rocknrollforyoursoul
Acolyte
Hi, everyone. I'm new here, and this is my first post. I look forward to hearing what you have to say.
For quite some time I've been developing a story that addresses the topic of human origins; more specifically, I'm a Christian and believe the Genesis story, and I'm trying to find a way to translate that into a fantasy novel. I'm trying to work out how to do this, and I'm facing some tough questions, and any suggestions or comments would be much appreciated.
First, the events of Genesis–from Creation through the Fall, the Flood, and the Tower of Babel–span a long period of time (roughly a couple millennia), so I need to find a way to condense that timeline into one novel / one person's lifetime (though people did live much longer back then, so that provides some wiggle room).
Second (and this relates to the first item), I've thought of featuring a hero or heroine, or group of heroes, who somehow helps rectify some great evil (symbolizing redemption from the Fall), but I don't know whether to have this character (or characters) around from the Beginning (in Genesis, the only people around then were Adam and Eve). I think this goes to how literally I want my story to parallel the Genesis story–do I merely want to include objects/people/events who are strictly representative of those in the Genesis story, or do I want to execute a strict parallelism (a detailed, person-for-person, event-for-event retelling of the Genesis story, just with different names)? I see some narrative problems with a strict parallel: For example, there wasn't one person who was present from the Beginning all the way through to the Tower of Babel, and I'd like for my story to have one person (or group of people) who are present throughout the tale. This kind of leads to my third item ...
How exactly do I tell this story? Genesis, to me, is rich with intrigue and mystery, which I'm a huge fan of. I absolutely loved the TV show LOST (well, except for the ending), and I'm envisioning creating a story that is similar to LOST as far as the level of intrigue and mystery. Many of us LOST fans really wanted to know about the Island's origin and history: What was it, precisely? How did it come into existence? Who was responsible for its existence? What exactly was the light at the Island's core, and where (or what, or who) did it come from? etc. These are the types of questions, and the level of intrigue and discovery, I want to present in my story. My question, though, is how to do this: whatever shape the story eventually takes, do I present it from the beginning and then proceed straight on through time from there, or do I start at some point further along the timescale and reveal some of the mysteries and answers through flashback-type scenes? I see pros and cons to both methods, and am kind of torn between the two.
For quite some time I've been developing a story that addresses the topic of human origins; more specifically, I'm a Christian and believe the Genesis story, and I'm trying to find a way to translate that into a fantasy novel. I'm trying to work out how to do this, and I'm facing some tough questions, and any suggestions or comments would be much appreciated.
First, the events of Genesis–from Creation through the Fall, the Flood, and the Tower of Babel–span a long period of time (roughly a couple millennia), so I need to find a way to condense that timeline into one novel / one person's lifetime (though people did live much longer back then, so that provides some wiggle room).
Second (and this relates to the first item), I've thought of featuring a hero or heroine, or group of heroes, who somehow helps rectify some great evil (symbolizing redemption from the Fall), but I don't know whether to have this character (or characters) around from the Beginning (in Genesis, the only people around then were Adam and Eve). I think this goes to how literally I want my story to parallel the Genesis story–do I merely want to include objects/people/events who are strictly representative of those in the Genesis story, or do I want to execute a strict parallelism (a detailed, person-for-person, event-for-event retelling of the Genesis story, just with different names)? I see some narrative problems with a strict parallel: For example, there wasn't one person who was present from the Beginning all the way through to the Tower of Babel, and I'd like for my story to have one person (or group of people) who are present throughout the tale. This kind of leads to my third item ...
How exactly do I tell this story? Genesis, to me, is rich with intrigue and mystery, which I'm a huge fan of. I absolutely loved the TV show LOST (well, except for the ending), and I'm envisioning creating a story that is similar to LOST as far as the level of intrigue and mystery. Many of us LOST fans really wanted to know about the Island's origin and history: What was it, precisely? How did it come into existence? Who was responsible for its existence? What exactly was the light at the Island's core, and where (or what, or who) did it come from? etc. These are the types of questions, and the level of intrigue and discovery, I want to present in my story. My question, though, is how to do this: whatever shape the story eventually takes, do I present it from the beginning and then proceed straight on through time from there, or do I start at some point further along the timescale and reveal some of the mysteries and answers through flashback-type scenes? I see pros and cons to both methods, and am kind of torn between the two.