Just a General Update · 2:21am Apr 2nd, 2020
So I know I've been pretty absent for the better part of this year, and while a big part of that was a generally being unsatisfied with where Enchanted stands in its overall quality - to the point where I was seriously considering rewriting the whole thing - I also slipped down that dangerous slope from creator to consumer. While my desire to create hasn't diminished so much, I've just been consuming media more than not. A fact I wish to rectify before long.
This doesn't mean that Enchanted is going to be updated frequently again. In fact, I'm making plans for a new project. Enchanted will still be worked on, but it might be a little bit until the next update. I'm trying to do something different with this new project.
Enchanted was a story that had a very loose plan attached to it, so loose in fact, that the product you have now has minimal connection to what little I had planned. There's an argument to be made that this is a risky and inadvisable way to write a story, but I had no plans on it gaining this level of popularity, nor positive feedback. It was something I started as a means to get me off my ass and actually do some writing. A way to practice the craft without the pressures of trying to make something that was good, just something I could be proud of. Of course, I wasn't prepared for it to blow up the way that it did. Maybe I'll put up another blog about how things have changed during the writing process, as well as a number of the ideas that got canned, but that's for another time.
This new project I'm working on is also meant to be a means to practice, but in an area that Enchanted doesn't lend itself well to. Fight scenes. It's no obscure fact that the magic system in Enchanted is undefined and makes little sense. The only area I put thought into was how enchanting works, and even that's a base level system. What I'm hoping to create is a story where there are hard rules to abilities, ones that can possibly be used in creative ways, while still being bound by the system they reside in.
The closest thing I can compare it to would be a shonen battle series. Each character having their own unique abilities and talents that requires creative thinking to use properly. Of course, that doesn't mean I'm going to completely ignore character interaction and development. Each of the main cast is meant to be fully fleshed out with character arcs for all that will progress at different rates. This story is intended to be thought out and planned before writing even begins. Each arc would be planned and written in one chunk before being uploaded and then a new development period while I work on the next arc. That way I'm not going back and rewriting/cutting chunks of chapters because of inadequate writing.
I can't say much about what I have going through my mind, and I know what I'm planning for is pretty ambitious, but hey... if you don't shoot for the moon, how will you find your place among the stars?
How would you plan on making the power system and would it be based on something?
5234004
Not sure yet, I'm still researching various abilities and systems that already exist in an effort to find something to inspire that front. This project has only been in the works for about two weeks, and most of that time has been trying to develop the main character and two of the team. I'm still not sure if I want to try and build the character first or the power, as I have no doubt that one will affect the other.
5234011
My personal opinion would be to make the power system first then separate it into classes and give them to the characters. Like dungeons and dragons or an rpg game
5234023
Couldn't hurt to toy around with.
5234026
Dice make everything fun. It makes it seem like the characters make mistakes. 👍
Good plan mate, always a smart idea to know where you're going before you set out on a journey. And to throw my two cents in, so far as power or character goes, it's not a question of precedence, per se, as the both of them affect each other. A caster's personality is heavily influenced by his magic, but at the same time no two mages approach magic in precisely the same way.
To use a topical example, Auric has a very different perspective on magic than some half-wild mountain hermit, even if they're both channeling the same energy, yes? And that perspective leads them to use it in different ways.