When you’re sitting there all cuddled up and reading your favorite book you probably aren’t thinking about what it took to make even the most fantastical of worlds seem somehow realistic. You may from time to time realize that some of these fantasy authors weave a lot of crazy medieval folklore into their stories at absolute random or perhaps you picked up on a joke you weren’t sure was a joke but totally could be. It’s probably an Easter Egg. Yes, writers leave Easter Eggs all the time. We’re a odd bunch.
If you want to see this in action just come with me for a bit. I’m going to let you take a look at my super secret manuscript I’m working on…. It’s a dark fantasy about a fallen angel who is punished for his disloyalty by being forced to work as an incubus at night. Cheerful huh? It’s actually not funny in the same bubbly way this entry is although there’s a lot of cutting sarcasm smattered throughout. Angry giggling bile!
You’re probably wondering what on earth I’d have to research for that. It sounds like pure fantasy! Well it is… to a degree… but I want to weave in older narratives to make it all the better. Yes, I am writing about a fallen angel, but why do angels fall? How could that have happened? And what is my angel’s name? Apparently there are spells to conjure up angels and all of them have crazy names that’d make a sci-fi writer blush. Should I go with one of those? Would that make it more realistic? Or would that be off putting? Should I just call him Joe?
And then little flits of serendipity can completely throw me right off. The other day someone showed me this meme. A statue of Lucifer. Well… in reality two very obscenely handsome statues of the same human posing as Lucifer. I read the Wikipedia entry and was in tears, it just kept getting worse. I ran around telling people the story and was told “Lucifer was the most beautiful of the angels.” Really?! Satan was drop dead gorgeous?! WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME THIS?! That’s so much better than running around with cloven hooves! So since Lucifer is one of my side characters in my story I had to amend some things…. but then I toppled farther down the rabbit hole. The aforementioned statues were made to be somewhat androgynous because older Christian belief systems sometimes characterize angels as having no earthly gender. That got me thinking, does my incubus have a gender?! And also is a gay incubus still an incubus or is he a succubus? Are there lesbian succubi? I mean where does the title come from, the demon, or who they’re fucking? There was no answer I could find except my one mystical friend, “Incubi are just shadow people. They either have no gender or some say they’re a succubus by day and an incubus by night.” PERFECT JUXTAPOSITION. Suddenly I had not only a deliciously androgynous angel I had the flip side, his night persona which was also apparently androgynous. It was like I meant it to be that way. Seeing as I had already made him pansexual I was delighted to find out he’s also a sexual swiss army knife! I can do anything with this character! He’s all over the board! This is GREAT news considering I think I suck at writing sex scenes and somehow still decided to write a book about an incubus. That’s…. well, you know, got to give yourself challenges, right?! I do what I can.
And you know what? Throwing myself into early Christian doctrine doesn’t even begin to show the amount of research I do. My other manuscript is about the teenage years of Achilles and that one… WHEW! I thought I knew a lot about ancient Greek and Roman culture. I KNOW NOTHING! I’m constantly begging Google for answers and probably giving the NSA something to scratch their heads and giggle over. (PSSSST, according to Google search records all writers are murderers.) One day I was so proud I asked a question even Google didn’t have an answer for: What does Fisher Cat taste like? But that’s a story for another day (also if you’ve ever eaten BBQed Fisher Cat please leave a comment of email…)
Where was I again? Oh yes, Achilles! So initially I had to read up on all the Gnostic stories about Achilles’ teenage years and who was involved in them and then for shits and giggles I just had to continue adding to the long string of characters that come in and out of my own story for no reason – usually for the purpose of adding a killer joke to anyone who actually knows these myths. For insistence at one point I have Icarus fall from the sky and a villager scream, “It’s raining men!” See? Delightful.
Eventually your mind takes everything you’ve learned and runs away with it. I don’t have any control of my characters anymore. I swear to God whenever I think about them they’re squabbling in my head or doing something strange I had no intention to write about. Some of them are even in therapy. I don’t know why but it’s probably something I’ve done to them… It’s wild in there.
I have a feeling this will likely be the first of many entries on the subject…. but for now happy writing! Or reading! I am off to do something useful!