Babble: Wander the Earth

So, midweek blog doldrums, because doldrums is a cooler word than nothings. I think I'm going to talk about writing and conventions and theory and stuff, because the internet needs more people with opinions! Maybe this'll be regular, maybe this'll be terrible. But, it's more content, so woo!

I like.

Wander the Earth.

Stuff.



Or Walk the Earth or whatever. The format of a story where the main characters wander from locale to locale, encounter something interesting, interact with it, then leave for more adventure. Its a quick and easy way to set up unique encounters that don't necessarily have to be connected to previous events. It can make a world seem big and diverse, and can create a number of little character moments as the cast interacts with the problems surrounding them.

HOWEVER. There is one key, burning point that can easily slip the mind as one goes about constructing a wandering story.

The main cast should not be passive observers to events. They have the power as the 'heroes' to interact and affect what they encounter. If they are not interacting and altering some cosmic balance, then basically all you've done is tell a short story, which the characters have observed. I've seen this problem many times: the author of a story spends so much time working out their "town's" characters, motivations, events, and actions, that they live little to no place for the heroes to interact with it, except at the very end when they decide to curbstomp the issue and save the town. This seems to be the most bemoaned feature of a bad roleplaying or video game, but you see it a lot in wandering anime as well.

My favorite kind of wander-the-earth style stories have the main characters inject themselves into the story  right at the start. Then, they begin messing with and interacting with everything. Best example: Dr. Who. The Doctor just does not give a crap, he kicks down the doors and says "HEY! I'm here and there's a problem, let's screw around with it!" You're still presented with all the episode-centric characters, motivations, ect ect, but its The Doctor that's driving the story. And while we understand the story of the location, the most important thing is that, through the location, we understand more about the main characters, the people we're supposed to be getting invested in and follow as they wander.

SO Why do I bring this up?

Because I'm finally writing a Wander Equestria story wooooooooooOMG why is this so hard?!

It is very, very easy to just write a string of short stories and call it a day. But, in writing chapters 15 and 16, I had to remind myself. This is a story about the three main characters. It is important to see how they interact with what's presented, and not let the spotlight be entirely stolen by other ponies.

The result: total re-write.

And I have a couple of papers due next week

So uh....

Chapters 15 & 16? Probably delayed!

...

Happy Wednesday! =D