In reading limyaael's old rant on writing good deathbed scene, I started thinking about the deathbed traditions surrounding the death of Alexander the Great.  Did he give his ring to Perdiccas?  Did he just say that he left the empire to "the strongest"?  (which is so beautifully vague yet so beautifully Alexander that a small part of me wants to believe it)  This in turn led me to think that a very good deathbed scene in fiction would be one that the protagonist doesn't witness.  Instead s/he hears about it from various people -- and realises that different people are telling different versions of it, depending on which heir/faction they support. 

Moments later, plot bunnies attack!  With Alexander on the brain, I jump to thinking that the protag is the dead king's wife (a Rhoxane-figure) with a baby heir (like short-lived Alexander IV).  She has to try to navigate the increasingly difficult court intrigue, ensuring that she and her son are not marginalised or killed.

Then, another idea I've been playing around with lately, of cowboy-types (in the Cowboy Bebop sense, and certainly inspired by Firefly) working in a crumbling empire, stepped in and said "Hey, you could include me too!  If you're modelling this story on the Persian Empire after the death of Alexander, you've got a shattered old empire suddenly without its new leader.  It would work!"

Because obviously I have time to work on this.  NOT.  I can, however, start building up characters and a better idea of the plot (because I need to know rather more than 'there's a bunch of cowboy-types running around in the desert doing stuff that eventually intersects with the Rhoxane-figure's plot').  I can also decide how much of a fantasy element there will be to this, as there will definitely be some.  Oracles, maybe, and their vague, sometimes bribe-influenced prophecies.  I refuse to believe that the prophecy as a device is completely un-usable.  Considering the historical influence, Oracles would be very fitting.  And it gives me an excuse to write an Oracle character.

Once I graduate, I can actually work on this.  And the other fantasy novel waiting not-so-patiently in the back of my head.  And the in-progress, seriously-neglected space opera novel.  And the several novellas jostling for space.  It is getting *crowded* in here, you damn bunnies! 

It's interesting.  I go through occasional phases of thinking I only have a few novel/novella ideas, and what the heck will happen when I've written them all?  And then the bunnies remind that they are bunnies by producing another litter(?) of bunny-babies, some of which will grow into happy adulthood.

Tags: ancient history, novels
Mood: vexed by bunnies