Thursday, May 5, 2011

The Storyteller

So this morning as I was burning through breakfast, running late for work and catching snippets on the net, I came across a new post from Ama concerning her ideas about writing. I enjoy Ama's writing by the way but it piqued my interest even a little more today. Here is why, I enjoy being a storyteller. I love to read and hear stories from others, but I love being a storyteller, creating a world around me. I think it started back when I was a young kid, when I first read the Chronicles of Narnia, the Taran series( loose welsh myth/fanatasy) and the Hobbit. After reading those fine books, I wanted to be the one telling the story. I loved dreaming up new worlds and creating my own heroes. Time passed, I started playing old school D&D, I started living those adventures.

Times jumps forward now and I live in Azeroth currently. I still am living and creating stories in my mind. I love getting immersed into the adventures of both my Alliance and Horde toons. Though neither of the guilds I belong to are really RPers, I still get "into" by most beloved heroes. Of course, many of them die a permanent death if I don't feel them come alive. But I still always have a few here and there that I see come to life. I can envision them both in the heat of battle and in the mundane daily life as well. This is where I see them bloom. If I can watch them grow and ask questions as to why they do the things they do, I keep them. Some I don't revisit for quite awhile, others I watch regularly.

My wife hates this sometimes because I'm always bouncing around. Well she doesnt hate it per se, she gets frustrated. But in a way I am tasting the lore from so many angles and allowing Azeroth to actually come alive for me. It does live and breathe in my mind. So I often ponder, why don't I write about it? I mean I got a ton of material, so why not? Well, part of the issue I think is that I'm so busy living the dreams that I rarely find time to write about them. The other issue often is that I understand the lore of Azeroth is extremely complex, and where my hero actually falls in on it needs to be somewhere balanced between making a difference and not blowing the entire storylines that greater heroes have already been written about. So for me, it's been really hard to create fan fiction that is enjoyable to write and will get the interest of fellow readers. I could care less about money, I make enough in the real world. I just like sharing stories.

But then comes the next idea, I do enjoy writing, and as a wannabe fantasy writer I can't write about Azeroth. Why? I need my own personal touch. My own world. It doesn't have to be epic in nature though I often think on the grand scale. It can be small, one person and their view to start. Tolkien once wrote in an essay that's how the Lord of the Rings came about. He started with just one leaf in complete detail (the beginning of the Hobbit) and then let it grow, till he saw a tree and then the world around it. Interesting thought. Well, I haven't quite gotten to where I am going and it may take some time before I get where I can write about it. I can say I might regale in a fe written pieces of the exploits of my brothers and sisters in Azeroth, I'm just having too much fun living their dreams now. If you have read this far, thank you. Take my advice, write for fun but write for you. If you ever plan on writing for profit, make it your world, but write for your audience. Anyways, have a great day out there, and Happy Hunting in Azeroth!

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Walking in Two Worlds

Over the last week I have been working both on my alliance main as well as my Horde Main...on two different Servers. Some may view this as a bit of regular altiholism, and to be sure it is in part. But each one serves a specific purpose along with their coterie of alts that are support crew so to speak. Because they are on different servers they belong to different guilds. This becomes somewhat of a challenge as I have friends with my original Alliance toons and then I am making very fast friends with my horde toon. Both side have players that are of like mind, have a military background which makes it easier for me to integrate, and have couples whom play (though less so with my alliance friends of late). It's not like either side is competing with me. But I like to switch out back and forth between the two worlds as it keeps my worlds fresh.

For the Alliance - My main dabbles here and there for pvp, but for the most part he peacefully rolls through quests and dungeons with his support crew making sure money is being made. He is a tank by trade and always looking for the next upgrade or blacksmithing recipe. Of course now that he is just shy of 85 (about 5 mill XP to go) it is harder to keep him up in gear. The down side is that many of my comrades in that guild are ramping up to go over seas....the guild is kinda quiet of late.

For the Horde - Ahh Grimnhak you old devil! Crazy hunter in the BGs and cash master when roaming about! You don't get much in the way of guild rep as being someone else's minion (questgivers) never really enticed you. But hear the call of battle? Oh its on win or loose, lets see how many die before you fall eh? Your new found family is like a brotherhood. But there never seems to be any pressure, just good times and go out and hack your way to glory! But you have such a long road ahead of eh? At just 45, its a bit rough out there when the majority of your new brothers in arms are doing the high level raids and such.

See, both are fun, they do have a support staff that I dabble with as well. But I walk between two worlds. I enjoy both sides with all their rich and illustrious lore. Ech ahs it's own purpose in mind and both sort of have a formulated history in the back of my mind. I know many are wondering when in hell am I gonna ever get to 85, get serious about end content and get raiding. To tell the truth, I don't know, there is too much of the world to explore yet with to many things I need to try out yet. I enjoy variety, I also like trying new things in different ways that may not normally be seen as correct. I love diversity, it makes it for a slower pace of leveling but I get to learn so much about other classes and races.  There are so many stories to be dreamed of and so many lives to hop into. Even when I am on a weeknight and have maybe an hour or two. I love to immerse myself into the persona of my pixel hero.

So, for today I am content that while I will be very late in being the end content killer that so many others are, I still have so much to do and explore that WoW keeps me enchanted. Even old places where I might have forgotten a quest or two bring me a bit of different outlook on things. I wonder, how many out there also switch back and forth, looking at the different perspectives between Horde and Alliance, trying both out and experimenting? It would be interesting to see who out there does this and why. Till then Azeroth, Good luck out there and Happy hunting!