Whinin' bout storytelling

[kanna]

I've been wondering about the practice of taking a well-worn concept or familiar setting and making it fresh. Obviously, since I'm writing Narnia with teens, it's something that I think about a lot. I read a "kid goes to a fantasy world" story lately that sounded like it would have a new perspective, but ended up actually feeling a little tired in

Comments

[cylon_cookies]

I think the best stories are a mix of concept and execution. I don't think there are any really original concepts left under the sun, but if you pick one that hasn't been beaten to death recently and make the characters and world really engaging, I think it can work.

Stories, for me, are about connecting with the characters. If you have a really unlikable group of people (see the Watchmen movie) it's hard to stay with a story and like it. (Hopefully I didn't doom myself to an early death with that last sentence. ^^;)

I think characterization is what defines the fresh from the wacky.

Unrelated~

[kartos]

Sailor Kari? XD

[anangelsknight]

I guess my thoughts are... what kind of fantasy world?
There are fantasy worlds that everyone does that are old(example the RPG, J R R Tokien worlds) and others. The thing that many mangas have is different worlds than the typical RPG ones. I really liked 12 Kingdoms and Fushigi Yugi. Making up stories about different worlds is exciting and normal in storytelling. There is nothing wrong with having familiar people in unfamiliar places.