While editing, I tried tinkering around with storylines involving Scarlet and Talia with their designated love interests… and wound up digging myself into an almost inescapable pitfall.
Scarlet, I made the ill advised decision to try putting some of my own conflicts into her character arc and quickly realized I shouldn’t be messing with perfection in order to force a personal narrative. Of all the characters in this story, she was the clearest in my head and the easiest to write. I went so far as to reread all of her scenes to make sure everything sounded right. Between the few things I kept from this experiment and what was already established, I think I succeeded in finding the right balance.
The one plus side I got out of it was adding a bit more to her boyfriend’s narrative so he has a bit more going on than just being a token love interest and guitar player in a band. And I just may have laid some groundwork for what he does in the epilogue. They’ll still be together but their careers might be in a different capacity in the music industry.
With Talia, I decided to up the sympathy for her when her story arc screeches to a halt mid novel. All based on a dream I had where Sara Bareilles played her.
It made me realize I’d done almost too good a job at making her unlikable so I had to bring things back around a little. All the characters have their flaws but I still want people to like them or relate to them. That particular section needed to be tidied up a bit to compensate but I think I’ve got it figured out now.
Then there’s today where I finally found the words for a bit of lore I’ve wanted to explain further for a while- about food truck central. (At a point in the near future, this will be added to the novel. Most likely with some edits and fixes cuz this is essentially a first draft)
Until the recent opening of La Scala, Food Truck Central was the island’s newest tourist attraction, only established within the last two years. It began when one of the local chefs quit their job at Cafe Agrodolce and decided to strike out on his own. Most of the eateries were run by first or second generation families, so it wasn’t uncommon for newer generations’ attempts to modernize to be rejected. After spending a summer traveling the southeastern United States and working for food at a multitude of establishments, he returned with a food truck and a head full of ideas. Word quickly spread and some of his friends in the industry followed a similar path.
What began as four trucks, one for each of the streets in the downtown district (excluding the central avenue where Calypso and Cafe Alfresco resided), doubled and all eight had since taken over the section that had been previously intended for a new high rise hotel. Rumors of its demise still persist to this day. The most widely accepted explanation involved the same economic downturn that precipitated the establishment of Calypso. How the money ran out after the demolition of the desecrated building occupying the site and all plans for the new construction were scrapped mere weeks before it was set to begin. However, in some circles, the ill-fated enterprise was believed to be the fault of the brash young owner who squandered his investors’ capital on women and booze.
For nearly all of the owners of the cafes scattered throughout the island, the rise in popularity of food truck central served as a massive wake up call. Innovation and modernization went from being frowned upon to necessary in order to hold onto their talented staff until eventually becoming commonplace practices. Competition between the different trucks would get fierce at times, usually over parking spaces and the occasional dispute over whether imitation should be considered a compliment or a threat. However, the relationship between the trucks and the cafes remained amiable whether the cafe owners lent their expertise to the entrepreneurs or truck owners returned to the line to assist during staffing shortages.
In the midst of writing this, I stumbled upon another way to allude to Rodrigo in the story without specifically calling him out by name… part of me hopes someone will one day read it and put 2 and 2 together. Assuming they hadn't read any of these blog posts, lol
Otherwise, I’d been asking various questions that’ve come to mind and I’ve thought up answers along the way.
I have a Notes doc on my phone called “asked and answered” and I’ve gone into it whenever I feel the incination.
Like how there’s an al fresco restaurant Amber goes to a few times but later on she’s hanging around the food trucks during her lunch hour… I’ll build a little more on that later on.
For nearly all of the owners of the cafes scattered throughout the island, the rise in popularity of food truck central served as a massive wake up call. Innovation and modernization went from being frowned upon to necessary in order to hold onto their talented staff until eventually becoming commonplace practices. Competition between the different trucks would get fierce at times, usually over parking spaces and the occasional dispute over whether imitation should be considered a compliment or a threat. However, the relationship between the trucks and the cafes remained amiable whether the cafe owners lent their expertise to the entrepreneurs or truck owners returned to the line to assist during staffing shortages.
In the midst of writing this, I stumbled upon another way to allude to Rodrigo in the story without specifically calling him out by name… part of me hopes someone will one day read it and put 2 and 2 together. Assuming they hadn't read any of these blog posts, lol
Otherwise, I’d been asking various questions that’ve come to mind and I’ve thought up answers along the way.
I have a Notes doc on my phone called “asked and answered” and I’ve gone into it whenever I feel the incination.
Like how there’s an al fresco restaurant Amber goes to a few times but later on she’s hanging around the food trucks during her lunch hour… I’ll build a little more on that later on.
And I think I wrote recently how Scarlet feels a little inferior to her sister because she doesn’t contribute as much to their rent and routines. Adding to that, I’ve decided to make her a thrift shopper who has a thing for vintage. Some of this might be inspired by the Lying Game book series since Emma is big on thrift stores. But another inspiration source for scarlet has been Alice from twilight, particularly the playfulness Ashley Greene brought to her role playing her. Alice also has a thing for vintage clothing and I put a bunch of hand me down stuff together to play her for Halloween one year.
Normally I’m not a big fan of dresses and skirts and sometimes I’ll put myself in the mindset of one of my characters when coordinating outfits for going to restaurants and nicer family gatherings.
And probably the next thing I work on is incorporating more fashion talk into the story. Notably how the sirens will still maintain some decorum when going out in public but Talia is a little more relaxed about their wardrobe choices- opposed to Calypso where they are essentially “in costume” for rehearsals and the shows themselves. This mentality borrows a little bit from how Prince led his bands. They always had to follow certain wardrobe guidelines and I’ve always sort of envisioned Talia being that type of leader. Although she’d be a little less offended by an outsider referring to clothing as “costumes” (there’s apparently a story about this where Prince got offended at someone making a similar comment… the first and last time the person telling this story ever saw him in blue jeans… I know, right? Shock! Horror!)
I’d been steadily working towards enhancing the lore of the island and its various attractions and I’d made some good progress. Part of me was a bit concerned I’d been spending too much time on these incidentals, creating more work for myself and further delaying what’ll ultimately be the next step.
Once I narrow down whatever genre this story fits into, I might query some agents to see if anything happens. If not, I think I might pursue self publishing on Amazon.
I swear if I were a little more creative I’d record audio of me reading for the various characters or better yet putting on different costumes and playing them myself for a YouTube video series. Things that sound fun in my head but the idea of actually doing them and making myself look silly doing so… it’s kinda intimidating.
At least with the audio idea I can establish guidelines for how all the characters sound in my head. Once I have a final product I’m happy with I might look into that further.
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