Travelling Through Places Unknown

I want to write a journey story. We've been over this. And the more I think about it, the more I think it's going to be an Oz/Wonderland sort of deal. That is, where someone from our regular boring old world finds themselves in another, far more interesting world.

But will they stay there?

In those kinds of tales, typically the goal is to get back home, because they're stuck on the other side. But that needn't be the case.

One book that was particularly influential for me was The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub. I think I read it back in high school, or thereabouts. Prime sponge-brain time. Anyway, it's about a boy on a journey. He's essentially crossing the US, but along the way he shifts in and out of this parallel world called the Territories. So the goal is not to get back from the fantastical realm. That place is just another stop on the way to reach his goal.

I've been thinking about that book lately. I've been remembering this great world and this great story that was conjured up in young me's head when I read it. And all of this is resonating in just the right part of my brain. You ever heard a particular note that made your teeth vibrate? It's like that, but with synapses or whatever. I'm thinking about modern people and parallel worlds and what these people might need from this parallel world.

I've entertained the idea of a parallel world that's just different enough to be annoying. Just enough inconsistencies that you can't quite fit in, and it's becoming increasingly difficult to convince everyone that you've been there the whole time. Maybe it's time to work that in somewhere.

Or maybe it time to go headlong into some full-on fantasy. Some elves and magic and shit. In all my dealings with the supernatural, I've never really gotten into magic. No one ever casts a spell to solve a problem. I mean, once you get into that, you have to have a whole magic system, and an internal logic to it that says who can do magic and when. If I ever do get into the whole fantasy thing, I think I'd want to avoid all the stereotypical tropes for magical creatures. Isn't it a little racist to say that all elves are tall, noble, and excellent archers? That's right, fantastic racism. Maybe that elf just wants to be a travelling broom salesman. You don't know.

So this is where I'm at. A semi-realistic journey with jaunts into the less-realistic. And hey, maybe my parallel world can be home to my invented language. I don't even have any words yet, but I have made some notes regarding grammar. Which is incredibly nerdy, I know. Like, I've figured out there should be five nouns cases. That is, there are five different versions of a given noun depending on its function in the sentence. I'm not going to get into it right now, because unless you get excited at the thought of declining nouns and turning adjectives into comparatives, this just isn't going to be that interesting.

I'm going to call it a day before I start spouting more nonsense.

I'll see you Tuesday.