40k novel idea- looking for comments

[Dark_Crozius]

Hi all. After reading quite a few Black Libary novels i've decided to try my hand at writting for myself.

After several failed attempets to come up with something 100% original and then failing to write it in a decent way i've decided to take a friends advice. Put simply, use an existing narrative from somewhere else and use the bits you like in a 40k setting. At first i was very against this as it's basicaly ripping someone elses work off but my friend ( a rather good writer) put it to me like this: When you first start out your trying to develop your skills at story telling. Setting the scene with words, conveying characters etc- untill you master these skills it dosent matter what your story is, it's not going to live up the potential (i think he put it like 'an amazing spider-man story with stick men- learn to draw first')

Ok, so i was thinking i want to use the basic outline from the Star wars force unleashed game, but then tweek it into something more 40k and hopefully more original (and cooler in the process) Heres what i came up with:


Blades of Horus

Basicaly the sorcerer Zaphistion (sp?) assembling himself a secret team of powerfull psykers, training them up and putting them threw trials so that the numbers dwindle threw 'survial of the fittest' till only one survives to furfill the mission- kill Abaddon.

I know this is'nt the coolest idea around, but theres two things that excite me about it that could be intresting.

First of all this is a story set in current day 40k, but looks abit into the history of the Black Legion from a diffrent perspecitve. Zaphistion is assembling this team to kill the leader of his legion. Why? Because he hates him with a passion as do many of them. Theres a group within the Black Legion who still cling to the idea and dream of Horus and resent the fact that the legion has been turned from trying to unite humanity under Chaos to strengthen it against the threats of the galaxy, a 'dark imperium under chaos' kind of thing which i believe was Horus goal originaly, he did'nt want to simply destroy the imperium, he wanted to rule it and over throw the Empeoror- at least thats the way me (and in this story Zaphistion) see it. Now the Black Legions goals seem to be simply destroy the Imperium in the name of vengence.
They also resent the fact that the legion they where proud of serving, the Sons of Horus, is now gone. The painting of the legions armour black seen as extreme desecration to the armour they wore with pride.

This is only a small unhappy group so they lack the strength to do anything about this untill Zaphistion starts building his small cadre of potential pychic assasins.

The second thing i think may be intresting is the fact that the story follows the team (and more importantly the main characters 'two', 'six' and 'seven') as they are training to be chaos space marines. The Gene seed of Horus is still being implanted into them and they wear carapace armour. I'm trying despratley not to use the term 'chaos scouts' but basicaly thats what they are. They get sent of on suicide missions to toughen them up whilst training.

To my knowlage theres never been any fluff/ novels written about chaos marines in training (let alone ones who are all high level potential pskers) so would be intresting. If i'm wrong and there is fluff about chaos training please let me know!


Ok rant over. Now the big question: Is this total rubbish and there for not worth the time it would take to write or is this something people may actualy be intrested reading? Please let me know.

P.S Do any writers on this have any adivce of writing your first novel?

[Nabterayl]

I don't mean to dampen your spirits, and I'm not a professional writer, but I am a professional lawyer, so I have to ask for the sake of a fellow Lounge member - you're aware that writing a 40K novel is illegal, right? Parody is another matter, but you don't sound like you intend to write a parody of 40K. For various reasons, generally speaking, companies like Games Workshop choose not to make a big deal out of fan fiction - but I wouldn't expect to finish a novel based on 40K and be able to sell it to anybody other than Games Workshop, because GW would almost certainly come down like a ton of bricks on any other publishing house that tried to buy your work (and for that reason, in all likelihood no other publishing house would even touch it).

If you only intend to sell the finished work to GW, then you're probably okay (although it is, of course, illegal for you to write it in the first place, whether you sell it to them or not), though I'd advise you to try and figure out how that works. I'd be surprised if the Black Library had a policy of accepting 40K novel ideas from outside the Black Library.

Of course, if you're not intending to sell the finished work, and don't intend to distribute it further than any other piece of fan fiction is distributed, GW is not likely to care. It's still illegal, but you're probably not in any more danger than any other fan fiction writer.

EDIT: That said, no, the concept doesn't sound like total rubbish to me. For me, the interesting approach to Chaos (more or less only the interesting approach to Chaos, at least for me) is to keep firmly in mind that these were real men and women, with real hearts and minds, who "fell" to Chaos because it spoke to a fundamentally good desire within them - and that, however twisted they may have become by web into which they have fallen, they remain real men and women still, with real hearts and minds. That sounds like essentially the approach you are taking, so no, the concept doesn't sound like total rubbish. Whether it's something I'd be interested in reading depends on a lot more than the concept, of course, but you know that.

[Freefall945]

ACTUALLY...

The black library periodically runs submission brackets through the year where they take in ideas for new novels and short stories from authors (and would-be authors).

The next bracket is on.. right now! It began on the 4th of May and ends on the 31st of July.

More information can be found here! (http://www.blacklibrary.com/Getting-Started/FAQ-Working-For-Black-Library.html#guidelines)

Go go go! Write write write!

[Gotthammer]

Well Black Library have open submissions until the end of July (http://www.blacklibrary.com/Getting-Started/FAQ-Working-For-Black-Library.html#guidelines).

But first if you really want to be a writer you need to practice good writing and spelling in everything you write. The masses of typos and grammatical errors in your post are not a good sign. No matter how great your plot or characterisation I won't read it if it's as error laden as the post above.

As for your plot, a suicide mission is a bad way to train anyone. As Mike once said 'suicide may be a great hobby, but I wouldn't do it for a living'. Also saying 'it's the plot from this well known francise, but a bit different' is generally a bad starting point. It can work for short fiction like novellas and short storys, but for a 100,000 word novel I don't want to read a stroy I already know unless you're a very good writer (and even then...).

[Dark_Crozius]

Thanks for response- but to clarify, i have no inention of selling my work- i write for fun. If i ever thought it was actualy worth sending off to Black Libary i may do but that'd be purly to get my story out there- no intrest in money.

Glad you don't think my idea is total rubbish.