Saturday 31 January 2015

The Rules' Reality

Is a stable society achievable without oversight?  Perhaps it depends on what you consider a 'stable society'. 

The Rules trilogy is my attempt at a deeper look at humanity - whether we can be charged with our own future or whether we must be controlled to avoid catastrophe born of selfish, narrow-sighted desire.   The incredibly complex nature of this debate is why I ultimately decided to focus my attention on 'Black Panther' since I'd like to publish at least one book before I'm thirty.  Around my correspondence with the wonderful Boxjelly1 for that novel I am editing Book 2 of the Rules trilogy, trying to connect threads of narratives into a cohesive vision.  The first big challenge was place names.  Since this is the first real 'epic fantasty' I've ever attempted I have run into the challenge of visualising a world while keeping its coordinates, place names, and cultures straight.  It's been an interesting, not always fun task.

Besides the world's physical complexity there's the spiritual aspect which is its heart, but I'm still not 100% certain I completely grasp it.  This aspect consists of an ingrained system of rewards and punishments for behaviour which is at once separate from and linked to the world's energy.  I'm hoping this passage is too abstract to be much of a spoiler.  It's abstractness is what makes it fascinating yet enormously challenging to capture in narrative.  As a story told from a first person perspective the audience must learn with and be plagued by the limitations of their insight into this world.  I had no idea when I began this piece that it would be as complex as it is trying to be.  The feeling I have as I work with it is akin to what I felt when contemplating a series where individuals explore sections of the human brain: incredibly intrigued yet sensing I am out of my depth.

As I make progress editing I am gradually becoming more confident.  It's still a ways from being ready for publication but I know that I will be proud once it is finally finished.  After all, it's my first trilogy and, even if I'm not wholly successful in attaining my vision for it, the series will still be a great achievement.

An image whose significance for this trilogy comes in Book 3.
Image courtesy of ur1crazedupfruitloop

No comments:

Post a Comment