Post by waldenwriter on Jan 18, 2010 23:24:47 GMT -5
I can relate to you Khiya. I love LOTR and I admit I am inspired by it. Before I read LOTR, my mom read the Narnia books to my brother and I as kids. Since LOTR, I have read the Harry Potter series, the His Dark Materials trilogy, the Eragon books, the fantasies of Gail Carson Levine, a few of MacDonald's works (The Princess and the Goblin, "The Golden Key," "The Light Princess," and I think The Princess and Curdie) and random fairy tales, myths, and folktales. So I have trouble finding ideas for fantasy writing that haven't been tried before. I'm trying with my Walden world - you can see stuff about my "races" here.
Your idea about an underwater world with trees sticking out reminds me of the Forest Sector in a show I used to watch called Code Lyoko. In the series, Lyoko was a virtual world that the middle-school protagonists protected from an evil entity named XANA. It had five sectors, and one was a forest of long, tall trees on small little segments of land, floating (like the other sectors) over a vast digital "sea," which until season 4 was too dangerous to even touch, since falling in meant you might not come back (in season 4 they built a virtual ship used for traveling through the digital sea).
I also like the idea of an epic journey being told by those they meet on the way. Imagine the Sam/Frodo part of The Two Towers told by Gollum. That would be very interesting. I can see a twist on The Pilgrim's Progress, The Canterbury Tales, or The Divine Comedy being possible with that POV. Or even The Odyssey. It's full of possibilities. Alternate-POV retellings are quite fine, it seems -- look at Wicked.
Even telling an adventure story from a different POV than one would expect could work. One of the most interesting parts of The Two Towers (or is it Return of the King?) for me was when we follow Sam's POV as he creeps around with the Ring on after he thinks Frodo has died in Shelob's lair, listens in on a couple of Orcs, realizes Frodo's not dead, and sets out to save him. Sidekick stories can work very well, as the success of Sherlock Holmes (the original works and the recent film) have shown.
Your idea about an underwater world with trees sticking out reminds me of the Forest Sector in a show I used to watch called Code Lyoko. In the series, Lyoko was a virtual world that the middle-school protagonists protected from an evil entity named XANA. It had five sectors, and one was a forest of long, tall trees on small little segments of land, floating (like the other sectors) over a vast digital "sea," which until season 4 was too dangerous to even touch, since falling in meant you might not come back (in season 4 they built a virtual ship used for traveling through the digital sea).
I also like the idea of an epic journey being told by those they meet on the way. Imagine the Sam/Frodo part of The Two Towers told by Gollum. That would be very interesting. I can see a twist on The Pilgrim's Progress, The Canterbury Tales, or The Divine Comedy being possible with that POV. Or even The Odyssey. It's full of possibilities. Alternate-POV retellings are quite fine, it seems -- look at Wicked.
Even telling an adventure story from a different POV than one would expect could work. One of the most interesting parts of The Two Towers (or is it Return of the King?) for me was when we follow Sam's POV as he creeps around with the Ring on after he thinks Frodo has died in Shelob's lair, listens in on a couple of Orcs, realizes Frodo's not dead, and sets out to save him. Sidekick stories can work very well, as the success of Sherlock Holmes (the original works and the recent film) have shown.