Thinking about writing a short novel... To Malifaux, or not to malifaux

[*Jack*]

Hi all,

Time and time again I find myself thinking about writing some stories down, I never get around to it but I always end up with a nice looking plan.

This time round, I'm seriously considering working on it as a possibility. I'm not looking to make cash from it, I find it relaxing.

So far, I'm planning for a turn of the century, espionage kind of story, with a brash american as the lead character. This had me thinking... I love malifaux a lot, should I set the story there?

- On the downside, I'd feel I have to "Live up" to the current fluff, publishing it as a digital novel would be a lot harder, and it would have a much smaller readerbase. I'd also have to figure neverborn and undead existing into my characters persona.

- On the positive, however, it might bring people into contact with our lovely world, it'd also be a lot of fun, and I'd love to have some asian stuff in, ala ten thunders, whether its malifaux or not. If I go setting it in malifaux, I think the ten thunders are more "accessible" - Making my character meet some asian warlord in london would require some clever tricks.

So just after a few thoughts? What would you prefer to read, if you'd read it at all? Help me out, I'm in a tough position

[D-A-C]

Instead of doing a short Malifaux novel, why don't you write a short Malifaux story?

Keep it simple, maybe a couple of thousand words, a short crew vs crew engagement, bit of examination of a couple of Masters, bit of Malifaux mise-en-scene, then post it up and get some community feedback.

Why spend weeks or more likely months labouring on something extensive when you haven't even dipped your toe in the water yet? Something short, simple and sweet would be better as it would let us see your writing style and character ideas and then if it proves popular you can take it from there.

Believe me, writing short stories inside an established universe is difficult when it isn't your own, as you have to play by someones elses rules on what you can and cannot do. I have several ideas for 40k short stories that got really positive feedback when I discussed them, but sitting and writing the damn things is a pain as you have to constantly cross reference when major events happened, how they effected your protagonist as well as limiting some avenues of characterisation and developement.

Long story short, a quick short story to let us see your ideas would be better. Otherwise, realistically, your largely wasting your time IMO.

[*Jack*]

I've done short stories until my eyes bleed, hence the decision to go for something longer as a challenge

Never done a malifaux short story though, always been too intimidated :/ :')