PREPTOBER: THE WORKING TITLE
PREPTOBER, is a month of activities to prepare for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) in November. Activities during preptober can include things like prepping your novel, and doing daily writing tasks to get into the habit of writing something every day.
I’ve decided to give the #InstaWrimo challenge a go, this year. It’s an Instagram challenge, really, but it works just as well for blogging if you asked me.
My working title this year is the Ulfrheim sagas. I know, hardly surprising. It is my main creative writing project – a fantasy rooted in Norse mythology and Scandinavian folklore. The sagas are centred around Edda, a broken young girl who grows up living in a fantasy world and telling tall tales. Or is she?
The premise for the stories is that we’re living in a post-apocalyptic, rather dystopian world. First, there was Ragnarök, the twilight of the gods, brought about by Odin’s (and the other Aesir’s) hubris. It lead to the battle against the Jotun, the death of some of the main gods and to Fenrir devouring everything in his way.
The old world burned and crumbled into the sea, which lead to the birth of the world we live in today. The surviving gods and creatures assembled at Idavöllr, and they made an agreement as to how this new world would work. Which eventually lead to the rise of humankind as the de facto rulers of the world.
Humans, however, are fickle creatures. Blinded by greed and arrogance, they had soon abandoned their old gods, who faded into distant memories, legends and folklore along with the ancient races. But Örlog is the word, and the word is law of the land. The warp and weft of fate are woven into the fabric of life, and it will take on the colours and patterns our actions feed into it.
Warning signs of an impending Aldarrök, the destruction of an age, were ignored and mankind suffered for that mistake. A devastating sickness raged for nearly 200 years and 40% of humans died. You’d think they would learn their lesson after a blow like that, but if anything they became even more hellbent on individualism, imperialism and imbalanced wealth creation.
Örlog, of course, saw through their antics and the weave began to churn out warning signs again. And, again, humankind chose to ignore them. 800 years after the first Aldarrök, a second destruction hit the world. This time, the sickness raged for nearly 100 years and it saw the death of 60% of the human population. So, by now, surely they knew that their lifestyle was threatening to destroy the very fabric of life?
Afraid not.
In the early 1960s, some 500 years after the second Aldarrök, the weavers saw the first signs of impending doom. Örlog had issued a final warning. A third apocalypse was in the making and, unless it could be avoided, it would likely begin within the next 100 years. As much as 80% of the population would be at risk, and it would be as destructive an event as Ragnarök had been. Three is, after all, a magical number and there’s a reason we say three strikes and you’re out…
That’s as much as I’m prepared to share today. How about we talk about you instead?
– Are you doing something for #preptober?
– Have you done #preptober before?
Let’s talk! Hop on the Preptober bandwagon, and please share the links to your posts using today’s prompt in the comments below.
All the best,
//Lïnnéa 
© Evalena Styf, 2021
Writing prompt from #NaNoWriMo Preptober InstaWrimo Challenge: 2 October, 2021. “Working Title”
The #InstaWrimo is a photo challenge for Instagram, but it works just as well as a daily writing prompt.