This morning on the way to work, a story began to take shape in my mind. It fulfulls the various requirements I had for a story this year. That is to say, it doesn't involve a high-school protagonist, isn't set in modern-day United States and doesn't (necessarily) involve the supernatural, although it could.
I wrote down a handful of notes about the nascent idea, and think I can now begin the world-building process. Good thing, too, since I now have four days before NaNoWriMo begins!
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Lightning - reading
Finished "Lightning" by Dean Koontz. I am amused that I finished this one not long after "Watchers" since the stories are VERY similar in a lot of ways. I'm glad I finished "Watchers" first because "Lightning" is the better story between the two.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
NaNoWriMo 2010 - No Story Yet!
NaNoWriMo 2010 begins in about 12 days. So far, I don't have a story to work on. This was not my experience for the past two years. Last year, I had a story idea that I really liked in June and over four months to let it develop in my head before beginning writing in November. This year, I have no real strong direction.
I know what I don't want to do. I don't want to repeat themes from the past two years. For example, both were set in the modern day. That makes me want to do some sort of fantasy setting. Both had teen protagonists - one about 18 and the other about 16. Both had mystical or supernatural elements central to the story. Heck, I've even toyed with the idea of having the main characters from those two stories meet up with each other for some third story. That's how "compatible" the stories were.
The story that I'm coming up with to work on for 2010 feels very forced so far, and doesn't have a lot of direction. Furthermore, it's going to require quite a bit of world-building before I can really get into the writing part. This does not bode well for keeping my word counts up.
On the bright side, I do get some time off in November that should help me stay on track with my word counts. At least, I hope it helps!
I know what I don't want to do. I don't want to repeat themes from the past two years. For example, both were set in the modern day. That makes me want to do some sort of fantasy setting. Both had teen protagonists - one about 18 and the other about 16. Both had mystical or supernatural elements central to the story. Heck, I've even toyed with the idea of having the main characters from those two stories meet up with each other for some third story. That's how "compatible" the stories were.
The story that I'm coming up with to work on for 2010 feels very forced so far, and doesn't have a lot of direction. Furthermore, it's going to require quite a bit of world-building before I can really get into the writing part. This does not bode well for keeping my word counts up.
On the bright side, I do get some time off in November that should help me stay on track with my word counts. At least, I hope it helps!
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
1st to Die - reading
** spoiler alert **
I talk about the ending. Since it's a whodunnit, you might want to not read this if you haven't read the book.
** spoiler alert **
Finished "1st To Die" by James Patterson. For once I decided to read the FIRST book in a series instead of coming in at the middle somewhere.
My exposure to James Patterson stems from getting my (then) wife the book Pop Goes the Weasel and watching her devour it, saying it was brutal and good, but that Patterson had trouble writing female characters. That stuck with me and colored how I saw the story in this book, but didn't severely detract from it. I thought this one was good.
I have to wonder if when writing it, James Patterson asked himself two questions at the end of each chapter: 1) what would be the predictable next thing to happen, and 2) how can I turn that on its side somewhere down the road? The term "kept you guessing until the end" applies here. Things that I thought were predictable ended up with a twist.
** spoilers begin here **
** spoilers begin here **
** spoilers begin here **
The only thing I didn't like is the very ending. Why would a guy who went to such great lengths to plan everything out just show up randomly at the cop's door and simply assault her with a knife? He's smarter than that.
Patterson wasn't afraid to veer away from the happy ending, something I can appreciate.
I talk about the ending. Since it's a whodunnit, you might want to not read this if you haven't read the book.
** spoiler alert **
Finished "1st To Die" by James Patterson. For once I decided to read the FIRST book in a series instead of coming in at the middle somewhere.
My exposure to James Patterson stems from getting my (then) wife the book Pop Goes the Weasel and watching her devour it, saying it was brutal and good, but that Patterson had trouble writing female characters. That stuck with me and colored how I saw the story in this book, but didn't severely detract from it. I thought this one was good.
I have to wonder if when writing it, James Patterson asked himself two questions at the end of each chapter: 1) what would be the predictable next thing to happen, and 2) how can I turn that on its side somewhere down the road? The term "kept you guessing until the end" applies here. Things that I thought were predictable ended up with a twist.
** spoilers begin here **
** spoilers begin here **
** spoilers begin here **
The only thing I didn't like is the very ending. Why would a guy who went to such great lengths to plan everything out just show up randomly at the cop's door and simply assault her with a knife? He's smarter than that.
Patterson wasn't afraid to veer away from the happy ending, something I can appreciate.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
War Dances - reading
Finished "War Dances" by Sherman Alexie. A collection of short stories with a Native American slant that opens strong and has many quotable lines.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Watchers - reading
Finished "Watchers" by Dean Koontz. This was a cute, entertaining story, though other Koontz novels rank higher for me. That's not hard considering both that this one comes from 1987, and that The Taking is one of the weirdest books I've ever read. The thing I didn't like about this one was that the dramatic tension seemed to trail off during a lull in the story. Instead of keeping the pressure on, it was more of a "back of the mind" sort of nagging thing. Then when we got back to the pressure, it was all at once and over too quickly.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
48HFP practice session 4
This practice session was cut very short due to an interruption. I only got about five minutes into it (literally!) and didn't go back to finish it later. Here's what I got in five minutes.
Character:
Random word Gum becomes Barney Gumble (The Simpsons).
Random word Security becomes security guard
Prop:
vegetable
Line of dialogue:
Random word pigeon becomes, "Did you send the invitations by carrier pigeon?"
The genre was randomly determined to be Film de Femme.
I immediately went to a woman getting ready for a wedding. She is standing in the lobby of a building (presumably her apartment building) and there is a security guard there. The vegetables came in when someone carried them in a bag and [tripped | did something] spilled them across the floor. She saw the vegetables themselves and said, "Are you trying to kill the guests? You know that half the family is allergic to [some vegetable]."
She's on her cell phone, and the security guard is there trying to calm her, determine how he can help her. The line of dialogue would be said into the phone after she asks the security guard if he received a package of invitations, or a package from [x] printers.
How is this a film de femme? What would make this scenario interesting? (What if the vegetable guy really were trying to poison the family and she discovers the plot? She could eventually uncover it and discover that the groom was getting cold feet and was trying to sabotage everything.)
Lisa (our Femme) walks into the lobby and asks Barney the security guard about a package arriving for her.
Barney: No, ma'am. No package today.
At this point, right when I was about to start on the setup scene, I was interrupted. Fortunately, the script already seemed to have a direction. I probably would have followed up on the whole, "groom trying to sabotage everything" theme. There's no way this would have culminated in a wedding anyway since that would be too expensive to plan and shoot unless there happened to be a wedding that day and the bride and groom didn't mind us filming them. Fat chance.
Character:
Random word Gum becomes Barney Gumble (The Simpsons).
Random word Security becomes security guard
Prop:
vegetable
Line of dialogue:
Random word pigeon becomes, "Did you send the invitations by carrier pigeon?"
The genre was randomly determined to be Film de Femme.
I immediately went to a woman getting ready for a wedding. She is standing in the lobby of a building (presumably her apartment building) and there is a security guard there. The vegetables came in when someone carried them in a bag and [tripped | did something] spilled them across the floor. She saw the vegetables themselves and said, "Are you trying to kill the guests? You know that half the family is allergic to [some vegetable]."
She's on her cell phone, and the security guard is there trying to calm her, determine how he can help her. The line of dialogue would be said into the phone after she asks the security guard if he received a package of invitations, or a package from [x] printers.
How is this a film de femme? What would make this scenario interesting? (What if the vegetable guy really were trying to poison the family and she discovers the plot? She could eventually uncover it and discover that the groom was getting cold feet and was trying to sabotage everything.)
Lisa (our Femme) walks into the lobby and asks Barney the security guard about a package arriving for her.
Barney: No, ma'am. No package today.
At this point, right when I was about to start on the setup scene, I was interrupted. Fortunately, the script already seemed to have a direction. I probably would have followed up on the whole, "groom trying to sabotage everything" theme. There's no way this would have culminated in a wedding anyway since that would be too expensive to plan and shoot unless there happened to be a wedding that day and the bride and groom didn't mind us filming them. Fat chance.
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