Fantastic vs. Historic

Having been raised with fantasy stories all my life, I guess it's difficult for me to break away from using fantasy elements in my stories. By "historic" I mean the lack of magic or other supernatural means in creating my story worlds. I guess I could've chosen a better word for it, but I couldn't think of it.

I've been recently struck by inspiration, especially after playing Final Fantasy XII. After a long break from even thinking about White Currents, I recently picked up interest in it again. But after reviewing the material I built up for it, I decided that it really wasn't that interesting for me anymore and decided to revamp the entire backstory.

Initially I wanted Sharidia to be a very unfantastic world. Well, considering it's composed primarily of floating landmasses, I guess trying to make it seem that way would be antithematic. But in essence, I didn't want this world to have been created by gods or supernatural forces. I wanted to explain it in a more accurate sense and avoid myths and legends as an explanation for the origin of the world. Instead I want to use a more realistic model for Sharidia's origins, the details of which are a little sketchy right now.

Originally I wanted to explain the original of the floating landmasses as part of a cataclysmic event trigger by humanity in a world-changing war. Somehow the idea that humans were responsible for such an event seemed to elude sense to me when I thought about it later. I thought a more natural explanation would suit better for the kind of world that I was hoping to create, thus my initial response to changing the backstory.

So far I've decided that humanity should have been born in the world post-skyforms, and that the formation of the skyforms themselves is a naturally occuring phenomenon that happens in a region known as Avernia; Avernia being a region constantly under chaotic storms and shrouded by clouds of dirt and noxious gas. The origin of life will be explained via evolution, although the progression may be very different from reality, due to the nature of this world.

But then things get a little complicated. My romantic ideal for a fictional story world has it so that it should involve very sophisticated, mysterious creatures that weilded a lot of power and influence over the course of the world's progression. Which basically boils down to them being gods. I also need to involve some form of mysticism in the story, which in this case involves the Ashir, a race of mysterious humanoids who are a threat to the entirety of humanity, and the only way to combat them are through the use of intelligent weapons called Ikons. To have these two mystical entities function, I needed to introduce an element of the supernatural, the Aether. And things just started to get convoluted from there, and I realized that my idea for a more grounded world was starting to unravel.

One of the biggest influences for me right now is Final Fantasy XII. The world for that game is so lush, and I love the way they constructed it and how they involved their supernatural, mystic forces. It just feels like a vibrant world that's had a long and ancient history. Of particular interest to me was how they threw in their gods and legendary creatures into the world. The gods themselves are very much real creatures, but they were merely ultra powerful creatures that shaped past history, instead of omnipotent entities that created the world. I guess thats sort of what I had in mind for my world, but it involves a lot of the supernatural for it to work.

I guess having a little bit of the supernatural, and masking it as being something logical wouldn't be bad. I mean, the premise of the story world already has floating landmasses as a central element, and people really can't expect a more serious story out of this. I'll have to learn a little restraint when I'm working on this, but I shouldn't be too concerned over details like that.

Break

It's nice having a break. I think I was burnt out of the whole plotting/writing thing for the last little while, especially after the prospect of rewriting the entire script over again. After all, I had been obsessing over White Currents for several weeks before, constantly thinking of the story and nothing else. It was bound to happen, I guess.

The past couple of weeks were pretty relaxing, actually. Most of it was spent on a new obsession: flight. I was particularly interested in learning to be a pilot. I always wanted to be a pilot and had a love of flying. This will probably be evident in White Currents itself, as the premise is all about an entire world that's set in the skies. When I was in middle and high school, I guess the arts minded side of me took over and my dreams of flying became second hand. Lately, though, I've been reconsidering and for a while, I was seriously thinking of changing my career goals and trying out to become a commercial airline pilot. After some thought, I decided I'll just take it up as a hobby instead.

So now I'm back to the writing mood, and started on the revised script. It's more like a completely new script, since I'm starting from scratch. The story's replotted and I think it'll be a lot more coherent this time around, thankfully. Being back in school next week will help out too. It'll be good to be surrounded by other creative people to help with motivation.

Damnable road block

It seemed like I was making good progress, but then it hit me like a sock of coins. Some sort of depression or lack of energy that just dragged me down to the pits. Maybe it was burnout. Lately, all I've been thinking about was this project, every moment of my day consumed with thinking about the script or the page layouts or how I'm going to do this or that.

I actually finished the script not too long ago and submitted it for review and revision to my editor, and the feedback was not so good. Neither did my good friend find it all too favorable, which told me I had a lot of trouble for this opening episode. I can probably partly blame the fact that I really had no idea where the episode's direction was going, and wasn't too sure about it even after I completed the first draft of the script. Of course, this made me think about the prospect of having to rewrite the entire episode over from scratch, which had always been a possibility I accepted. But now faced with the actual task at hand, it just seems very demoralizing.

I can also blame my lacking experience in writing, which is probably the biggest factor here. I always prided myself in coming up with interesting story ideas. Unfortunately that never translated into building actual stories out of them. This is really the first time I've completed a full script for an episode, which felt like it was a big accomplishment for me. The finer points of characterization and interaction are all but lost on me, which were the biggest problems I had with the script after I managed to hammer out a story. This is clearly something that needs work on.

I was looking forward to chugging ahead on the process of creating the comic pages. I started out on the thumbnails for the pages already, a task I had been eager to start on for a long while because it meant that I could finally visually construct the comic together. It wasn't too long into the thumbnailing process until this depression hit me, so I didn't get too far into it, thankfully. What I have so far can be preserved as it doesn't go too far into the meat of the story. But in order to continue, I need to go back to the writer's table and pull out a second draft of the script, and that may take some time again as I need to reorganize a lot of the events that take place and completely overhaul some scenes.

I guess I just need to charge on ahead. It'll feel good when I can start on the actual pages, and that'll be soon, I hope.

The Little Princess That Could

Saphiel is a hard one to pin down, in terms of her emotional role in the story. She is the main protagonist, for certain. White Currents deals with her travels and adventures in the big wide world of Sharidia. She's also definately one of my favorites characters to have come out of my little head, archtypical as she is.

She was really born from the fusion of several other female lead characters I've grown to love in other media (namely anime). There's a little bit of Kino from Kino's Journey in her. It's probably mainly the explorer bit in her. Saphiel is a traveller, much like Kino. But being a traveller, she's also an observer, not a participant. She really doesn't like to get involved in any incidents, unless it's pushed upon her. At times this can make Saphiel look uncaring or unemotional, which is all the same with her.

Then there's the aspect of Pacifica from Scrapped Princess in her. The disposed princess with a tragic past. I won't get into what, exactly, Saphiel's tragic past is (although you can probably figure out a detail to two...), but there was definately an incident which did profoundly change her life and comes back to haunt her in the future, almost perpetually. Like Pacifica, however, she has an optimistic outlook in life, despite the hardship she's suffered.

Finally theres an aspect of Nausicaa from Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind in her as well. Another royalty figure who looks at life with optimism and hope, but also has empathy for everything else in the world. She's strong willed and determined, and won't let anything stand between her and what she believes is right.


Some of these characters do have conflicting personalities, I suppose. Kino, especially, in relation to the other two. Kino was the initial framework around which I developed Saphiel, actually, because the entire premise of the story was based around Kino's Journey. You can see this, also, in the incorporation of Saphiel's journeying partner, Solumn. He's a little brooch that is attached to Saphiel's cloak and talks to her as a companion, much like Kino's talking moterrad, Hermes. The idea is that Saphiel will be travelling by herself most of the time, and providing a contrasting character accompanying her will add some flavour to what's happening around her.

Originally this contrasting character was going to take on the form of Saphiel's flying mount, Eos. Eos was originally conceived as a dragon, although I did think about making him a personal flying vehicle at one point (and making the link between Hermes and Saphiel's companion more direct). In the end, though, I didn't think having her mount be her conversation partner seemed too appealing. It turned the world into too much of a fantasy, storybook world. Well, more so than it already was.

So the idea of the Ikon came to me while I was pondering this question of Saphiel's partner. At this point I was very much into playing Suikoden 5. In that game there are these central elements called True Runes. They are the defining aspects of the game world, not only in its mythology but in its story as well. The True Runes are also presented as being entities with wills of their own that shape the destiny of the people around it. I took that concept one step further, and decided on the idea of the Ikon, an amulet of sorts that is imbued with intelligence and mystical powers. It attaches itself to a person and forms a sort of symbiosis, giving the bearer of the Ikon certain supernatural abilities and a constant companion at the bearer's side.

Eventually I conceived of an entire backstory on the Ikons, and now it's a big part of the world of Sharidia, and a big part of Saphiel's story as well.

Words' Worth

Procrastination strikes again. Well, I've been doing a lot more lately than I have in the past several months, so I think I deserve a little break.

I'm doing a lot of writing right now. Usually when I'm writing, though, I end up writing little descriptive pages detailing one thing or another in the story world and not actually writing the story, which is probably what I need to focus on. But surprisingly I've been sitting down lately and getting a lot of actual story roughed out and written in one form or another.

For the past several weeks, I was struggling with what the first episode was about. I didn't really have a conflict or plot thought out. I had an idea on what it would involve, and the mood I wanted, which is what I usually start with. But it's hard to craft an engaging story with just that. This lasted for weeks, until just a few days ago I decided to sit down and do a scene-by-scene breakdown of what would happen in this episode. It started off good, and I got a good beginning written down. Then came the point in the story where because of a lack of conflict, I really couldn't go on. There was really nothing more I could write before the whole thing fell apart. I just stared at the monitor for the longest while, struggling with myself to come up with something. Anything.

I eventually had to take a break and paced around, thinking. I played out the scene in my head, almost as if I was watching the show. I came up to the point where I was stuck again... and pushed. Then it happened. I just thought of a piece of dialogue and... it just... flowed through. I don't really know what happened, but somehow I managed to continue the story and some kind of purpose in the story bore fruit. The rest of the story really wrote itself. It's kind of true what they say, the author doesn't make up the story, rather the story reveals itself to the author.

Anyway, I managed to complete the scene-by-scene breakdown and that just got me all excited. I'm working on the script now, which has proven to be a challenge in itself. I guess I'm not used to writing a lot of dialogue like this. My characterizations are horrible. But I guess that'll improve as I do more. Despite that, I'm really enjoying the writing process, but I really can't wait till I get to the storyboarding part, and eventually the finished product. Gotta say that I'm really, really excited. I'm finally getting things done around here.

If all goes according to plan, I'll finish the first draft of the script tonight.

Sharidia

I've been working on various story concepts since I was in middle school, and of all the ones I've spent time developing, I love this project the best. I think it's because this project was borne out of all of my wants and fancies in the world of fantasy storytelling. It has skyships, floating landmasses, high technology mingled with mystic powers.

I've wanted to do a comic format story for a long time now, but it always seems that whenever I get to developing it, it turns into a complex, convoluted mess. And seeing as how I'm inexperienced in this art form, I thought that just diving into a longform comic like that would be too hard to tackle. That, and I wanted a story that isn't dark or too brooding, which seems to be the case with most of the other ideas I've had.

So one day I was listening to some nice, uplifting music and thought to myself what kind of setting it would fit in. That's when White Currents was crystallized. Actually, White Currents is a kind of offshoot of another story world I set up a long time ago, which used a similar world and characters, but had a very different tone and story. I decided to clean it up, brighten up the mood and generally make it shinier.

So, to give a sort of primer into what it's about: White Currents is a story set in a world called Sharidia. Sharidia is a world set in the sky, consisting of thousands of floating islands, often referred to as sky-formes, as pictured below.


The surface of the world is a desolate wasteland, most of it covered by thick clouds that totally block out the sunlight. Being as such, all of civilization and life itself exists on the sky-formes or in the skies itself. Although there are several large-scale national states that exist in this world, states exist on single sky-formes, and there are hundreds of them scattered about the world, with hundreds of other sky-formes uninhabited because of their distance or sustainability. The sky-formes are relatively small, and as such, resource production is very scarce. Because of this, expeditions are often sent to the surface world for mining resources.

Anyway, that's about it for now. Next up will be a look at the characters, and maybe some specifics about the world.

Undocking

Welcome to the White Currents of Sharidia, where I'll be posting thoughts and progress work on my story world, called White Currents. Maybe this will get me motivated to get to work. Expect pictures and stuff.