The Story Begins to Come Together
After having a few 4 AM epiphanies, The First Fear storyline is beginning to become whole. Or whole enough that I can start looking at the overall structure for things like: flow; exposition; and dynamics in character growth, action and plot reveals. At this point the visuals will be challenging as the story spans both locations and time. It currently moves from the Arctic (thousands of years ago) to Machu Picchu (hundreds of years ago) to Europe and WWII (decades ago) to potentially a Nazi-run present-day/future, complete with alien technology and occult rituals.
Much of the story is now motivated by the question of what would happen if anyone with a domineering, non-inclusive worldview actually found an advantage that moved a global conflict from tit for tat to a brutal takeover? I want to take legends like the Spear of Destiny (whoever had it was supposedly invincible, and it is rumored that when the Allies recovered the artifact from the Nazis, Hitler died in his bunker two hours later) and expand that advantage to technology. Technology that is alien in origin. "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
It is at this point in a project that one can either be elated at the flow of ideas or overwhelmed by the immensity of it all. Especially if you're planning on doing it all yourself (concept, story, art, production, new software, etc.).
I'm excited.
Much of the story is now motivated by the question of what would happen if anyone with a domineering, non-inclusive worldview actually found an advantage that moved a global conflict from tit for tat to a brutal takeover? I want to take legends like the Spear of Destiny (whoever had it was supposedly invincible, and it is rumored that when the Allies recovered the artifact from the Nazis, Hitler died in his bunker two hours later) and expand that advantage to technology. Technology that is alien in origin. "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
It is at this point in a project that one can either be elated at the flow of ideas or overwhelmed by the immensity of it all. Especially if you're planning on doing it all yourself (concept, story, art, production, new software, etc.).
I'm excited.
Labels: Comic Books, First Fear, Writing
telepathically sent by Charlie at 2:04 AM
3 Comments:
The staggering amount of research that an epic tale such as this takes is exciting and daunting at the same time. It does give on a great reason to go out and buy a slew of neat books, though.
Tell me about it. You're right, though, I am getting a lot of cool books out of it. The danger of a project like this is focus creep. I have to keep from constantly answering the question, "Well, won't the reader not understand what's happening here if I don't explain it with some highly detailed back story that makes everything fall neatly into place?"
Sometimes a little mystery is better. The trick is when. When is it 'mystery' and when is it sloppy storytelling?
I agree entirely. I'm not a big fan of Tolkiening up a story by gagging it with exposition.
Post a Comment
<< Home