Posted Friday, May 31st 2013 @ 9:06

Graphic Novel Update!

I know I haven't finished rambling about exposition, but there are other elements in the setup / front end / beginning of a story that naturally belong. A highly important element (again directly a part of the world of the story that should be very clear in the writers head) is the element of theme. At the most basic heart of many many stories is the simple Good Vs. Evil theme. Good Vs. Evil is most effectively built in correlation with other themes. Harry Potter is a Good Vs. Evil story, but it also has the theme of Harry not fitting in. He doesn't fit in with his family, he has constant detractors at school who reject him outright, teachers and authorities often dismiss him... the list goes on for seven books, until (Spoiler alert!) Harry kills all the bad guys and grows up to be way awesome.

Star Wars also plays the Good Vs. Evil theme, adding on to it an underdog theme. The Good guys are always outgunned and outmanned by the bad guys. Even when Han Solo is leading the Ewoks to victory on the forest moon of Endor, a bunch of AT-AT walkers show up and it's full scale forest battle madness.

Epic fantasy stories are almost as a rule Good VS. Evil stories. They don't have to be, like a cake doesn't have to be sweetened with sugar. It's just that when people take a bite out of a piece of cake they already have a context and an expectation for the cake.

Now the cat is out of the bag. This story will involve Good VS. Evil. Wait, you say, I thought this graphic novel was going to present Atheist/Agnostic mythologies, a grossly underrepresented ideology in the fantasy world! Well, I say, I am. And if I can do it while playing into the common contexts and comfortable structures people rely on, all the better. For our young hero, the theme of underestimation will remain a constant thread with the Good VS. Evil theme.
We've already set it up: His village does not think he is worth a sword and can not join a raiding party.
Good Vs. Evil has been setup with the army arriving in the hills.

It's not a bad idea to write your theme down (not Good VS. Evil, that is so basic as to implied) and tape it somewhere where you are writing. Stay in the world, work the themes.

Keep on keeping on.