Announcing My November 2023 Project: The Heist of Dorian Gray

This NaNoWriMo is a bit different since I am working on two different projects. (I divided up my goal equally to focus on both.) I am going to focus on The Heist of Dorian Gray in this post. I made a blog post about the other project, here. 

The title of this novel is a work in progress, and it might end up changing to The Crimes of Dorian Gray eventually. I haven't decided yet, though. 

Synopsis: 

Genre(s):  Urban Fantasy (with gothic elements) | Crime/Caper
Series: The first book in the Dorian Gray trilogy 

In an alternate universe where Dorian Gray went into hiding after the terrible deed of murder and ended up living in to modern day... 

Dorian's potrait is on display in the Art Institute of Chicago, showing his sin and age to all the world. Because of this, he desires get his painting back, and enlists the help of some outcasts  to help him steal it back. 

 But this proves to be more of a challenge than Dorian Gray believed it would be, and his past comes back to bite him. Will he ever get his painting back? Or will it constantly be out of reach? 

Main Characters:  

This is an ensemble based story, so throughout the serial there will be stories focusing on different characters' perspectives. I am still designing the characters' appearances and only know what three of them look like right now (the first three in the listing below). You can view these three characters' profiles (which go more in depth) here. 

Dorian Gray-- a man who wished to stay young forever, which resulted in becoming immortal (also immoral, but that's another matter). He currently goes under the alias of "Damien Gray," who is Dorian Gray's descendent, in hopes this will get the rest of the group to trust him. However, he fears they will find out about his immorality. 

Ivy Hughes-- An art forger/restorer. She currently resides in Chicago, and does replicas of impressionist paintings for her job. However, she does have a mysterious past, which Dorian managed to uncover in order to get her to work with him. 

       Reed Hayward-- He could be called a "wizard," but he much prefers the term "painter with magic" or "magical artist." All his magic is art based. He has distorted and false memories of his past. And he believes Dorian may know the secret of who he is.

             Adeline "Ava"-- - She is a hacker. In her free time, she makes online video games. Her most recent creation is "Giggly Ghouls," a cute ghost game she made for her niece. However, she uses her skills for other purposes as well, such as hacking into security systems and stealing information. 

         Alfred--  Alfred is a rival of Dorian's. He is a con artist who does spirit reading on the side to earn extra money. He is skilled in reading people, and likes using tarot cards and doing card tricks. 

Goals this NaNoWriMo: 

My goal is to get more of the first draft done, even if I don't finish all of it this month. The Heist of Dorian Gray started out as a screenplay which then I decided worked better as a serial novel. (I am glad that I chose to change.) Compared to my previous style of drafting which is just to write as much as I can, I am trying to write well and descriptively especially since I was inspired by real-world art. 

And since I divided my goal into two projects which both complement each other. My goal is to make progress on both. Since The Haunted Sketchbook is on its second draft, I'll be reworking some things like creating a satisfying ending. For The Heist of Dorian Gray, I want to figure out how to write what I'm calling "a novel that reads like a short story collection." In some ways it is similar to a TV show being in serial novel format. I am planning to publish it in a way that is like the original Picture of Dorian Gray which was serialized in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine before publication in book form.

The Picture of Dorian Gray is one of my favorite books, and I am happy that I finally found a way to write about the characters from it in a way that isn't retelling. I had wanted to spend more time with them but not follow the plot of the original. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------If you're doing NaNowWrimo this November, what are you working on?

-Quinley

Writing Reflections

   I thought I would do a writing updates post, since it's been a while since I did one and I have a lot of thoughts about the projects I am currently working on.  

                       

                       What I'm Working on 

Dolls of Wax, Eyes of Glass

 

Last month, I started working on Dolls of Wax, Eyes of Glass again. I had previously paused for research, which I have now partially finished. (I still have to research the spiritualist movement, which I need for Matilda's portion of the story.) Some of the research I did involved reading Beckett's trilogy, since there was an aspect of the trilogy that I felt would work in Felix's narration. In the time that I was drafting, I got a satisfying partial draft of Felix's part done, so I will feel good about coming back to finish it in a few months. 

As I was writing the draft, a singer I like released a song that reminds me a lot of my story, and it was helpful for writing a scene involving the Wax Witch. The song itself is about a folk figure, Black Annis, who is a blue hag that eats human flesh. She is not exactly like the Wax Witch, but some of the lyrics reminded me of her. 

It feels good to get back into this story, since I realize I tend to miss characters if I don't write about them for a while.  

The Haunted Sketchbook

In The Haunted Sketchbook I figured out a problem I was having with Edith's narrative, which will make it much easier to do the second draft. Earlier, I had been trying to adhere to a certain formula (from a M.R. James ghost story), and that constrained the story too much. So, I will let the story move outside of this formula and become what it wants to be.  In this way, I figured out that I want a combination of a murder mystery and a ghost story but not in the formula of either: merely using elements of both genres. 

I also discovered a similarity between Ferdinand and Macbeth. While it is not a perfect resemblance, Ferdinand's motives (for doing what he may or may not have done) are similar to Macbeth's: ambition. However, he is in the art world instead of in the world of kings. The similarities between the motives has made it easier for me to understand Ferdinand as a character.  

The Heist of Dorian Gray 

I finished outlining The Heist of Dorian Gray. This is the first time that I've written a story involving heists, so I wanted to make sure that I had a basic idea of the structure of them. (However, I may change some things about the structure, since other genres are present in this story).

I watched The Great Train Robbery to get an idea of the heist structure, and it helped. 

Also, Ivy now has a character sheet which you can look at here. I still need to make ones for Ava and Alfred, but for now I have the three up. 

I then began writing the novel. I found that "zero drafting" (basically outlining and writing short scenes as exercises), helped clear things up, that otherwise might have caused awkward scenes in the first draft. I basically see zero drafting as throwing things at the wall, to see if they stick, if they don't that's fine, or if you miscommunicated a concept you get to clarify it in the 1st draft. (This then makes 2nd, 3rd, etc. drafting much easier, since then it isn't a mess of awkward scenes). 

The Mystery of the Body Thief 

(image from wiki commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Henry_Meynell_Rheam_-_The_Fairy_Wood.jpg)

In world-building recently, I have since changed what I call my elves. I now call them the Sídhe (pronounced like SHEE. This is the Irish word for "people of the fairy mound.") So, if you see me referring to them as that, don't be confused, because early drafts of my story had pointed to them being like Irish fairies. This will be a part of the update in the character sheets. I am also working on a short story set in that world (from the myth collection). I am working on editing and rewriting, and I plan to release it as a story introducing the world. Once it's published I will make an update post on that. 

Also in my world building, I figured out a division between the humans and Sídhe in terms of learning magic from the gods.This was inspired by the research I did for a paper I presented at a fantasy conference. Magic is less common among humans than among the Sídhe, and the humans who do have magic call themselves "fairy doctors." Magic is still a religious thing among humans, as it is among the Sídhe. But the Sídhe call those of their own kind who have magic from the gods, "devotees" or "priests/priestesses." 

And that's all I've been working on writing-wise. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------What are you working on this September? Do you have a song that reminds you of your story and/or character? 

-Quinley 

Miscellaneous Drawings #11

                  Previous parts: #1, #2 #3, #4, #5, #6,#7, #8, #9 and #10. 

Hello everyone, 

It's time for another drawing post. I've been practicing a lot of digital art, so I figured I'd show the recent drawings I've made.

 In other news, two characters now have profiles here and here. I am also steadily working on the characters for Arisias's series and there are two categories in their Meet the Characters page--gods and mortals. 

I've been busy, but sometime soon I plan to respond to the comments on my previous posts. So keep an eye out for that. 

But anyway, let's begin: 

Salissah is the goddess of the moon, wisdom, and strategic warfare. I played around with the background a lot in this drawing and with the lighting, so that the stars in her looked more like they were glowing. 

And here's a video showing the process of how I drew it. 

Here is my version of Dorian Gray from my novel, The Heist of Dorian Gray. I took some inspiration from the 1945 film version for his outfit (since in my version, Dorian has been living for a long time, into modern day, I thought it would make sense for him to wear something more modern). And I like how it turned out. 

If you're wondering why my Dorian has blond hair (since other versions of the character have black hair) it is because of this quote from the book: Dorian was“wonderfully handsome, with his finely curved scarlet lips, his frank blue eyes, his crisp gold hair. There was something in his face that made one trust him at once. All the candour of youth was there, as well as all youth’s passionate purity.” (The Picture of Dorian Gray, p. 17) 

This is Edith Porter from The Haunted Sketchbook. I had drawn Ferdinand before in this new style, so I wanted to draw her next. I wanted to make it look as if there was spilled paint or paint being laid out on a canvas, and I think I managed to achieve that. 

Here is Ivy Hughes from The Heist of Dorian Gray. Ivy is an artist, so I wanted to emphasize the splattered paint in the background. 

This is Reed Hayward from The Heist of Dorian Gray. He has "art magic"-- while I do not show him actively using magic, I wanted it to be present in the background. I also had a lot of fun designing his outfit. 

Finally, this is a drawing of Ophelia. I've been thinking recently about how Ophelia sees her herself, versus how someone else might. She is an elf, and so others (i.e. humans) would see her differently. 

I'm also drawing this to help figure out what aspect of Ophelia's character I am missing, as I feel as if I am missing something but I am not sure what. 

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    Which drawing is your favorite? And which of these characters would you like to see more of? 

-Quinley