When I first started this blog I planned on using it as a way to talk about a myriad of things. Whatever my mind was occupied with would become fodder for it. Hence the name Roving Mind. Since I came back I've focused mainly on Scooby-Doo (those reviews will be resuming soon) and wrestling. It's time I branch out again. So today I will be talking about a story I'm working on.




I'm a terrible writer. That is to say I'm terrible at actually writing. I'm great at coming up with shit. Characters, stories, locations, plots, intricate fictional worlds, and histories? I got that stuff handled.

Actually writing things is another matter. Last year I set myself with a goal of writing three 4 issue comic book miniseries. I did one. Just one.

My goal for this year is to epublish a book. I decided to shoot for a 100 page novela, which in actuality would be the first part of a longer novel.

I started working on this story (which still doesn't have a title) at the beginning of the year. The actual genesis of the idea goes back much farther.

I've read some Young Adult Fiction in my time and one of the tropes of that genre is fate. By that I mean the 'Fated Hero'. The young boy or girl who is destined to do something.

I hate that idea. The suggestion that a person's future is already decided and they have no choice in the matter is abhorrent to me.

                       

 
One of the series that uses this trope is Pendragon. I really like that series (I've only read the first 5 books but enjoyed them greatly.) and it was while reading those books that the idea came to me.

What if the 'Fated Hero' turned his back on destiny? I'm sure it's been done before but I haven't seen it.

As soon as that thought came to my mind I knew that was a story I wanted to write.

When I decided that I was going to start work on a novela that was one of the ideas in the running. The other was a story that had to do with, shocker, wrestling.

I began working on both stories at the same time. Eventually I found myself gravitating more towards the 'Fated Hero' story. Which brings me to this post.

What follows are notes, ideas, and the status of that story. As the weeks go by I will keep track of my progress and the changes to/growth of the story. These won't be the most accessible posts but I think other ‘wannabe’ writers will find this interesting.

With the ground rules laid out let's get to the actual story.

As I said I hate the idea of someone being destined to do something. That thought collided with another a few months ago. Well ‘idea’ is a strong word, this was more of a passing thought. I wanted to write a fantasy story, I always thought Fantasy was the easiest genre to write since you could just pull shit right out of your ass.

Which is what I did.

First came the setting. This was another pre-existing idea. I wanted to create a fantasy world that was made up of 5 countries. My idea was that these countries would be close to each other but unique and different.

Each of them would house a different race and culture. By race I mean the normal more mundane definition of race. I'm not talking about a country of elves next to a country of cat people. Not that those don't exist in the world. They might.

The world is set up as such:

A huge star shaped ocean.

The five countries that sit around it.

And the immense forest that covers most of the world.

Some of the countries are bordered by mountains, swamps, and deserts but all of these eventually become forest.

There is an island that sits in the middle of the ocean that is equal distance from all five countries.

As for the forest, it holds many secrets. I haven't decided exactly what is in the forest except for one thing.

A giant tree. Right in the middle of the forest on the opposite side of the planet, think of it as the ocean is one pole and the tree the other, sits this tree. It is a thousand feet tall and the size of a city block.

Of course with something that large there will be people that worship it.

That brings us to the Brotherhood of the Great Tree. They are the antagonist of the first part of this story.

The story is going to follow a young boy, who at the beginning of the story is unnamed, who is to be given to the Brotherhood.

The way it works is that in the lands that follow the Brotherhood there is a tradition. A Brother, or Priest as I call them sometimes, chooses a pregnant woman. The Priest isn't choosing the woman though, he is actually selecting the baby (which is always a boy). The Priests are able to tell which women will have boys and are never wrong. For the women to even be looked at the father of the child must be dead or thought to never return.

The Priest visit every village that worships the great tree. Only a few are lucky enough  to have a woman, only one per village, chosen. 

Twelve years later the boys are collected and enter the Brotherhood. This is thought of as a blessing. The village the boy comes from enjoys years of prosperity and the boy’s mother is given a title and a position of power in the village along with wealth.

The only person who doesn't benefit from this is the boy. Now that he is a Brother he is given a name, until this point the boy is not allowed to have one, and a life of poverty and subservience await him.

I just want to take a moment to talk about the name thing, it's important. The mother of the child isn't allowed to name the boy because once selected he is no longer her's. The boy isn't allowed to call her mother and she must keep a certain emotional distance.

This causes our hero to have a level of freedom most other children don't and also be very distant. He isn't cold or unemotional just a little separated from his feelings.

Speaking of our hero, he is having none of that. So he tells destiny to fuck off. Not literally of course.

That is where the story begins.

So far I have about 17 pages.

I'll go into more detail about the five countries and the boy next week. Until then I'll try to keep working at it. No promises.