Light novel outline

[~Julia~]

Ok so I've finally decided to get serious about my writing (and due to several obsticles that prevent progress with my other project) and I'm currently working on writing a "light novel". Light novels are short books that are suppose to be quick reads and are REALLY popular in Japan, they share many similarities to novellas and are usually no longer than 20,000 words but need to have at least 15,000 (with chapters averaging at 3,000 per chapter). Many anime and manga today have actually been adopted from these types of novels (Shakugan no Shana, Rental Magica, Strawberry Panic, just to name a few) so I'm hoping to gain a good work ethic and hopefully some popularity. Although I don't know why I'm posting this on DA as no one cares unless you can draw, but I've had this thing for 4yrs so I might aswell make it useful. My biggest problem is finding an artist to illustrate my work (guess I'll have to break down for commissions, but I need someone who can stick with me!)

So without further adieu here is the outline for the first book in my new story:
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Book 1: Chronicles the entire origin of the main character, from the moment she was abducted by a criminal syndicate to the events that lead to her betrayal of the group.

Chapter 1: Focuses on the early years of the protagonist as she is kidnapped and raised to be an assassin. This chapter shows how tough her childhood was and establishes why she can never return to a normal life.

Chapter 2: We fast forward a few years as the lead is now a young teenager and in this chapter we are introduced to two prominent characters. The first is the love interest of the lead, a girl in the exact situation as her, however she lacks the strength to endure such a lifestyle. The other character is the pseudo “big” sister of the protagonist, she is a superior assassin with distaste for the lead’s kind and yet she is fond of her.

Chapter 3: A few years later the main character is now a young adult and has begun to do missions for the syndicate. In-between these missions we discover the fate of the two characters introduced in the previous chapter. The love interest, due to her lack of endurance, was sent to a brothel and is nothing more than a plaything of the night. The sister has become the number one assassin within the organization and has grown much attached to the lead, however the feeling isn’t mutual. We also begin to see the main character’s loyalty falter.

Chapter 4: The protagonist is given a very difficult mission, to procure a new recruit, in other words she was being asked to kidnap a child just like she was so many years ago. She didn’t think much about the gravity of the situation until she came face-to-face with her target; it was the first time in a long time the she hesitated. It is in that brief moment of hesitation the she decides to run with the girl and away from the syndicate.

Chapter 5: As this was the lead’s first offense the syndicate gave her an ultimatum, return the girl ad repent for her crime and she would be allowed to live. However the protagonist has no interest in returning to the organization and chooses to keep running. The moment she drew the blood of a once fellow comrade there was no turning back, but for the first time her life is her own.
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[JinzouTamashii]

Julia, if you can afford it, there's critiquecircle.com ... I just use the tools for my writing because I can't pay for anything really yet, like a membership... (they give you 2 free points but you need 3 to post a story... )

I would suggest posting a little bit of the beginning of Chapter 1 so we can get an idea.

[Samu-kun]

I would generally advice people that light novels aren't that great of a way to tell a story right now... I tried making a rather high budget one a while ago and it was pretty much disastrous. Uguu!

[JinzouTamashii]

Holy shit, Samukun, I've never even seen that before. I would say something about elitism here (if it's not Japanese then it must suck) but I could go on for ages on that.

F**ckin' saved. Does it have a VN?

[Samu-kun]

Well, not yet, due to various circumstances. Maybe in a few more years, I'll be more skilled and slightly more financially endowed to create a project of such ambition...

[JinzouTamashii]

Oh... okay...

How about after 2013?

[~Julia~]

Eh, I'm not really looking for anyone to really judge my work, esspecially at this early stage as this was a new story that was in part inspired from one of my stories I forcedly dropped a long time ago. This story doesn't have a tittle, character names, and very little guidence beyond it's 2nd book! I just feel like I try to do too many things at once when I start something and maybe that's why nothing ever works out right, so this time I'm going to take it slow and do everything step by step.

I would generally advice people that light novels aren't that great of a way to tell a story right now... I tried making a rather high budget one a while ago and it was pretty much disastrous. Uguu!

Oh wow, that is amazing Samu-san (I'm totally changing your honorifics XD) if you don't mind I'd like to know what happened? It seems so well put together that now I'm fearing I'm going to fail again ; -; Also why do you think it's a bad medium to tell a story? I just picked it due to personal laziness I needed something that would restrict me and give me a nice course. Also something that was manageble as I could get a book written in about 2 months assuming I complete a chapter ever 10 days.

[Samu-kun]

Well, I don't think it was anything wrong with the light novel itself. It's just that nobody really cared about it. I don't think there's enough interest right now for light novels to justify making one.

[~Julia~]

Hmm, I see your point, reading is all but obsolete around me, but as I can't do much on my own I have to settle for this. Thank you for your insight, even though it looks bleak, I still don't want to give up!

But before that I need to figure out so much, this is the 1st time I've written something new in about half a decade @.@

[JinzouTamashii]

Pingback from this morning: http://cherylitou.wordpress.com/2009/12/10/sunriders/



Guess what, I read it and it looks awesome.

[sake-bento]

Well, I don't think it was anything wrong with the light novel itself. It's just that nobody really cared about it. I don't think there's enough interest right now for light novels to justify making one.

It really is a shame, because Sunriders was one of the most fun projects I've worked on (and Raidaa no Asahi was pretty sweet, too).

Honestly, I think that it's possible to have a market for light novels, but you'll have to put some effort into carving it out yourself. There's always fictionpress, and some of my writing has gotten a good response on deviantART.

[JinzouTamashii]

Visual novels...

Let's make it into a VN! Starting 2011!

[Samu-kun]

Honestly, the only reason I made that light novel is because my artist for the Sunrider visual novel was going to get deported from the country if he didn't go back to school and had to unexpectedly quit. If that unfortunate act of Belldandy had not occurred, we'd probably still be happily working on the project to this day. =w=

PS. you should add your blog to the EVN Planet or else I won't ever read it.

[JinzouTamashii]

Done.

[Vatina]

I was interested in your novel... I think the best thing is to just continue, and then generate interest over time that way. The same way as how webcomics do it, you just have to go on and people will come.

That is, if you're interested enough in writing that story, that is.