Diminution

[Cereb Daithi]

Well my other forum has finally forced me to reveal the new series im working on. The series is called Diminution

it's a sort of frank-miller-esque graphic novel consisting of photomanipulations. Think max payne.

The brief backstory is the middle east bombs itself away with civil war. The nations of the world, obviously seeking oil intervene. The world is forced into world war 3. The war quicktly ends however as governments begin to collapse. As the larger governments dissolve and the world economy falls apart all the smaller governments follow in a domino effect. It turns into a world of refugees. With no governments to cling to people start looking to another way to find identity. They turn to the next most powerful governing force. Religion. From the ashes of the former governments arise powerful religious groups. Much technology was lost and destroyed during the wars. That which remains is considered valuable and very important.


The Naomhs - A celtic mystical group based out of Ireland. Shamanistic in belief. Not great in numbers or technology. They rely on guerilla tactics and commandos. They are ruled by a council of elders.

The Animositinas - Ancient cahtolic based group. Very ritualistic and egotistical. Much like the old crusaders. They reside in eastern europe. They are controlled by an elected ruler, much like the pope.

The Lexicints - Imperialistc and creul group from eastern europe. Almost barbaric in nature they are ruled by a dictator that commands respect. They are very great in number. Communist influences are obvious but they still religious to an almost fanatical level. They are the sworn enemy of the Animositans whom they share borders with and are constantly barely avoiding open war.

Denovats - Technologically advanced group based in north america. Small in number but spared much of the devistation so they retain the higher technology. It has warped them to a point where they view technology as religion.

The Bodhis - Passive group found thorughout Asia. Monk-like they have no desire to fight.

The Non-Believers - Large group of refugees who do not cling to religion. They are scattered throught the world in groups but the largest concentration is located in Bodhi territory as the Bodhis allow them to peacefully live there as well as the african territories. Many of the non-believers have become mercenaries. They complete jobs for other groups simply to obtain resources for their groups and survive in the world.



The religions maintained a shaky peace that lasted up until one singular event that sparked the war. A group of mercenaries infiltrate and kill the Lexicint dictator. Noone is quite sure why. The Lexicints instantly blame the Animostians as they have been in a cold war for quite some time. The Animositans are disgusted at the accusation. However they also see the significance of this. Realizing that the Lexicints are in a weakened state without a strong leader they invade.

The Naomhs see this as their opportunity as well. Their home location of Ireland has little to offer in terms of abundance of natural resources. Tired of having to negotiate with the arrogant Animositans they view this as their time to strike against the weakened north-eastern front. They plunge into europe.

Thus sparks the war.

There is more on this story but i need to eat. There will be 3 issues (at least for now) each will follow a different character during the same time period. The first one will follow a young Naomh Daithi (me). The second will follow a battle-weary Animositan crusader. and finally the third will follow a Lexicint conscripted into battle after the asassination.


More details later!

This WILL be a huge project. I plan to travel to europe for some photography for this as well as set up photoshoots with several models. I'm hoping to make some money off this series. Feedback is VERY appreciated. It is an overwhelming amount of work. Each panel will be a seperate photomanipulation. With any luck I can hopefully obtain some sort of sponsorship or grant for this but well, I'm not going to hold my breath. So far it has been met with great enthusiasm. People seem to really get into this story as most people can relate to it in some way or another.

[drwrx]

The concept is excellent. The background is pretty well thought-out. And certainly you have already developed a mood for the piece.

Have you spent some time developing the main characters? Their backgrounds, their viewpoints what challenges they will overcome? You will likely need a few central and many supporting figures to make the story compelling to the reader. The more developed each is, the more the reader will relate to them and the more believable the plot will feel.

This is a cool project. It looks like you have put some serious time and thought into it already. Make sure the story line is rock solid before you put in a lot of time on the varous other supporting elements.

Message first, media second.

From what I've seen of your work, you've got the media aspect covered in spades! It will still require hundreds if not thousands of hours of work to story board, design, layout and produce each "panel." But what will make or break the project is the strength of it's content.

If I'm telling you something you already know than you can just tell me to shut-up!

[Cereb Daithi]

thanks for taking the time to go over it

haha i sort of learned the best way to have a story is to create a universe for yourself to play in. i'm a big fan of battletech and the reaosn that series is so long-lived (yes it's still around and developing) is becuase it gave itself a strong foundation. i didnt start by thinking up a plot... i started by thinking up a universe. gave myself a sandbox to play in and basically ran a "brief history of the world" scenario out on paper and this is one of the most interesting results i came up with in this world-gone-mad.

The main characters will provide an interesting viewpoint on the story. Instead of a continuous flowoing storyline, much of the story will follow the same time period but through the eyes of the different main characters for each of the individual "novels". each character will share a few common events (like the assasination) and react in their own way. sort of frank miller-esque if im not mistaken.

time and money are the obvious killers here. the amount of time and effort that will go into this will be.... well... insane.

my dream would be to have this funded. i dont know how realistic of a goal this is. it's definetly possible. hell JK Rowling wrote a silly book about a boy wizard and NOW look at her. but let's just say im not gona hold my breath. everyone that has given me feedback really loves the story and finds it to be pretty original, however im pretty unknown... i have about the chances of a parking lot football player making the NFL


if anyone would be willing to offer any help on this developing project or can point me in the direction of someone who can it'd be greatly appreciated.

[Libra Monkee]

Homer Simpson: "Yes, tell us your story, but it better have a beginning, middle and end. And you'd better make us root for the protagonist."

The plot outline sounds very interesting. It does, however, remind me of a book I read a while back called Jennifer Government. A not-too-distant-future where a global change has occurred, traditional governments are dissolved, and now the world is run by several different entities. Except in that book they use corporate commercialization where you're using religion.

I have to say I really like the concept and I'd like to see where you take this.

[Mr Kleen]

photo shoot? models?!? oops, wrong thread.

sorry I missed this thread back when you first posted. an interesting idea, I look forward to seeing some early test shots and/or script excerpts.

[avriette]

Feedback is VERY appreciated. It is an overwhelming amount of work. Each panel will be a seperate photomanipulation. With any luck I can hopefully obtain some sort of sponsorship or grant for this but well, I'm not going to hold my breath. So far it has been met with great enthusiasm. People seem to really get into this story as most people can relate to it in some way or another.

Yeah, it's a lot of work. How much storyboarding are you doing before starting the first draft? A lot of people write an outline first, and then start writing a story to the outline. It never worked for me. I had to start out really free-form and fragmented. I'd cut scene sketches, character sketches, crucial pieces of scenery or something that just had to happen. From that, I figure out how everyone fits in relation to everyone else, and then start the outline. You're definitely on the right path when you can write down a snippet, be it a scene or dialog or even a character sketch, and actually "want to read more." It helped me to go back and read some of the things I wrote a while back. Some of it was very compelling, and I found myself interested in the story (temporarily putting aside that I'd written it), and other parts didn't do much for me. I quickly figured out what I needed to work on.

It sounds like you're working in a similar fashion, in that you have a lot of your story hashed out in your head. I'm not familiar with what you're doing, but the photomanipulation part sounds interesting. I don't think I've seen anything like that before. So how are you organizing it? I think the above is great, and you could easily split each of those out into readable, actable pieces. If you're a software developer, these would be called "use cases." (obligatory wikipedia link)

The other thing that can be absolutely invaluable is to reach out to the people whose work you really enjoyed. I just figured it was better to ask and get no answer than to never ask. When a lot of these people started getting back to me, it helped my writing, and as a side effect, introduced me to people that were in my target audience (I would suspect that anyone whose work you admire is somebody you'd like to read it). That way when you have something to offer up for publication, the community already knows about you.

Also, it's very easy to fall into the cliché trap with religious sects and authoritarian figures. People generally don't want to read stories where there is a stark difference between Good and Evil, or other conflict stereotypes. For example, take something like The Sopranos. What really makes that show interesting is you're watching these really horribly violent people, running organized crime, and you just can't help but empathize with them because they're not just black and white.

When I started sketching out the villains for my first book, I knew what I wanted to say, and thought I could essentially have an evil puppet walking around speaking for me. It worked much better (at least, in my opinion, it was more interesting) to have the message be a little ambiguous. That left the reader to think about what was actually being said. And that's what hooks a lot of the people I show my drafts to.

The single most important piece of advice I got when I started writing was "Writing is a craft. You have to write every single day. It doesn't have to be good, it doesn't have to be long. You just have to do it. Because the more you write, the better you get." You can probably adapt that to your work.

[Cereb Daithi]

Yeah the beauty of it all is... there is no good or evil side. Just like religion everyone feels they are the righteous group and every single one of them has something about them that people might like. Granted people will almost undoubtedly cling to a certain side.. but i leave the choice up to them. All groups will see success and all will see defeat. Noone will be villanized.

I avoided using current real religions simply to avoid upsetting any major religious group. It's obvious what some of them are based off of, but i avoid using real ones at all costs. There are still a few landmines i need to avoid but I've pretty much worked it all out.

Thanks for the advice as well. I'll be looking into contacting some of my inspirations. Who knows maybe ill get lucky and get some more advice!

More on this later! Thanks again for the positive feedback!