I have been working on a story line over the past year or so, that I've been hoping to someday turn into a script. I have the plot mainly summarized, and its sort of become two halves. In the first half, the main character Amelia, exists in real world New York city. I've been using photos for my descriptions, and proper street names for reference. That makes up the first few "portions" or what would be Episodes, if it ever were to get that far. The second half, takes place when Amelia's mental illness becomes more serious, due to a long line of tragedies, and her world of dreams, or even nightmares, and reality begin to mix, before she ends up entirely in her fantasy, searching for a way out.
I've been having trouble writing not only the switch, which I have mostly figured out, but the actual fantasy itself, which I have not. Amelia is cynical, and sarcastic, and witty, and seemingly too "Real World" for the fantasy. I've gotten up to the moment she switches, and then I can't seem to decide how she would handle it?
Does anyone have any experience with this? Any suggestions as to how to write a fantasy with a real world character?
Thank you for your time, and help!!
- Hacker
IF you have any advice at all, it's greatly appreciated on my end, thank you so very much for your help!
Good to see you pushing forward mate
Development should be a strong focus.
Unless they're under the impression that the fantastic world around them is a hallucination of some sort, and they're used to said hallucinations, they should be confused, or afraid, in the beginning. Children or otherwise odd characters could be exemplified from this rule, however, your character does not appear to be in that state.
Begin them in a state of confusion or mania, and, slowly have them get used to the world. Let them realize the internal logics-- the best way to do this is to give them at least one 'access point' character in the fantasy world. A character vaguely reminiscent of concepts in the 'real' world, like the satyr in 'Narnia'. Accessible concepts gives the main character something fantastic to get used to, someone he or she knows enough about to automatically comprehend, and someone for the main character to interact with. Use this access character as a guide for the main character, giving them a taste of this world, allowing them to understand it better, as it's coming out of a semi-familiar mouth.
Tl;dr: don't have them automatically get used to, or perpetually be foreign to, this world. Have them get used to it over time, preferably through a familiar concept to the 'real' world, embodied as a guide character.
At 3/19/16 05:35 PM, gehacker00 wrote: I have been working on a story line over the past year or so, that I've been hoping to someday turn into a script. I have the plot mainly summarized, and its sort of become two halves. In the first half, the main character Amelia, exists in real world New York city. I've been using photos for my descriptions, and proper street names for reference. That makes up the first few "portions" or what would be Episodes, if it ever were to get that far. The second half, takes place when Amelia's mental illness becomes more serious, due to a long line of tragedies, and her world of dreams, or even nightmares, and reality begin to mix, before she ends up entirely in her fantasy, searching for a way out.
I've been having trouble writing not only the switch, which I have mostly figured out, but the actual fantasy itself, which I have not. Amelia is cynical, and sarcastic, and witty, and seemingly too "Real World" for the fantasy. I've gotten up to the moment she switches, and then I can't seem to decide how she would handle it?
Does anyone have any experience with this? Any suggestions as to how to write a fantasy with a real world character?
Thank you for your time, and help!!
- Hacker
I think with a fantasy/dream crossing over you have the opportunity to make the reader fill up with laughter and fear. Imagine the character is on a drug. They think whatever they see is actually real and for some reason they don't find it odd at all. For example, a door handle of the front door to a building is a snake. I think that's pretty funny and sort of scary because you don't know what will happen but it definitely fills the reader with some cool imagery. Good luck with your writing.
-Line
