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Jun. 14th, 2019 11:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lenora_rose(NB: I had this ready to post like Wednesday, then apparently never hit the button? I went to post today's thing today, and saw it sitting and waiting. So no, I am not going from zero to two posts in a day, I hope).
I always have a bit of a weird feeling when I'm working on the Serpent Prince et sequelae. It's a basic question, really:
- What does this story do that makes it different enough to be worth doing?
I like the story, obviously. I am fascinated to see how I solve the plot. (I have a pretty good idea what the general outline of 3/4 of the story is, and some big strokes idea how it all resolves - I am starting to think this time it involves literally moving mountains - but I have never been *totally* sure of the ending of a story until I got a lot closer, and sometimes even when I have figured out "Okay, this is the method by which they beat the bad guy" I am still surprised by sacrifices or little victories in the process.)
It's set in some pretty bog standard fantasy settings, though. We start with three little countries, two different-but-compatible flavours of feudalism, and one that's all mysterious and wintery and veiled in magic. And they're all basically white. There are three PoC who've shown up. The first country we're in is decidedly misogynist, the first two are at least somewhat homophobic. (There's also a lot of gender essentialism and no concept of the non-binary. Fully binary trans people are able to transition, but that's about it...)
Our hero is a teenaged cis heterosexual white dude with a sword and some God-sent gifts (though God sent gifts aren't that rare, and he rarely stands out for having them, even though he ends up making a spectacle of himself otherwise). He periodically collects companions with compatible skills, and tries to fulfill objectives, though none of them involve magic items of Great Power and Capital Letters and I try a bit to avoid plot coupons. This world has, it turns out, equivalents to vampires and werewolves and dragons and a race somewhat like elves hiding in the mountains. And if you squint very carefully, you will recognize the fairy tale that started the whole thing, underpinning a high fantasy story that is either a trilogy or tetralogy.
Also, like, Princes and Princesses and ruling class stuff end up the focus, because the common soldiers and such who also show can't exactly guide armies (or move mountains). And wizards, some of them not officially ruling class, but one of the points at least one of the wizards addresses is that having magic sometimes kind of shunts you into a wholly different class from your own kin.
Still, in the end, we have wizards and werewolves and vampires and groups of warlike doughty companions on quests. It's all very... familiar ground.
And then in book three, we end up hitting one of the biggest fantasy tropes of all time, almost unavoidable it seems.
What does it have to say that hasn't been said? WHY do I believe in it?
So far my answers to this are kind of nebulous.
I always have a bit of a weird feeling when I'm working on the Serpent Prince et sequelae. It's a basic question, really:
- What does this story do that makes it different enough to be worth doing?
I like the story, obviously. I am fascinated to see how I solve the plot. (I have a pretty good idea what the general outline of 3/4 of the story is, and some big strokes idea how it all resolves - I am starting to think this time it involves literally moving mountains - but I have never been *totally* sure of the ending of a story until I got a lot closer, and sometimes even when I have figured out "Okay, this is the method by which they beat the bad guy" I am still surprised by sacrifices or little victories in the process.)
It's set in some pretty bog standard fantasy settings, though. We start with three little countries, two different-but-compatible flavours of feudalism, and one that's all mysterious and wintery and veiled in magic. And they're all basically white. There are three PoC who've shown up. The first country we're in is decidedly misogynist, the first two are at least somewhat homophobic. (There's also a lot of gender essentialism and no concept of the non-binary. Fully binary trans people are able to transition, but that's about it...)
Our hero is a teenaged cis heterosexual white dude with a sword and some God-sent gifts (though God sent gifts aren't that rare, and he rarely stands out for having them, even though he ends up making a spectacle of himself otherwise). He periodically collects companions with compatible skills, and tries to fulfill objectives, though none of them involve magic items of Great Power and Capital Letters and I try a bit to avoid plot coupons. This world has, it turns out, equivalents to vampires and werewolves and dragons and a race somewhat like elves hiding in the mountains. And if you squint very carefully, you will recognize the fairy tale that started the whole thing, underpinning a high fantasy story that is either a trilogy or tetralogy.
Also, like, Princes and Princesses and ruling class stuff end up the focus, because the common soldiers and such who also show can't exactly guide armies (or move mountains). And wizards, some of them not officially ruling class, but one of the points at least one of the wizards addresses is that having magic sometimes kind of shunts you into a wholly different class from your own kin.
Still, in the end, we have wizards and werewolves and vampires and groups of warlike doughty companions on quests. It's all very... familiar ground.
And then in book three, we end up hitting one of the biggest fantasy tropes of all time, almost unavoidable it seems.
What does it have to say that hasn't been said? WHY do I believe in it?
So far my answers to this are kind of nebulous.
