Gomez Addams

So, I’m out seeing ‘Detective Pikachu’, but I wanted to put down a few ideas that came to me recently.  These stem from other ideas I’ve tinkered with in the past.  Considering how little time I have to do any writing, I don’t know why I torture myself.  Still, I guess having a bunch of stuff outlined and in notes means I can work on it later.  I’ll put down the first two ideas and see if I want to share the third, which is more possible.  It’s also fairly unique.  Let’s get moving:

Berumbo

This isn’t a title, but a character.  Way back, I was in an RPG with other people who weren’t in a massive one the rest of our circle played.  It was a silly, one-shot game that involved going through a dungeon in a world where such a thing is a televised sport.  I needed to go strange, so I designed BERUMBO.  He was a forest gnome standing at about two feet tall.  He was a barbarian with metal claws and teeth . . . He also ATE PEOPLE!  I played a berserker cannibal.  Berumbo also had a high charisma, which meant he was the most adorable cannibal ever.  The crowed loved him no matter what he did because he was far too cute to hate.  My favorite exchange was this:

Contest Judge– I hope all of you have had your last meal.
Rest of the Team Pointing at Me– He hasn’t!
Berumbo– Yay!

I’ve never figured out what to do with him since that day, but I remember him more than some characters I played for multiple games.  He was a bad guy in one series, but that didn’t fit.  So, what to do?

The plan is to make a few characters that I can put with him and do a trilogy or something that’s just for fun.  Berumbo wouldn’t be the focus, but he would be fun.  I’m thinking a team of treasure hunters.  I could even design a sport in Windemere that revolves around treasure hunting or group combat.  Maybe have the main character be a bard who wishes to record the adventures of this group?  I’d have to really sit down and work with this idea since I don’t want it to be too close to the monster hunting trilogy.  That one had a group of cursed individuals while this one might be miscreants.  I mean, they’d have to be crazy to have Berumbo on the team.

Something with 100 Monsters?

There have been many times where I sat down and considered doing something more for kids.  It never panned out too well, but the idea typically revolved around the same concept: a character who needs to find 100 mystical creatures.  After playing Magic: The Gathering recently, I want to think about this again.  Putting it in Windemere could work since the Cerascent Archipelago is huge and would allow the characters to travel a lot.  I could do 5 books of 20 short stories each, but I need to figure out the stakes.

A big problem here is that I keep thinking really big, but I might not want to do that if I go for kids.  Yet, my current audience is primarily adult and my writing style might not work for children if I don’t simply my vocabulary.  Unless I just write it and make it a series that parents could read to their kids.  I guess my worry is that I’d get some people annoyed if the stories are too repetitive with the heroes always winning.  Yet, a series like this tends to be that way.  Having the character lose all of the gained monsters halfway through would destroy the idea and come off as me trying to draw things out.  This isn’t even the plot issue that has me worried.

Typically, I’ve had the hero in this idea be a noble with 2-3 friends.  They either need to save their kingdom, claim the throne, or undo a mistake by collecting these 100 spiritual animals.  I considered that each one would give the person a power if they bond with it, which makes me think this is a shamanistic culture.  100 powers is a ridiculous number to balance, so maybe use this to touch on the concept of chimeras?  The hero could have the power to transform into what they catch and I might do a random drawing to figure out who to use.  This could also be done in a way that the hero can’t control the monster they turn into.  Another idea is that there are multiple people going around collecting them and the finale is a contest between those who make it to the end.  This allows me to create a rival.  What if I make them siblings or even twins?  Again, the other headache here is if I can come up with at least 100 short stories that involve monster catching without losing the audience.

Summer Project

This is something I’m going to work on during the summer.  Not really much to say here, but I’ve been keeping enough secrets here.  Need to let one of them out before I burst and this is the safest one to reveal:

I’m going to write a ‘How to Write Fantasy’ book.

People have suggested this a bunch of times in the past because they say my blog posts are insightful and helpful.  I’ve already come up with 70 topics and am jotting down thoughts on each one during my lunch period.  No idea about a title, but I’m going to make it a very casual style.  The sections will be written in a blog post style without a lot of jargon and no sense that what I’m saying will work for everyone.  Doesn’t hurt to try this.  Just need to figure out if I’m adding images, what to do for a title, and cover art.  Thankfully, I’m not going to release this until possibly next year.  No rush considering nothing is moving these days.

Well, those are the three ideas I’ve been thinking about lately.  What do you think?