Idea, story and media

Several factors - reading the brilliant Sandman comic series, thinking about embarking upon another NaNo adventure during the summer, visiting a little art show at my sweetie's apartment building and listening to older people talking about how they were so happy to have taken up art late in life - have recently collided in such a way as to harass my brain with a very new and very interesting idea. I'm thinking of doing another volume of the UFPE for JulNo, as I did last year (which was the beginning of the UFPE, in fact), except this time in comic form.

Once upon a time, I did compose (what is the word? draw? write?) a few comic strips about a broom and his wacky, bad-pun-riddled adventures around the house. It was called Sweepstakes (get it?). Anyway, it was hardly memorable, not even the way UFPE is, but it was fun to create both the visual and written part of a story at once. Over the summer, it seems I'm going to be a research assistant, one of a team, which I suspect will leave me with a good deal of free time. I'd like to work as much as possible - I was planning on a very different sort of job that would have netted me a bit more of a cash flow - but I doubt I'll rack up 1/10 of what I had thought to make.

Ah well.

And finally, I remember a conversation I had in the past year or so with my sister. As is evident from this blog, I've focused my creative energies in writing much more than drawing, but she told me that she always thought I was good at drawing. I certainly have wished more than once that I had taken art classes in college. So while I'm unfortunately not in a good position to take art classes now, I think this would be a very fun way to stimulate some creative neurons that haven't fired in a long time and to continue the proud tradition of the UFPE.

Now I need to remember what I somehow picked up about drawing and learn to write scripts.

For the specific story, I'm currently planning on using the "Book of Might Have Beens" for the storyline. I think I've described this before, but I do need to expand the idea. I was thinking of having 5 "Might Have Been" storylines because of 50K NaNo goal, but I suppose in this format, I can be more flexible about the number and length of the MHBs. The MHBs focus on Bad Guy and FMC, possibly starring Good Guy in a supporting role. He's not terribly important in this volume because one of the themes of the UFPE is that FMC chooses him (I think, at least) because she loves him, as an act of free will - instead of succumbing to the Secret Society and all their proclamations about destiny.

Possible Prologue: Bad Guy is on his youthful travels. During a carnival scene I've tried to write a few times but never got very far into, he receives The Revelation that shapes his future.
MHB #1: FMC is a servant in Prince Seaton's court, possibly part of his harem; this could have happened fairly on in the UFPE Volume 1. Bad Guy succeeds in rallying his people and razing a few human villages near their territory. Seaton insists on meeting with him. For all Bad Guy's talk of destroying all humans, he knows he's not ready for a full-on war just yet, especially with the mages unaccounted for. Upon seeing FMC, though, sparks fly, and he abducts her (a la Blue Sword). Seaton is pissed, and war subsumes the land.
MHB #2: Near the end of UFPE Volume 2 (well, near where I stopped writing), there's a close shave where Bad Guy might well have overpowered FMC and Good Guy. In this scenario, he gets even closer to his goal and ends up killing Good Guy, leaving FMC opportunity to escape. Good Guy's last magical stand gives her some protection from Bad Guy's magical tracking, leaving her to vow his destruction and stalk him while he builds his army. Whether she kills him in the end and just how dramatic it is remains to be envisioned.
MHB #3: Early on in UFPE Volume 2, FMC is spurred to flee Bad Guy when he's professing his love to her and she sees some very bad news in the depths of his eyes. Instead of fleeing, FMC is frozen with fear and doesn't do anything. Later she has some very deep thoughts on the subjects and concludes that the only way she can stop him is if she pretends to return his affections, waiting for the ultimate moment of betrayal. Ditto the last ending. Betrayal is one of my favorite things to write, so it's going to be dramatic. I might scale back the ending of MHB #2 so I don't exceed my drama quota, which exists even for a UFPE.
MHB #4: This one is very early in the idea stage. We learn at some point that Good Guy knew FMC's father because both were mages. Instead of the slavers or whomever picking up baby FMC, Good Guy is going to find her and bring her back to Mage Tower. I envision this MHB as opening up with her as a student in the ivory tower world of the mages, sitting in a class and probably daydreaming about doing something more interesting. As news comes in of Bad Guy's meteoric (sp?) rise, the mages debate whether they should engage or stay out of the conflict. Somehow, the debate escalates into some mage civil war, leaving the whole world devastated by forces even more powerful than Bad Guy turned against each other.
MHB #5: Is it just me, or does one of these deserve a happy ending? I'll think about it. In this one, FMC never fled her home village at all. As Bad Guy sweeps down upon the world - possibly getting certain territory from Seaton as a form of appeasement - his forces invade her village. Oh, here's a possibility for a happy ending. She flees into the mountains where UFPE Volume 2 theoretically ends, where her mother's people are lying in a deep slumber. Her distress and things rouse them, and they come in the nick of time to confront Bad Guy and push him back into his own territory. Not sure if Good Guy puts in an apperance here; maybe it ends with FMC being counseled to go find him?
Epilogue (maybe? Or this could go elsewhere): the members of the Secret Society are tracing the paths of their destiny. They're absolutely determined that Bad Guy and FMC have to be together because they both have incredibly powerful astrological signs. I had an explanation for why they cared all worked up awhile back, but it's become fuzzy since then. I suppose they have an idea to harness that power for themselves. Anyway, this whole installment is how their ideas are bound to go horribly, horribly wrong. I realize that some of the MHBs, at least one, don't have FMC and Bad Guy meeting. I'm pretty sure I can remedy that.

So there is my scheme! It's a lot of work, but I'm very excited for it.