makes me wish I had a magical genie.
But as everyone knows, you can't wish for--
1) someone to get the axe
... unless of course you happen to live in a mob family, in which case, they'll have whoever you wanna whack sleeping with the fishes in no time.
2) so-and-so to fall in love with you or someone else
...perhaps because love can't happen spontaneously outside the realm of "love at first sight" and it's a tight race to figure out what'll be solved first: how to create true, everlasting love or finding the meaning of life
3) someone to be brought back from the dead
...anyone who's watched Adult Swim in the past decade knows of the series "FullMetal Alchemist" where part of the plot is exploring what happens when people ARE brought back from the dead. You can gather all the elements that make up the human body, but the soul cannot be recreated. As a result, the product of the transmutation is an incomplete humanoid creature known as a homunculus, most of which have infinite life and unstoppable power
With genies (unless you count Barbara Eden's Jeanie), you only get three wishes. No substitutions, exchanges or refunds, and you can't wish for more wishes.
Right now I wouldn't wish for more wishes... I'd wish for infinite writing time :-P
the Earth stops spinning and life everywhere else but in my own realm of infinity pauses entirely...
It'd be helluva lot more helpful (not to mention REALISTIC) to find someone willing to read through my old work and give me advice on how to proceed.
Earlier, I started to consider what I'd do with my stories if I had the time... where would I focus my attention? What would I adjust?
In doing so, I'll rustle up five examples:
- Jonas's Story
- Orion's Story
- Rebel Diana
- White Tiger Princess
- Hope in Alaska
Jonas
No matter how many times I edit this story I'm dying to be published to begin my writing career... I just can't seem to hack it. Deep down, I know all of its pieces don't quite fit.
I'd love to get someone to look at him, someone to tell me that his story is worth telling. Because I'd invested a lot of time and effort (and I'm not just talking blog entries here), I want to see it through to the end with him. I want to do it right- getting an agent to sponsor him and get me to the best possible publishing house so his book cover will be everywhere books are sold. Putting him on Amazon as a CreateSpace publication just doesn't feel good enough to get the word out... and I'd hate to make a mistake of putting him in a place where he doesn't get the attention he deserves.
Methods include:
- writing character sketches (done some of that already)
- in a rewrite, list all of the key events that happen in sentences
- start the story on Nina's first day of school, thereby skipping the prologue (that I've heard agents pass on in general) and the possible comparisons to the beginning of "Spirited Away"... which was a key part of the inspiration
- too many that I can't narrow down anymore to list
Orion
I wrote his story a couple months after finishing Jonas. He was intended as a "companion piece" or a "distant cousin" because he was a reincarnation as well... went through several, actually... but the logic isn't quite sound, seeming as I have a key plot point where he's lost at sea on a snorkeling excursion when I describe him as being wheel-chair bound... like, how negligent can people be? Then again, this trip is in Cancun, Mexico
Methods include:
- ex-nay on the lengthy prologue (I wanted to do a Greek mythology theme to it, but it seems inaccurate that Zeus could mistakenly create Orion as the wrong species... not just once, but twice...)
- double-check my logic and do more research
- cut down on some of the melodrama... gets rather repetitive
Rebel Diana
I'd give a lot of thought to what I could do with this story, which has a lot of ME in there. She's a high school senior whose insecurities have lead to the creation of another personality... not quite as malevolent as something from "One life to live"... but ultimately becomes detrimental to whatever social life she procures in taking over...
Methods include:
- staying truer to the source of inspiration, going so far as to include song lyrics in the story itself (I'd begun that process, but haven't been back to it in ages)
- new angle- she's giving a concert at a small intimate venue (kinda like a coffee shop, but not as laid-back) where her songs draw back to the high school experiences, and it ending when she reunites with the guy, who came to see her set
- ...I had a third thing and forgot it
White Tiger
Probably the second most talked about project on this blog (although "Te Busque" is slowly catching up).
I had a break through a few months ago, but haven't pursued it much since then.
Methods include:
- breaking the story into three part, the first being all in flashback, the second with the training and the third part as the climax
- putting as much as distance from the source material as I can manage without losing direction entirely (to spare copyright battles later)
Hope in Alaska
Not sure if I mentioned this that often. I wrote this story all by long-hand... over two and a half note pads... the last thing I did was start a "track changes" version where I question how much I need to say, what to length and what to shorten...
- Continue that process before doing anything else, also;
- Make things a little more cohesive and fewer "surprises"-- points I suddenly raise out of nowhere just for the sake of one dramatic moment
...
meanwhile, I'm continuing my brainstorming sessions with "Te Busque" where I'm getting new ideas all the time... but I'd like to have all of my pieces ready before I actually write... what I'd most like to do is write at least 20 pages for each girl about their backstories and such so I can refer to that later.
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