I’ll be writing another twittertale after “Worse Things Happen at Sea”. Some possible features are below for you to say “Yes”, “Maybe” or “Please No!” to. (It should be noted that I may ignore all votes, depending on what ideas work at the time.) Further suggestions are VERY welcome.
The length will be between 2 and 3 months, so it’ll end on 31 December.
Please add your suggestions below – but I won’t be using any other writer’s characters, world, or magic (so no vampires, people).
Genre/setting:
A) Crime
B) Romance (definitely combined with another genre)
C) Fantasy on Rahana (same world as “Worse Things Happen at Sea” though not necessarily same characters or historical period)
D) Different fantasy world.
E) Canberra (works well with using Christmas as a part of the tale – sarcasm guaranteed)
Plot:
A) Something heroic, eg rescuing a people group from a tyrannous leadership.
B) Quest
C) Household renovation
D) Plague/Pandemic
E) Solving some kind of crime (probably murder)
F) Invasion of giant bugs
Characters:
A) Sol and Ulandin
B) Oldy
C) Characters from my realist novel (including religious and/or homosexual characters)
D) Characters from “Stormhunter” (set in Rahana, but 200 years later) – probably including Ani, who lacks the usual instinct for self-preservation but definitely keeps herself entertained.
E) Kelvin Redd: the PM with a secret superhero identity.
F) Princess Ana (Sol’s optimistic and naiive relative)
G) Traveller (a feelsmith – effectively a psychic – from the world’s edge.
Hmm, a lot of good options here. I’m quite interested in an invasion of Canberra by giant bugs, especially if told in real time; the thought of giant beetles scuttling through Parliment House is appealing. However, I’d like to see more of Rahana as well, most likely with Sol, though the far less psychotic Ana would also be good. Household renovation scares me, so unless it’s mixed with a giant bug invasion and/or humourous crime, would not be so appealing.
I think that witty geek-ery is the genre best suited to the Twitter literary ‘form’.
It might be wise to leave your particular Fantasy World behind for a while – tapping into and doing a sarcastic pastiche of a well-established genre subculture (i.e. Lovecraft, Tolkien, etc.) is probably the best way to automatically get a large audience.
Oh, and it also would probably be best to not set any stories anywhere local (Canberra, anywhere that Kelvin Rudd is likely to be Prime Minister of) because that instantly limits the story’s appeal.