Ok, so what I'm going to try to do is actually set a timer and bang out some PURE GOLD today. I don't know exactly how it's going to work and I certainly know what I'm actually going to write (aside from the fact that the writing will look and feel like 100% raw uncut gold, obviously), so I think I'm going to run up a couple parameters right now before we hit go on the stopwatch. So I'm thinking right now, since I've got my beverages lined up already. Coffee, a mimosa, water, and peptobismol. Should I get a couple more just in case? Maybe I run out a grab a cocoa and a Soilent just to cover all my bases. Nah, nevermind. That can be my reward for finishing ;D. And I'm currently sorting out some writing music (and I am currently wandering through an audio-wonderland, complete with trips to Genius to read lyrics, but NOT in a procrastinating kind of way!). So I'm really close! Right now, I'm thinking the plan will conclude like this: I poop. I finish up a playlist for the write while I'm over there. I come back over here. Ok, I wash my hands THEN I come back over here... It'll be really close to 12:00 exactly. I fuck around until we get right to noon, then I hit go on a one hour timer. I close Chrome for it. and then I just try and fucking go. I can leave my post after 1:00 and that's it. That's all the rules. Whatever I manage to banger off is what I get. And then I'll have done it. And THEN, I can watch Arcane some more or something. I doesn't matter. I'll be free and I'll have confirmed I'm a good person, and not some sniveling worm. Sound good? Ok, here I go :D
Let's try what we were kicking around last night. Let's do some cribbing off of HxH. They started EXTREMELY simple. Why can't we? Gon knows he's borne for something bigger. He wants be an explorer, and he's not even sure exactly why. He just knows it's the greatest thing you can do with your life. His dad wouldn't give him the normal boring life so many are saddled with, because he knew there was no need. And he's been on pins and needles waiting to just GET STARTED ALREADY. So that's where the story starts. He's finally ready. You the reader are ready too. You're tuning in to see this thing kick off. It's us and Gon. What sort of thing are we in for? We kiss our "mom" goodbye and vanish over the horizon, eager to get a peek at what's in store for us on this crazy ride. It could be literally anything.
That's the prologue. That's literally the whole thing, right? That's not entirely true. They frame all of this around a single adventure. Gon, in an effort to show us he's ready and not tell us, has just completed the fabled task of catching the infamous Legend of the Lake (or whatever they call it). Everyone in town is amazed. No one thought it could be done, but Gon did it. He's a different breed, Gon. For him it's not a legend, it's all too real. And he's ready to rise and meet the challenge.
Ok, THAT'S IT. That's the entire opening. And by the way, this little adventure we're being teased is called "becoming/being a *hunter*". That's how the story is able to address it's central theme of a life of intrigue/adventure. It's not some vague idea of Carpe Diem or what have you, it's call being a hunter. So when we see people that think they want to be a hunter and when see ACTUAL hunters, the show is further able to dig into it's themes. I'd say that's the entire point of the first arc. What *is* a hunter? Several people will offer up their own ideas, several people will claim to be the hunter type. They'll claim to be the stuff that hunter's are made of. And then we'll see them succeed and/or fail. And occassionally we'll get actual glimpses into the live's of "real" hunters. That's the test aspect. We see hunter hopefuls and can see where the differences line up to the administrators. Obviously the admins are given an air of mystery for the most part. They are far more developed in skill and experience, to a seemingly impossible extent. They have almost a magical quality. But time and time again they let us the audience know that all of that is simply the window dressing, the trappings, of a hunter. To know what actually makes a hunter to is to a close eye on Gon. Every little encounter in the exam arc has one solid throughline: Keep an eye on Gon. Because he's got it. He's got the Hunter gene. And if we've convinced you yet that being a hunter a prize worth the effort, now you know what you have to be. That's why Kurapika is such an interesting character to have in the main cast. For the show, my take is that Kurapika is the guy that's really trying to be a hunter. A lot of the contestants in the exam are trying to be *something* they think is a hunter. But many if not all of them are eventually rebuked. They were seeking power or influence, status, you name it. And over and over again those people are proven to not be Hunter material. Because, obviously, that's not what the Hunter is. Those things are results of true hunters, not the essentials to actually being a hunter (hmm, i think a better writer probably could have articulated that last sentence better. Maybe take another crack at it next time you read this or something). That's why I really like Kurapika. He's ready to do the work to become a hunter, and as he becomes worthy of the title in the exam, you can see him start to really understand what Hunter actually means. You see this as he gets to know Gon. Kurapika is ready to earn the Hunter license, and when this happens he, as well as us in the audience, can finally tell that Gon is ALREADY a hunter. There's carrying the card, and there's living the life. Wait. There's the card in your wallet, but then there's the blood in your body. I think it's a twist that the show sets up being a hunter with this beaurocratic element, before revealing before too long that the it's all more of a philosophy than anything else. That's the start of the second arc. Killua didn't pass the exam, even though he seemed like a lock for a long time. But if you look at the details, it's all completely consistent with the theme of the show. What does it mean to be a hunter? He gets cold feet. In his head, he's not ready to drop everything and set off of the adventure that comes with this new job. His brother ambushes him and tells him to go home; that he's literally not ready to set off on his own. And he acquiesces. albeit in a crazy anime way.
Ok ok, I'm losing track of what I'm trying to write down. Let me just cut to maybe my last point here. It's exciting, but not too surprising that the Hunter license essentially ends up clearing you for obtaining super powers imo. Hunters have proven themselves to be true at this point in the show, and we the audience have over the course of these few chapters gotten to understand what being a hunter actually means. These are people not content to live the average life. These are the trailblazers, the pathfinders, the pioneers. The dedicated. These are a different breed, and the hunter exam is just a little barrier they present to the public to make sure only people that will fit in to this community actually join. And now you've got a story inhabited by people made of something different. You've cut the expendable lot. The chaff. The interactions you now have access to opens up immensely. The sidekicks have been sent home. The people that throw the brakes on a dangerous situation have be jumped out. The gamers, the eccentrics, the gamblers are put in the spotlight. The characters driving the narrative have been purposefully selected at the start to be the ones that are interested in making things interesting as a habit.
I feel like that was the idea of like One piece too, from what I've seen. Luffy is someone worth watching. Luffy is the starting point of the story. Once he's ready to get started, the show starts right from that point. Then he starts going out looking for adventure. And when he brushes into someone who fits into his world, someone worth watching, he literally invites them onto his ship so they can go off on additional adventures together. Then at some point you just have a cast of characters that get into something interesting every week or so, and you the reader are like "oh boy, I can't wait to see this guy meet everyone else!"
Ok so, how does a formula like this map onto what I've got laid out for my story so far? I've got Weaver, and he's definitely a bit like Gon. I know already that he's worthy of following in story, and that's why the book starts where it starts. Once he's getting started on something interesting, that's exactly where we should be jumping in.
So, is that actually what I've got set up so far? I've got the inciting incident as the pirate attack on the town. And originally I've got Weaver down as less "ready" and more "driven by fate". Admittedly, I think "driven by fate" speaks much more towards an ENDING. Like just a plucky protagonist ready to take on whatever the world has to throw at him works a lot better as weekly adventure show. If this book is going to have a beginning middle and satisfying conclusion I like the idea better that something connected to the end of the story is invisibly pulling Weaver out of his comfort zone at the start. Like Lord of the Rings, right? Frodo is visited by the big scary world outside at the start and asked to play a tiny (hobbit-sized) part as a favor. But when he encounters resistance, and the situation asks more of him, he rises to the occasion. Well, he shows up for it. I don't how much use he actually was. It was mostly aragorn getting them to rivendell. So, I guess, that was the rising importance of his role. He set out to make a day trip and go home, but it turned into a little journey and he got a taste of the danger involved in dabbling in these bigger fights. But then, once the problem is identified and the call is being issued, THAT'S when he answers it. He's gotten just a little taste of what this adventure will look like, but he's also started to figure out that maybe it's conflict to conquer. He knows at this point how scary and hard and dangerous it is, which he didn't know at the outset of the trip. BUT now that the stakes and goal have been established, he knows that he might have the power to succeed. He doesn't know what he's going to do or how's he's going to do it, but he answers the call.
So I like both of these starts a lot. And like I said almost an hour ago, I'm here to try and crib a little bit. So let's zoom out my first few chapters here and see where some of this stuff can fit in.
Weaver starts out like Frodo for the most part. A simple, quaint life, with nowhere to go and nothing to do, and that's not so bad. But maybe Weaver is ready for something else. Then Pirates attack the town. This is a big problem seemingly, but we'll find out this is much closer to Frodo too. It's a taste of the chaos and intrigue outside of Weaver's little corner. But this incident is for sure the reason ends up on the open ocean, his adventure began... for better or worse. Maybe he puts in his effort as a character to get out of this situation so that he can go back home and end the story. But we get to a point in this initial conflict where Weaver makes the decision to move forward instead of backward. I like that, but I don't know what this would be yet. Let's keep laying out plot.
The pirates initially capture him and want to get rid of him, but luckily for Weaver, the captain hires him for an upcoming job. It's the kind of huge job that he initally had to turn down because he wouldn't be able to pull it off with his crew, but now that he's found Weaver, he thinks he's got all the pieces to make it happen. Ooh, maybe it's the kind of job he's been looking for for years now; the kind of job that means after you're done, you never have to another job even again. The heist that would get you out of the rat race for good. So then he's got his mentor trying to end his journey, right as Weaver would be starting his. That seems like that's good synergy. The only problem I'm seeing with this blueprint is that I've probably seen this too many times for my taste. But it's just a framework, I don't think it's too bland. It keeps everything on rails at the start too, which is probably the best way to keep people from getting lost in worldbuilding stuff, yeah? It's like, "Ok, I get it. We're going to get Weaver some wind powers, because he's the only one people have been able to find in decades or whatever. And once he gets those, they'll have the final piece they need to pull off Captain Toch's special job." So Weaver gets the idea, isn't interested in a big heist job, isn't sold on a pirate's lifestyle at all. But this wind powers idea is infectious. He has to know more, and this boat is his ticket. And even though he's not super sold on this job, it's so far away, and moreover, he trusts the Captain. He sees the opportunity in all this and doesn't have to confront the ugly hurdles of this adventure at all in the start. So that's how we get the momentum going. I think it's probably great that we've got this dangerous situation looming in the distance, so that we can use it to frame things Weaver is learning about the world. And eventually it can potentially come into play as a big turning point in the story. Right now my thought is, I have no interest in actually doing a heist/big job like this in the story. It's just such a great reason to get everyone on the boat going to different harbors and showing Weaver around. It works for Ettis and it works for Weaver. Once people start getting to where they are going, I can definitely see that goal just fade away into nothing as the ACTUAL story goal manifests itself. I wouldn't be surprised though if the eventual challenge that Weaver runs into doesn't mirror a lot of the specifics present in the original plans for the heist. Especially the idea that the *final* problem Weaver is presented with is something that has no solution outside of Weaver finally pulling it together and harnessing the wind to overcome. Although I think if I do manage to think of a problem like that I'd love for the actual solution Weaver goes with has absolutely nothing to do with his special power. It should be so clear to the audience at that point that the special power Weaver actually possesses is his indominable spirit. Right? That's a classic right there. And then the reader has to go like, "What? Is this guy ever going to actually become an Ether?" And at that point in the story I think would be the perfect time to actually get him some promising results. Like that's the second arc of the story. He first proves that he's the guy we want fighting for the right thing. We thought we needed him to be the hero as it were because of his special talent of wind ethery. But our expectations are subverted when we learn that's what we wanted, not what we needed.
Ok, I've hit the hour mark, and then I tacked on another 20... I knew I might allow that to happen. Like 1 hour was the minimum, not the maximum. But I want to put a bookmark in this so I don't feel like I'm spent and can't come back tomorrow to keep cranking away.
So tomorrow, when I come back and do the 1 hour sesh again. Let's jump right off from here. Keep going with the cribbing. We outlined a teeny little taste. If I can outline more maybe we can get enough to start actually sculpting the little details and such. And we can start deciding on some more worldbuilding.
k bye
