An Idea Keeps A-Brewing 1

For anyone who knows me already, I've been a writer of fan fiction and original works since I first signed onto Fanfiction.Net in 2006. Before that I'd always enjoyed writing and coming up with story ideas and concepts that I thought would make good stories. I'm still on Fanfiction.Net, but reviews have dropped since I started uploading new stories, and the fun has mostly gone out of it. I'm much more into original story writing now, as I will now explain in my new project idea.

This idea first came to mind when I purchased the Bryan Talbot Graphic Novel 'Grandville' from Travelling Man in October. I've always been a big fan of anthropomorphic (talking animals) stories, and this book was the first I'd seen that wasn't a childish 'funny animals' story, but rather a serious and truly enjoyable read. It made me come to start to wonder whether I should have a crack at coming up with my own Graphic Novel idea in the anthro style. So since October I've been coming up with various ideas and concepts that I think would make a good and interesting read, and the idea I came up with is...

'New Britannia'. More on the ideas in a minute.

For anyone who hasn't read 'Grandville', the story is set in an alternative history where France won the Napoleonic Wars and conquered the whole of Europe, Britain included. The plot begins some 200 years later in a steampunk, Victorian world populated by anthropomorphic animals. Now, I love anthro stories as I've already mentioned, but I also love steampunk as well as Victoriana. And alternative histories are rich in untapped story potential. So several ideas for 'New Britannia' came about from me reading and enjoying 'Grandville', as well as thinking I could do a different spin on it. No, not stealing the concept. But using it as a basic template.

The other Graphic Novel I have to thank for my ideas for 'New Britannia' is Alan Moore's 'V For Vendetta'. In fact, when I first started seriously coming up with ideas for my graphic novel project, I rushed out and bought 'V' in the hope that the ideas I was coming up with hadn't already been thought up by Alan Moore in the 1980's. Thankfully, this wasn't the case and my ideas remain original for now. Like 'Grandville', V set me a basic template for what I wanted to do with my project.

I would carry on and explain more about my thinking process, but I think I've made this post long enough already. I've mentioned now the original starting points for my new idea, so next time I'll begin laying out my ideas and concepts for 'New Britannia', and why I think it would be a really enjoyable project if I keep at it.