Rule #10

#10: Pull apart the stories you like.

What you like in them is a part of you; you’ve got to recognize it before you can use it.

1) That afternoon light. Late fall, early winter. Long nights, with short days that seem like twilight all day long, from forenoon to dusk. That slanting light. Peering in through the trees, over the crest of the hill, through the shutters, slanting in through carved woodwork panels; in the lawless forest, the hallowed grove, the wayside inn, the big restaurant, the bandit villa, the fortified mansion with ponds and bridges, the tea-house, the quiet valley, the mountain fastnesses, the trackless wastes, the fabled cities. That Shaw Brothers light. That Hammer Horror light. That pale, weak, wan, wintry, low-angled, melancholy, dutiful, honorable, loving, "wasting-daylight", suitable for horror and kung fu, for sacrifice and dying.

2) Adventure. Action. Honor. Duty. Love. Sacrifice. Redemption. Character. Purpose.

2a) Meaning?

3) That 50s/60s/70s steampunk-meets-ironjunk retro style, a la the old Wild, Wild West TV show, and those Stevenson/Doyle/Verne/Wells/Burroughs/Kipling movies, like Treasure Island, Kidnapped, The Lost World, Journey to the Center of the Earth, The Son/Daughter of Dr. Jekyll, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Master of the World, War-Gods of the Sea, The Mysterious Island, From the Earth to the Moon, Rocket to the Moon, Valley of the Dragons, In Search of the Castaways, Captain Nemo and the Underwater City, The Light at the End of the World, The Amazing Captain Nemo, Up to His Ears, The War of the Worlds, First Men in the Moon, Half a Sixpence, Food of the Gods, Empire of the Ants, The Shape of Things to Come, Time After Time, Tarzan, the Ape Man, At the Earth's Core, The Land/People That Time Forgot and others. Major releases from Disney, Paramount, Columbia, MGM, Warner, American International, FVI, United Artists and others, these films form a genre unto themselves, Postwar Steampunk Adventure Cinema. Mary Poppins. Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang. A Study in Terror. The Hound of the Baskervilles. Around the World in Eighty Days. Hello Dolly. King of the Khyber Rifles. The King and I. The Man Who Would Be King. Kim. The Jungle Book.  I, Monster. The Adventures of Mr. Toad.

3a) Uncharted Islands. Lost Worlds. Hollow Earth. Beastly Transformations. Forbidden Science. Undersea Cities. Hidden Civilizations. Monstrous Megafauna. Eccentric Geniuses. Ironclad Airships. Subversive Submersibles. Colonial Imperialism. Industrial Killingry. Interplanetary Intrigue. Moon Folk. Martian Monsters. Prince Dakkar AKA Nemo. Robur of the Skies. The Time Traveller. Ant Men. Strange Coasts. Lost Worlds. Hollow Earth. Hidden Civilizations. Monstrous Megafauna. Solar Community. Interplanetary Intrigue. Swept Away. Exotic Places. Victorian Nostalgia. Action Adventure. Road Movie. Hero's Journey. Buddy Picture. Love Story. Science Fantasy. Steampunk Superspy. Sword and Sandal/Planet/Blaster. Wild Man.