Thursday, January 1, 2009

Cold Case

2009 is the Year of the 2nd Rhyme!

I got some things to accomplish in the next 365 days. (truthfully, even less than that). I've already re-opened the file for the second epic poem over this holiday. It was like a cold case. This mystery still needed solving. Over the holiday break I edited the 300+ page epic, which didn’t take too long. Read some of Act III to my fiancĂ©. There were only a few new concepts that I had to present or old ones that needed rearranging. These edits were already scripted in a notebook. They just needed to be applied.

The second epic poem is definitely more mature than The Ronin Poetz. There is still some of the tongue-in-cheek playfulness, especially concerning the main character and his love interest upon their second encounter in Act II. It’s a sly scene, a verbal battle of wits, courting, all in good flirtatious fun. There’s also the main characters first encounter with his brother-in-arms, which is about two, poetic, masculine egos stabbing at one another with words.

The second epic puts its characters through the wringer, especially the main character. I forgot how dark the poem gets. It’s lighter moments, though sometimes over-the-top tongue-in-cheek (maybe even corny), are definitely called for in the midst of the extremely mature, dark atmosphere. Act II is very relieving, our hero finding solace in a city named Maa-Tru-Ark. It’s very Harry Potter and Star Wars, as he begins to learn the ways of his ‘warrior culture’. Where Maa Kheru of The Ronin Poetz was a warrior in a clan that is constantly on the run, this new hero (born in prison/slave-like conditions) is able to escape to a large city where his culture thrives. It’s ironic that the small, outlawed clan has more lighthearted moments than the actuality of a bustling, cultured city.

But, again, to be fair, the majority of Act II is lighthearted, tongue-in-cheek.

Don’t worry. No Jar-Jar Binks like characters.