Titanic Horse

A story about Friends, Family, Dragons, the End of The World and Those Responsible.

[titanichorse]

A character study.

......Well, at least now she’s relatable.

[titanichorse]

Character Studies: Search for the Absurd Hero

(cross-posted at the Titanic Horse site.)

There are a lot of character tropes that I find absolutely fascinating. I’m a big fan of the Inanimate Character and tropes that have been flipped but there’s one that has recently come to my attention. A trope where the idea of it is so interesting and unique, it’s hard for me to find much of an existence of it in today’s works.

The Absurd Hero is something that predates many of the characters we create today. It’s as classic as the Common Hero and possibly older than the Dark Hero. The Absurd Hero is someone who can understand and recognize the absurdity of the human condition and find their own brand of meaning in the meaninglessness of it all. Right off the bat, I can see why it would be hard for any creator to try to create a character who is truly an absurd hero.

It’s hard for anyone to find meaning. But to actually abandon all home and instead thrive in the meaningless is even harder to grasp. We’re told our entire lives to find something that had meaning. Many people flat out kill themselves when they think their life has none. So why would anyone want to build a character around that void?

Because maybe not everyone’s life actually needs meaning?

Many times when people search for meaning they go to two polar opposite sources: drugs or religion. In many cases, they feel like a bit of a cop-out but, hey, to each their own. And art is very much a reflexion of reality. Nobody wants to hear that everything they do in life may have no effect on us as a race a hundred years from now.

I, for one, take comfort in that. On occasion. Only when I fuck something up too badly to fully repair it. It’s still not something I want to be reminded of constantly by my own philosophies.

But, this is something to which I want to dedicate a portion of this blog. Not just the Absurd Hero, but other types of character studies. Because fuck it. That’s what I like to do.

So, here I go. Tune in and enjoy the ride!

[titanichorse]

A Book Summary

Titanic Horse is a story that follows a teenage girl named Vita. She stumbles upon three gemstones where one of them grants her the power of Zoisus; a titan in charge of the protection of the people of the world. But this comes with some secondary knowledge as well. She now has to find two other forms for the titans Gaia and Chronos in order to prepare them for the Rebirth set to follow the Apocalypse.

Later, Vita finds out about the Horsemen; four deities put in charge of the Apocalypse itself. It’s their shenanigans that the titans then have to clean up after. She also learns that her brother Thom, of whom she is fiercely protective, was granted the power of Death by her when she accepted her own power.

This leaves Vita with a choice. She can either continue on to find Gaia and Chronos and allow this to happen or fight tooth and nail in order to return Thom to his humanity.

It’s a story about powerful beings, world-ending problems, and the difficulty of growing up.

[titanichorse]

So close....

Me: Phew! Done with the major revisions!.... although, the beginning still feels a little confusing.

Brain: You know what could fix that? A prologue.

Me: but... the revisions...

Brain: Revisions ain't done till you fix that non-existent prologue.

Me: (remembers all the years of edits and rewrites just to get the book where it currently stands.)

Me: (cries)

[titanichorse]

A collection of short stories told in the Titanic Horse universe, before everything descends into complete chaos.

Let’s get to know Kevin a little better!

[titanichorse]

A collection of short stories told in the Titanic Horse universe, before everything descends into complete chaos.

Summary:

“Everyone has a tale to tell. Regardless of if they are the main character or not, every person has a whole world of joys and sorrows within their own daily lives. Life is always sure to be full of them. A hardship to overcome. A goal to achieve. A demon to defeat. This is what Side Tales is all about. Join us as we take a look into the stories of all the characters of Titanic Horse. Learn about them before they all began to destroy the world as we know it.”

New Chapter! Time to learn a little bit about the mentors of Titanic Horse

[titanichorse]

Guardians and Piav

Guardians have a pretty important role in Titanic Horse. As Vita (or Zoisus to be more specific) is often referred to as “The Guardian” it would only make sense that the smaller guardians would come into play too, right?

Guardians is really just the short way of saying Guardian Angels. Although, there isn’t really any feathery winged creatures protecting humans from harm. In fact, most of the time, they aren’t even really angels. They are typically creatures found from mythology or humans who have died. It’s also very common for a guardian to be from one's original culture such as someone born in Ireland is more likely to have a kelpie as a guardian over someone who originate from China.

All the guardians look to Zoisus as a type of commander but more often than not they work pretty much on their own. Their priorities rank their wards as first so if the titan demands them to do something that would put their ward in danger, they will outright refuse.

Moving onto Piav. Aside from being the only character drawn, Piav is Vita’s guardian and continues to protect her even after the powers of Zoisus take hold. Just as any typical guardian, he ranks Vita’s mortality above an order. If she’s in a situation that is dangerous but tells him to go do something else, he will tell her no outright and stand by.

To other guardians, Piav is largely an assistant to Zoisus. He’ll listen to them when Vita’s too overwhelmed to do anything as she is still human and easily flustered by things outside of her mortal realm.

Personality wise, Piav himself is highly sarcastic and dry humored. He’s more the type of guy to raise an eyebrow at something going wrong rather than fully freak out. Something has to be really dangerous for anyone to get a rise out of him. But even then, the people who see him can’t really find him all that intimidating due to his short stature and his fluff ball look. He often finds himself being upset with his ward as she’s always looking for ways around things that put her in the most danger. He’s spending a lot more time putting his skills to the test than he has with most other wards before Vita.

His own story can be found on Worthy of Publishing. It won’t be long before you’ll be able to hear more about this tiny guardian. (I really enjoy writing Piav.)

[titanichorse]

A collection of short stories told in the Titanic Horse universe

This is it! As promised, the first part of Side Tales is here and ready to be read! I’m really  excited about this release and I truly hope you all enjoy what I have in store for everyone.

Summary:

“Everyone has a tale to tell. Regardless of if they are the main character or not, every person has a whole world of joys and sorrows within their own daily lives. Life is always sure to be full of them. A hardship to overcome. A goal to achieve. A demon to defeat. This is what Side Tales is all about. Join us as we take a look into the stories of all the characters of Titanic Horse. Learn about them before they all began to destroy the world as we know it.”

[titanichorse]

I put up a new chapter! It’s a piece of Wilder and Torna’s story. Enjoy!

[titanichorse]

A collection of short stories told in the Titanic Horse universe

This is it! As promised, the first part of Side Tales is here and ready to be read! I’m really  excited about this release and I truly hope you all enjoy what I have in store for everyone.

Summary:

“Everyone has a tale to tell. Regardless of if they are the main character or not, every person has a whole world of joys and sorrows within their own daily lives. Life is always sure to be full of them. A hardship to overcome. A goal to achieve. A demon to defeat. This is what Side Tales is all about. Join us as we take a look into the stories of all the characters of Titanic Horse. Learn about them before they all began to destroy the world as we know it.”

[titanichorse]

Titanic Horse: Side Tales

After quite a while of  daily debates and sleepless nights of overthinking, I’ve finally come to a decision on what to do with the remaining stories I’ve written for Titanic Horse. This will be released as a collection of short stories. Some will link to one another but for the most part, it will just be short stories so you can get to know a bit about the characters.

None of these link directly to the plot of the first story. In fact, Vita will very rarely be the narrator or main character in Side Tales. of course, she will have mentions and have her appearances as it will explain them all in their pre-power state. But this is for everyone and the universe itself.

I’m fixing up the first short now and it will be released in a few days. Once it is, there will be links to where you can read them. (I’m not really a fan of posting my full writing on Tumblr unless it’s an opinion post.)

I’m excited and looking forward to allowing everyone into this world I’ve been working on for the past ten years. It’s finally all falling together neatly and I hope everyone enjoys reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Please stay tuned for the link to Side Tale One. I’m aiming for its release to be on Monday!

[titanichorse]

Working a bit on the cover design. Thought I’d share my pile of rejects and “maybe”s.

[titanichorse]

Settings and Locations

The setting of a book is completely essential to getting a feel for what’s going on. Even if you were writing about a void, you need to state that “void” as the setting of the story; there’s just no way around it. In a lot of cases, it’s more important than the characters themselves as if gives context to the backstory.

Titanic Horse is no exception to this. Our story takes place in three main locations.

Olym

Named as a nod to “Olympus,” Olym is the main location through Titanic Horse due to the story being primarily from Vita’s Point of View. This is where the titans call home and serves as a base for their training. It's one of the furthest Greek islands and is home to a wide array of mythical creatures that are seen in the mythology. However, the population still has more humans than it does anything else.

The island of Olym is split. On one part, we have forests that are mostly left untouched. This is where most of the forest dwelling creatures stay, although it isn’t uncommon to find them also in the other part. With a small path that winds its way through the wooded area, one can find large walls that lead into the City of Olym.

This is where the humans spend most of their time. This is also where the majority of titan training takes place.

For the most part, it’s set up like any other old city you’d find in Greece. There are a few differences, such as the lack of any form of automotive. This is due to the wish to keep the island clean and not have to worry about dealing with all the complicated needs that come with something like a care. (The less Olym has to deal with the outside world the better.) The council is choosey about what technology makes it to the island. Example: the internet is used, just not often.

For the most part, the buildings are made of white stone as they are just as old as anywhere else in Greece. Building-wise, the only one that truly stands out is the Temple.

The Temple is where all the titans are housed. It’s big enough to house fifty very comfortable people but is typically only used for Zoisus, Gaia, and Chronos. It has extra rooms in the extremely unlikely event of any other deity rising. A few of the extra rooms are used for the mentors and servants. Servants are hand-picked by the City while the mentors are a particular bloodline. This is the Maliks; Torna and Ajay (As well as Monty, but he’s still “in training.”) There will be more on them later.

As far as the people go; Olym’s citizens live their days as any other small religious city would. The only thing that will happen on occasion is the change in their own teachings depending on the titans. One example being that Olym started making the knowledge of the English language as a priority when Zoisus was discovered in America.

They have a very set way of dealing with their deities. They don’t like to deviate from that path.

Calbao

This is a literal Underground City. Calbao is located in a cavern near Tikal Guatemala and is typically very hard to find. The caverns below are a home to various… let’s say “darker” creatures. It’s not to say they aren’t friendly to a certain degree. Calbao’s society lives strictly off a”survival of the fittest” mentality. You are respected if you are strong or clever enough to survive against the community. Typically, your respect is paid with the blood on your hands; no one will take anyone’s word for it.

The only way to live somewhat comfortably without killing someone is to be owned by someone else. Even then, unless the slave is owned by someone already pretty high on the totem pole, they are free game for pretty much anything so long as they aren’t killed.

Not much natural light reaches as far as the caverns so most of the way is lit with fires and torches. Unlike Olym, Calbao is far from the most tech savvy magical location. The citizens don’t go out of their way to make sure their deities are comfortable like the titans of Olym. All of the buildings are either built directly into the caverns or made up of a community of tents created from things found on the surface. There are also alcoves found within the caverns that are typically claimed by much stronger beings.

This it typically Horsemen territory and it stays as such due to the high power of its landowners. On an extremely rare occasion, someone will challenge them and win it as their own. Usually, they’re long gone by the time the horsemen return to the city to begin their training.

Being predominately an anarchy type ruling, schooling is virtually nonexistent Calbao. Anything that can’t be learned without proper education is not worth learning at all. The creatures in the caverns aren’t typically great thinkers unless they are already stronger and better equipped to handle themselves. To have any education at all is a luxury item.

In short, strength and power in the caverns translate like currency. In this light, no one is given a pass.

I realize the caverns of Calbao might strike a very small resemblance to another cave containing monsters. However, the fact they both live in a cave is really where the similarities stop. You won’t find many pun-producing skeletons or fluffy goat royals in Calbao.

…Murderous flowers are possible, though.

Sleepy Hollow

Throughout the series, Sleepy Hollow will be one of the few non-magical cities. It’s exactly as it says on the tin; this is just Sleepy Hollow, New York. It’s located right near the Hudson River and it’s where a good chunk of our main cast calls home.

It’s here that Vita lives and goes to school, as well as finds at least one of the members of her team. It’s where she found the gems that gave her the powers and it’s where she and Thom spent a majority of their time.

In an older version, Vita and Thom had just moved in. That was later removed as the two wouldn’t have any need to live anywhere else thus not adding to the story. It also linked to the extremely common cliche of the Main Character being the new kid on the block. The two are already going through enough; working them into a new school takes away from more important conflicts.

The reason Sleepy Hollow was picked was a mix between the town’s lore and the fact that I just really like the location. This is the same location of the Headless Horsemen legend and the story of Ichabod Crane which I’m sure most of you know about/have read the story/have seen the movie/ have seen in episodes of Scooby Doo.

The town is pretty close to perfect in size as it’s just small enough for a person to walk pretty much the entire length of it in only a couple of hours. But the population is still pretty big, meaning someone like Vita is easily overlooked on any given day.

Also, the cemetery there is really cool.

New York City also takes a play into the story, but to a far lesser degree. Being so close to it, there are a few references to the city but aside from that, it’s simply the place where Thom found Lowell and Jordan who, at the time, lived in the Bronx.

Older versions played up New York a little more than this one but it took too much away from the magic aspect. I imagine the appeal to using such a major city is to put some sort of concern that someone might see. (Not a big concern considering it’s New York.)

There are also a few more locations chosen but they won’t be brought into it until Book Two. So, for this post, I’ll end it here.

Thank you for tuning in! We’re getting closer to a release for Book One so keep tabs if you want to hear more!

[titanichorse]

Titanic Horse: Test Book Blurb

The power of the Great Guardian Titan Zoisus was not one to take lightly. The person who gains the power is responsible for protecting all human life on the planet. And, when the world is to come to its end, Zoisus will be the holder of all spirits and is assigned the task of renewing life when the Apocalypse ends and the Rebirth begins.

The powers found their way to modern times. Vita Waldgrave is a teenage girl who stumbled upon the power by accident and has accepted the task ahead of her. She will do anything to protect her brother, Thom. But her plans don't matter when it comes to the plans of the titans and the horsemen. She will find she is only a small part of a much bigger picture.

[titanichorse]

Update

It’s been a bit since I’ve written here. I’m working on figuring out what to do with the book itself. There're so many options nowadays and, while that’s great, it does give a lot of choices when it comes to releasing it to you fine people.

But worry not! I’m coming to a decision quickly on what to do and how to do it.

For now, there will be more things written here. Hopefully, even a few short teaser releases in the near future. Stay tuned! 

-Jaylynn

[titanichorse]

Let’s Talk About Thom

It only seemed fair to make sure that I follow up the talk about the protagonist with one about our antagonist. I talked a little bit about him in the post about Vita, but a good “bad guy” has to stand alone just as much as he has to compliment the hero. There has to be both a reason they’re a threat and a reason they continue their tirade against the person we should be supporting.

Personality and Life

Arguably, Thom Waldgrave is the one person who goes through the most change throughout the story. He is younger than Vita by almost a year and grew up with her always close to his side. Because of Vita’s own brand of protection, this left him a lot of stability and room to become much more open and outgoing than his sister. He made friends easily. But he was also sensitive and prone to crying at moments that made it seem as though he was overreacting to a situation. His skin wasn’t as thick as Vita’s which brought him front and center for quite a few bullies.

There were a lot of times where kindness was confused with weakness. Thom suffered for it.

Secretly, all he ever wanted was to show he could stand on his own two feet without anyone’s guidance, Vita’s especially. Although he didn’t see her as someone casting a shadow, he knew there would be a time where he would have to do things on his own. Someday, he would need to come into his own and she wouldn’t have his back in the same way.

But simple wishing wouldn’t do any good. When the time finally did come, he felt ill prepared for it.

Post-Powers, Thom has gone through much more than Book One will tell. By the time he’s seen again, he has grown in both a physical sense and a mental. His fears have all been pushed back into an almost nihilistic thought process that serves to protect him from the reality suddenly thrust upon him. He has openly accepted death (the act, not the person) as a thing humans do. And rather than allow it to fill him with despair, he accepts that it’s his role in the universe to be guiding them into the after life. Or, at least, he pushes his true feelings of fear and despair down until such a time that it can be used in rage.

Post-Powers Thom is not a kind Thom.

However, his outgoing nature is still firmly in place. This makes his own search for the Horsemen easier as he isn’t afraid to approach a stranger and ask them strange questions. In fact, his nihilist philosophy could contribute to this a bit. In a “it’s pretty much meaningless anyway. What do I care if they think I’m a weirdo?” way.

He hasn’t learned the secret to doing this to his sister. No matter what, she still has an effect on him in the way that her opinions matter. This is where a lot of angry bouts really come into play. Because it’s with Vita that he’s forced to acknowledge the part of him he tries to put away. Part of him still wants to care about people but knowing what he must do makes him want to push it away for his own mental protection.

Being young and somewhat inexperienced in the world doesn’t allow him to completely accept the true level of non meaning that nihilism has to offer. And it doesn’t help that he finds care in, not only his family, but all the people he meets after gaining his powers. This includes, but is not limited to, the fellow horsemen (currently Lowell and Jordan as War and Famine), his mentor (Stan), and his love interest in Olym (Kevin).

While his companions and mentor help him with becoming Death, Kevin might hold the key to the last shred of true humanity in Thom. Ironic considering Kevin’s own circumstances.

You’ll notice there’s a few contradictions in Thom’s thought process. In a way, he’s still trying to find himself.

Abilities

As the Fourth Horsemen, Thom’s powers are ones that are very well known and pretty straight forward. Death really needs little explanation as a concept as it is a part of our very existence. However, I wouldn’t be doing my job properly if I didn’t explain some of it at least a little.

Thom was chosen to be Death subconsciously through Vita as the two beings are typically closely linked. The Power of Death (Also see: Thanatos) is made up of many different powers that allow Thom to reap a soul properly. A few of these abilities won’t fully kick in until Thom has finally died himself. For that, he has ways of compensating.

For the standard “Grim Reaper” act, he has the typical scythe, which leaves no trace of its slice when it touches its victim. To also aid in this, Thanatos typically has the ability to freeze unruly and overzealous guardians in place in order to get to their ward without having to kill a guardian in the process. Because Thom is still alive, he has yet to acquire that ability. His own guardian has adapted in order to aid in this. The guardian Bjorn has gained the ability to temporarily freeze other guardians in place to keep them from attacking his ward in a similar fashion as a deer in headlights.

As the Fourth Horsemen is partial warrior, Thom’s scythe has two different modes. There’s the traditional reaping mode then there’s the war mode in which the scythe flattens out into a battle scythe. The battle scythe is typically only used when fighting or dealing with a particularly powerful person who refuses to die.

The power of Death has its pitfalls on a living person. This causes Thom’s own healing rate to decrease and, if he refuses to take proper care of himself, he could begin to decay while he’s still alive. There is a quick and easy way to combat this and that’s to devour the souls of humans he’s reaped. The problem with this is it has to be a non-violent human and he will grow a tolerance if he isn’t careful. Also, he’s basically eating a person; as soon as they’re devoured, there’s no reincarnating for the soul. They’re gone for good.

The Apocalypse Mode of his powers are pretty much just an amplified form of his regular Death abilities. During this time, Thom’s personal life takes a backseat for cleaning out all the bodies he can. However, it is pretty much just a clean sweep which means there’s room for error and finer details are left only slightly disturbed.

This is also where his steed will comes into play most. She is a large horse with the ability to run over or through anything in her path. When compared to the other horsemen, the bond between Death and their steed arguably runs the deepest. Together, the two make a pretty intimidating team.

Development

A lot like his sister, Thom went through several stages before I finally settled on something that clicked properly. At a time, he was introduced right off the bat as a bit of a dick rather than developing over time to have dick-ish tendencies. There was also a time where they were born with their powers and Thom was basically picked on because everyone was afraid of him. (In the “everything he touches dies” type fashion.) In this time, Thom was actually more intelligent and much stronger than Vita. He eventually had to be nerfed to prevent him from being both condescending and simply just too over the top.

There was also a time where he was basically a team mate rather than the antagonist. It didn’t take me long to figure out there was a reason it wasn’t working the way I thought it should.

Thom was created with the purpose of being either a valuable teammate or an unbeatable antagonist. At least, when it came to Vita. The only way for her to win against him would be for Thom to drop dead and completely give up. Of course, this works vice versa as well. Otherwise, it would be downright frustrating.

As I mentioned in the ‘Vita’ post, the bond between the siblings isn’t the normal trope. Meaning, Thom’s not considered the annoying little brother just as Vita isn’t the aloof older sister. They’re true siblings. Not Hollywood siblings.

Thom’s actually been rather consistent in his character from version to version. It was really just him waiting for the plot to make sense around him. So, nothing terribly interesting in his development outside of what you’ll see in the story.

And here we have our “villain” of Titanic Horse! Stay tuned for more. Thank you and good night!

[titanichorse]

Let’s Talk About Vita

As I’ve recently stated, this blog is now going to be used as my way of trying to work out little kinks and details in the story while also explaining what Titanic Horse has to offer. It may be a little disorganized at times but hopefully I’ll fall into the rhythm of things in upcoming posts. With that being said, I’m going to write a little bit about our hero.

Personality and Life

Vita Waldgrave is both the story’s protagonist and the narrator of Titanic Horse. So it’s best that we all get to know her first. Her background starts our like many other children growing up. She is the oldest of two kids and a child from a family where the parents divorce before the story really begins. Her father isn’t around much and her mother is a bit of a workaholic who threw herself into work as soon as they were both self-sufficient.

Being the older of the two, she can be very protective of her little brother. Thom tended to grow up a little soft-hearted and trusting by comparison. He would often find himself being picked on due to a combination of this and his tendency to react in a way most would see as him being “melodramatic. This may be the reason for her being a little bit hard headed and maybe even slightly impulsive or it might just be the nature of her character as a whole.

Either way, she cares deeply for Thom. So deeply, in fact, that she puts herself in danger several times during childhood to keep him from being bullied, even a few occasions where it came too close to a life or death situation. This eventually leads her to have a somewhat exasperated guardian but more on him later.

Career wise, Vita is still in high school but she’s looking at a plan for something more along the lines of drawing and design rather than a more analytical path. She takes any opportunity she can to sketch out ideas and practice on the world around her, including some beings most people can’t see. If she’s not sketching and she’s in a situation where she can’t practice her powers, Vita doesn’t know what to do with her hands.

Unlike her brother, Vita is not a social creature and doesn’t go out of her way to start a conversation with a total stranger. She’s not unfriendly, she just assumes people don’t want to be friends with her unless they approach first. Her group of friends is small but loyal. Large crowds make her nervous and she tends to stay away from being center of attention.

She tends to be somewhat fidgety when she has a thought or is on a mission. Vita has a one track mind; it can be hard for her to split her time between two things. When it comes down to it, she often needs assistance to keep her on track or she will choose a path on her own and neglect the other problem she should be solving.

But then she still tries to multitask like a fricken dingus.

Abilities

Vita gained the power of a Guardian Titan called Zoisus through way of a blue triangular stone she found (in a bag along with two others and a leather bound book) in the river near her home. The powers granted to her consist mostly of energy that she processes through the body herself or she subconsciously takes from the air around her.

Her main ability consists of two shields that come from her back in the same manner as a pair of wings the length of which equal up to three times the height of her body. When not in use, they are invisible and circle around her body. Anyone who may have the ability to read auras would see hers as a massive egg form. The more energy that is pumped into the wings, the harder they become to penetrate. Meaning, they can go from allowing people through without an issue to deflecting any bullet from any gun. Despite their appearance and name, the wings don’t offer Vita the ability to fly. However, with the right angling, wing conditions, and positioning, Vita can use them as a parachute or to glide. Saying that she can keep concentrating on the ability.

Her secondary ability is her ability to focus her third eye and see the special spirits referred to as “guardians.” The guardians are instinctually obligated to protect their human companions (their wards) up to the very moment when Death appears before them to reap the soul. Post-Zoisus power, guardians look to Vita in the same fashion as a Commander in an army. They will follow orders that will only be ignored if it somehow put their wards in danger. An exception to this rule is the relationship between Vita and her guardian, Piav. Being with her for her entire life, Piav looks at Vita as any guardian looks at their ward. Being seen and having the ability to communicate with her directly will have an effect on their relationship.

Her third and final ability is the ability to create spirits with the same energy channelling technique as her wings. If not fully formed, the spirits only appear as bubbles and can’t hold their form for very long. At her strongest, Vita can channel and process a fully formed soul. With the help of her companions, they have the ability to create true life to wander the planet. As everyone is looking at the destruction rather than the rebirth, this ability has little to no use for Vita in the beginning.

The Zoisus mission upon awakening is to find suitable partners for the powers of Gaia and Chronos. All three are necessary to bring forth the Era of Rebirth.

Development

Vita was created out of several different ideas. The first being that I noticed a severe lack of older sisters who aren’t constantly rolling their eyes or being generally unpleasant to their little siblings. Trust me when I say that I understand the occasional fight but there’s only so many times you can here a teenager girl go “ew” at her younger brother before you want to indulge in a ranting shit post.

Idea number two was more along a feminist route where Vita is to deal with all the same issues and violence as her male counterparts without once turning to any form of the “Damsel”. The plan was to be able to take her gender out of the equation and have everything she does continue to make sense. She is not handled with kid gloves; everything fall on her shoulders like it would for any other hero of a story that includes the brunt of the blame and overcoming advisories with little to no help. During the writing process, she was carefully watched to make sure everything would translate had the gender been reversed.

Idea number three did not appear until this particular version of Titanic Horse. Vita is to be without a love interest. Originally, this was set in place as a way of avoiding the Romantic Heroine trope where that was all the story talks about. It soon developed passed that and went from Vita simply not falling in love to her being full-blown asexual/aromantic. It’s something that I have no plans on changing in the future as her orientation has very little to do with the story anyway. Also, it’s a community that needs to have much more exposure than it gets. I might get into that in a Vita’s POV post.

This is Vita in a nutshell. With this post, I can start writing a bit from her point of view to give you more about her. But for now, I hope you enjoyed this insight into the Hero of Titanic Horse!

[titanichorse]

Writer Update!

Oh, hello there! I didn’t see you come in! Welcome to my upheaval of Titanic Horse!

Really, I have thought long and hard about what I should do with this blog. Titanic Horse has gone through a lot of transformations in the past and now I’m actually starting to remove a lot of the clutter that was created in the wake of trying to make the story readable. That leaves me trying to make a plan for everything I encountered along the way.

Including this tumblr page. I’ve turned it into a hipster blog. Because it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Now? It seems like a less than perfect idea.

Hah, I dunno what I was thinking, honestly. I’ll probably think the same way about this in the future. But I refuse to let this die.

I’m starting pretty much fresh. I might delete the silly attempts sometime in the future, I might not. This entire blog is just a series of shrugs and facepalms. But It’s a blog for a book.

A blog. For a single book series. Which is still in development. Why am I not talking about that? Why am I not experimenting with the things that matter?

I’m going to hand this over to the place it should have gone before; the characters and the plot of the story. It’s mostly for me but if you wanna follow me on my journey then you can. Maybe some posts will be in character point of view, maybe I’ll be working on descriptions. Maybe I’ll just put up a video of me face planting in attempt to learn how to skateboard. I dunno! Let’s all find out together!

Hooray for experimenting! Hooray for the writing process! Hooray for staring off at the ceiling late at night, wondering if the void of space will finally absorb me and leave behind nothing but this old laptop as my legacy!

No wait, fuck that last Hooray. That sounds horrible. Just stay tuned for more of this or something completely different.

-Jaylynn