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“The sword of destiny has two edges. You are one of them.” ― Andrzej Sapkowski, The Sword of Destiny
My thoughts on the new miniseries prequel as a lover of the books, the games, and even the original Witcher TV adaptation. There is a lot of controversy over this recent addition to the Witcher world and for good and not so good reasons. But I can only speak for myself.
Unfortunately, it took me two episodes to really get into it. Nothing felt as though it should have existed in the Witcher world, even the one created by the Netflix showrunners themselves. The set design, costumes, and even makeup gave me the impression of generic YA high fantasy. These are not necessarily bad but certainly didn’t fit the overall feel of the dark, gritty tone fans enjoyed from the books, games, or original Netflix series. My point of interest came in episode three and the beginning of four. I personally loved seeing another witcher at work who wasn’t Geralt and that’s because I love the fascinating and complex world that Sapkowski created. With House of the Dragon now airing on HBO, I suppose it’s past time for me to talk about A Game of Thrones by George RR Martin. I consider this series to be one of those that a reader either loves or hates and there is very little in between. I personally loved it. As a whole, it’s well-written and Martin delivers what is certainly some very bloodstained and vicious entertainment. The world in which the story takes place is rich in detail and thousands of years of history, with each region of the world having their own lore, quirks, and unique little sayings. Even each house within Westeros has distinct details that set them apart from others of the same standing. Martin created an entire universe that doesn’t fit the formulaic fantasy norm. Instead of a high fantasy composed of complex magic and a multitude of humanoid races, Martin did the opposite and A Game of Thrones very much mimics historical fiction but with dragons. So, in case you haven’t seen my other blog, I’ll fill you in. Sometime back around the first of the year, I had finished another draft of my work in progress. I took a quick break before what I hoped would be my last draft before sending it off to beta readers. During the process, I had gotten stuck pretty badly and after a lot of thought; I ended up cutting about twelve thousand words or so. The character arcs and the setup for the second book are necessary, but I’m going to have to be more clever about how they end up in the story.
As a way to reignite the fire in me that was dwindling, I had started two new projects. One was simply a mash up of many ideas gathered from various other mediums over the years and the other is a TTRPG adventure. I have since added a third, but I digress. Since May, I was able to power through and finish the draft, but have decided to do some cleanup to the manuscript since removing words made a few foreshadowings null and void. “The best stories, however, are living things, and as much as we may cherish the original, the true act of love comes in the retelling.” — Anne Boyd Rioux You've read my bio, now let me tell you a little about my writing. As I’ve said, it’s now mostly fantasy, whereas before it was horror, romance, and nearly everything in between. My greatest accomplishments in writing came when I began participating in NaNoWriMo, an event held in November of every year. This event, as well as CampNaNo, held in April and July, are events where writers challenge themselves to write fifty thousand words for the month. My first year in 2018, my WIP was an altered timeline post-apocalyptic story that I had planned, plotted, outlined, and directed every step. In the end, I had gotten all of 6, 799 words. I worked on it throughout the year but ran out of steam and landed at about 17k. On to 2019. |