[Brigand]

I want to write a 40k short story detailing A Sorcerer Lord and his band of Chaos Marines, and while I have the basics down I don't really know what I should be writing about, like what the story should be ABOUT. Essentially it would revolve around a Chaos Marine group that worship Tzeentch and Slaanesh primarily, but I don't really have any clear goal or what the story will be ABOUT in mind? Suggestion?

 

[harlequin2262]

Well, chaos bands are perpetually vieing with each other for infernal favour, so civil war could be a possibility. A raid on an imperial planet, perhaps. The cultimation of a ritual. Perhaps they could seek some sort of Deamon artifact that's required for a ritual.

 

[daelrog]

What?! Slaanesh and Tzeentch?! No, use this dude.

Sorry, that's just me being selfish.

As far as YOUR story goes though, you have so much to choose from. The 40k universe has so much background, it's sometimes harder to narrow down the possibilities rather than actually coming up with an idea in the first place.
I guess you should think about a few things such as...
1) Who do you want your guys to fight? Orks, loyalist marines, Eldar harlequins, crazed daemons, etc. (It's 40k fan fiction, I'll assume there will be fighting).
2) What does your sorcerer want to do? Summon daemons, find an artefact, get vengeance, escape a rival?
3) Is the story going to be action driven or summary driven. What I mean is, is your story's primary focus going to be about summarizing your Chaos warband as they do whatever it is they do, or is it going to be about whatever it is they do, while some details are given about the group.

Hope this helps, and good luck.

 

[Brigand]

1) Who do you want your guys to fight? Orks, loyalist marines, Eldar harlequins, crazed daemons, etc. (It's 40k fan fiction, I'll assume there will be fighting).

Well probably marines, and if there are renegade foes they will probably have a Daemon on them.

2) What does your sorcerer want to do? Summon daemons, find an artefact, get vengeance, escape a rival?

Hmmm, well if I'm fighting another renegade chapter/legion I could be attempting to slay a poweful Daemon/Daemon Prince of Nurgle or Khorne (hard to decide, personally I hate Nurgle more than Khorne, but given my choice of Patrons it would rather make sense to wage a war on Khorne, mutual hatreds and all)

3) Is the story going to be action driven or summary driven. What I mean is, is your story's primary focus going to be about summarizing your Chaos warband as they do whatever it is they do, or is it going to be about whatever it is they do, while some details are given about the group.

It'll definitely have more about the Warband, this time at least since this will be my first story about them.

 

[Horus Lupercal]

Is this story going to be entered into the BL competition??

 

[daelrog]

Well, that's a good start. Now that you have a solid base for an idea, you have to get into more details. You have to ask yourself why your band is slaying this daemon in particular? Is it vengeance for ruining your patrons god's plan, preventing the rival group from doing something the patron god won't like, or are your guys just being jerks and messing up the other group's plans just because they can.
If you're going to base it mostly off introducing the chapter, I have one big suggestion. Use flashbacks and actions to reveal traits of the characters, even dialogue going over the past. Justp please, please do not introduce a character, then go off for two paragraphs about them. That is the easy way to do it. Perhaps this is not the first time these two groups have met and as they fight, your protaganists are reminded of the first conflict. Maybe as they fight, your characters talk of other days such as ealier wars, past conflicts, even how your group hates its own members. Maybe as one of your characters is fighting, that daemon inside them starts talking to them, distracting them and going on about it views of the battle, and the warband in particular.
As Azriel said, check out the BL competition. This story seems to be shaping up.

 

[Brigand]

Hmmm well Ive been thinking about it, and think they'll be old rivals from the same chapter that split into groups, and the two groups in particular (mine and the other) will be old rivals that have been clashing since they broke off from the Imperium. One problem is I can't think of a good founding legion.

 

[AlbinoAlien]

delete