My Fantasy Question, for Jag (and anyone else that wishes to weigh in)
Okay, so my question deals with dragons.
I always had an issue with the dragons in my fantasy novel, as I wasn't sure what to do with them or whether they were necessary to my plot, etc. At the same time, I felt that my adding dragons was cliché and the fact that I was going to make them shape-shifting dragons that could communicate telepathically with people while in dragon-form even more so. At the very least, it was a rip-off of at least several other people's ideas smooshed together, even if I had Reasons for these things.
And then I had a revelation, since I honestly couldn't figure out where the evolution of dragons as characters came from outside of the fact that my first hero's challenge involved a dragon: I seemed to have developed a preference for pilots over the last decade, and I subconsciously had an issue with the fact that my MC wasn't a pilot. So my subconscious wrote in a means of trading her horse (who I adore, btw. Best horse ever) in for a drake.
So what I want to know is, at what point do dragons become the pirates of high fantasy, and how badly would I be stepping on toes if I did try to develop my race of dragons? Would my Reasons play a part in this? (If so, I can try to explain those Reasons.)
I only ask because my first dragon seriously started sounding like Saphira in my head, and while my second dragon is a sexy bastard and I love both drakes, I tend to dig my heels in and rethink choices if I start to run anywhere close to Eragon. In anything. And then I start to feel like I'm copying/getting close to other authors, and well, it's a wicked, vicious circle.
This entry was also posted at http://obiwanken5.dreamwidth.org/424859.html.
I always had an issue with the dragons in my fantasy novel, as I wasn't sure what to do with them or whether they were necessary to my plot, etc. At the same time, I felt that my adding dragons was cliché and the fact that I was going to make them shape-shifting dragons that could communicate telepathically with people while in dragon-form even more so. At the very least, it was a rip-off of at least several other people's ideas smooshed together, even if I had Reasons for these things.
And then I had a revelation, since I honestly couldn't figure out where the evolution of dragons as characters came from outside of the fact that my first hero's challenge involved a dragon: I seemed to have developed a preference for pilots over the last decade, and I subconsciously had an issue with the fact that my MC wasn't a pilot. So my subconscious wrote in a means of trading her horse (who I adore, btw. Best horse ever) in for a drake.
So what I want to know is, at what point do dragons become the pirates of high fantasy, and how badly would I be stepping on toes if I did try to develop my race of dragons? Would my Reasons play a part in this? (If so, I can try to explain those Reasons.)
I only ask because my first dragon seriously started sounding like Saphira in my head, and while my second dragon is a sexy bastard and I love both drakes, I tend to dig my heels in and rethink choices if I start to run anywhere close to Eragon. In anything. And then I start to feel like I'm copying/getting close to other authors, and well, it's a wicked, vicious circle.
This entry was also posted at http://obiwanken5.dreamwidth.org/424859.html.