The fifteen part series "The Pirates and the Privateers" represents an interesting project for both Sonic Cinema and myself. It's the first time we've taken on a continuing story for more than six episodes (Old Wounds), and it is also the first series that requires a great deal of historical research.
I've poured over dozens of texts on Pirates before deciding upon an exact date and an exact geography to place my epic.
I think it's important to try to always stretch yourself as a writer. I've tried as many different genres as I can imagine, and after talking with the partners at SCP, I was convinced to make Pirates a straight forwards action story. I noticed how the Disney big budget franchise "Pirates of the Caribbean" became more involved in magic and mysticism, and while I appreciate that a great deal (after all I'm using many of those elements in Prairie Fire) it simply felt right, for lack of a better word, to make Pirates a story that I could have imagined Errol Flynn or Douglas Fairbanks starring in.
With those parameters in mind I began constructing the breakdown of the episodes, and details. For fun, I put them up to the light of Joseph Campbell's "Heroic Journey" and found that there were some interesting similarities. Below is the post I placed in the myspace blog about this experiment:
| Hero's Phase | Description | Episode | Details |
| Ordinary World | Everyday Life | Part 1-
Strategic Assessments | introduction to Jaedon Westmoren and his Mother Rupert his friend the scholar |
| Call to Adventure | The quest is identified | Part 1-
Strategic Assessments | The coming of his Sister The attack on the colony |
| Refusal of the Call | Hero is reluctant to accept | Part 1-
Strategic Assessments | Jaedon is afraid of Pirates Aids in the colonists. |
| Meeting the Mentor | Mentor provides help to go
Beyond what Hero knows | Part 1-
Strategic Assessments | Meeting Rachel Westmoren Taken Aboard |
| Crossing
the Threshold | Hero accepts quest and
Steps beyond everyday Life. | Strategic Assessments
(Part 1 and 2)
| The Empress of the Sea Governor Leemington as Hostage Meeting the Captain Becoming the Cabin Boy |
| Tests,
Allies and Enemies | Hero learns about this
Unknown land through Tests and Challenges | Doing Battle
Planning a Siege Formation Force | Captain Lady Marie Prescott and the Libertine Caught on the Shoals Shipwrecked! Rebuilding the Empress |
| Approach the
Inmost Cave | Final preparations occur
Hero moves towards the Den of the Dragon. | Emptiness and
Fullness | Learning the Crew Hunting for the Greatest Treasure of all Squabbles among crew |
| The Ordeal | Central crisis of character
In which he/she confronts Their greatest fear/death | Armed Struggle | Gaining the Boy and his guardian girl The Hanged Pirate The Murder of a Captain The Destruction of Port Royal The Truth |
| Reward | Reward comes from
Confronting the fear. | Adaptations | Fallout from the Truth A new post Hunting the Libertine |
| Road Back | Heading with the treasure
Home to begin renewal Of every day life. | Maneuvering Armies
Terrain Nine Grounds
| War Games with the Libertine Decoy The Pain Tooth Sabotage! |
| Resurrection | Climactic ordeal in which
Hero faces purifies, redeems And transforms before The Threshold home. | Fire Attack
On the Use of Spies The Art of War | Of Sneak Attacks and Drunkenness Betrayal! The Answer to the Treasure's Puzzle Death in the Family A New Captain Emerges Final Battle |
| Return with Elixir | The Treasure Inward and
Outward transforms Everyday life and community | The Art of War | Return home with a new son and a tale to tell. Good-bye Rupert. |
I'll keep putting updates here.