Saved from the old blog
You haven't seen fiction coming out of me lately because I haven't been writing it, but it's still alive in my head. Because I'm a fantasy writer-- for now, anyway-- most of my ideas rely heavily on setting, so most of what I write (and draw, for that matter) can be categorized into a few different 'worlds.' A fantasy world isn't necessarily a planet; it might be a universe, a country, or an alternate history of our world. Some have names, like Narnia. Some have to be dubbed by fans, like the World of the Wheel (or "Randland," which I have to admit I like better).
Mine are vaguely defined, but they all have rules, limits, and special characteristics, and I always know which one I'm in. Not all of them actually have stories happening in them, though I'm usually acquainted with a few key characters. I don't think of a world as an early-stages work of fiction so much as an ongoing project.
Here are my current world projects:
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1) It's the present-day Earth, but a few decades ago everyone's perceptions were shattered by the appearance of a demigod-like creature, one of a "Circle of Angels" which basically runs the universe. Those of their descendants which have always secretly populated the world alongside mankind are finally beginning to make themselves known, most visible among them being the gargoyle race of protectors.
This is where all the content on silvercrows comes from. My main character is Sonya, a depressed teenage girl whose ancestry comes from both the demigods and ordinary humans, but the gargoyles take up more of my mental space, and the whole shebang was sparked years ago by the Circle of Angels. Aside from the convenience of using modern life as a backdrop, and the potential to include all kinds of varied elements, my purpose for this one is to give it a strong good-vs.-evil dichotomy. The forces of Heaven and Hell practically formed automatically, so I'm taking it down the Milton road.
2) It's furries. Humans still exist, but the vast majority of them have been wiped out by disease, though they first managed to genetically engineer animal-people as their replacements. The furries are all mammals and act much like humans, with a few quirks specific to their species. Other sci-fi elements exist as well, such as a portal which was built and abandoned because it may or may not lead to other dimensions.
My characters are college students: a ferret, a dog, a human, and a few kinds of cat. There are a few stories relating to them on my deviantArt page. I don't know the order in which these world ideas appeared, but this one feels newest, probably because it's the only one building on a single interest and it's an interest I only developed after I found the internet. There are a lot of furry comics out there, but my vision for this one differs from them in ways that I think would make it palatable for those outside the subculture. No sex, no exaggerated archetypes, and no fanservice, just people with fur.
3) It's the medieval sword-and-sorcery cliche. Me being me, though, I'm less interested in knights and spells than I am in dragons and griffins, so it's going to have a lot of dragons and griffins. Other mythical creatures might exist as well, but no bipeds aside from humans, who (you guessed it!) have the ability to bond with certain creatures. Like griffins! Also the griffins have a complex society of their own and might not even know of any humans, so there.
Psyche's story is loosely set in this world, and so is pretty much everything I've written or drawn involving griffins, because they all abide by my personal standards of what a griffin should be. More recently I've invented an unnamed human character that fits, a young puppet queen who eventually decides to leave the game and set out on her own. The gentle, implausible, idealized feel to this one might mean it's more suited to children's books, or it might be an excuse for me to develop the human society as one in which rulers gather awe by putting up a front of beauty and magic, thereby making our fantasy cliches into their own real but deliberately constructed surroundings (hence the puppet monarchy).
4) It's superheroes. They've got powers, they've got costumes, they've got secret identities. Basically, they're what I wish Marvel still was, except that instead of evolving their powers or receiving them through random accidents, they have to be sought and "purchased." That could mean anything from a formal test of will to actual money, and it could be something their parents do during pregnancy, or something they choose later in life.
It's going to be loaded with classic hero imagery and action-based conflict, but I mean it as homage far more than parody, and an original series more than either. I just feel like an old storytelling tradition has died and that there's no reason not to revive it. My main character is Stella Selestina, a fifteen-year old girl with long white hair and sky-blue eyes. Of course, I think of her as her alter-ego, Star Girl, who can fly and shoot blasts of light from her hands. That should give you a pretty good idea of what I mean by classic superhero.
Number 4 might end up as an offshoot of Number 1, since superheros would actually fit pretty neatly into the world of crows.
Mine are vaguely defined, but they all have rules, limits, and special characteristics, and I always know which one I'm in. Not all of them actually have stories happening in them, though I'm usually acquainted with a few key characters. I don't think of a world as an early-stages work of fiction so much as an ongoing project.
Here are my current world projects:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1) It's the present-day Earth, but a few decades ago everyone's perceptions were shattered by the appearance of a demigod-like creature, one of a "Circle of Angels" which basically runs the universe. Those of their descendants which have always secretly populated the world alongside mankind are finally beginning to make themselves known, most visible among them being the gargoyle race of protectors.
This is where all the content on silvercrows comes from. My main character is Sonya, a depressed teenage girl whose ancestry comes from both the demigods and ordinary humans, but the gargoyles take up more of my mental space, and the whole shebang was sparked years ago by the Circle of Angels. Aside from the convenience of using modern life as a backdrop, and the potential to include all kinds of varied elements, my purpose for this one is to give it a strong good-vs.-evil dichotomy. The forces of Heaven and Hell practically formed automatically, so I'm taking it down the Milton road.
2) It's furries. Humans still exist, but the vast majority of them have been wiped out by disease, though they first managed to genetically engineer animal-people as their replacements. The furries are all mammals and act much like humans, with a few quirks specific to their species. Other sci-fi elements exist as well, such as a portal which was built and abandoned because it may or may not lead to other dimensions.
My characters are college students: a ferret, a dog, a human, and a few kinds of cat. There are a few stories relating to them on my deviantArt page. I don't know the order in which these world ideas appeared, but this one feels newest, probably because it's the only one building on a single interest and it's an interest I only developed after I found the internet. There are a lot of furry comics out there, but my vision for this one differs from them in ways that I think would make it palatable for those outside the subculture. No sex, no exaggerated archetypes, and no fanservice, just people with fur.
3) It's the medieval sword-and-sorcery cliche. Me being me, though, I'm less interested in knights and spells than I am in dragons and griffins, so it's going to have a lot of dragons and griffins. Other mythical creatures might exist as well, but no bipeds aside from humans, who (you guessed it!) have the ability to bond with certain creatures. Like griffins! Also the griffins have a complex society of their own and might not even know of any humans, so there.
Psyche's story is loosely set in this world, and so is pretty much everything I've written or drawn involving griffins, because they all abide by my personal standards of what a griffin should be. More recently I've invented an unnamed human character that fits, a young puppet queen who eventually decides to leave the game and set out on her own. The gentle, implausible, idealized feel to this one might mean it's more suited to children's books, or it might be an excuse for me to develop the human society as one in which rulers gather awe by putting up a front of beauty and magic, thereby making our fantasy cliches into their own real but deliberately constructed surroundings (hence the puppet monarchy).
4) It's superheroes. They've got powers, they've got costumes, they've got secret identities. Basically, they're what I wish Marvel still was, except that instead of evolving their powers or receiving them through random accidents, they have to be sought and "purchased." That could mean anything from a formal test of will to actual money, and it could be something their parents do during pregnancy, or something they choose later in life.
It's going to be loaded with classic hero imagery and action-based conflict, but I mean it as homage far more than parody, and an original series more than either. I just feel like an old storytelling tradition has died and that there's no reason not to revive it. My main character is Stella Selestina, a fifteen-year old girl with long white hair and sky-blue eyes. Of course, I think of her as her alter-ego, Star Girl, who can fly and shoot blasts of light from her hands. That should give you a pretty good idea of what I mean by classic superhero.
Number 4 might end up as an offshoot of Number 1, since superheros would actually fit pretty neatly into the world of crows.