Muah-ha-ha!

I have the magic majigger and with it the world is mine to crush and dominate because I just the type of person who is happiest when kittens cry and babies die.

So speaketh generic villians the world round. But not my villians in most cases. In fact sometimes my hero is the villian. No not in the multiple personality way (though that does give me an idea...) or the anti-hero way either. I mean that a good story doesn't need an external person to sabotage a heroic character.

In some ways simple confronting fears and growing as a being are powerful motivators for a story. I have one fantasy story involving insects that has the main character lost from his clan and in a place where his people are viewed as barbarian hordes. How does he find his place, does he have one, and if everyone sees a barbarian then how does that change his interactions with some of the other characters who form the supporting cast.

I'm not saying he doesn't face that worlds version of mosters and demons. But really there is no evil mastermind behind it all. Sometimes life just chucks ... um stuff at you and the truely heroics keep going and maybe even learn to see it as fertaliser for their own growth. It's a lesson I've learned in the real world and it's more then valuble enoungh to share in stories.

But I'm not one to righ a simple life lesson draped in fantasy. I like to have that aspect to my stories, it gives us something about the characters to respect, but it is but one layer of things present in a good story to me.

In the case of the insect story it's a story that takes form from the idea of the diversity of bugs making a great setting full of fantasy races, the way to explore it is through an outsider, our barbarian. What is the place of a barbarian in a civilising culture of eveolving bugs? That is sort of a moral to the story. The interactions of the character and his growth as an individual and his battles with and for companions are the details of the story.

This to me is a wonderful story as is, without Damon Cockroach plotting to use uranium to kill all other bugs because we know only roaches and twinkies will survive... though that might be fun for a comic filler at some future time.

In my steam punk there is a villian of sorts but it's again a no personified (mostly) evil. The idea is the disenchantment of the low people on the totem pole, and an upper reaches society ruleing harshly. But even in some way the cruelty isn't for it's own sake. It will make sense in a fashion. That's the beauty of the punk genres as I see them.

Tech and culture interacting and changing, infact revolutionising. The people of the setting face a love hate relationship with their tech. It makes things easier more efficiant but can also be seen as dehumanising and cold. Think how computers have changed our lives, partly for the better and in some ways not so good. The tech and it's users become both heroic and destructive.

I'm not sure what I will write tomorrow, I'm thinking that another post on ideas and influaces that make my stories, but I'm also facing a fair number of things in my life that could use a good rant. We shall see.

Until then Take care of yourselves.
Roving Jack