I’ve previously written about how I plan to write a fantasy novel.
There was, however, one teeny tiny problem holding me back from doing so—I had no idea what to write about.
Except not anymore.
I made progress.
Lots of it. So much in fact that I’ve got a note filled with ideas, topics, designs, plotlines, characters, creatures, magic systems, and so much more. I might have gone a bit overboard because I’ve already planned multiple books ahead.
Well, I say ‘planned’ but in reality, I have a few themes & topics in mind that I’d like to discover, yet putting them all into one single book wouldn’t do it justice.
I won’t get into every detail for the sake of keeping some things left as a surprise—I could also feel like changing a ridiculous amount of stuff in my story.
That aside, here’s what I’ve got:
Our protagonist is a big beefy-looking, scary, and brutal viking. I don’t have a name for the viking dude yet—so let’s call him Bob for now.
You see Bob is one of the strongest and most-feared warriors in his clan.
He’s a whopping 6’3, 240 lbs, has scars all over his body, a tremendous beard hiding most of his facial features, and body hair wherever you look. He’s got so much body hair the enemy clans only know him as the blood-stained grizzly.
Part of the name comes from the mess of blood he leaves behind on the battlefield, part of it is because of his bright blood-red eyes—which rumors say Tyr, the god of war, himself gave to Bob after his 100th victory in battle.
Bob doesn’t care about getting his hands dirty and will do whatever it takes to keep his people safe and protected.
But everything changes when after a certain battle, due to reasons still partially unexplored, Bob suddenly finds himself waking up in a place he doesn’t recognize.
The grass doesn’t quite feel the same, the ocean breeze is nowhere to be found, and those trees in front of him look weird.
Except, they aren’t trees.
They suddenly transform into a monstrosity Bob has never seen before. He finds himself fighting the unknown monstrosity, only to realize even his battleaxes—his signature style of battle—are missing, forcing him to fight for his life with his bare hands.
Only after barely coming out alive, he starts running around trying to find a familiar place.
But his journey has been doomed from the very start.
What Bob hasn’t realized yet is that he is in fact in a completely different world. A world filled with horrifying monstrosities, strange magic, a whole array of different intelligent species, each living in their own kingdoms, divided by wars, corruption, and a lot of discrimination.
From here on I’ll start coming up with ideas while writing—asking myself at every step “What would happen to someone like Bob in a world such as this?”.
I have no more or less of an idea about what will happen than you do.
But the premise is exciting. It’s interesting. It’s fascinating.
Why?
Because our Viking dude doesn’t belong there. It’s not natural for him to be found in such a place, such a world.
He’s quite literally out of this world. That’s what makes it exciting.
Maybe I bored you with this email, maybe I got you as excited as I am just thinking about this. Either way, I’ll leave you with this golden nugget of wisdom.
Become a Bob in your own market.
Show your readers, your clients, your leads, and everyone that’s part of your market, something they haven’t ever seen before. It doesn’t have to be extraordinary. Hell, it doesn’t even have to be special.
It just has to be strange. Even weird will do.
Be the guy who talks about bananas 24/7 in a market where everyone else only talks about cold showers, coffee, and how to close more clients. Be the stud who puts his face on his banner, and his CTA on his profile picture. Be the old war-driven viking in a world filled with magic and political turmoil.
I don’t care if it sounds weird, stupid, or if you think it shouldn’t work. That’s the point of it.
In a world of beauty, the ugly stands out.
P.S. Don’t know how to stand out or where to start?
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