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nonesensedToo much inspiration, too little time
I've had Thursday and Friday off work this week and was hoping to get some writing and reading done. I've managed the reading part, but the writing has been limited to world building 'cause I read the latest volume of Monstress (excellent comic series but WITH ALL THE TRIGGER WARNINGS).
I guess that sentence made little sense. More context: I've been juggling a lot of exhausting work (work-work and non-writing-hobby-work). Now that I have some free time, I haven't found the brain energy to pick a writing project to fully focus on, since I have so many fun ones + I keep thinking "I only have X hours until I need to go do Y". Combined with rereading all of Monstress to remember who was who and did what, I got a certain world building brain itch which side-tracked me, since world building takes less energy from me than getting back to a WIP I've already started.
World building is one of my favorite parts of writing. Second world fantasy settings are where I have the most fun making up stories. Monstress has a lot of wonderful world building that's inspired by, among other things, Japanese folklore from "our world". But it's very clearly not "magical Japan" or "alternate reality Japan", or an alternate take on any other specific real world place with magic added.
Basically, I got the urge to try and do that, but inspired by the folklore I've grown up with.
See, the fantasy literature I've run across that's based on Swedish and Nordic mythology and folklore has generally (aka not always but mostly) been A) urban fantasy in modern Sweden but magical things are real and want to kill you, or B) VIKINGS and the Aesir gods are real. I don't hate either of those sub-genres of fantasy, but I feel they've been done so often that I wouldn't know what to write in a similar setting. I would like to take more inspiration from fantastical stories I've grown up with though, because that folklore was a huge part of my childhood! For example, my paternal grandmother 100% believed in vittera, the invisible people of nature who could either help or curse you depending on how you treated them. Yes, similar to those creatures who show up in Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga 😆
I understand people's fascination with Asatro. They've got Loki and Freya-the-goddess-of-love-and-war-who-has-a-million-awesome-cats! I grew up with those myths, I loved them to bits, I've seen a million iterations of them and I've enjoyed many of them. But they're hard to bring over to a second world fantasy setting without that setting just becoming alt-Sweden/Norway/Iceland/Denmark/etc, even (or especially) if you give the gods different names or combine/multiply some of the gods.
Long story slightly shortened, I've spent the day playing around with a second world fantasy setting that I'm brainstorming with my sister and a friend, and I'm having a great time! No details to share yet, 'cause this post is long enough, but let's just say this setting already has the following elements: 1) huldror/skogsrån are a sentient species that have a complex guardian system related to nature and inheritance, 2) being a troll is a nationality not a species and outsiders are very confused about this, 3) other worlds bleed into this place a lot and that's why there are älvor in the mist among other things, 4) there is song magic and rune magic and they are equal but very different, and 5) fylgjor!!!
Blargh. Did I really need another writing project? No. Will I still have fun with this one? Absolutely yes!!!
PS. If you want recommendations for a Swedish author who's doing real interesting things within the speculative fiction macro-genre, check out Karin Tidbeck's books! And if you're not yet tired of stories focused on interpretations of Norse mythology, Vei is a pretty cool but also pretty dark graphic novel with a focus on mortals caught up in the war between Aesir and jotun.
I've had Thursday and Friday off work this week and was hoping to get some writing and reading done. I've managed the reading part, but the writing has been limited to world building 'cause I read the latest volume of Monstress (excellent comic series but WITH ALL THE TRIGGER WARNINGS).
I guess that sentence made little sense. More context: I've been juggling a lot of exhausting work (work-work and non-writing-hobby-work). Now that I have some free time, I haven't found the brain energy to pick a writing project to fully focus on, since I have so many fun ones + I keep thinking "I only have X hours until I need to go do Y". Combined with rereading all of Monstress to remember who was who and did what, I got a certain world building brain itch which side-tracked me, since world building takes less energy from me than getting back to a WIP I've already started.
World building is one of my favorite parts of writing. Second world fantasy settings are where I have the most fun making up stories. Monstress has a lot of wonderful world building that's inspired by, among other things, Japanese folklore from "our world". But it's very clearly not "magical Japan" or "alternate reality Japan", or an alternate take on any other specific real world place with magic added.
Basically, I got the urge to try and do that, but inspired by the folklore I've grown up with.
See, the fantasy literature I've run across that's based on Swedish and Nordic mythology and folklore has generally (aka not always but mostly) been A) urban fantasy in modern Sweden but magical things are real and want to kill you, or B) VIKINGS and the Aesir gods are real. I don't hate either of those sub-genres of fantasy, but I feel they've been done so often that I wouldn't know what to write in a similar setting. I would like to take more inspiration from fantastical stories I've grown up with though, because that folklore was a huge part of my childhood! For example, my paternal grandmother 100% believed in vittera, the invisible people of nature who could either help or curse you depending on how you treated them. Yes, similar to those creatures who show up in Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga 😆
I understand people's fascination with Asatro. They've got Loki and Freya-the-goddess-of-love-and-war-who-has-a-million-awesome-cats! I grew up with those myths, I loved them to bits, I've seen a million iterations of them and I've enjoyed many of them. But they're hard to bring over to a second world fantasy setting without that setting just becoming alt-Sweden/Norway/Iceland/Denmark/etc, even (or especially) if you give the gods different names or combine/multiply some of the gods.
Long story slightly shortened, I've spent the day playing around with a second world fantasy setting that I'm brainstorming with my sister and a friend, and I'm having a great time! No details to share yet, 'cause this post is long enough, but let's just say this setting already has the following elements: 1) huldror/skogsrån are a sentient species that have a complex guardian system related to nature and inheritance, 2) being a troll is a nationality not a species and outsiders are very confused about this, 3) other worlds bleed into this place a lot and that's why there are älvor in the mist among other things, 4) there is song magic and rune magic and they are equal but very different, and 5) fylgjor!!!
Blargh. Did I really need another writing project? No. Will I still have fun with this one? Absolutely yes!!!
PS. If you want recommendations for a Swedish author who's doing real interesting things within the speculative fiction macro-genre, check out Karin Tidbeck's books! And if you're not yet tired of stories focused on interpretations of Norse mythology, Vei is a pretty cool but also pretty dark graphic novel with a focus on mortals caught up in the war between Aesir and jotun.
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Some time ago I read a short story about the war between the Ases and the Giants as a stand-in for the Cold War, it was super-interesting, but I forgot the title and the writer and never found it back.
Also, your project seems super-interesting.
Do you have an opinion on how floklore is treated in Hilda ?
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That particular take on the Aesir and the giants doesn't ring a bell for me, but it sounds interesting! If I stumble upon a story like that I'll be sure to let you know 😊
Thank you! I'm having a lot of fun brainstorming with myself and occasionally grabbing my sister or another Nordic friend to compare our knowledge of local folklore. It's been great fun and educational both! I was today years old when I learned Norwegians don't have älvor/"mist elves" - live and learn 😁
Hilda is on my to watch list and it looks really interesting and fun! So no real opinion of my own yet. From what I've been able to tell a lot of the creatures are "in name only", which I totally get, since they have to match the world of the story. Plus, as I've understood it, the author is from the UK, and while there is some overlap between folklore there and here in Sweden, there are also some huge differences. I think I might watch it in Swedish to see what the translators have chosen to call all the creatures 😊 What are your thoughts on Hilda? Do you recommend it?
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I don't mind it when people play around with and/or just borrow elements from Swedish folklore though! That's fun too 😊 It's just rarer for me to stumble across takes on folklore that I recognize as what I've come across in my everyday, so that's what spurred on my self-challenge, so to speak 😁 Looking forward to seeing Hilda one of these days!
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It's neat to hear about your project - that sounds really cool.
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And thank you! It's been so fun to play around with folklore that is "everyday" to me and make it fit in a second world fantasy setting. The challenge of not just making it "fantasy Sweden" is both tricky and motivating 💖