somewhere? -
Cheers, monty, I'll take you up on the offer of a pair of eyes. It's not going to be ready for a while, but the end is definately in sight.
As for real or made up, being made would certainly be easier, but I'd rther have some grounding in reality if I could, just to make the more outlandish apsects that little bit more believable."iknowgungfu" said:
Also, there is another dude with a little house in the middle of the M62 between Huddersfield and Manchester who (urban legend states...but is wrong) refused to move home when they wanted to build the motorway there...so the moterway had to go round him!
He he, I know the place well - my ex lived in Middleton and I lived near Wakefield, so i used to drive by this weekly. Stupid sod. -
According to Wikipedia...the reason why the motorway goes round it is due to some geographical factors...
Also, I am quite astonished about how much internet coverage there is on this thing...I just typed in M62 and house and up it all popped. There is even a video on Youtube!
I take it you hadn;'t heard of mangle worzel then? -
Here is a snippet of his crazieness...
http://www.examiner.co.uk/news/local-west-yorkshire-news/2008/02/09/jake-s-tears-as-he-dodges-jail-86081-20454951/
I miss Huddersfield folk sometimes
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"Monty" said:
. I don’t know if you’ve ever read Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
yep, read it, loved it (also same with the ladies of grace adieu), and it has no small part in me wanting to use this time period. There's also a large dose of childermas in my main chrarcter. I woul love nothing more than to be able to create the fairy stories Clarke does, but I'm not kiddingmyself that I'm that good. -
Alrighty, I have a deadline. I found out last week sir terry pratchett is running a competition for new novelists! He's looking for a book which is set on eartch, Nytime Nywhere, that's plausible. The only thing about my storiy which is slightly implausible is magic, but I already had an answer to that, so all I have to do is make it explicit.
The deadline is dec 31 and the word count is between 80,000 and 150,000. I'm currently sitting on 70,000, which may not sound much more then 50k I was on in April, but since then I cut 30k and redid most of the story. -
That's the only time I'm going to cut that much. The story works now, and I just need to bring it to a close and weave I'm the second story line and then I can work on the actual language.
But I got a call last night: the wife's cousin asked me to write a short story script for him a few months ago, which I did, but now he's got funding to film it and he wants to start working on it. Decisions decisions... -
"MIkes" said:
That's the only time I'm going to cut that much. The story works now, and I just need to bring it to a close and weave I'm the second story line and then I can work on the actual language.
But I got a call last night: the wife's cousin asked me to write a short story script for him a few months ago, which I did, but now he's got funding to film it and he wants to start working on it. Decisions decisions...
Clone yourself. Do both. Reap the rewards. Kill clone.
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In this Discussion
- iknowgungfu November 2011
- Madjeski July 2010
- MIkes December 2011
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