Blind Blogging - An Introduction.

So, here it is. The ultimate Blind Visions companion. But why, some of you might ask? Well, mainly because it's the longest thing I've ever written. And really, that level of commitment from me is... Startling. I'm more inclined to do very short, usually three to five part stories. My last attempt at an epic, double figure spanning story was Red Over White. Which unfortunately folded because I was trying to be too clever and run far too many plots at once, one of which was going nowhere. A bit like how Taxdodger fell in on its self, when I tried to introduce a long running plot. I think what makes Blind Visions stand out, and secures my interest in it, is that really... I never meant for it to be as long as it actually is.

But more on that later.

It's also something very different. Something not tied to my fictional world of Lutonopolis or the RPG that spawned it. It's my own, and I don't have to worry about anything I type within it having an impact on anything else. I also feel that, due to how long it's actually been running - There are several little stories and insights that I thought would be interesting to tell. Ever wondered exactly what a Stig is? How a certain character came into being? Which chapter I physically printed out and ripped apart because... Well, it was fragging awful? Stick around. I might tell you. :)

So with that said and done, on with the show!

Blind Visions, ain't no reason - For action!

The actual creation of Blind Visions is a pretty interesting thing for me to look back on - Mainly because I'd never have imagined it would get as long as it already has. Even now it's hard for me to comprehend the size of the bloody thing. And I'm nowhere near finished, I always feel like I'm still lingering around at the beginning - Just about to get into the plot, but never quite getting there. Of course, right now I've been derailed by another plot, but I digress.

So it's the 9th of May, and I'm sitting there with a blank wordpad document in front of me, with an urge to write something new. No super heroes, no paranormal gubbins - I'd watched Serenity not very long ago, and as a fan of Science fiction/fantasy/whatever anyway - I wanted to try my hand at it. And I had an idea in mind. So I started writing.

Ok, so maybe it wasn't that simple. I tend to do very little hard planning for my stories, usually my initial plotting involves a solid two-three days of thought. Seriously, I'll sit awake at night, or when I have a little bit of time on my own and just think. This is how a lot of chapters are done as well. Sometimes I'll scrawl down little bits of dialogue too, unfortunately there aren't many of them lying around for BV. Most of what I did actually went on the end of the story document on my computer, and then got obliterated after the chapter was finished - I'll try and save them from now on. ;) Although, I did find this little gem whilst routing around:


1. Find job.

2. Introduce ship, crew, religion.

3. Fly about a bit, introduce Herman and the concept of the newborn Emperor.

4. Attacked by Chemical giant Herman used to run, Captain and Grey taken - The rest escaped in the hilt.

5. Captain sent down with the miners, hilt forced to land on strange p[lanet.



Captain:

Tyras

Kassyn

Grey

Barthollmew?



As you can see, my foresight is far from 20/20. And for those of you wondering, Barthollomew became Peter and Genalyn was actually the last name I came up with for the core crew. I was originally going to call her Genesis, but really, that name had too many implications attached to it. It made her sound bigger than she was, and more importantly - Sounded rather gimicky. Genalyn was something I came up with playing about with this original idea, trying to get it to sound like something more appealing and like an actual name. For a long time, Gen was also the only character with a second name - Mainly due to my chronic fear of last names (I cheated with Peter and gave him a rank!). The name Tumbler originally came from the idea of Herman being the head of this massive, universal chemical giant - The original idea was that he actually changed his last name to Tumbler because it was the name of the containers they used to contain the chemicals. But really, I figure it's become more appropriate to Gen now, given that she's an alcoholic and drinks out plenty of her namesake. :)

As for the other characters, um, fairly simple process of naming really. Tyras because... Well, he's a freaking dinosaur. I thought I might as well have his name riff off Tyrannosaurus Rex, and thought Rex was a bit *too* obvious. Although, in hindsight, would make him sound more like an actual pet. Hm, missed a trick there! Of course, it morphed slightly to Tyrus as I thought that it rolled easier off the tongue and, ultimately, sounded better. Grey is another obvious one, as he's physically Grey. I think this one was more an act of laziness from my part that I tried to justify by promising myself that sometime in the future this was going to be revealed as just a nickname the crew had devised for him. I eventually delivered on that one. :) I remember Kassyn being quite a tricky one to come up with - But rest assured, I did come up with it with that terrible, terrible pun in mind! It's interesting looking back, she's the sweetest, most harmless character on the ship... And yet, she has 'Syn' in her name. Not intentional, really... Just something I noticed. :p

As for Peter... The original idea was to give him a very normal name, to make him stand out from everyone else in the story. The basic idea was that he was going to have a name that wouldn't be out of place in this day and age, whereas everyone else was going to have silly names like... Well, Genalyn. This philosophy has actually driven me to some pretty zany extremes when it's come to naming some of the characters, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. Bartholomew came about as a misunderstanding, as I was originally going to name all the members of the Order of the Sun after characters from the Bible. The irony being, of course, that they see anybody who even incites the name of the old 'Gods' as a backwards heathen. I was pretty sure there was a Barthollomew in the bible - But eventually, after a little research not turning up any obvious examples, I chose to call him Peter after one of Christ's disciples. Simon and Philip also followed this principle, as no doubt several others will.

When I started out, crazy as it seems, I only envisaged this as a five-six parter. I thought, 'Right, introduce Gen. Introduce Peter. Get em all on a ship for a chapter or two, discover the Emperor on some backwards planet and - Hooray! The end.' Really, I'm glad that never come to pass... In fact, I don't think it *could* come to pass even if I'd wanted it too. I underestimated the strength of the characters I was creating, and I certainly underestimated the vastness of space. I might not have utilised my environment much in the story, with most of it featuring the crew on a series of different spaceships, but the thing I realised very quickly is... You can't just zip from one end of space to the other. It wouldn't feel natural, and it certainly wouldn't help the flow of the narrative one tiny bit. Flights through space are, I imagine, a long, boring affair - Which is probably why there's so much idle chatter in BV. I've always wanted to make the chatter much more idler, kind of in the Tarantino vein of things... But never seem to get around to it. I think when push comes to shove, I always substitute that idea for actually trying to push the plot forward... And to be fair, there's enough of the story already - Without having any idle chapters lingering around!

That's about all I have to say on the initial stages of BV, if there's any questions you want to ask - Or anything significant that you feel I've left out, feel free to gimme a shout via the comments system. :) In fact, really - Any feedback is apprciated. This is a pretty big undertaking, It'd be nice to know that it's worth it!

Oh, and as a side note, for anybody wondering exactly where the title of the story comes from, It's actually stolen a homage to this funky little number from the nineteen eighties. I know the video quality isn't great, and it has absolutely nothing to do with the story at large, but just in case anybody was curious. It was mainly a piece of laziness on my part, I couldn't actually think of a title - And am loathe to post things as 'Untitled', so I chose this because... Well, the story had a blind character in it. I tend to do this a lot, in fact - I bet a good half of my stories are named after songs, at least. ;)

Righty then, until next time - This is Aies signing out! :)