I have realised that part of the reason a lot of my stories don't work is because I try and make them too big, too important. I give my main characters goals that are bigger than themselves, goals which will change the world. It might well be a very personal goal - for one, it was to prevent injustice being done within the judicial system as atonement for passing the wrong sentence on an innocent man; for another it was to expose the father of her child for making her pregnant then walking out on her. In each case their goal is simple and personal, but because of the elements involved - in the first example, the main character must challenge the judicial system and the laws it is based upon, shaking the foundations of her society and ultimately inspiring a revolution; in the second, the father was a prince with a very good reputation, and her revealing that he isn't the golden boy everyone thinks he is means his brother is instead named heir to the throne, with disasterous consequences.
Now I might well come back to either of these ideas at some point, sure, but for me, now, I feel they are too ambitious for me to write. Too big. Too many variables. They start small and personal, but they are bigger than one person, they encompass huge political ramifications. The stories by necessity expand like inflating balloons. And they all end up like this. Every story I have ever begun involves in some way something on a large scale: kings and nobles, rebellions, wars, small and personal goals having impacts upon thousands of people, hundreds of thousands. And every one has failed.
Is it possible to keep things small in fantasy? I know a lot of fantasy books involve epic battles between good and evil. Frodo must destroy the Ring to stop a great evil from sweeping across Middle Earth and turning all life and beauty to darkness. Harry must face Voldemort, protect the whole wizarding community and ultimately the world from subjugation under Voldemort. Even in those books which aren't good vs evil, it's all big scale: battles to define an age, wars for thrones and crowns, kings and armies and whole lands at risk.
I want to try something small scale. No kings, no nobility even. Someone normal, trying to achieve a personal goal which won't have a big impact on the national or international stage. Not something easy or unimportant - to them, anyway. A journey of personal discovery, and learning about the world and coming across things they don't understand or have never seen before in pursuit of a goal which will not, which cannot, truly change the world.
Is this possible? Who else has done it before? Have any of you tried it, and with what success?
Now I might well come back to either of these ideas at some point, sure, but for me, now, I feel they are too ambitious for me to write. Too big. Too many variables. They start small and personal, but they are bigger than one person, they encompass huge political ramifications. The stories by necessity expand like inflating balloons. And they all end up like this. Every story I have ever begun involves in some way something on a large scale: kings and nobles, rebellions, wars, small and personal goals having impacts upon thousands of people, hundreds of thousands. And every one has failed.
Is it possible to keep things small in fantasy? I know a lot of fantasy books involve epic battles between good and evil. Frodo must destroy the Ring to stop a great evil from sweeping across Middle Earth and turning all life and beauty to darkness. Harry must face Voldemort, protect the whole wizarding community and ultimately the world from subjugation under Voldemort. Even in those books which aren't good vs evil, it's all big scale: battles to define an age, wars for thrones and crowns, kings and armies and whole lands at risk.
I want to try something small scale. No kings, no nobility even. Someone normal, trying to achieve a personal goal which won't have a big impact on the national or international stage. Not something easy or unimportant - to them, anyway. A journey of personal discovery, and learning about the world and coming across things they don't understand or have never seen before in pursuit of a goal which will not, which cannot, truly change the world.
Is this possible? Who else has done it before? Have any of you tried it, and with what success?