I pretty well finished up Caligo’s Chapter 3 of TTWC2, wrapping up his section, and then did some writing throughout Orguz’s section. Chapters 1 and 3 are already pretty well finished and I was just doing some light editing. The prologue, Chapter 2 and the epilogue got a little a work done on them.

I also did some work on The Knight’s Twilight. For some reason, a bit of inspiration struck me and I jotted down some dialog. I’ve decided to completely rewrite the story from the ground up rather than struggle to rework the previous version into the current plan. It feels really nostalgic going back to the Gladius Cycle after spending so much time on The Trident War Chronicles. Maybe instead of moving directly on to TTWC3 after I finish TTWC2, I’ll work on some of the Gladius stories. That or I may start mixing it up more. I have plenty of lead time as far as serialization is concerned. We’ll see. Stay tuned.

Perhaps in part due to yesterday’s post comparing KoG to the Hero’s Journey, what writing I did yesterday was mostly in the peripheral materials with a Gladian bent, but I also piddled around a little in The Boy King’s Madness. I started adding charas to the cast and such, thinking more on the millieu of the kingdom during the time the story takes place. I’m getting a bit of a Game of Thrones-ey vibe off this one. There’s political intrigue and such in my other books, sure, but the tone that’s developing is different and that’s the best way I can describe it.  “Oh, great. I hope you aren’t inviting Mark’s son to any weddings.” Ha ha ha.

I kinda wish I’d finished Chapters 4 and 5 of Tico4 and I may actually devote a little time to doing that because I’m so far ahead on TTWC1. Finishing a chapter or two there would also be a nice goal for the week. Stay tuned.

I haven’t been doing much writing lately (or at least, not much writing that’s relevant here), but the poor blog is looking mighty lonely, so I’m whipping up this special post.

Although I don’t list George Lucas among my Three Pillars (more on the Three Pillars in a future post), the influence of Star Wars on me is undeniable. (Honestly, it’s almost impossible to imagine someone of my generation who isn’t strongly influenced by Star Wars.) Now, one of the things that made the Original Trilogy in particular so effective was how well it tapped into the monomyth. Those of you with even a passing familiarity with the creation of Star Wars is aware of the strong influence of Joseph Campbell on Lucas and how closely the original story follows the archetypical Hero’s Journey as detailed in The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Now, you may find this hard to believe, but I actually haven’t read Campbell myself and I certainly wasn’t making a deliberate effort to follow the formula of the monomyth when I set out to write the Knight of Gladius series, but the way the story hits the notes is uncanny. Bear in mind that there’s nothing wrong with the monomyth formula. It’s a common thread of myth and legend transcending time and culture for a reason. If you believe in things like genetic memory and collective unconsciousness, I’d say the monomyth taps into them. Unless you’re a particularly gifted storyteller, sticking to the mold is actually strongly advisable. It doesn’t mean your story has to be stale and boring but rather that it meets certain expectations that connect with the audience. There’s still plenty of room to make the story your own and still provide a unique experience. You shouldn’t seek to be different just for the sake of being different. Tell a good story. Everything else worthwhile will follow.

Now, let’s get to the comparison of Knight of Gladius to the monomyth. By the by, this post is going to assume you’ve read the books, so if you haven’t, you may want to pick this up at a future date because there will be spoilers. We start with the ordinary world. KoG doesn’t actually show the ordinary world prior to the start of the adventure. Mark has already set out when we began. However, he spent eight years as a monk prior to the events of the books and this all tied into his primary denial of the call to adventure. You could argue that Mark has two separate hero’s journeys in the course of the series. The first occurs in his fight against Kyrios in Byrn ten years prior (as detailed in the Quest for the Pendants portion of KoG2) and the second is his return to Gladius and ultimate confrontation with Randwulf in KoG1 and 3. Note that I said Mark’s primary denial of the call because there’s a second layer to it as well. Most heroes in the monomyth are reluctant. For one reason or another, no matter how much they seem primed for adventure, when the time comes, they shrink from it. In KoG2, Mark doesn’t hesitate to seek out King Abdiy to have him account for the Dragon Guard’s attack on Tiberius. However, his experience that follows causes him to withdraw from fulfilling his potential as a hero, hence him retreating to the abbey. However, these stories can’t happen unless something pushes the hero onto the path. In Mark’s case, it’s years of yearning for his lost family and homeland rather than something as dramatic as stormtroopers razing the family farm. In Star Wars, Luke is cut off from his ordinary world, giving him nowhere to go but forward on his journey. In Mark’s case, his own actions sever his ties to the ordinary world as he’d already taken his permanent vows and breaking his vow of stability cuts him off from his order. Might he have returned to the abbey if he knew it was waiting for him? Probably not, honestly, but it probably would’ve increased his reluctance. (Part of me almost wishes Mark began his venture to Gladius still as a full-fledged monk and then is forced to take up the sword as circumstances demand. Perhaps there’s an If Arc story in there.)

Usually there’s a mentor figure who shows up to guide the hero in the early stage of the adventure. At first, Shadowstryke appears to be this, but he simply accompanies Mark on the way to Stormtree, where he was already headed (though, admittedly, he had gotten himself a bit lost in the Ancient Forest). Shadowstryke actually does a lot of work putting the pieces in place behind the scenes, but you see little of it in the story proper. He appears in Chapter 1 of KoG1 and doesn’t return until late in KoG3. Felix is closer to the archetype, showing up as Mark enters the second phase of his journey. Again, the monomyth doesn’t require you to slavishly hit every single point in exactly the same way. There are just common threads that come together over the course of the narrative.

You can argue that Mark crosses the first threshold when he leaves Byrn. Alternatively, you could call his entry into Stormtree the first threshold. Either one would make sense. From here we begin to acquire and test allies and enemies. In KoG1, the party is steadily assembled as Mark travels through the kingdom and he picks up a minor antagonist in the form of Harald Svenson, as Randwulf himself is off in Byrn trying to seek out the Eagle in the East two steps behind the game. The time in hiding after Mark’s rescue from Corinth is an especially nice bit where the party’s relationship is cemented.

I mentioned before that Mark’s denial of the call to adventure is two-layered. This is because you can argue that his overarching journey through KoG1 and 3 are actually two separate ones. His first denial involved him remaining in Byrn and the second was his refusal to fight in the rebellion against Randwulf. The arc of KoG1 brings him to the point of being ready to fight against Randwulf, which is then brought to completion in KoG3. In this sense, Felix better fits the mentor archetype for this second journey. (We also have the introduction of new allies in KoG3, with Catherine, Stefan and Ignatiy tying in KoG2 and Adrienne and Giles providing the connection to Randwulf’s side.)

I had to bring in this “two journey” concept before we move to the innermost cave. In KoG1, its a literal cave in Mount Vulcan where Mark’s party is captured by the Inkari Tribe and he then fights Mar Kurin to reclaim the gear of the Guardians. The supreme ordeal that follows results in the “death” of the pacifistic monk and Mark’s rebirth as a warrior. He then grasps the sword, both literally by taking up his father’s sword and figuratively by claiming his heritage as the Guardian. The road back takes him to Darkwall and the Battle of the Crimson Field, but this is an indecisive conclusion, which forces him to start over on a second journey. Pegging the innermost cave in KoG3 is a little trickier. Part of me wants to say it’s the Warrior’s Triad, but I’m more inclined to say it’s Darkwall. The supreme ordeal here is Mark’s confrontation with Randwulf, resulting in his “death” when Shadowblight destroys the keep and his rebirth having overcome his original quest to uncover the truth about the fate of his family. Rather than a sword (literal or figurative), we’ll say he’s claimed an “elixir” in this second journey, which allows him to assume his role as a leader in the new kingdom formed after Randwulf’s defeat.

It’s perhaps fitting that my first story would be the most archetypical. I suppose I could do the same with my other stories, but I imagine it wouldn’t fit quite as neatly. For instance, in the Tico series, Matt is effectively the protagonist, but it really isn’t his story alone. Perhaps each of the main characters have their own hero’s journey but Heaven help me if I’d try to pin all that down. Anyway, I hope you found all this interesting. Now let’s see if I can get back to doing some story writing.

I worked on a short that acts as a prequel for KoG1 (actually part of a small series that gives a brief glimpse at each of the six main members of Mark’s party shortly prior to events of the main story). It’s primarily intended as an option to pad out the wordcount in case I’m optioned for publication and the current 60K is deemed insufficient.

I’m also piddling around a bit with the Cross Arc story Nagareboshi Tennyo, mostly just ’cause.

Usually I don’t have the time to get any writing done on days I update the site, but I did add a little bit here and there in TTWC1. There wasn’t much of a concerted effort, so I’m not going to list all the chapters I added one or two lines to.

In other news, I sent off a fresh query for KoG1, the first one in a long time. I’d generally given up on querying, but the agent in question has just went independent, so I figured now was a good time to make a shot. If KoG1 doesn’t quite grab her but she does show interest in my writing, I may try again with Tico1. I know I had one query a while back where the agent liked my writing but KoG1 didn’t quite do it for her. This and other feedback from agents I’ve gotten pretty well confirms that I have a good handle on my craft, but the real trick is finding the agent who can connect with the material and passionately promote it to publishers. Yes, I know I’ve said that publication isn’t that big of a deal for me, but there’s not an author out there who doesn’t want to see their work on bookshelves. Will anything come of this latest attempt? I’m not holding my breath, but I should know in six weeks’ time. Stay tuned.

I don’t know if this rightly qualifies as a WIP update, but if you consider all my projects to be WIPs until they reach publication, then I suppose it still fits. Anyway, I decided I wanted to go back though The Three Warriors. I’m looking to see if there’s a way I can boost it from its current 48K wordcount to a more publishable 75K or at least around 60K like KoG1. Then again, if I don’t actually exert any effort to pursue a print run, then it’s a moot point. My writing philosophy favors a piece being as long as it needs to be and so long as I’m not answerable to the publishing industry, I suppose my stance is tenable.

Speaking of pursuing publication, I’ve made one excuse after another over the years and now I just take the note in my schedule to work on queries each Saturday and kick that can down the road to next week. As much as I’d like to have the backing of a publisher to get my work out to readers and hopefully to start supporting myself by my writing, I really don’t want to deal with all the headaches associated with pursuing publication and what comes after if you actually make it that far. Who knows? Maybe in a couple years I’ll be in a position where I want to take a fresh crack at it. We’ll see.

This is a different kind of WIP update. I’ve been meaning to show you some of the early renders from the KoG animation project Kazuya’s working on and here’s a nice early show of Rowan. There aren’t any textures or cel shading yet and the lighting still needs to be fiddled with.

To reduce the man-hours devoted the task, to say nothing of render time, I may suggest that he leave it at this level of detail at this stage. This is our first animation, after all, and with our current computing power, we really can’t afford to be too elaborate.

I’m hoping to get prototype renders of the main cast by the end of next week. Stay tuned.

More work with the peripheral materials. I went ahead and made those adjustments I mentioned to the map of Gladius in its current bitmap form. I’m trying to decide if I want to upload the updated bitmaps or just go ahead and draw up new maps to upload. We’ll see.

Probably not going to get the chapter of TTWC1 out this week, but I guess you never know. Stay tuned.

Today I find myself picking up a thread I started a while back but never brought to completion. I realized that Gladius having no border defenses didn’t make a whole lot of sense, so I established the marchlands with small castles acting as border outposts. Four castles were built by King Rorik of the short-lived Rorician Dynasty (short-lived only because his fool of a son ran afoul of the patricians and was driven from the throne after a mere six-year reign). Randwulf then bolstered the defenses with four more castles.

Our current issue shows up when I was wanting to adjust my maps to accommodate these changes. While I was trying to pinpoint the locations of each of the castles, I noticed myself tripping up on which march was which. The reason for this is because my map of Gladius doesn’t have the conventional “north on top” orientation. The same is true of the map of Byrn. Now, you might be asking why they’re like that. Well, sit back for some story time.

You see, when I first started formulating the stories of my canon, each one was meant to be completely independent of the other. I imagine I was influenced by the RPGs such as the Final Fantasy series that rebuilt its worlds from scratch each game (until we started to see the more recent trend of lateral movement). Well, when I started to digitize all my materials back in ’01, I decided to compile all my stories into a single world and that meant stitching dozens of maps together. I’m rather pleased with the results. I didn’t have to change a whole lot make it work. However, I retained the original orientation of the maps, which leads us to our current situation.

The cheesy MS Paint bitmaps I have were only meant to be a temporary thing and I really need to redraw the maps and maybe this mess with the marchland castles in Gladius might be just the trigger for me to actually make it happen.