leshia's Blog

Hey, Nathan. Sorry about the lack of response. I've been swamped...still am, but at least the holiday lets me breathe for a minute.

Aside from time constraints, I think the concern on my part (and you pretty much know this already) is a voice issue. There's a certain voice that's appropriate to fantasy and for this collection to appeal to a group of readers, you'd need a somewhat consistent voice that I don't know if I can pull off. Bart and Brian probably could---if Brian wrote (which he doesn't as far as I'm aware, but that doesn't mean we can't try to talk him into it). But, as you know, writing is a lot of work, so that could be where the interest ends...

It's a good idea...you just need the man power, so to speak.

Okay, Nathan. You're up again. I need some naming help.
I need a name for the group of "bad guys" the SIA is pretty much keeping from taking over the world (to put it simply: the bad guys are like the group of bad guys in the X-Men--they think non-Specials should be little more than drones for Specials).
And I need a name for the island where the SIA does their training--private, top-secret, tropical, you get the idea.

And, I need my head examined...but that's something else entirely...

Okay...I'm being a bad mommy and distracting my teething, stuffy boy with a video, so I have time to think about this again for a second...

So, we're going Office Space meets something (I didn't care for Old School, so I'm throwing that out for now).

Our protagonist isn't sub-human, though. That's important. His FRIENDS might be, but he isn't. What we know about him--he has a lesbian sister who is friends with his neighbor (who needs a name as badly as poor NOT BRENT because my feminist self can't call her MILF too many more times without feeling like I need to burn my clothes).

If we want to do an Office Space/Office feel, we need to keep the guy in his old job. Maybe he's dreaming of a new job but he's still at the old one.

The story starts the day something changes. What's our inciting incident? We can work from there...

Thanks! You're clearly good at it, too! Well, I agree that it's hard to name a character that I don't know (or illogical, even). Problem is, I write to "get to know" my characters and need to have a name I fill in in the meantime. What you've suggested with last names is what I've been doing so far. The MS Word "Find and Replace" tool is a very good friend of mine. :-) Off to write...I'll know more when I'm done.

It's modern--set on an island actually (I pitched it as LOST meets super-natural Charlie's Angels, but, you know, sexier). I don't know anything about Charmed (though I hear it's great). The guys are actually also members of the Specials Intelligence Agency (top secret government agency that keeps tabs on Specials and does counter-terrorism work)--I say parallel because their unit functions similarly to the girls' and they work for the same agency. Of course their group is bigger because they aren't QUITE as awesome as the girls. It will help when I know their abilities because this would be an obvious source for nicknames, but I don't know my characters well enough yet. They're all going to be psychic/mind manipulating abilities. Nothing physical like flying or teleporting.

Hi, guys. Wanna help me out? The WIP I'm focusing on most right now is kind of a Charlie's Angels of the supernatural world--three women with special abilities that bring down other Specials who abuse their power. Lots of fun. BUT...I need cool bad ass names for the guys in the parallel. It would probably help you if I could tell you what the guys' abilities were, but, alas, I don't know yet and if I did it would likely change in the next 1000 words anyway...They don't have to be their real names...Anyway. If you'd toss out some bad ass nicknames I'd love ya for it...

I don't want to write a 14 page description of a plow, but when I read I know it's the detail in the minutia of a story that really gives it life.

-drexes

And we don't want to read it!! ;-) But seriously, write the book you'd want to read, not what you think you should write.
The layering you're doing now is a good plan.
I will get around to reading what you posted of your story, btw...I just have to grade about 5 sets of papers and get through an author's letter for my crit partner first.
I'm seriously over committed. Good thing I'm giving that up for the new year.

Lesh

I think the quote is "Murder your darlings..." but, yeah . . . I save that for revisions. Though it may depend what kind of writer you are. I like to plow through a messy rough draft and spend a lot of time on revisions. This is partially out of necessity. Because I'm not a planner, things change a lot as I write and I have to rewrite quite a bit. If I revised as I went. . .well, it'd just be silly and wasteful.

Okay, yeah, I thought MIS too, maybe. Although one of my WIPs has a programmer who's trying for a career change... oh well, we can do it twice. No one will care. :-)

I'm fine with the lesbian sister or the gay brother but not both. I mean, come on. It'd be funny if NOT BRENT's love interest gave more time and attention to NOT BRENT's sister than NOT BRENT himself. Hmm...

Where's Chris? Chris? Are you out there? Bart?

Thanks, Neil! (Um, I think it's Neil...sorry if I have it wrong)

Actually, I like to keep the romantic goal and the external/main story goal separate so the story doesn't fall flat (see Leshia's much rejected first novel as evidence #1). HOWEVER, your thinking is in line with what I've been playing with. I like the idea that he's looking for his "life's passion" type job. That could be fun. Hmm...keep thinking...

Here . . . I never use these, but maybe it would help get us rolling. And we do all need to be on the same page, so . . . I'll fill in the easy stuff. :-)

CHARACTER NOTES

NAME: Not Brent -- I hate naming characters.

SEX: Male

AGE: 24/25 sound good?

RACE:Caucasian

BUILD (height, weight, etc.): Obviously we're not going to be as specific here as we would in fiction, but is this a big guy, a little guy? An athletic guy? A lazy fool?

PHYSICAL SCARS AND/OR HANDICAPS : obviously only important/or directed in screenplay if it affects the plot

EMOTIONAL SCARS AND/OR HANDICAPS:

KEY DATES IN CHARACTER'S LIFE

BIRTHPLACE:

BIRTHDAY: August -- he should be a Leo

PARENTS: divorced, both remarried

BROTHERS AND SISTERS: please..I love writing family.. :)

MARRIED/SINGLE: single

CHILDREN: none

EARLIEST, MOST IMPORTANT INFLUENCES:

EDUCATION: 4-year degree in . . . ??

FIRST JOB: he's working first "Career" job now . . . or just left it for some reason . . .

OTHERS:

PRESENT JOB:

PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE:

AMBITIONS:

CLOSEST FRIEND(S): ugh. Names again.

ACQUAINTANCES:

ENEMIES:

AFRAID OF: Bears! okay, but seriously . . . I say this guy has a fear of being alone. Otherwise, why the obsession with staying young when he's dying to grow up?

SEES SELF AS:

IS SEEN AS:

BEST CHARACTER TRAITS: loyal, steadfast

WORST CHARACTER TRAITS: he's afraid of change

MOST IMPORTANT THING TO KNOW ABOUT CHARACTER: he's not as tough as he thinks . . . and everyone knows it but him.

DESCRIPTIVE WORD OR PHRASE ON SEEING CHARACTER FOR FIRST TIME:

PROBLEMS AT STORY'S BEGINNING:

PRESENT PROBLEM:

I think you've just done a great job with part of the plot. The whole coming of age thing will definitely be an issue, and I love the idea of the internal conflict of needing to be "one of the guys", but we need an external goal and external conflict, too. I find it works best if there's something that the character is going after and then he also has an internal goal (gain maturity) and a romantic goal (bang MILF ;-) ) that he accomplishes along the way to a) achieving external goal or b)realizing that external goal isn't really what he wants or that he didn't want it for the reasons he thought he wanted it.

For example, in Knocked Up, which is really a coming of age story, his goal in the beginning is to get their Nude Flick website up and running. Really, he wants to be successful in something (and the website just fits his perception of himself) and he realizes that later. I'm a BIG believer in characters needing an actionable goal--something they can consciously take steps toward achieving. Unfortunately, I'm a "pantser" (meaning I don't plan) and I never know diddly about characters until I write my way into them, so without "seeing" this guy, I can't come up with a goal to save my life. (If you'll excuse the cliche..)

Good. :-)

Okay...Shakespeare's MSND is the one about the two couples that kind of swap partners, right? (Yeah, only in this group would that be the first idea to come to mind..)

It doesn't even have to be a rewrite of a classic. We can take a classic THEME and work with that--the quest, for example, is popular...Or, if you want to do the MSND thing, the "marrying the wrong girl/guy" is fun to work with.

What do we want our protagonist's (hell, can we name him, please?) 1) goal to be? Then, 2) what's keeping him from that goal? And 3) why does he want it so bad that he's willing to fight 2 to get it? Okay, yeah, big questions, but it's the best place to start (in my experience...).

Are you telling me that your best material isn't your own? ;-) Okay, I can live without that...

The Animaniacs story...tell me that isn't someone else's???

Okay, here's what I'm thinking:

I want a male protagonist. Modeled off Brent, sure fine, whatever, but this guy needs to be single because we need the lovestory angle. I want the protagonist to be the "normal" one in his group of wacky, id-controled, subhuman, whatever you want to call them, friends. I want him to want a girl who is WAY far out of his league, not necessarily in terms of looks and body, but in terms of life--In other words, she's mature already and he's not (uh, sorry Brent...this whole "model off Brent" idea was not mine..)

I'm rethinking the college-age thing and thinking more along the lines of 40 Days and 40 Nights--just out of college and still young and figuring things out. Right now, a lot of the humor in my life revolves around my kid, so I keep seeing the love interest as a single mom. On the other hand, I'll be the first to tell you that mommyhood is SO unsexy. BUT...I'm thinking something along the lines of a household of guys living in half of a duplex and the other half is occupied with said single mom and maybe a couple of her friends--the hot, punky bitch, and...maybe another. The guys want to continue their college partying ways, which creates a problem fir their career-minded neighbors. Comedy and hijinx ensue.

And we MUST include the following lines of dialogue (Nathan, I believe gets credit for both):

Morning sex is better because the ***** has been marinating for eight hours.

More later...

But you see, I'm dying to write a SCREENPLAY with you guys...I'm thinking raunchy college-age movie, in the tone of ROAD TRIP. Think of all the fodder you have for this!!

Either way, Michael Miller is on board for both/either. He'll be a nice addition.

I actually know several authors who got their start by writing fanfic....one just sold her first book in a FOUR HOUSE AUCTION...something to think about. :-)

I think this is a fantastic idea. If I wrote fantasy, I'd totally offer to contribute. But, alas . . .

Ahh...the #1 tip...Ass in chair. Fingers on keyboard. Everyday. :-)

Stephanie Meyer is the author. But there will probably be a crazy-long wait for it at the library right now, with the movie coming out next month. I'll bring mine next time I come to Indy. :-)

The first one's definitely worth the read...not so sure yet about the others...

Okay, since I spend FAR too much of my scant free time reading, I figured I'd start a thread here. I've been reading the TWILIGHT series. Yes, it's meant for Young Adults, but I'm certainly not the first "grown up" to pick them up.
I'm on the third book now, and I have admit I don't like it, nor did I like the second, nearly as much as I enjoyed the first, but they're fast reads and very entertaining.
Vampires, werewolves, magical abilities....let me know what you think if you've read them.

How very special! :-)

I look forward to seeing what comes of this.