Notepad

From Fantasy Novel

Revision as of 08:22, 24 August 2007

IMPORTANT NOTES

• The song "Now Flightless Wings" from Secret of Mana struck me... have some kind of defining characteristic for one of the heroic people/creatures be totally shattered. Whatever it is that seems to define them is gone - this will provide a great plot thread to tug at.
• Extremely important that you build in the ambiance while writing - crows cawing, the sound of bullfrogs in a pond/marsh, night sounds, quiet whispers of wind.
• Make use of a lot of actual human legends - Pandoras box, fountain of youth, holy grail, a number of others... but dont make them identical, twist them into something unique and useful for your story.
• Spark in heros bloodline that will be activated when evil avatar emerges.
• City named Severn and other MD and Maine and CA places
• OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH OH - Okay... so the dark avatar isn't somebody who was just given gifts and became the avatar - he actually obtains an object (similar to the triforce of power) that transforms him into such a thing. This perhaps makes him immortal and allows for him to still be there (possibly sealed away) while the other two peices of the puzzle pass their control of the power they possess down through their descendents somehow).
• VERY IMPORTANT FRAMEWORK TO LOOK AT - Zelda Chronology: http://www.zeldauniverse.net/content/view/383/421/
• Perhaps transform into animals - Link as a "Blue eyed beast" - maybe even have this part of the "Fisc is missing" novel, where an animal shows up and is with teh other main characters, and turns out to be Fisc. Maybe not even an animal. Hmmm...
• COULD go with a somewhat technological thing here... think of several video games and technology still existing in the "medieval" world... links electric/metal boots, chrono trigger... Mana fortress, Symphonia...
• Try to get some celestine prophecy music to listen to while writing.
• Fisc changes the colors of his clothes every book... or maybe something else... but it would be neat to build in COLOR as a peice of symbolism for something. Perhaps look into color meanings and then have them serve as an allegory for his personality.
• At each stage of Fisc's development (much like Taran of Prydain) he must "give up" something to evolve. This serves as a way for him to "let go" of his old self as he grows into who he will become. Perhaps build in rights of passage to this.
• A Xena type butcher turned good - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xena
• Have a druid like order
• Raiden... use both the name and perhaps the general concept.
• Work on scale/miles for the map
• Work in warrior/silva rivalry akin to klingons/romulans
• Extremely good idea - an "Atlantis" civilization, from when the original master humans existed. Something happened, it goes underwater but is more or less perfectly preserved. Have the hero have to go there, and perhaps have to travel to the land of the Marin to have them guide him there, because maybe they are the only ones who know about it, maybe others do, but they're the only ones who can go there because of the nature of thier race.
• Make the characters travel to the island nation that I will be modeling (in the west, north of the landmass - ie a Britain type land) after the celts and druids specifically. Use the druid festival of Samhain (celebrated in a Halloween time of year) as a model. These people will be celebrating the end of harvest and the lowering of the barrier between the world of the living and that of the dead. The day of the celebration will be called "the day of the dead", where celebrants typically approach the Day of the Dead joyfully, and the traditional mood is bright with emphasis on celebrating and honoring the lives of the deceased, and celebrating the continuation of life; the belief is not that death is the end, but rather the beginning of a new stage in life. However, a large part of the festival of the day of the dead is the "All Hallows Eve" portion - ie the night before. When darkness falls the night before the Day of the Dead (you should name the night before something...) there have been many strange stories told of the nights events. People often speak of experiences they have of being visited by the dead, deeply personal stories that none elaborate on, few have experienced, but all who have have been impacted. All who have experienced something have been alone, in a quiet room, and were never really expecting it. Sometimes they were given insight into the meaning and importance of their own lives, sometimes they were given a chance to bring closure to something troubling in their lives, sometimes they were given cryptic messages about the future direction their lives would see. The model for the events where the main characters (or just Fisc and other people in general) interact with the dead should be after the B5 episode: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_of_the_Dead_%28Babylon_5%29

Prydain

Look into the Prydain series.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Three_%28novel%29
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Cauldron_%28novel%29
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Castle_of_Llyr
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taran_Wanderer
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_High_King

Ideas relating to Zelda

• After their work was completed, the goddesses left a magical artifact called the Triforce which could grant the wishes of the user. It consisted of three golden triangles (each also called a "Triforce" � one of Wisdom, one of Power, and one of Courage), held in proximity by a magic force. However, because the Triforce was inanimate and did not judge between good and evil, the goddesses placed the Triforce in an alternate world called the "Sacred Realm", hoping that a worthy person would one day seek it. According to legend, if the discoverer of the Triforce has a balance of power, wisdom, and courage, they will receive the Triforce as a whole. If they are unbalanced, they will receive the part of the Triforce that represents the characteristic they most demonstrate, with the remaining parts of the whole transferring into the people in Hyrule who most exemplify the other two traits. The Triforce was first distributed as such starting in Ocarina of Time, as the Triforces of Power, Wisdom and Courage were each held by Ganondorf, Princess Zelda and Link, respectively. While the Triforce of Power and Wisdom have been part of the series since the original The Legend of Zelda, it was only in The Adventure of Link that the Triforce of Courage was first introduced, being obtained by Link at the end of his quest. A Link to the Past, released after The Adventure of Link but before Ocarina of Time, featured the Triforce, but made no mention of its three qualities or distribution beyond Ganon obtaining it.

OTHER NOTES

• Babylon 5 - Kosh/Vorlons cryptic nature... asking very vague, metaphorical questions... always filled me with wonder and interest... should have some kind of foreign creater of some kind fulfill that same role, ask cryptic questions, supremely knowledgable, perhaps anciently old.

• The B5 Episode, "The very long night of Londo Mollari" and "The Day of the Dead" are two fabulous examples of change up chapters, or even novels. You have to use something like that somewhere.

• Make the arch-villain better/stronger what have you than the hero. Softly spoken, quiet voice, deliberate slow speach, confident, very knowledgable... think mad, brilliant genius, driven criminally insane fighting the hero that had previously gotten the upper hand because of his own greatness... but the evil genius is actually greater than the hero, and so the hero has to fight from lower footing. A la... Batman - The Dark Knight with the joker as a rather serious, maniacle genius. He was scarred by the hero... transformed into what he is BY the hero. Perhaps in my story, the arch villain is MADE by the the hero somehow... perhaps the dictator who I plan on having in the first book is defeated, but in his defeat, the hero channels power through him, but out of anger channels a great deal of the "dark side" through him, and ends up creating a personification of evil. Good plot thread to explore.

• Call the ancient language... the unifying ancient language that the entire world of men used to speak (possibly other races... make up your mind later) - call it the "Dead Language"

• A gray council... what they are a council of, who the hell knows - could be a kingdoms ruling council, could be current users, who cares. Point is, setting of part of the book will be meeting with this council... extremely dark room all around, senses gone, don't know how large the room is - could be extremely small, or spanning an entire building... hooded, cloaked men enter the room standing in direct light that shows only them. No faces are seen, no words are spoken... very similar to the B5 gray council. Very ominous - be very detailed in its description... talk about lack of anything that can be seen, sense of awesomeness and grandeur... sound of crystals, or bass vibrations - possibly extremely deep chanting being heard. Use your imagination, but make it larger than life, mysterious, unknown and ominous.

• Londo Mollari's recurring dream of him on the throne, coughing, echos, very disoriented... make this a dream of one of the characters... not the main hero... well, MAYBE him, but probably not. Have it be a window into the future of his character... him being a king/emperor... but old, poisened, tragic... explore this.

• For the talk of time travel, gateways and platforms - make it a story a couple books into the series (probably at least 3-4 in)... HOWEVER, plant seeds in every single book before it. With the hero believing he saw himself at the corner of the building, or some other odd encounter with one of the characters which he believed was gone/injurued/away or something... making for an odd encounter... but at the same time, nothing is tipped off, and the plot doesn't take it anywhere. Its simply a thread to pull at later when the character is forced to travel through time.

• At the same time, pepper ALL books with LOTS of threads to use later... not just with time travel... but subtle plot issues that will be realized later. PRE PLAN OUT the entire story arch, and plant the seeds in the early novels accordingly, creating an intracately woven web of story threads to use - but again, do not expressly explain any of them, that way if you need to change your mind or go in a new direction, you can simply drop the issue, or change how it works... but at the same time if you do use it, you cause intrigue and interest.

• Make the number of current users very low... like in the hundreds/thousands... not that many more. Imply, or overtly say that there used to be a great deal more... perhaps a large portion of the population, but that peoples ability to harness the current has slowly declined over the years for some reason.

• Have a King named something that sounds like Leonidas... looking for a tense negotiation or discussion where he is addressed with a deep, menacing voice, and a four syllabul flowing name like Leonidas comes out. Great name.

• Have the second main character (probably Therin) dressed exactly like the Immortals from 300... the same angled shoulder pads, two swords, etc...

• Use some ambiguous quotes that pay homage to great move/book/television moments/quotes. Try to make them unrecognizable unless you have a keen mind and have seen the thing in question.

• "the frost, it sometimes makes the blade stick" - from Gladiator
• "...then we shall fight in the shade" - From 300 (but don't make the proceeding quote "our arrows will blot out the sun" make it something else...
• Spoken by character with two swords - "I've got two swords - one for each of you." - Adaptation from Tombstone... Doc Holliday said "I've got two guns, (twirls both guns on fingers) one for each of ya."
• I would gladly kill any of my men for victory." and "...and I would gladly die for any of mine." -Xerxes and Leonidas from 300