To be (the royal we) or...you get the point.

[Alex Beecroft]

It sounds a little bit too much like real life/historical fiction for my tastes. (This is not a put down - I feel the same way about Game of Thrones, and it's blatantly obvious from how many people love that that I'm the one out of step on that front.) But nevertheless it sounds like too much real life realpolitic, not enough flashy awesome magic and saving-the-world to be my sort of thing.

Which is not to say that it wouldn't be other peoples' thing, because I'm sure it would. And it would be an angle that I'd never seen done before.

On a parallel track, I'm in the process of writing a story about the adventures of a group of Viking women, once their menfolk have sailed off to mug foreigners. After all, there's no guarantee that being left alone in the village is the same as being left in a safe place. People do have a tendency to think of the adventures of the 'heroes' and forget about the support personnel who make it possible.

 

[Nobby]

Yes! AB you have sort of a similar idea, I apologise, for my previous post, I tend to get overly socio-political in my outlook in my cups... I think it comes from being a true punk clash/ style council fan, when I was younger... just about two years after it was actually considered cool...

 

[Alex Beecroft]

Yes! AB you have sort of a similar idea, I apologise, for my previous post, I tend to get overly socio-political in my outlook in my cups... I think it comes from being a true punk clash/ style council fan, when I was younger... just about two years after it was actually considered cool...

*g* I remember all that. I was a rocker at the time, although to be honest prog-rock, more than anything else. You'll still catch me listening to Hawkwind at the weekends. But yes, I'm now involved in Folk, which is also good evidence for the belief that a peasants' revolt would turn out pretty brutally for everyone. All that seething helpless anger, with both sides being terrified and contemptuous of each other, and a thousand years of oppression to make up for in however long it would take for the upper echelons to notice and respond with their own brutality and fear.

 

[Nobby]

The horrible truth is that comfort breeds lazy thinking in anyone no matter what background they belong to...sigh...
It's back to wanting to be the biggest fish in the pond you are born to. But the absolute worst in every group tends to rise to prominence...if you add Ego to the mix (royalty, union, crook or commoner) you end up with a poisonous brew...I should think to myself it's just a story, I should really just relax ...but I can't

 

[Chessie]

Interesting thread, I like it. Nobby, your question is one I can relate with. Although I love kings, queens, dragons (especially) mages, etc...not all fantasy has to be this way. I think the reason royalty shows up in fantasy so much is because the medieval setting cannot exist without the history of crowns. As writers, we take history and twist it around until we get a cool setting for our story and the reality of the Dark Ages was that it was ruled by royalty.

I liked GOT (only read the first book, haven't watched the tv show) and thought, although slow, it was a well done portrayal of cut-throat antics over a throne. I have no interest in writing about royalty, preferring a smaller scale to my WIP. The story focuses on the survival of a particular family (with a line of shamanistic magics) but its not "she turns into a hero and saves the world and then in turn rules the world".

There's enough of that out there, just leave me to my smaller scaled story about a protagonist trying to survive from spiritual persecution (that's my ball game). I think fantasy stories can be just as amazing without tossing in a throne.

 

[Alex Beecroft]

I should think to myself it's just a story, I should really just relax ...but I can't

Well, if it was 'just' a story, with no relevance to reality at all, it probably wouldn't be worth telling or reading. I think this is part of why non-writers seem to regard writers with some kind of awe - the writer's shamanistic responsibility to venture into the underworld and make sense out of what they find there. Go forth and give meaning to the world, young man

 

[Nobby]

The thread that refuses mortality...and it isn't even about popular culture

Thanks Chester (I can't add that 'ama', my fingers just claw ) I think that persecution of any type in any fiction is always attractive, so long as you don't make it so black and white as to be blinding, if you see what I mean. Or as wishy washy as to be all grey...and...worthy...

AB... Sheesh, young man LOL

I once said I wanted to be a writer at school (many moons ago, admittedly) and I was told by my work experience adviser that "If you want to lie, why not train in law?"

Telling him he was in the wrong vocation didn't make me popular there

This may or may not be apocryphal...

BTW I hope you guys appreciate how much I am getting from this thread!