McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Seeking help. Am I just one giant walking cliché?
Franzeska:
--- Quote from: Anduriel on April 07, 2008, 07:56:02 PM ---Thanks Fran, oddly enough I found that rather helpful... not really sure why it's odd either ;)
I'm pretty sure I would pick up another one, yes, and I too love those types of shows.
I'm just trying to think of ways to make the same thing "different".
*Ponders*
--- End quote ---
Heh. It does seem weird, doesn't it? I think it's because we think that we have to be "original", and we have this really warped idea about what constitutes "originality". No idea is really that original. What's important is that the little twists and specifics are distinctive, not the general idea. After all, every urban fantasy series has done vampires and werewolves and fairies and... But they all do them a little differently. If you rip off everything, no one can say you were ripping off anything in particular. ;)
My best advice is to write yourself a big list of all of the series you can think of that are similar to your idea. Which ones do you like? Which ones are crap? Why? Which one has the best magic? Most interesting morality? Most likable characters? Personally, I really love Yu Yu Hakusho because it's so unrelentingly hopeful and had all that cool Buddhist hell stuff. I have a shameful weakness for Heaven Help Us but didn't really like the whitewashed Christianity of either that or Touched by an Angel. I tend to like the weird foreign mythology stuff and the comic series with the loser heroes best. If you're going for a Badass Tragic Loner hero, you might want to focus more on morality and redemption and skip the laughs. Or you could have your hero think everything's all about Tragedy and Darkness but have your universe prove him wrong at every turn.
Another good way to get ideas is to ditch the genre fiction entirely and go find whatever mythology books your favorite authors were stealing from in the first place. I just love the way The Dresden Files includes all those different types of werewolves and vampires--you can tell Jim wasn't just watching Buffy for research or something. If you're writing about dead people, you'll want to think about what religions are "true" in your universe. Is this basically Christianity plus ghostly hijinks? Does what happens to you in the afterlife depend on what you believed while alive? What country you lived in? Your ethnic group? How you died? Are there rival pantheons? (Speaking of shameful weaknesses, I always loved what Hercules: The Legendary Journies did with the afterlife.) Again, is there something that was really cool in one of those other series? Something you never want to see again ever?
Remember, the more places you steal from, the more your work is a classic reinterpretation yadda yadda instead of fanfic with the serial numbers filed off. ;D
Anduriel:
Nice ideas ;)
I think I will very much take your advice and get some ideas a-rolling.
I do like the idea of having multple pantheons and seeing where that goes. Again to quote something from the great Master JB... or rather paraphrase about teh story of the 3 blind men and the elephant, they were all right and all wrong; they just couldn't see the whole picture (Death Masks).
Just gotta put my own spin on things. Gotta get with the research!
hamiltond:
Pick up a Dictionary of Angels. It's got TONS of cool stuff in it. Do know how many personal angels you have. Did you know that some of the are "Fallen" :o . Seriously, if this is your subject it's a must have.
Anduriel:
It's an interesting subject I know, and have delved into it before. However I'm not sure I want to be... religioun specific. Rather have a whole bunch of ideas running at the same time...
Could present a problem.
hamiltond:
Who says you have to be? Not to sound like to much of a geek but, Have you ever watched Babylon 5. There usage of "angels" was unique. I mentioned the book because its great as a refernce novel and it's got plenty of names and trivia you could use.
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