I have an idea for I guess you'd have to call it an epic novel, or series of novels. Basically it is a story of a group of kids that live in a magical world of swords and sorcery.... too bad they rarely have ever seen a sword, and sorcery? HAH! Half the town thinks it's a storyteller's dream. They've heard of magic, but very few if any have actually seen it.
This area is a fairly remote village called Rosenford, deep in the foothills of (insert country name here). A tradition in this area is that the teens learn the basics of life from their families, then at a certain age, they set out into the world for a time. The teens either go to a neighboring town or city and learn more in a trade they already know some of, or they learn a new trade, or they can even just go out into the big, bad world to see what's out there. This trip is called the (I have yet to name it), and once the children return, they are no longer thought of as children. It is a rite of adulthood that all children do. If they cannot perform this task, they are valued as incompentent and never can claim the benefits of adulthood, like, for example, they will not have a voice to speak and vote in the councils. Sometimes, the children leave and never return, some are gone only a couple weeks, but in general, the children are gone for at least 6-9 months, more often a year. Sometimes they come back with fiancee's, sometimes children in tow. You never know until they return. The children tend to wait till there are at least a couple of others to go with them, for there are many dangers out there. Sometimes, if the child can arrange safe passage, or they are a stubbornly indepenant soul, they venture out on their own. But it is nice having someone to watch your back while traveling.
This idea has been bouncing around in my head for quite some time, and I have a notebook of ideas and things I would like to include. However, I have several questions I'm trying to resolve at this point.
1) Where should I begin the story? Should I start several months or even years before they set out, in order to give background on the characters and the local areas? I'm leaning towards starting the story about a month or so before the set out. That will give me a chapter or so of set up time before the kids head out.
2) What would be my hook for getting them started in the adventuring biz? Why would they keep adventuring instead of just going back to their trades (that they know that they can make at least a small wage at)?
3) How would they get their basic equipment? As in basic arms and armor? I know some they would accumulate piecemeal along the way for a while. At first, they would have to fall back on their craft/profession during the winter months, just to have enough money to survive.
4) What types of creatures could they fight against that a) haven't been overused, (like orcs) and b) wouldn't grossly overpower the beginners that have just begun to learn to fight, probably have little to no armor, and few good weapons, with alot of improvisation for the first while?
5) I know I want at least one female in the group. She is going to start out being a little bit ditzy, a little bit dependant on the guy(s) that she's with, but before it's all said and done, she'll bail them out more than once. But my question here is, should I have a one to one ratio of boys to girls? or more or less? And slightly related to this, is should I have just 4 adventurers? or more or less?
6) Some initial characters that I have been thinking about are: a) a fighter - he, or she maybe?, would be the only child of the local blacksmith. They would be strong because they would be helping their father all day long, between working with the bellows, and learning the smithing trade, they stay lean with well muscled arms. b) sorceress ? - I was thinking this might be the only girl, if there was only a girl. I'm not sure though. In alot of the game groups that I've been in and read about, the girl is kindof defaulted to some sort of magic user. Do I want to change this up? It could also be a guy. Maybe bookwormish, but it could be someone whom is a little more "macho", but they fight agains even wanting to acknowlege their sorcerous abilities. c) cleric? I was thinking that a cleric would be VERY helpful in a low level group like this. The group is basically starting out as 0 levels esseintally, advancing to 1st when they acknowledge to themselves that they do like this kind of stuff. d) I was also thinking of putting either a druid or a ranger type in the mix. The area is a pretty remote village, and I think the druid or ranger would be the most easily fitted for being from this original area.
7) How detailed would I need to go into fleshing out the rest of the village? Only the people with whom the main characters come into contact with regularly? Even then, do I just come up with a name and physical description? or do I go all out and tell how them and the main character has a long standing feud, because they stole an apple when they were 6 and blamed it on the other, and the other got severly punished for it?
8) How detailed to I need to describe the village? and it's surroundings? How do I inject that this is here, the closest village is 2 days walk to the East, or about a day's ride? The mountains really begin about a 2 days ride west of here? They are technically in the foothills of the mountains. In and beyond the mountains they know are all sort of magical beasties, and creatures. The only people that dare venture out to the west are some few brave traders, and some trappers. The trappers know to leave some areas alone, because they are either elf territory, or because of weird things happen for no reason there.
9) What would keep them adventuring? The need to earn quick and easy money? Why wouldn't they just revert back (and stay that way) to their old craft? Would there be a re-occuring evil NPC that would keep them going back for more? Would there be a greater overall task that they need to accomplish?
10) What POV would need to be used? From one of the characters? From varying characters? From a third party/storyteller/narrator? Should I show from the baddies' point of view?
11) I'm trying to come up with ideas that haven't been done a million times, but it something new and refreshing. For example, I would like to put a focus on the kids growing up into adults, with the stresses and the thrills of the adventuring being the enzyme of their assention into adulthood. For example, I don't want to start the book off with a group of orcs or similar attacking one of the party member's families farms. That was done in WoT series, it was done in Eragon series, and even done in a couple others that I am not going to look the titles up on at this moment. I don't want to follow the same gender/class rules that dominate alot of the gaming groups. It's not going to be an all male group, and it's not going to have the males being all macho and manly, and the girls being girlie and needing saving. And also, the guys might want to go whoring, but if they do, they will be likely to either find themselves needing a cure disease cast upon them, or they might either wake up naked and broke with all their possesions stolen, or wake up in an alleyway with the crap beat out of them and their money gone.
I have so many ideas, but I just want my story to be different. I want to show the world that females can be strong characters, but not overwhelming characters. That things do happen between the characters while they sit around at night. They might just sit and eat, but then again, one might just take a tumble with another character.
More to come... but I've got to go get some sleep.
K@
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