The first version of the first book revolved around discontent. It was about trying to escape a world that had little good in it. It built up to a beautiful ending, but that was the last 1% of the story.
Then I saw the first Harry Potter movie (I had just finished the first book and was reading the second one), and was impressed by how J. K. Rowling and her fans really enjoyed the world she had created. There were tense moments, but it was still a world that people wanted to hang out in, not flee from.
That’s when I realized I had overreacted to feeling guilty about fantasy. I was writing a story where the fantasy world was evil and something to flee.
<aside> 💡
Ironically, the Harry Potter series gradually lost that sense of happy wonder and ended up practically Grim Dark.
</aside>
I decided to start Marloth over and make it more fun.
The next iteration was still pretty bleak and unpleasant, but was a step in the right direction.
Even after many more iterations, I still feel like the first book focuses a little more on discontent than I would like, but at this point discontent is deeply embedded into the DNA of the story and any further softening would need drastic restructuring to still retain the holistic depth.
The other issue with story arcs that rely on discontent is they don’t work well for extended narratives. Discontent provides great tension and impetus, but if it isn’t resolved in a reasonable amount of time, then it grows tiresome, and once it is resolved, a new discontent needs to be introduced or there’s no more impetus.
Thus are born narratives where the main characters go from one rotten situation to the next, never catching a break—or at least never catching a break long enough to really enjoy it.
I want TWOLD to have a more upbeat foundation.
For the second book, I want minimal scenes and story arcs that are based primarily on discontent. The main characters can have thorns and thistles they are dealing with, but I also want them to be largely happy.
The setting will still be grim, but the main characters will be generally optimistic and blessed.
The problem with that is even though I can poke holes in standard dark fantasy impetus tropes, at the end of the day, it’s hard to establish a sense of drive and focus without them, especially when I have a plot that is so unfocused.
By this point I’ve mostly settled on James and Adelle being the protagonists like they were in the first book (for most of TWOLD’s design I’ve been avoiding that direction), but I’m still wrestling with what they want and where they are going.
With over a decade since I finished the first book, and that much time since I last worked on it, I think I’ve lost sight of how important James’ and Adelle’s desires were to the story.
Adelle wanted to be a grown up and experience all the world has to offer. James wanted to protect her from that same world and herself. Implicitly, James also wanted to atone for his past sins.