As I get set to write what will hopefully be the first Journeyman story, these are my goals:
- Write something that is interesting to draw and to read.
- Keep it simple.
Journey has already rejected two stories for various reasons (see the previous post), so this is where it gets difficult. “Interesting” and “simple” are in conflict with each other, especially with a character who is not established. Furthermore, there is much of the real world that I cannot use. I can’t put Journeyman in Macy’s, for example. And Journeyman is not much of a warrior, and even if he were, Journey and I don’t want to start this series with a fight. It’s been done.
But no fighting, no real world stuff, keep it simple, and create something with an actual plot. This is a puzzler, but there is a solution. There are three types of antagonists: Others, Self, and Nature. Others doesn’t work because those antagonists would require some fighting and /or too much design work on Journey’s part. Self is difficult because the Journeyman is unknown, even to himself. But Nature always works, and a conflict with Nature allows the Self to come out as well.
Time to build a fire.