Some Radical Ideas

Friday 6 February 2004




Idea: what if I (the author) re-read all episodes, from 001 to the present, and jotted down some annotations...things that you didn't know but that might be of interest, like "Otto was originally intended to be a werewolf" or "such-and-such a guest star was inspired by this movie" and so on...would that be of interest? The only downside is that it would take me a lot of time, possibly meaning fewer/smaller new stories.

The other thing...the stuff I write now (and have always written) is what I call "fun fantasy"...the kind in which a young character can be killed by a single arrow, while an old character can't...where being charged by a dozen foes isn't an automatic death warrant...where gold is commonplace and a sack of it doesn't equal early retirement...you know, the typical AD&D problems. I have worked to eliminate some of these rules, but still I've got the itch. It sure would be nice to write a saga where every character, at every point in the story, could still be killed by a single arrow...where a single gold coin means food and drink for a month, and a sack of gold coins means wealth for life...where a dragon is something you run from, period...where magic is rare and feared...I think you get the idea. Some of my past rants have discussed all of this in the context of new stories. I'd have to create a new world, too, which is something I've always wanted to do. Hmmmmmm.