THE REAL LJ IDOL SEASON 8 WEEK 3 -- COPROLITE
You Shouldn't Shit Bricks!
"Come on now, be honest! Which one of you wouldn't rather listen to his hairdresser than Hercules? Or Horatius, or Orpheus... people so lofty they sound as if they shit marble!"
-- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
--- From the movie AMADEUS (1984)
I've been a story-teller for a long as I can remember. I loved reading books from a very early age, and was fascinated by the concept that people actually earned a living writing down tales for other people to enjoy. For my own amusement I would memorize my favorite stories, and recite them aloud at any opportunity. Sometimes when I was alone I would repeat these tales to myself, just to pass the time when I had nothing better to do. The stories never got old for me, as there was something "magical" about the act of telling a tale out loud.
For a while, I only repeated stories that I had read or heard, and did my utmost to tell each tale exactly as I memorized them. And then, when I was seven years old, I experienced a revelation that quite literally open the door to a whole new world for me:
I realized that I could create my own stories. After all, the libraries were full of tales created by other people. If they could do it, why couldn't I?
Well, it wasn't *QUITE* as simple as I thought it would be -- Dreaming up and/or borrowing story ideas was the relatively easy part, but finding the right words to make these tales interesting took practice and effort. And my early attempts were rather simplistic and self-serving in nature -- high-adventure fantasies where the heroes were a lot like me in many ways, or at least the kind of person I wanted to be. But I think it is fair to say that even my earliest work showed promise... especially when you take into account that these stories were dreamed up by a lonely, hyper-intelligent preteen boy.
Initially, these tales were nothing more than my own private fantasies, and I shared them with no one. But about age nine, I started telling some of my tales to my friends and schoolmates... and without exception, I received favorable responses. Everybody kept asking me when I was going to write these stories down, but for the longest time I refused to -- partially because I found the physical act of writing arduous, but mostly because I wanted to see how people reacted to my tales as I told them.
Over time, I began to weave my stories into one grand epic: a generational saga that spanned multiple worlds and ages of time. I have written down a few brief snippets of this epic, and perhaps some day I shall actually try to get these tales published... but in all honesty, that will require quite a bit of work on my part first. Because when I originally dreamed up my tales as wish-fulfillment in my childhood, I made one major, classic mistake:
All my heroes were perfect. They really had no flaws worth speaking of.
This presented two problems. First and foremost: If the heroes never make mistakes and have no weaknesses, then they can't possibly lose... which rather takes most of the tension and drama out of the adventure. But the second problem is almost as bad: As individuals, each of my heroes was about as interesting as a five pound bag of fertilizer. Flaws make characters memorable, and helps define who they are. But if the characters are perfect, then they really have no personality to speak of; at best they're dull and two-dimensional. The heroes may perform great deeds, but that doesn't make them interesting in and of itself.
When I realized this problem some years back, I reassessed all the major characters in my saga, and starting asking myself "Who are these people *REALLY*?" I backed away from the perfect heroes I had originally dreamed up, and asked myself "Where did these people come from? How did they become legends... and what did it cost them?" And I rapidly discovered that each of them had their own personal issues, problems and fears... and that made them both more interesting and more believable.
For example, I'm currently working on the origins of Corey and Jon, two characters from the climax of my tale. They live in a Swords-and-Sorcery world, and they will ultimately lead the fight against the forces of The Great Enemy. Corey is a wizard of truly epic power; he can quite literally reshape the world around him through sheer force of will. As for Jon, he is the last surviving member of a famous family of honorable warriors, and he acts as commander-in-chief of the armies of justice. These two men have known each other since childhood, trust one another utterly, and each of them would willingly lay down their lives to save their world. Corey and Jon are both heroes of the highest order... and when all is said and done, each of them is about as interesting as a cold bowl of cream-of-wheat cereal. Or at least, they were that dull when I originally envisioned them. But then I started looking into their childhoods, and how they came to know each other... and I rather surprised myself at what I discovered.
I quickly determined that both men were raised in the same orphanage, though they arrived there at different ages: Corey was a foundling, abandoned as a newborn, while Jon was sent to the orphanage at age six after witnessing his parents being killed. Jon only survived because he remained silent in his hiding place during the slaughter... but he was deeply traumatized by what he saw, and for a time he became a bully who took out his anger on everyone smaller than him. One day, Jon decided to have some "fun" at Corey's expense, when something rather... unexpected happened. The incident in question was the first in a series of events which helped Jon come to terms with his rage, and set him on the path of righteousness. As such, Jon was eternally grateful to Corey, and they soon became fast friends. But for the rest of his days, Jon would have to deal with his survivor's guilt... and a family legacy that he felt he could never live up to.
Corey's tale was rather different, in particular because he was obviously so very different from everyone around him... and yet Corey himself was oblivious to these differences. Granted, Corey looked perfectly human, and behaved in many ways like a normal human child... but he almost never slept, and when he did, his dreams always came true. Further, when Corey came of age, he was apprenticed to a wizard... and Corey completely surpassed his master's abilities within six months. Yet Corey still didn't understand that there was anything unusual about this for quite some time. Eventually, something happened to Corey which he simply could not ignore; an incident which finally forced Corey to recognize that he was fundamentally different from everyone around him. As a result, Corey would spend the rest of his life coming to terms with the fact that absolutely everything he believed about himself was a lie... including his own humanity.
Now Corey and Jon seem more believable, don't they? Not to mention that they're so much more interesting than before. They will still mature into the great heroes of my epic... but they will also have to deal with their flaws, just as real people do. They are no longer statues up on pedestals, living legends who "shit marble". They have their failings... just like us. They will struggle with their doubts and their worries, wrestle with them, and try to conquer them... just as we aspire to do.
In the end... isn't that what all great stories are really about?
This piece is a submission for The Real LJ Idol Season 8. If you enjoyed reading it, please vote for me by clicking here. My check box is at the top of the list.