Writing update: Skein
Reading what I've written I realized there was a problem: Everything is much too generic. Yeah, I think my rules of magic and the story itself are interesting and original, but unless I shake Skein up mightily, I am in danger of creating yet another interchangeable Euro-centric costume piece.
So what to do? Make my magic more weird? Introduce mythic beings -- maybe from the Eastern European traditions of my father's parents?
Thinking of my father's parents got me thinking about my own. And their deep love for the place they met: West Africa. Specifically what is now Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire.
I wouldn't be too literal, of course. Just as most Euro-centric fantasies take elements from a variety of traditions and cultures to create the medieval world so familiar to western readers, I'll blend aspects of Ibo and Yoruba and other cultures of the region; [edit to add: This next phrase is a howling mistake. I chose not to correct it, but I do straighten out what I meant to say in the comments.] probably blend in aspects of the Benin and Mali Empires before Islam for my politics. I may include some European technology -- like wheels.
It's still in the brainstorming stage, but what I'm talking about is a ground-up rewrite; what I was taught to call a redrafting. It will be the same story -- maybe even the same characters -- but re-imagined in a completely different world.
So what to do? Make my magic more weird? Introduce mythic beings -- maybe from the Eastern European traditions of my father's parents?
Thinking of my father's parents got me thinking about my own. And their deep love for the place they met: West Africa. Specifically what is now Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire.
I wouldn't be too literal, of course. Just as most Euro-centric fantasies take elements from a variety of traditions and cultures to create the medieval world so familiar to western readers, I'll blend aspects of Ibo and Yoruba and other cultures of the region; [edit to add: This next phrase is a howling mistake. I chose not to correct it, but I do straighten out what I meant to say in the comments.] probably blend in aspects of the Benin and Mali Empires before Islam for my politics. I may include some European technology -- like wheels.
It's still in the brainstorming stage, but what I'm talking about is a ground-up rewrite; what I was taught to call a redrafting. It will be the same story -- maybe even the same characters -- but re-imagined in a completely different world.