A challenge: writing a female protagonist.
Double challenge: writing a female protagonist who can kick some ass while not being a goofy, laughable comic book nerd fantasy.
I had a vision of a male character who was not strong, brawny or typically Rambo or Conan esque. In essence, he was more akin to the heroes in Arabian mythology: a hero who defeats the big bad guy through cleverness and wits.
Of course, he was able to hold his own against goons: a SWASHBUCKLER! Swinging from chandeliers and rigging to slice and dice and trip up the bad guys. Perhaps letting out a quip or two.
Also, eventually becoming captain of an air ship!
Now to make this dude a lady instead? Maybe tricky, maybe not. She does come from a traditionally matriarchal society... so it is not wholly out of place in her community to be a charismatic leader...
May 2, 2011
The world formerly known as Myr
No name for this world anymore. My concepts will be my own and not those of others. I will be borrowing concepts from my friends though.
I will have three protagonists. One of them will be called called Erik-for now and only because he's from a sort of viking-like culture, at least originally.
He was taken away from his home country as an infant during a particularly bad bit of civil warfare during which the royal family was being entirely assassinated. The survivors were spirited away as far as possible to islands much further south across the open sea.
Erik was brought to an island with a climate reminiscent of the foggy, cool shores of Western Canada - tall coniferous trees, foggy, lots of rain etc... He was raised there in a fisherman's family, never being informed who he was except that his family had died in a storm out at sea.
He liked his life there and loved his family. Eventually, a distant relative and servant of his true family came by a longship to retrieve him and tell him of his inheritance. Erik wasn't terribly pleased: the people on this Norse ship were a surly, hard lot visibly scarred by a life in cold, dangerous seas and a love for combat. He was also being taken away from his adoptive family and childhood sweetheart.
Being all but kidnapped, he was taken on board and went off into strange seas that grew colder by the day. They were hit by a vicious storm and they crashed upon a rocky desert island.
Erik and his distant relative were the only survivors, but the older man was practically comatose, only waking up occasionally to tell Erik about his homeland. After a month or two, they managed to construct a raft and set off again.
Once again, they were hit by a storm and got drastically diverted in their course: heading south instead of north (Erik's relative had become delirious and died).
Eventually Erik will get rescued by Islanders from that Hawaiian/Maori/Polynesian culture and taken in as one of their own (they were very accepting). Not wanting to go North, Erik accepted his new home with relish.
more to come...
I will have three protagonists. One of them will be called called Erik-for now and only because he's from a sort of viking-like culture, at least originally.
He was taken away from his home country as an infant during a particularly bad bit of civil warfare during which the royal family was being entirely assassinated. The survivors were spirited away as far as possible to islands much further south across the open sea.
Erik was brought to an island with a climate reminiscent of the foggy, cool shores of Western Canada - tall coniferous trees, foggy, lots of rain etc... He was raised there in a fisherman's family, never being informed who he was except that his family had died in a storm out at sea.
He liked his life there and loved his family. Eventually, a distant relative and servant of his true family came by a longship to retrieve him and tell him of his inheritance. Erik wasn't terribly pleased: the people on this Norse ship were a surly, hard lot visibly scarred by a life in cold, dangerous seas and a love for combat. He was also being taken away from his adoptive family and childhood sweetheart.
Being all but kidnapped, he was taken on board and went off into strange seas that grew colder by the day. They were hit by a vicious storm and they crashed upon a rocky desert island.
Erik and his distant relative were the only survivors, but the older man was practically comatose, only waking up occasionally to tell Erik about his homeland. After a month or two, they managed to construct a raft and set off again.
Once again, they were hit by a storm and got drastically diverted in their course: heading south instead of north (Erik's relative had become delirious and died).
Eventually Erik will get rescued by Islanders from that Hawaiian/Maori/Polynesian culture and taken in as one of their own (they were very accepting). Not wanting to go North, Erik accepted his new home with relish.
more to come...
April 25, 2011
New Directions
I've been struggling with a project to start for many years now. Never been able to make a decision on which direction to take stylistically nor with which medium (comic, storybook, pin-up illustrations).
When it all comes down to it, I really, really want to tell a story. This is really a daunting task and I'm scared of it. But you know what? Screw it: that's what I want to do!
What story though? For a while I wanted to do a few different things:
When it all comes down to it, I really, really want to tell a story. This is really a daunting task and I'm scared of it. But you know what? Screw it: that's what I want to do!
What story though? For a while I wanted to do a few different things:
- The tale of a weird wizard type guy who travels from strange world to world for... no reason in particular. This is the one with those bird-armor people and the Hansel and Gretel storyline.
- The tale of an occult investigator in a typical, cliché filled Lovecraftian method.
The other possibility is to use a storyline that I've created over the past 25 years with my sister, my friends and my own imagination. Something kind of original.
Sure, the World of Myr could be viewed as a bit derivative, but we all start somewhere. Probably the most original story lines centered on a group of young people from an Archipelago who become embroiled in an adventure to resist an invading nation while dealing with ancient gods who just won't let go of the world.
Because of my fascination with Tiki Culture, the Epic Monomyth and occult mysticism (oh and airships), I think that I'll settle on this project.
Whether it will be a story book with illustrations or a comic book... only time will tell. Probably a comic, though, but in the European Bédé format.
The next bit will be to deal with who the main protagonists will be. From my own stories with my sister and those from Roleplaying games, I've decided to pull from these sources and combine the many characters into a few new ones.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)