Word count day 251
Today I invested an hour or so in mapping out my plot. Creating on graph paper a storyboard cum flow chart with boxes and arrows quantifying my originally brainstormed narrative outline.
I found myself questioning my initial decision to go with what is pretty much an off-the-shelf western European setting. I was only in France one week in the summer of 1968 and I'm much more familiar with coastal wetlands than rolling countryside. I'm also more familiar with local magic -- root workers and the like, cursing enemies for a fee and selling potions for everything from love to the sugar -- than the classic tropes of what most white Americans think of when they say "magic." (Actually at this point in our cultural evolution, most folks of any color think Harry Potter and Gandalf when they think magic. More's the pity.)
Playing it safe, playing to the broadest common stereotypes, could kill this story in the marketplace. But this story feels western European -- or at least the way most Americans think western European feels. I can either give the reader what looks familiar, but with a unique twist or two of my own, or I could shift my thinking and culture create something different and unexpected.
At the moment I'm thinking Europe, but that may change as I get into the writing this weekend. I'll keep you posted.
I found myself questioning my initial decision to go with what is pretty much an off-the-shelf western European setting. I was only in France one week in the summer of 1968 and I'm much more familiar with coastal wetlands than rolling countryside. I'm also more familiar with local magic -- root workers and the like, cursing enemies for a fee and selling potions for everything from love to the sugar -- than the classic tropes of what most white Americans think of when they say "magic." (Actually at this point in our cultural evolution, most folks of any color think Harry Potter and Gandalf when they think magic. More's the pity.)
Playing it safe, playing to the broadest common stereotypes, could kill this story in the marketplace. But this story feels western European -- or at least the way most Americans think western European feels. I can either give the reader what looks familiar, but with a unique twist or two of my own, or I could shift my thinking and culture create something different and unexpected.
At the moment I'm thinking Europe, but that may change as I get into the writing this weekend. I'll keep you posted.