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Random thoughts

Futhark

Master
I had an idea for a Santa story once. I don't remember the details, but basically there's a secret society at the North Pole involved in protecting some kind of magic that they use to grant wishes. Like, serious wishes. It's extremely dangerous magic.

Oh! Now I remember. If a kid witnesses Santa Claus after a certain age, they have to be abducted into the order. And in the story there are lots of sleigh drivers but the main guy is "the" Santa Claus and in the story he's a young guy, maybe 25. The MC is one of the kids who had to be kidnapped because he saw Santa and is a sleigh driver now but he has lots of problems and steals the magic to try to fix his problems...

I remember they used animals other than reindeer to pull sleighs. Arctic foxes and seals and polar bears...

Love this idea!!!
 

Ireth

Mythic Scribe
...Brain. Seriously. When I'm poking at a new baby plotbunny, you really don't need to give me a completely unrelated character. Even if she is pretty cool. I could use more black characters in my stories, but when I'm trying to write about Santa Claus, a pirate is just distraction.
 

Ireth

Mythic Scribe
Funnily enough, I just got back from watching my little brother's kindergarten class in a musical about Santa and his elves teaching a bunch of pirates about sharing and generosity. It was cute, in that cheesy way that's only possible with a bunch of 5-9 year olds acting and singing. ^^
 

Ireth

Mythic Scribe
The pirate totally fits. Sleigh-hijacking, present-stealing pirates!!

Only if I find a way to involve time travel. The Santa story is set in the present/possible near future, and the pirate lady's story would be set during the Age of Sail. And I don't want to inadvertently steal from whoever it is that's writing about Blackbeard and time travel, so I'm thinking these would be better off as separate stories.
 
^...Wow. That's impressive! :) The idea of a Santa pirate made me laugh a lot.

So, what happens when an exceptionally foolish person decides that he is a wizard even though he has no magical talent whatsoever and parades around in oversized robes and a long fake beard?
 

Chessie

Istari
My son trying to figure out what he's getting for Christmas:

"Is it a sword?"

"A harpoon?!"

"Oh, oh! It's a grappling HOOK!"

Hmm...how he got all of those out of a 2 x 2 box is beyond me...
 

ThinkerX

Valar Lord
^...Wow. That's impressive! :) The idea of a Santa pirate made me laugh a lot.

So, what happens when an exceptionally foolish person decides that he is a wizard even though he has no magical talent whatsoever and parades around in oversized robes and a long fake beard?

Sounds like Rincewind from Diskworld - though he did know a single, extremely dangerous spell to start with.

That said...

Oversized robes can hide lots of stage magic stuff. Far, far darker tone than what you seem to have in mind, but Tierney's 'Simon of Gita' was essentially a fighter who knew an impressive amount of stage magic ranging from ventriloquism to slight of hand to disguise to hypnotism.

The other approach would be to have the character blunder into a modicum of real magical ability step by dangerous step. Step one being the episode (an improbably lucky night gambling? walking away without a scratch from a horrific accident?) that convinced him he possessed magic to start with.
 

buyjupiter

Scribal Lord
I just stumbled across notes to myself that read: "thoroughly Scottish person" and "Dumbledorian". I'm not sure what that even means. A friendly Scottish minister/eductor/college president? Peter Capaldi playing the Doctor? Who knows but now I'm going to have a really interesting time setting up his personality.
 
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