Doing Things Differently Makes Things Your Own

The fun thing about being an artist—especially an independent artist—is we get to do things our own way and with our own vision.

In my light novel series, The Orchestrylus Odyssey, I’m doing something different that I haven’t come across in any other book. If it is out there, I haven’t seen it.

My next light novel, The Lost Ships of Lim Wierre, has a nautical theme to it.

It’s about an ancient pirate—a pirate that rides gondolas instead of full ships—who left pieces of an important object of lore within the series upon his nine ships.

The novel picks up where the last one ended but opens with a prelude for story points further along in the narrative that is in medias res from session four.

The Last Key of Maestraumus will catch up to the in medias res opening by the end of the novel. That way, the story picks up properly without the in-action prelude from session four onward.

The Noted Colors of Silver Wings begins the current-time story arc at that point. This book will be lore heavy and longer than the other light novels.

I wanted to do something different from elemental dragons, so I settled upon a mythical creature commonly known to us here in Earth’s mythology. These creatures are the guardians of Orchestrylus, each corresponding to a key in music. How they relate to glimmerdells (a hallmark upon the neck of a resident of Orchestrylus when they turn seventeen) will become known in further books.

I will explore the mythology behind Sonateena Vibratos in this upcoming book as well. She’s the stuff of legends in this world. Much like Diminished Seventh is to the adamythus race.

The key facet to set this series apart from others will be poems (not always short or free verse) describing the attacks of each musician. There’s no such thing as a sword in this world. No guns. It’s all instruments and voices.

The writing world has some shortcomings when compared to other media. We don’t get cool soundtracks like movies and games. We don’t have visual storytelling (typically, unless there is a manga, picture book, or comic aesthetic) in our medium, either.

I’m writing a world based upon musica universalis, the music of the spheres.

While descriptions are amazing tools to paint a picture, and I love using poetic language, I can’t help but think there’s something more here with this concept.

I want this to work out well.

I’m optimistic that I don’t have be waiting on me to catch that rare lightning in a bottle.

It may be a strange concept, but I think it works for my purposes.

So, I’m using poetry to convey the feelings of each song or piece by a symphonist, Negasong, or enemy combatant.

This doesn’t mean I won’t describe the melodic battles in the standard ways, but I want this to be a defining trait of this series from now on.

Below is a crude example from an earlier draft of what I’m going for. The final product is releasing a fair bit fancier than this.

But the release of The Lost Ships of Lim Wierre is scheduled for the end of May, followed by the release of a new light novel every three months thereafter.

I hope you’ve had a wonderful World Book Day.

Let’s keep books exchanging hands by any means necessary.

Reading is important for people of all ages.

There’s something uniquely magical about imagining a story in your mind.

I want that experience to flourish for generations to come.