[Veltzeh]: 39.Novel Writing Workshop.Statement Sheet

The genre of the novel I am writing is science fiction. Its subgenre is 1) Adventure, 2) Sociological, 3) Apocalyptic.

Target word length: 100000 per book (modeled more on the scope of the story rather than genre) (supposed to be a trilogy)
Number of manuscript pages: 400 per book

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The lead of my novel is a 32-year-old (a young adult barely out of adolescence) zhyikev.

1) Suppose a young zhyikev's lover is killed by humans and the zhyikev is taken away to be studied, but escapes – upon returning to eir home, no one else is anxious to find out why humans kill them (too dangerous) and no more zhyikevs of eir age are alive (which is still important at that age), so ey leaves eir home again to study the world full of humans.
1) Goal: Kanedeztage is furious about the illogicality of humans attacking and killing them on sight and the reason why the zhyikevs don't seek actual cooperation or do anything drastic about it (they just hide, but rather ineffectively). Ey decides to do this expedition by emself and isn't stopped by the others. Kanedeztage wants to know why, and stop the humans from killing eir kind.
(Subgoal: the stopping of Europeans who have come to invade Canada because the original inhabitants are better behaved and haven't bothered zhyikevs much (and actually have early zhyikev blood in them).)

2) Suppose that 80 years later this zhyikev returns to eir home, barely saving eir species from the humans and is supposed to become the leader.
2) Goal: Kanedeztage returns and is soon favored by the leader, and because of eir knowledge of the humans (which turns out to be a pretty good thing), ey is to become the new leader of the zhyikevs. And get a partner, kids, whatnot...
(Includes side characters Ghandri, Trelaiylgiyi, Xherenfaree and Nanaiyikie and eir friends.)

3) Suppose that 200 (?) years later the humans have been left neglected too long and they come back with terrifying weapons and wipe out nearly all of the zhyikevs, leaving the few survivors homeless and very vulnerable.
3) Goal: Kanedeztage failed and humans have destroyed nearly all of the zhyikev settlement. Ey has to gather the three other survivors, move elsewhere and educate them without the help of anything but eir own knowledge. Ey doesn't know where the other zhyikev settlements are and can't contact them without any help. Others think this settlement has died and they can't really do much except learn from the unfortunate fate. Kanedeztage needs to come up with a way to contact the others or get off the planet, but trusting any humans, who they're surrounded by, is just out of the question.
(Includes side characters Kyre, Ramben and Tangani. Later two kids whose names I just forgot and Trelaiylgiyi.)

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1

Crisis Checklist:
- Appropriate for target genre?
Yes, death of a lover is appropriate for everything as far as I know, and hatred against an unintelligent and inferior but very abundant species is a great add-on.
- Will upset lead's life enough so that he/she must try to solve it?
Yep. Ey has nothing left in eir home except safety and ey doesn't care about that too much at the moment.
- Interesting to you?
Yes, enough. I have my ways of making pretty much anything interesting...
- Interesting to readers, in your best judgement?
War, conflict and death! Yes!
- Fresh and original, to the best of your knowledge?
Maybe the plot isn't, but the character is and I haven't seen much fictive literature where Amerindians are spared, yet at least...

In response to the crisis, my lead decides to...

Goal Checklist:
- Most logical under the circumstances?
For a zhyikev, it would be logical to stay at home (zhyikevs are superior and think that they would survive whatever the humans throw at them, for the time they're just trying to recover from losing their original home), but from the point of view of a human, and in this case, Kanedeztage, it is logical to try to find out why humans kill zhyikevs and how to make them stop it.
- Believable that achievement of this goal will solve the crisis?
Kanedeztage thinks that once ey understands why the humans kill them, ey can talk sense to them, or else finds a way to get rid of them and gets rid of them (of course, ethics gets in the way there and not ALL humans are bad). Or ey could find a really effective way to protect eir kind from them.
- Will cause lead to try to gain possession or relief?
Yes. Mind-rape galore. Kanedeztage wants information from the brains of humans and has to run away from the consequences.
- If lead fails, he/she will suffer terrible consequences?
Death or incomprehension, and through incomprehension death, maybe to eir whole species if ey doesn't come back with enough information.
- Life without achieving this goal and solving the crisis would be unthinkable?
Kanedeztage thinks that eventually all the zhyikevs would be killed by the humans if something wouldn't be done about it.
- Worthy, high-minded motivation?
Salvation and rescue for the zhyikev-kind!
- Pits lead against great odds?
A crapload of Europeans and other suspicious people as well as a strange world...

Story Idea:
In my novel, whose genre is science fiction, the lead, a young zhyikev adult, suffers in the hands of humans and witnesses the murder of eir lover. As a result, my lead decides to find out more about humans and/or exterminate them and gets entangled in a conflict between Europeans and Amerindians.

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2

Crisis Checklist:
- Appropriate for target genre?
The first crisis is the human situation, in which Kanedeztage needs to apply eir knowledge and skills and thus proves the other zhyikevs how knowledgeable ey is. After that the crisis is in fulfilling the position of a community leader and get a normal life while organizing things so that human will not bother them and to figure out how to get rid of the human oppression.
- Will upset lead's life enough so that he/she must try to solve it?
Not so much upset, but it must be done and Kanedeztage thinks ey has the right qualities and information to make it happen. Also, eir lack of a partner is not a good thing at the moment, that must be fixed.
- Interesting to you?
Yep, describing an alien society is always fun! I need to come up with a culture, too!
- Interesting to readers, in your best judgement?
Well, who wouldn't like to read how a social system works, as long as it has at least a side-plot? (Relationships and humans, here we come!)
- Fresh and original, to the best of your knowledge?
Hopefully. At least it isn't a copy of The Left Hand of Darkness...

In response to the crisis, my lead decides to...

Goal Checklist:
- Most logical under the circumstances?
Well, yep, this is technically the situation into which the goal of the previous book directed the character.
- Believable that achievement of this goal will solve the crisis?
Obviously so.
- Will cause lead to try to gain possession or relief?
Erm, yes. Possession of a partner, others' trust and a good strategy against humans. Relief from worrying about humans or lack of partner... yeah.
- If lead fails, he/she will suffer terrible consequences?
Well, the first crisis would of course result in death, and the other would most likely nullify all they work ey did in the previous book.
- Life without achieving this goal and solving the crisis would be unthinkable?
Not unthinkable, but Kanedeztage would need to find some more complicated way to control how the humans throw them around.
- Worthy, high-minded motivation?
Species still needs a bit of saving, and leading a normal life and getting kids is nice, too.
- Pits lead against great odds?
Krhm... I've always considered relationships ridiculously difficult. Maybe I'm pitting myself against the great odds of writing about them in a way that would be understandable to others. And of course the humans are still there, they didn't die off anywhere.

Story Idea:
In my novel, whose genre is science fiction, the lead, a zhyikev adult, returns home and is faced with the task of fending off the humans that are planning their annihilation. Eir being away has estranged em from eir own. As a result, ey will try to come up with a way to keep the humans where they belong and ey needs to build up a social network between em and eir own kind.

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3

Crisis Checklist:
- Appropriate for target genre?
One basic small-scale apocalypse, coming up. Check.
- Will upset lead's life enough so that he/she must try to solve it?
Well, let's see, eir tribe is dead...
- Interesting to you?
Yep.
- Interesting to readers, in your best judgement?
Well, it's apocalyptic and survival... I hear that's interesting.
- Fresh and original, to the best of your knowledge?
Well... it's only a SMALL-scale apocalypse?

In response to the crisis, my lead decides to...

Goal Checklist:
- Most logical under the circumstances?
Well, what else could ey do, save from trying eir luck with humans?
- Believable that achievement of this goal will solve the crisis?
Well, getting together with other zhyikevs and/or getting off the planet is fairly obvious.
- Will cause lead to try to gain possession or relief?
Heaps.
- If lead fails, he/she will suffer terrible consequences?
Yes, death! Here we come!
- Life without achieving this goal and solving the crisis would be unthinkable?
I'm not even going to think about that.
- Worthy, high-minded motivation?
Guess what! Ey gets to save the species again! Sort of...
- Pits lead against great odds?
You have nooooo idea.

Story Idea:
In my novel, whose genre is science fiction, the lead, a matured zhyikev adult, witnesses the genocide of eir tribe and manages to rescue a few kids. As a result, ey is forced to flee and settles down with the kids far away from home, trying to survive and contact others.