Wanted to see what you guys thought of this... · 6:23am Jan 17th, 2015
Still working on the next chapter, plan to have it up this weekend. In the meantime...
Like I said in the last blog post, I have taken up the notion to start a real, honest to goodness novel. I have a premise, and am working on putting it to paper. Still forming characters, plotlines, and all that stuff. But I thought I'd go ahead and see what you guys thought of the idea itself.
It is a story that has been told a thousand times, in a thousand different ways: The peaceful kingdom is in peril. The evil empire is on the march, led by a terrible, unstoppable evil overlord. The good guys, desperate, summon from another world a hero, one who will pick up the invincible sword of protagonisticness, don the invulnerable armor of plotline, and go forth and smite evil, in spite of having little to no formal combat training, no real skills for surviving in the wilderness, and barely a clue about the world he's been summoned to.
This is not that story. This is not the story of how the random everydude gets summoned to save the fantasy kingdom, and does so with little to no character development whatsoever. No, this is the story of everything going horribly, hilariously, epically wrong.
Due to a mistranslation of the spell that summons a hero, the evil empire summons forth the hero, believing that ritual summons forth an 'ultimate warrior' who will lead them to victory, after the evil overlord's accidental, yet also quite humorous, demise. It kind of works, but also doesn't. On the one hand, it summons forth a hero in the summoning chamber, one who is, in fact, an incredibly skilled warrior, having been summoned to 'save the kingdom' on about thirty other worlds. He's getting pretty fed up with it all, honestly, but can't seem to stop it. On the other hand, the guy who would actually have been qualified to be the evil overlord ends up in a random alley, elsewhere in the city, and decides that he doesn't really care for the place, and after various shenanigans, ends up on a journey to the other side of the world map. He's not very happy about it, since like most potential overlords, he'd rather sit on his throne and delegate the job to someone else, but he's not got much of a choice this time.
Due to two individuals having been summoned, the 'power' that this ritual bestows, which can turn even an unskilled teenager into a remorseless engine of destruction within twenty to thirty hours of play time in a video game, or one to two hundred pages in a novel, ends up getting split between the two. The 'hero' ends up with the physical powers, making him an unholy juggernaut of destruction on the battlefield. The 'overlord' ends up with the magical powers, which would normally make him incredibly powerful... except for the fact that he's a pacifist, severely limiting the spells that he can perform.
The 'hero' catches the eye of the former evil overlord's daughter, who soon becomes infatuated with him. Not with his handsome features, chiseled jaw, or iron hard abs. No, no, those are a dime a dozen. Rather, it's his ability to turn people into an explosion of crimson gore when he gets into a fight that gets her motor running. The hero, unaware that he's in the evil empire, sees it as his job to whip the country into shape, in preparation for the big battle at the end of the story between the forces of good and evil.
Meanwhile, the 'overlord' ends up on an epic journey to return a young maiden to her hometown, after accidentally purchasing her at a slave auction in the heart of the evil empire. He, along with a rag-tag bunch of misfits, will end up getting roped into various misadventures along the way, in spite of the fact that all he'd really rather do is sit down someplace nice and quiet, and read a good book.
In the end, both the hero and the overlord will meet, in a climactic confrontation that will determine the fate of the world... but who will be the good guy, and who will be the bad guy?
That sounds seriously awesome.
Like throwing a wrench into a delicate, building-sized Swiss watch and seeing all of the cogs and springs jump with enough force to stick into concrete.
I'd buy it.
Yes.
I love it!
The old switcheroo, I hope it goes well! If not it's a funny D&D game idea.
2728387 Damn you, literally two seconds before me. GG.
Honestly, it sounds like the plotline for a game of Fiasco. Quite possibly using the Dragon Slayers [pdf link] playset.
Hmm... Well, I've certainly never heard of this plot before, meaning it's got some originality right off the bat. If you want to write that, go for it. I will say however, only do it if you're going to enjoy doing it.
If you make it I will buy it and read it
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One of my fave authors has always been Terry Pratchett, and I love, absolutely love, stories that take established cliches and turn them on their heads. After all, what fun is there in things going Just As Planned?
2728401 Exactly!
I would definitely buy that and read it
Seems legit.
I'd read the shit outa that story.
I'd read it.
That reminds me a whole lot of it this here short story. Actually, it's pretty much identical.
Would love to see this.
Now that sounds like an intriguing plot. I'd buy it.
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Doesn't look identical to me. Some similarity in the premise, but the story you linked to is deadly serious, and is an exploration of the morality of fantasy universes, whereas the idea being talked about here is more like a Terry Pratchett romp.
Sounds like a fun read.
This could be wonderful or it could be horrible. I'm not sure if I'd buy it, but I'd certainly want to read it.
I'm poor okay?...
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Still in development. I might have a prologue done soon, but I need to finish mapping out plotlines, refining character personas, and other junk like that. Not to mention the world building. This isn't a fanfic, set in an established world: This is an original story. It takes a lot of work to make a cohesive narrative without an already established and familiar world, especially if you want to make it three hundred pages long or more. I honestly hope to make a trilogy here.
If you're trying to run this on satire, you'll have to come up with a twist that's a bit more clever. Right now, if you reworded your abstract to make it less obviously flippant, it would look completely played straight, if unoriginal, and nobody would be the wiser. So what'll be your gimmick?
lots of promise.
..could you have the hero and overlord confront everyone about all their (i'm assuming) Hypocrisy, double standards, disapropriate retribution and other stuff?)
So, you are running on reversed cliche and being genre savvy while wearing irony trousers? No reason it can't work but the writing will have to be pretty good for it to work.
I would likely buy it, if for nothing but the luls.
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actually, this brings up the obvious leading question; where do you think you're going to publish?
So far, for original fiction, all I know of is Wattpadd and AO3, but I may not know of others.
Or do you intend to publish it directly as an ebook on Amazon for <5$? I've heard there's starting to grow a market for that
The idea seems like it would make a good Adventure/Comedy. Have to see actual writing before I'd consider buying it, of course.
I hope chapters will be short, and you write each one long enough, so I can translate them one by one (yay, ongoing!) to Russian and show my friends that can't read English...
Story sounds good but could you finish some of your other story's fist.
I love this idea. :D
This sounds like it could be an amazing Hitchhiker's-esque story. I would buy this.
sounds like a good read
That sounds hella awesome, especially if written in your usual snarky style! I'd buy that! Hell, I'd buy my friends copies as presents.
Wait...
You want to make... a book.
A physical novel.
A physical novel that people can actually purchase...
A physical novel that people can actually purchase and turns old cliches on their heads...
bit.do/Ymko
Ya know what? YES HECK YES even! Seriously, this is the story that SHOULD be told...and I'd be eager to read it!
it's a vary different out take and you might get criticism on some parts but I think this could be a vary intriguing read. and when it comes out tell us that it is out because I won't to read it.
2728535 I can help if you want.
You do realize that his is an excellent style of story to go into? How about a technological evil empire and a magically good kingdom?
I'll be PMing you.
Shut up and take my money! (No pic because mobile)
This sounds awesome! I'd buy it.
It's... Bueatiful
so bootiful. so so bootiful. this is amazing. i would buy it.
I want the title and where to get it when this piece of badassness is published!
God, it sounds awesome, especially subverting every trope and cliche of the genre. 
I'll get it.
This sounds like it would be an interesting story. If you went through with it, I'd probably be compelled to read it.
I WANT IT!!!!!! Seriously though, this sounds like it could really become popular if you do it right. I would love to read this and I hope you have as much fun writing it as you can. Also, you might have to make your own characters and world, but that just means that you have as much freedom as you could ever want.
I would read that SO HARD...
well... I'd buy it.
Personally, I think that an absolutely, positively hilarious situation needs to happen between antagonist and protagonist before the final battle. Of which being they end up bumping into each other and realizing that they used to have that one relationship between acquaintance and friend, but still know enough about each other to know which color they just can't stand and also know exactly which animal was in a certain horribly embarrassing situation that they never ever ever ever want to remember again. And so they use this information to annoy the hell out of each other in ways other people have no idea how to understand because they don't know what happened involving the thing and tbh that's all I need (other than eating a whole ice cream cake without help) before I can die happy.
Fund it
Honestly I doubt that any publisher would fund something that original. This will step heartedly outside the current consumer mindshare, of fantasy creatures coming to Earth or just them... staying there. While it would probably be an outstanding work of literature, it would most likely get passed over by publishers considering the current state of the literary "industry" if you could even call it that. The most industrious thing they've done in the last few years is put books on a fucking Kindle. I'm not telling you to give up, just be careful of what you say and how you say it.
First of all, more power to you if you actually manage to write a book.
Second, you should point out that both characters are somewhat fed up with their usual role. The overlord makes sense until he purchases the 'slave'. Why would an overlord rally some misfits and not make the most out of it? Does he simply stop trying to grab power halfway through the book?
As for what would make this story incredibly awesome to me would be the fact that you can write blatant references to general tropes of evil regimes (and their evil overlord) and how a hero's supposed to defeat them - and then let both your characters ignore them and trample all over it. Hell, make them oblivious to most of them and let them build up this awesome name for themselves without even noticing!
Other than that...your idea is pretty interesting. I'd fund it if I had the funds to do so.
From 'It is a story' to 'perform' would make an excellent... whatever you call that thing on the back of paperbacks and inside the dust cover of hardbacks... damnit.
Not knowing what that is called is going to bug me for days now.
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Plot synopsis?