note to self: I also gotta figure out what I want to name the venue that's meant to be the centerpiece for my story... and what do I classify it as? A bar? A club? A brothel?
Although I'm not quite sure if I could technically call it a brothel setting because the only sex on premise is all in the visual aspects of the performance numbers.
Hmm... to that end, it gets me kinda wondering how that arrangement will work... do the guys take the girls back to their places or vice versa? I'm meaning for this to take place in a slummy sort of neighborhood, so I doubt any of their living conditions are good enough to take clients home to. Then again, whenever I considered the logistics of it, I can only imagine the girls taking them home to their places... maybe it depends on the occasion or the client.
The risque is only part of the business. Funny enough, tonight was the first time I wondered why "hotel room" hasn't popped into my head because it's the most common place these things go down... both in fiction and in reality... a couple of these cases have cropped recently involving prostitution that I keep my eyes and ears open for possible ideas I can incorporate. A hotel setting would make things a little bit easier in keeping things discrete and it could be Alejandro's place of business or something like that...
...
Anyway, back on topic...
This past week at the shorehouse for July 4th has been great... when you take away the fact our AC was busted and my body was having trouble adjusting to having it back home... I'm about 90% there
I made a lot of progress in my brainstorming and character development by daring to ask myself how all these girls came together at this one place.
Interestingly, I made so much progress and had gotten much more comfort in dealing with the rest of my cast of characters that when I was listening to my playlist, I was feeling Amber more than Talia.
Even though I do ultimately want the plot to focus on her and how she changes for the better, I want people to be able to relate with each of my characters equally. In other words, I'd like to have some gray area instilled in Talia and Amber and the others so I'm not leaning fully in one direction more than the others.
In this process, I think I might have realized that some adjustments need to be made. Specifically, the ages of my characters.
I have Talia set at 33 when the story begins and 18 when she chooses to live life the way she does. At the same time, I have Vanessa being 30, Amber being 26 and Ruby and Scarlet being 27... with newcomer Emilia being 19...
My first lightbulb moment was the consideration of Amber (then known as Carmen) being an original Montiel employee. She was working for the brothers/cousins for a couple years before Talia came along.
My idea is for Talia's idea of adding the dancing (and beyond) element to the venue to garner so much favor with them that Amber is shoved into the background. Her ideas aren't as readily accepted because they aren't in line with the "new direction" they're going on. Because she ran off to get away from such a situation, she doesn't approve of it, but her concerns aren't being heard.
Baring in mind that once Talia resolved her stepfather's debts with the Montiels, she wanted to find replacement dancers to take her place. It proves to be a difficult road because few of them have the constitituton to stick it out. So of course it'd be a perfect place for Amber to sabotage her efforts.
Then when all else fails, Talia enlists the help of Vanessa, a girl she used to go to school with before her father died/left and had to help her mother take care of their place of business (whatever that might be, not sure yet... that hotel idea could still be valid here...). She knows that Vanessa is strapped for cash, not only for tutition but for dance lessons she was taking on the side (something her family doesn't approve of because they want her to get an education to get a good foundation, etc, tec.).
Amber takes a liking to Vanessa right away because she's not super into the full-on sexualization of their business and they have some things in common.
Originally, I considered Scarlet to be another stray that came in, auditioned and became part of the troupe... and given her (and Ruby's) past with their father, she's not into the idea so much either...
it's when Ruby comes along that the full transition is made, Vanessa and Scarlet jump into things and Amber ultimately gets lost in the shuffle...
I thought that'd be a little too much of a rollercoaster for Amber to have things play out that way. Building up her hopes little by little that Talia's full vision won't come to pass, only to have them obliterated.
So I considered another possibility... the fact that Scarlet came to work for the Montiels a year after Amber, having run away from home, hiding from her father and such. Scarlet and Amber are the closest of friends here. Vanessa comes along and they get along pretty well.
But with the introduction of Ruby, not only is Amber overshadowed at her audition by the reunion of Scarlet and Ruby, but she provides the catalyst to get the business going in that lude direction.
Amber's motivation; not only is it due to the clash of values between her and Talia, the fact her ideas had been taken into consideration less and less because of Talia's vision and later, the introduction of Ruby... BUT also because Ruby took her best friend away from her.
I also thought about the idea that Amber quit because the two guys I visualize when she's dancing to Karmin's music are let go by the Montiels (or even Alejandro... another source of motivation... she likes him because he was always nice to her and she planned on taking things to the next level with him when she turned 18; before that comes to pass, Talia arrives, and he only has eyes for her)...
plus the three of them share an apartment or a flat or whatever, so she has to bring in more money to pay the bills...
More or less, she has a complete transformation, going so far as to change her identity. But only Vanessa recognizes her at a given point.
My chronology is off in the fact that I see Amber escaping her domestic situation at a relatively young age, in her teens... starting as a waitress at the tender age of 14 or 15... a couple years later, Talia arrives... therefore their ages have to be a lot closer than I originally thought.
...so my plans for what to do next... I'm thinking I need to spend a novella-length of time writing the backstory for Vanessa, Amber, Scarlet and Ruby... the twins will share a volume... in this case, a composition notebook... the next time I get the chance, I'll pick up 2-3 of those at a nice cheap price... I think that'll come in real handy, especially later on
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Ex-Nay on the Wishing for [Infinite] Wishes
Thinking about the stack of stories I'd written throughout high school and college, the sad realization that none of them are ready for publication...
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
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:
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.
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Imagin[ing] Dragons: The Most Versatile Creature of Myth
I'm writing this right now with the Imagine Dragon's song "It's Time" stuck in my head, but that's not why I'm making this post.
The other day when we were at Michael's, I came across a book chock full of dragons, different stories of mythology behind them, and also how to draw them.
There's always such a lure about "how to draw" books for me, especially when it comes to what I'd like to know more about.
I would have picked it up if not for the fact the sucker cost almost $30... very tempting, but I'm trying to be frugal... this year, it seems like I can't walk into Wal-Mart or Target without picking up something.
In response to that, I have yet to read several books I'd picked up recently. Among them are "The Lost Hero" and "The Serpent's Shadow" by Rick Riordan (of Percy Jackson fan), the latest "House of Night" novella telling the backstory of the evil Neferet... and I'm maybe 100 pages away from finishing Mindy Kaling's book.
So far it's been great. I'd just been getting so distracted between this and that :-P
So much about the dragon book intrigued me, but nothing more than the back stories about the different kinds. The mythologies of dragons are always changing and they vary by region. That's the part that fascinates me the most: everyone has their own story.
But I think I might have a place for the "Temple Dragon"... derived from Asian mythology, that is very reclusive and would be a lot more dangerous if they didn't go out of their way to avoid humanity.
And it's for a story I started writing months ago, but have stalled in my inspiration since then. Not that it's my greatest priority right now.
My desire to return was fueled by the thing that inspired me to begin it in the first place.
"Bleach" has gotten to the point of being extremely hopeless... as much as I love Japanese animation, there's nothing I can't stand more than an invincible villain that you literally spend the whole series trying to defeat.
What sucked about InuYasha was that the animé ended before the defeat of Naraku, but thankfully, one of my college friends who read the manga told me how it was resolved.
But with "Bleach," they have gone back and forth between several different story arcs... almost to the point where I'm begging "enough already, let's defeat this guy first"...
that's the thing about the series that last for AGES.
Everything else I'd watched only lasted for so long.
FullMetal Alchemist, both versions, ended about 50 or so...
Kekkaishi, which I watched because it starred Vic Mignona (Edward Elric) from FullMetal. barely lasted 20...
then there's Samurai 7, which only lasted 24... that's why I decided to get the boxset. Plus it feels so authentically Japanese that I geek out to it all the time.
so anyway...
I started a story about this female warrior named Cassandra, which began with her failing to defeat this invincible foe... an endeavor that almost resulted in her death...
I write up somewhat of a back story and a motive behind her quest... but have had little inspiration since then. Not that I'd worried about never finding resolution.
I got to thinking that a dragon could be the key to her emerging victorious- the trick is getting it to become her ally.
This "temple dragon" is mysterious, only appeared to a chosen few, and is extremely hard to read.
That's all I got so far.
Supposing I go forward, this will be my 3rd time working with dragons in my work.
Jonas's story had two: one as his ally and another as his foe.
Orion, who I penned as a "distant cousin" to Jonas because they're both reincarnations of people who originated in an earlier time, had two: again, an ally and a foe... this time they were sea dragons because he is changed into a merman by a mermaid who saved him from drowning... who happened to know him in his former life.
...
All this got me thinking... are dragons really the most versatile mythical creatures?
Every culture has a different story. Different writers have their different stories, whether you're Artemis Fowl or J.K. Rowling.
I don't believe there is any other that can fill this many roles and positions in fiction... whether it's in books, film or TV.
Everything else is either one or the other... all unicorns and pegasuses are deemed as pure, rare creatures... elves, dwarfs, and gnomes can play both sides, but it depends on how you ask and not many people work with them... right now I can only think of J.R.R. Tolkien, George Lucas ("Willow") and Jim Henson :-P goes to show what I know
Dragons come in all shapes and sizes... heck, there's a dragon that even had his own video game franchise...
Spyro not only got me into platform games, but his worlds are probably responsible for helping me see that not all dragons are dark creatures...
sadly, the games haven't been quite as good since Playstation... I got the first two on the PS2 and stopped after that... because the gaming was harder, longer... and maybe the fact they couldn't pick a single actor to his voice...
not that I should be complaining that much because I didn't mind the change between the first and second games... both actors happened to work together in "Rocko's Modern Life"... pretty cool... the latest actor to take over was Elijah Wood in a trilogy of games said to tell Spyro's origin and explain why he was the only dragon immune to the magic of Gnasty Gnorc in the first game.
I never got to play any of them... maybe because I rather spent my money on books, DVD'S and CD's.
I'd seen Dragonheart and DragonSlayer... neither of which I have a great memory about...
and most recently, I'd gotten to know the dragon featured in BBC's series "Merlin"...
I'm still kinda working on getting past that one.
The ending was such a cop-out and the worst of it was that the dragon showed up, as he always had before, and despite that, he told Merlin he couldn't do anything to change how things ended. Just bad writing on that part. They wanted to end the series with the 5th season, but the finale was incredibly rushed. It deserved better.
[part of me is considering putting some Arthurian mythology in my story as well... but I gotta do it just right... otherwise it'll feel very disjointed to have Japanese influences mixed with English]
I saw Eragon and was very disappointed with it... the dragon in that was awesome, but it was clearly geared towards the people who'd read the books... the transition from the first storyline to the actual plot itself... just felt disconnected to me.
Then there's Harry Potter, where you'd seen everything from Hagrid's baby dragon Norbert to the Horntail Harry had to get past in the first TriWizard tournament task to the dragon guarding the Gringott vaults.
Some breath fire, some don't... some talk and some don't...
and their loyalty can be with anyone or no one... it's to the writer's discretion how to use them.
So, supposing anyone who read this got to this far... any thoughts on dragons? Likes? Dislikes? Favorite interpretation?
The other day when we were at Michael's, I came across a book chock full of dragons, different stories of mythology behind them, and also how to draw them.
There's always such a lure about "how to draw" books for me, especially when it comes to what I'd like to know more about.
I would have picked it up if not for the fact the sucker cost almost $30... very tempting, but I'm trying to be frugal... this year, it seems like I can't walk into Wal-Mart or Target without picking up something.
In response to that, I have yet to read several books I'd picked up recently. Among them are "The Lost Hero" and "The Serpent's Shadow" by Rick Riordan (of Percy Jackson fan), the latest "House of Night" novella telling the backstory of the evil Neferet... and I'm maybe 100 pages away from finishing Mindy Kaling's book.
So far it's been great. I'd just been getting so distracted between this and that :-P
So much about the dragon book intrigued me, but nothing more than the back stories about the different kinds. The mythologies of dragons are always changing and they vary by region. That's the part that fascinates me the most: everyone has their own story.
But I think I might have a place for the "Temple Dragon"... derived from Asian mythology, that is very reclusive and would be a lot more dangerous if they didn't go out of their way to avoid humanity.
And it's for a story I started writing months ago, but have stalled in my inspiration since then. Not that it's my greatest priority right now.
My desire to return was fueled by the thing that inspired me to begin it in the first place.
"Bleach" has gotten to the point of being extremely hopeless... as much as I love Japanese animation, there's nothing I can't stand more than an invincible villain that you literally spend the whole series trying to defeat.
What sucked about InuYasha was that the animé ended before the defeat of Naraku, but thankfully, one of my college friends who read the manga told me how it was resolved.
But with "Bleach," they have gone back and forth between several different story arcs... almost to the point where I'm begging "enough already, let's defeat this guy first"...
that's the thing about the series that last for AGES.
Everything else I'd watched only lasted for so long.
FullMetal Alchemist, both versions, ended about 50 or so...
Kekkaishi, which I watched because it starred Vic Mignona (Edward Elric) from FullMetal. barely lasted 20...
then there's Samurai 7, which only lasted 24... that's why I decided to get the boxset. Plus it feels so authentically Japanese that I geek out to it all the time.
so anyway...
I started a story about this female warrior named Cassandra, which began with her failing to defeat this invincible foe... an endeavor that almost resulted in her death...
I write up somewhat of a back story and a motive behind her quest... but have had little inspiration since then. Not that I'd worried about never finding resolution.
I got to thinking that a dragon could be the key to her emerging victorious- the trick is getting it to become her ally.
This "temple dragon" is mysterious, only appeared to a chosen few, and is extremely hard to read.
That's all I got so far.
Supposing I go forward, this will be my 3rd time working with dragons in my work.
Jonas's story had two: one as his ally and another as his foe.
Orion, who I penned as a "distant cousin" to Jonas because they're both reincarnations of people who originated in an earlier time, had two: again, an ally and a foe... this time they were sea dragons because he is changed into a merman by a mermaid who saved him from drowning... who happened to know him in his former life.
...
All this got me thinking... are dragons really the most versatile mythical creatures?
Every culture has a different story. Different writers have their different stories, whether you're Artemis Fowl or J.K. Rowling.
I don't believe there is any other that can fill this many roles and positions in fiction... whether it's in books, film or TV.
Everything else is either one or the other... all unicorns and pegasuses are deemed as pure, rare creatures... elves, dwarfs, and gnomes can play both sides, but it depends on how you ask and not many people work with them... right now I can only think of J.R.R. Tolkien, George Lucas ("Willow") and Jim Henson :-P goes to show what I know
Dragons come in all shapes and sizes... heck, there's a dragon that even had his own video game franchise...
Spyro not only got me into platform games, but his worlds are probably responsible for helping me see that not all dragons are dark creatures...
sadly, the games haven't been quite as good since Playstation... I got the first two on the PS2 and stopped after that... because the gaming was harder, longer... and maybe the fact they couldn't pick a single actor to his voice...
not that I should be complaining that much because I didn't mind the change between the first and second games... both actors happened to work together in "Rocko's Modern Life"... pretty cool... the latest actor to take over was Elijah Wood in a trilogy of games said to tell Spyro's origin and explain why he was the only dragon immune to the magic of Gnasty Gnorc in the first game.
I never got to play any of them... maybe because I rather spent my money on books, DVD'S and CD's.
I'd seen Dragonheart and DragonSlayer... neither of which I have a great memory about...
and most recently, I'd gotten to know the dragon featured in BBC's series "Merlin"...
I'm still kinda working on getting past that one.
The ending was such a cop-out and the worst of it was that the dragon showed up, as he always had before, and despite that, he told Merlin he couldn't do anything to change how things ended. Just bad writing on that part. They wanted to end the series with the 5th season, but the finale was incredibly rushed. It deserved better.
[part of me is considering putting some Arthurian mythology in my story as well... but I gotta do it just right... otherwise it'll feel very disjointed to have Japanese influences mixed with English]
I saw Eragon and was very disappointed with it... the dragon in that was awesome, but it was clearly geared towards the people who'd read the books... the transition from the first storyline to the actual plot itself... just felt disconnected to me.
Then there's Harry Potter, where you'd seen everything from Hagrid's baby dragon Norbert to the Horntail Harry had to get past in the first TriWizard tournament task to the dragon guarding the Gringott vaults.
Some breath fire, some don't... some talk and some don't...
and their loyalty can be with anyone or no one... it's to the writer's discretion how to use them.
So, supposing anyone who read this got to this far... any thoughts on dragons? Likes? Dislikes? Favorite interpretation?
Sunday, June 2, 2013
Hypothetically Speaking of Ruby and Amber
While listening to some Lady Gaga on Thursday, I had an idea.
Now it has me wondering whether or not "Te Busque" can manage to remain Talia's story. As I brainstorm about Amber and her motivation as the story's antagonist, I'm finding her becoming more and more complex.
Is my story evolving into a multiple character story where I'll be writing about Amber, Ruby, Scarlet and Vanessa in great length instead of just Talia?
Vanessa is the only wild card I have because I'm having trouble coming up with any sort of back story for her. Do I have enough in my head to keep her where she is in Talia's social circle? Compared to Scarlet, she's more reserved, less emotionally charged, a "I'll give you the bottom line" kind of girl and practically her polar opposite.
The only difference is, regardless of that, they are close friends with Talia and each other.
Amber and Ruby on the other hand... not so much...
From a physical standpoint, Scarlet and Ruby are twin sisters, so they have the same build. Vanessa and Amber, on the other hand, are voluptuous, have curses and rely on sensuality rather than dance skill to impress.
I played around with the idea that Amber tried out for the dance troupe more than once and she was denied her shot because she didn't have quite what they were looking for. She met Alejandro at the try-outs and he encourages her to not give up because he sees potential in her. She takes it as a compliment and is smitten, but learns later on that he's involved with Talia.
While listening to "Just Dance," I thought of Amber auditioning with two male back-up dancers that I've imagined at her flank during Karmin's "I'm just sayin' "
Where these back-up dancers came from, I have no idea... that's just what comes to mind.
Her routine with them is very tame and that's the reason why it doesn't make the cut.
Then to show what they're looking for, whoever's running the try-outs asks Ruby to do the routine from her own audition.
To "Love Game"... the lyric "I wanna take a ride on your disco stick" invokes an image of pole dancing.
Not surprisingly, Amber is frustrated by this... this leads her to believe that Ruby is a very smug, self-assured individual... but she never openly admits this. I just know that to be true.
From there, the ideas just kept building and building.
I also considered Amber being a waitress at the club. She had a rough past that she's trying to get away from, but she's admired the dancers and the attention they get, she just couldn't resist. But her dancing is very unrefined and not quite sensual enough to be at the level of the others.
She loathes the fact that she'll have to lower herself to that, but is willing to do whatever it takes to come out on top.
In doing this, she quits her waitress position, changes her appearance and goes to her next audition under a new name... supposing I go through with that, that's where the name change comes in. Carmen was Amber's previous identity.
When she becomes part of the organization, she's thrilled when it seems like Ruby has lost her edge and her material easily trumps hers. Something that continues to go on until the night of the "Heavy Metal Lover" performance... which reopens old wounds and leads to a mental breakdown... potentially.
That'd be an interesting scene to write, but it most likely won't make it into the actual novel because it's an internal thing... the only way it'd work is if the story were told in multiple first person POVs.
Amber's motivation is ever changing. She has that vendetta against Ruby that's always kinda there in the back of her mind, but most of the time, she feels she's superior.
Then while bringing Alejandro back into the picture as a potential source of conflict... Amber discovers Talia is the girl he's interested in and that she's at the center of the organization, the dancing was her idea. For these reasons, she plans to take Talia down so she can control how the business runs... she really wants the focus to be on skill and look of the dance rather than the "sex on a stick" image.
But she plays along with the act for as long as it takes to figure out how to bring it down... an inside job. Hmm... that seems a little extreme... putting herself through all the things the girls go through in their business to prove a point...
i still have a lot of kinks to work out.
In the third act after the performance of "Alejandro" where Talia stages a proverbial "break-up" with him, she and Amber have it out...
They exchange a few words and Talia finally says that she knows that Amber was behind what happened, not Alejandro, and she asks why she did it.
She consents to explain herself because Talia threatens to fire her, not only for what she got Emilia into, but because she broke the code of conduct... the girls have to get along and more importantly, there can't be that kind of bad blood between them.
Amber confesses everything, even her previous identity. While she has every right to be mad at her, Talia reassures her that she understands where she came from, goes into her own back story.
The most sacred piece of the code of conduct is the rule that the girls will bring up their pasts at their own discretion... there's no pressure to explain anything or volunteer any personal information. So in most cases, the girls don't know each other's back stories unless they open up about it on their own.
In addition to her ongoing romance with Juan Paulo, this conversation opens a dialogue between the girls and Talia asks them if they still want to go the whole 9 yards about their business... the outcome of that meeting, I'm not quite sure yet, but I don't think Talia will be part of it no matter what the future holds.
What I'd ultimately like to do is try to write a 20 page back story for all the girls... get to know them as well as I can before start the actual story. But first, I'm going to devote a page in my spiral notebook to each of them, their songs, adjectives to describe, their varying styles.
Now it has me wondering whether or not "Te Busque" can manage to remain Talia's story. As I brainstorm about Amber and her motivation as the story's antagonist, I'm finding her becoming more and more complex.
Is my story evolving into a multiple character story where I'll be writing about Amber, Ruby, Scarlet and Vanessa in great length instead of just Talia?
Vanessa is the only wild card I have because I'm having trouble coming up with any sort of back story for her. Do I have enough in my head to keep her where she is in Talia's social circle? Compared to Scarlet, she's more reserved, less emotionally charged, a "I'll give you the bottom line" kind of girl and practically her polar opposite.
The only difference is, regardless of that, they are close friends with Talia and each other.
Amber and Ruby on the other hand... not so much...
From a physical standpoint, Scarlet and Ruby are twin sisters, so they have the same build. Vanessa and Amber, on the other hand, are voluptuous, have curses and rely on sensuality rather than dance skill to impress.
I played around with the idea that Amber tried out for the dance troupe more than once and she was denied her shot because she didn't have quite what they were looking for. She met Alejandro at the try-outs and he encourages her to not give up because he sees potential in her. She takes it as a compliment and is smitten, but learns later on that he's involved with Talia.
While listening to "Just Dance," I thought of Amber auditioning with two male back-up dancers that I've imagined at her flank during Karmin's "I'm just sayin' "
Where these back-up dancers came from, I have no idea... that's just what comes to mind.
Her routine with them is very tame and that's the reason why it doesn't make the cut.
Then to show what they're looking for, whoever's running the try-outs asks Ruby to do the routine from her own audition.
To "Love Game"... the lyric "I wanna take a ride on your disco stick" invokes an image of pole dancing.
Not surprisingly, Amber is frustrated by this... this leads her to believe that Ruby is a very smug, self-assured individual... but she never openly admits this. I just know that to be true.
From there, the ideas just kept building and building.
I also considered Amber being a waitress at the club. She had a rough past that she's trying to get away from, but she's admired the dancers and the attention they get, she just couldn't resist. But her dancing is very unrefined and not quite sensual enough to be at the level of the others.
She loathes the fact that she'll have to lower herself to that, but is willing to do whatever it takes to come out on top.
In doing this, she quits her waitress position, changes her appearance and goes to her next audition under a new name... supposing I go through with that, that's where the name change comes in. Carmen was Amber's previous identity.
When she becomes part of the organization, she's thrilled when it seems like Ruby has lost her edge and her material easily trumps hers. Something that continues to go on until the night of the "Heavy Metal Lover" performance... which reopens old wounds and leads to a mental breakdown... potentially.
That'd be an interesting scene to write, but it most likely won't make it into the actual novel because it's an internal thing... the only way it'd work is if the story were told in multiple first person POVs.
Amber's motivation is ever changing. She has that vendetta against Ruby that's always kinda there in the back of her mind, but most of the time, she feels she's superior.
Then while bringing Alejandro back into the picture as a potential source of conflict... Amber discovers Talia is the girl he's interested in and that she's at the center of the organization, the dancing was her idea. For these reasons, she plans to take Talia down so she can control how the business runs... she really wants the focus to be on skill and look of the dance rather than the "sex on a stick" image.
But she plays along with the act for as long as it takes to figure out how to bring it down... an inside job. Hmm... that seems a little extreme... putting herself through all the things the girls go through in their business to prove a point...
i still have a lot of kinks to work out.
In the third act after the performance of "Alejandro" where Talia stages a proverbial "break-up" with him, she and Amber have it out...
They exchange a few words and Talia finally says that she knows that Amber was behind what happened, not Alejandro, and she asks why she did it.
She consents to explain herself because Talia threatens to fire her, not only for what she got Emilia into, but because she broke the code of conduct... the girls have to get along and more importantly, there can't be that kind of bad blood between them.
Amber confesses everything, even her previous identity. While she has every right to be mad at her, Talia reassures her that she understands where she came from, goes into her own back story.
The most sacred piece of the code of conduct is the rule that the girls will bring up their pasts at their own discretion... there's no pressure to explain anything or volunteer any personal information. So in most cases, the girls don't know each other's back stories unless they open up about it on their own.
In addition to her ongoing romance with Juan Paulo, this conversation opens a dialogue between the girls and Talia asks them if they still want to go the whole 9 yards about their business... the outcome of that meeting, I'm not quite sure yet, but I don't think Talia will be part of it no matter what the future holds.
What I'd ultimately like to do is try to write a 20 page back story for all the girls... get to know them as well as I can before start the actual story. But first, I'm going to devote a page in my spiral notebook to each of them, their songs, adjectives to describe, their varying styles.
Thursday, May 2, 2013
In Need of a "Te Busque" Soundtrack WORD.DOC
Since the beginning of... whatever... whenever I started writing... God I'm bad at beginnings...
Music has played a HUGE role in my brainstorming processes, whether a song inspires a whole scene or a number of songs remind me of a special person.
I have a couple of mix CD's dedicated to these people...
the first is to my first "love," the one who got me into writing...
and his soundtrack had practically everything bubblegum pop that I was into between 1999-2001...
so there's Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, Mandy Moore, and many others... I think I might have used several Backstreet Boy tracks with just 2 from NSYNC...
one of the brightest gems there are my two techno tracks... you know how in that time period there were these techno songs on the radio that had very few legit lyrics, but you couldn't get them out of your head...
"Blue" by Eiffel 65 (I know all of you remember that :-P) and
"Around the World (La La La)" by ATC...
both one-hit wonders, both with very few legit lyrics, but I freaking loved them... great stuff
I have my 10th grade mix, most of which reveal around "David," my crush d'ans, as I like to call it, cuz each year of high school, I felt like my emotions revolved around a different crush...
I had a little bit of everything there... mainly Dream Street, Michelle Branch and Plus One (the rest of which wound up on Jonas's soundtrack)
and for kicks, I threw a bunch of Vanessa Mae tracks at the tail end cuz I didn't want to keep borrowing the CDs to listen to them
http://romantasyland.blogspot.com/2012/02/my-story-idea-of-wish-fulfillment-rebel.html
I got into more detail in this entry... I just remembered...
so a lot of my discussion has since been erased because I'm just repeating myself now...
anyway...
At some point, I'm really hoping that I'll be able to go back to "Rebel Diana"... that story about wish-fulfilment and all that... really look back into the songs from that album and draw out the scenes I want in the story so they really will fit in there :-P
"Te Busque" has become a similiar case-in-point of me taking musical inspiration to the paper... er, word processing medium...
but this time, I really want to do things right... get all the songs I want to use, get down all the details and so on... I want to hash out as much as I can before I start writing the actual book.
This is to make up for all the other times where I did zero outlining beforehand and I'm scrambling afterwards to be sure everything shakes out all right.
I have all the brainstorming scattered in different places at the moment... I have an intial Word.doc where I started putting stuff down, but by no means is it organized...
I have this blog where I'd been adding stuff whenever I have a :lightbulb: moment
and I also have a notepad and spiral notebook where I'd added stuff
heck,
maybe I should do an Excel sheet as well... just to organize things a little better...
because I would like to, at some point, narrow down who I want to appear in which number,
the kind of dance style and which part of the plot it derives from...
right now, I'll probably just copy/paste my list of songs that I have so far
http://romantasyland.blogspot.com/2012/12/going-gaga-living-as-free-as-my-hair.html
add the newest additions and such... and put that in a brand new document so I can start really brainstorming this stuff
then when it comes to the actual story-writing, I can nail down the ones I really want to appear in the story and the others I can easily leave on the cutting room floor.
the other day I was listening to some more Gaga... and when it came to "Monster," I remembered that I had written down some ideas about what that scene would be like...
I just don't remember where I put it...
this sequence takes place after Emilia does her first VIP night with Amber, gets attacked by the patron she leaves with, and JP comes to her aid, patching things up with Talia in the process...
so, give or take a couple of months after this incident, Emilia returns to the stage and along with JP and Talia, they send a message to Amber, saying that they know that she was behind all this, and it comes out that she's been wanting to knock Talia off her pedestal/throne for quite some time...
I came up with the idea while listening yesterday that the choreography in that song should really be in time with the percussion because it is SO sharp
there is so much to keep in mind when it comes to how these things are staged and to be sure each number differentiates from one another
I also want that differentiation to be with each of the girls' dance styles...
although I can save a little time in saying that Scarlet and Ruby are very similar, because they are twin sisters and all that... Ruby won't be in the story as much as Scarlet, obviously, because Scarlet is one of Talia's closest cohorts alongside Vanessa...
Ruby will be mentioned at a couple points, but the most critical will be for the "Heavy Metal Lover" sequence... a night Amber plotted for months where she'd come out on top, but Ruby steals the show with that final number... I merely don't have enough time to go into it with all of the girls :-P
Vanessa is the one I know the least about.. still... all of the girls came into this business out of abusive situations, have a love of dance, but with little opportunity in that neck of the woods, they do this as well as sell themselves to patrons for a little extra cash...
Talia's reasoning (or lack thereof) behind it is that her stepfather had her believing she was only fit for this type of work... spending so much time with him, she didn't get much of an education in academia, which disqualifies her from pursuing college and such... and part of it I guess is out of subtle revenge... he didn't want her being with anyone else but him and by being in this business, she's rubbing his nose in the fact he doesn't own her...
doesn't make a whole lot sense, though, considering that he got killed for not repaying a debt...
by the same people she ends up working for, ironically enough...
My logic is still a little lax for this story... they say sex sells, but I'm kinda terrified about how I'm going to sell the idea of these girls dancing and selling their bodies for sex to make a living... afraid that anyone who knows me, my family particularly, would judge me for putting my mind in that place... let's just say it's not very nice or pleasant...
And the idea of the story started with choreography coming to mind while listening to Apollonia 6... the fact that's such a crowd pleaser and by dancing and doing things on their own terms, they feel empowered and work past previous struggles...
I'm hoping to somehow work the female empowerment theme into this just so it doesn't sound like a story about a group of prostitutes...
the only time that really worked to anyone's advantage was the movie "Pretty Woman," but it was more of a starting point rather than a means to an end
The only issue I'll probably have writing this, logic aside... is how I put choreography onto the pages or at least attempt to make it a visual experience to read... I don't really know terminology very well with these Latin dances, although I could google and YouTube it...
I'd like to have some choreography and staging, but more often than not, I'd like my focus to be on the raw emotion behind it and how the girls relate to one another and come together onstage
like with "Monster," all of the girls are supporting Emilia as she's telling her story through dance (also, possibly, lip-synching the music, I'm still deciding on that)... she's acting alone while the girls dance around her, really sharp movements in time with the drumming. It is so awesomely pronounced that it'd be a shame not to use it. During the chorus, she'll have her eye out for Alejandro, singling him out in this attack, while the girls move to the music, then towards the end of it, she will jump them in perfect unison.
One crucial point I saw in another listen was during the bridge at the end, the memories of the "attack" come back to haunt her and she's falling to her knees, ready to hyperventilate... Talia is right there, asking if she's all right, and she quickly revives and gets back on her game, grateful for the concern
The latest idea I'd been playing around with, aside from the fact I now see Amber dancing with two guys while doing her Karmin-inspired numbers ("I'm just sayin' " and "Told you so"), is with Juan Paulo.
He's in town with two of his friends. This is kinda their last big blow-out before he finishes up his degree in pre-med, and he's deciding which branch of medicine he wants to specialize in. Back in high school, and maybe into the first few years of college, he was in a band with his friends and they just got a spot to perform at a South American venue... he's recluctant to join them because he wants to leave the band behind and focus on medicine, but they more or less con him into it... something to the effect of "you can find yourself a couple of new best friends"...
the reason I'm leaning in this direction is the Green Day track "Extraordinary Girl"... before listening to that album, I heard Nelly Furtado's a number of times and with the chorus of "No Hay Iqual"... which is all in Spanish... tribal choreography comes to mind...
the beginning of "Extraordinary Girl" starts very soft, tribal drumming in the background, to the exact same number of counts as the previous choreography...
and it all seemed to fit really well together
I see the songs being back to back on the soundtrack as the movie plays in my head...
JP tracks Talia down to her next gig, kinda at the suggestion of his friends who really believed she was flirting with him during the "Promiscuous" karaoke number where they first meet... but he starts to fall for her... hard...
so even after she turns him down or the girls (at her request) tell him she's not interested, he leaves the venue singing this song... although at this point, he doesn't know anything about what really goes on with her business... so with the movie playing in my head, I'm thinking that this could almost pass for a musical... a very dramatic and risque musical, but I see the songs really playing a role in the story as a whole
so I guess in a way I can see JP and his friends forming a Green Day/Daughtry like rock band...
a couple of Daughtry songs come to my mind as well regarding JP
whenever I get the chance, I'll get on that word.doc right away and hopefull that'll help get the ball rolling... I put down all my thoughts and notes about the songs in one spot so I can go there to add more or make sure I don't repeat myself... should be fun 8-)
although it begrudges me to say this, I don't think this story will be finished anytime soon... I might even be a few years away from starting it... just as long as I don't lose interest (God forbid!), I look forward to continue adding notes to myself for this as they come
Music has played a HUGE role in my brainstorming processes, whether a song inspires a whole scene or a number of songs remind me of a special person.
I have a couple of mix CD's dedicated to these people...
the first is to my first "love," the one who got me into writing...
and his soundtrack had practically everything bubblegum pop that I was into between 1999-2001...
so there's Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, Mandy Moore, and many others... I think I might have used several Backstreet Boy tracks with just 2 from NSYNC...
one of the brightest gems there are my two techno tracks... you know how in that time period there were these techno songs on the radio that had very few legit lyrics, but you couldn't get them out of your head...
"Blue" by Eiffel 65 (I know all of you remember that :-P) and
"Around the World (La La La)" by ATC...
both one-hit wonders, both with very few legit lyrics, but I freaking loved them... great stuff
I have my 10th grade mix, most of which reveal around "David," my crush d'ans, as I like to call it, cuz each year of high school, I felt like my emotions revolved around a different crush...
I had a little bit of everything there... mainly Dream Street, Michelle Branch and Plus One (the rest of which wound up on Jonas's soundtrack)
and for kicks, I threw a bunch of Vanessa Mae tracks at the tail end cuz I didn't want to keep borrowing the CDs to listen to them
http://romantasyland.blogspot.com/2012/02/my-story-idea-of-wish-fulfillment-rebel.html
I got into more detail in this entry... I just remembered...
so a lot of my discussion has since been erased because I'm just repeating myself now...
anyway...
At some point, I'm really hoping that I'll be able to go back to "Rebel Diana"... that story about wish-fulfilment and all that... really look back into the songs from that album and draw out the scenes I want in the story so they really will fit in there :-P
"Te Busque" has become a similiar case-in-point of me taking musical inspiration to the paper... er, word processing medium...
but this time, I really want to do things right... get all the songs I want to use, get down all the details and so on... I want to hash out as much as I can before I start writing the actual book.
This is to make up for all the other times where I did zero outlining beforehand and I'm scrambling afterwards to be sure everything shakes out all right.
I have all the brainstorming scattered in different places at the moment... I have an intial Word.doc where I started putting stuff down, but by no means is it organized...
I have this blog where I'd been adding stuff whenever I have a :lightbulb: moment
and I also have a notepad and spiral notebook where I'd added stuff
heck,
maybe I should do an Excel sheet as well... just to organize things a little better...
because I would like to, at some point, narrow down who I want to appear in which number,
the kind of dance style and which part of the plot it derives from...
right now, I'll probably just copy/paste my list of songs that I have so far
http://romantasyland.blogspot.com/2012/12/going-gaga-living-as-free-as-my-hair.html
add the newest additions and such... and put that in a brand new document so I can start really brainstorming this stuff
then when it comes to the actual story-writing, I can nail down the ones I really want to appear in the story and the others I can easily leave on the cutting room floor.
the other day I was listening to some more Gaga... and when it came to "Monster," I remembered that I had written down some ideas about what that scene would be like...
I just don't remember where I put it...
this sequence takes place after Emilia does her first VIP night with Amber, gets attacked by the patron she leaves with, and JP comes to her aid, patching things up with Talia in the process...
so, give or take a couple of months after this incident, Emilia returns to the stage and along with JP and Talia, they send a message to Amber, saying that they know that she was behind all this, and it comes out that she's been wanting to knock Talia off her pedestal/throne for quite some time...
I came up with the idea while listening yesterday that the choreography in that song should really be in time with the percussion because it is SO sharp
there is so much to keep in mind when it comes to how these things are staged and to be sure each number differentiates from one another
I also want that differentiation to be with each of the girls' dance styles...
although I can save a little time in saying that Scarlet and Ruby are very similar, because they are twin sisters and all that... Ruby won't be in the story as much as Scarlet, obviously, because Scarlet is one of Talia's closest cohorts alongside Vanessa...
Ruby will be mentioned at a couple points, but the most critical will be for the "Heavy Metal Lover" sequence... a night Amber plotted for months where she'd come out on top, but Ruby steals the show with that final number... I merely don't have enough time to go into it with all of the girls :-P
Vanessa is the one I know the least about.. still... all of the girls came into this business out of abusive situations, have a love of dance, but with little opportunity in that neck of the woods, they do this as well as sell themselves to patrons for a little extra cash...
Talia's reasoning (or lack thereof) behind it is that her stepfather had her believing she was only fit for this type of work... spending so much time with him, she didn't get much of an education in academia, which disqualifies her from pursuing college and such... and part of it I guess is out of subtle revenge... he didn't want her being with anyone else but him and by being in this business, she's rubbing his nose in the fact he doesn't own her...
doesn't make a whole lot sense, though, considering that he got killed for not repaying a debt...
by the same people she ends up working for, ironically enough...
My logic is still a little lax for this story... they say sex sells, but I'm kinda terrified about how I'm going to sell the idea of these girls dancing and selling their bodies for sex to make a living... afraid that anyone who knows me, my family particularly, would judge me for putting my mind in that place... let's just say it's not very nice or pleasant...
And the idea of the story started with choreography coming to mind while listening to Apollonia 6... the fact that's such a crowd pleaser and by dancing and doing things on their own terms, they feel empowered and work past previous struggles...
I'm hoping to somehow work the female empowerment theme into this just so it doesn't sound like a story about a group of prostitutes...
the only time that really worked to anyone's advantage was the movie "Pretty Woman," but it was more of a starting point rather than a means to an end
The only issue I'll probably have writing this, logic aside... is how I put choreography onto the pages or at least attempt to make it a visual experience to read... I don't really know terminology very well with these Latin dances, although I could google and YouTube it...
I'd like to have some choreography and staging, but more often than not, I'd like my focus to be on the raw emotion behind it and how the girls relate to one another and come together onstage
like with "Monster," all of the girls are supporting Emilia as she's telling her story through dance (also, possibly, lip-synching the music, I'm still deciding on that)... she's acting alone while the girls dance around her, really sharp movements in time with the drumming. It is so awesomely pronounced that it'd be a shame not to use it. During the chorus, she'll have her eye out for Alejandro, singling him out in this attack, while the girls move to the music, then towards the end of it, she will jump them in perfect unison.
One crucial point I saw in another listen was during the bridge at the end, the memories of the "attack" come back to haunt her and she's falling to her knees, ready to hyperventilate... Talia is right there, asking if she's all right, and she quickly revives and gets back on her game, grateful for the concern
The latest idea I'd been playing around with, aside from the fact I now see Amber dancing with two guys while doing her Karmin-inspired numbers ("I'm just sayin' " and "Told you so"), is with Juan Paulo.
He's in town with two of his friends. This is kinda their last big blow-out before he finishes up his degree in pre-med, and he's deciding which branch of medicine he wants to specialize in. Back in high school, and maybe into the first few years of college, he was in a band with his friends and they just got a spot to perform at a South American venue... he's recluctant to join them because he wants to leave the band behind and focus on medicine, but they more or less con him into it... something to the effect of "you can find yourself a couple of new best friends"...
the reason I'm leaning in this direction is the Green Day track "Extraordinary Girl"... before listening to that album, I heard Nelly Furtado's a number of times and with the chorus of "No Hay Iqual"... which is all in Spanish... tribal choreography comes to mind...
the beginning of "Extraordinary Girl" starts very soft, tribal drumming in the background, to the exact same number of counts as the previous choreography...
and it all seemed to fit really well together
I see the songs being back to back on the soundtrack as the movie plays in my head...
JP tracks Talia down to her next gig, kinda at the suggestion of his friends who really believed she was flirting with him during the "Promiscuous" karaoke number where they first meet... but he starts to fall for her... hard...
so even after she turns him down or the girls (at her request) tell him she's not interested, he leaves the venue singing this song... although at this point, he doesn't know anything about what really goes on with her business... so with the movie playing in my head, I'm thinking that this could almost pass for a musical... a very dramatic and risque musical, but I see the songs really playing a role in the story as a whole
so I guess in a way I can see JP and his friends forming a Green Day/Daughtry like rock band...
a couple of Daughtry songs come to my mind as well regarding JP
whenever I get the chance, I'll get on that word.doc right away and hopefull that'll help get the ball rolling... I put down all my thoughts and notes about the songs in one spot so I can go there to add more or make sure I don't repeat myself... should be fun 8-)
although it begrudges me to say this, I don't think this story will be finished anytime soon... I might even be a few years away from starting it... just as long as I don't lose interest (God forbid!), I look forward to continue adding notes to myself for this as they come
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
A Writer's Frustration: Much Ado about Prologues
It goes without saying that breaking into publishing is not an easy thing.
I've had all kinds of difficulties attributing to it and almost always, it's my ego and confidence that takes the biggest hit.
Regarding "Jonas," I must have sent a dozen queries and gotten half those replies back.
An associate that worked with Stephenie Meyer's agent, he told me that the submission pile is so huge that I'm not likely to get a reply. That's one of the few things I really went through the trouble to make my query letter sound great because I actually knew this person and what her material was and so on.
After that, it's nothing but generic BS:
"not the right fit"
"we do not feel strongly enough about it to move forward"
the most thoughtful reply I got was: "I'm afraid I was just not hooked enough to want to ask for more. "
That at least gave me something to work with.
Naturally, this is not enough time in the day for anyone to give specifics about the rejections, if they bother to formally send them at all. I get that.
But how does one break into this business if you're not told how to improve?
In my inbox today, I got an article from one of my writer's subscriptions and it was on Agent Pet Peeve. Some of it I knew already.
Agents want to be hooked right away and want to read more to see what happens. They don't want a lot of exposition to start something. They want it to be believable and for us not to fall until clichés.
It's when they attacked one of my go-to methods when I really lost my mind and sanity for a good 5 minutes.
I almost hate to say it, but Jonas's greatest strength IS his prologue, his origin story. I've worked with the first couple chapters, trying to add more to Nina, what she's like before she goes into uncharted waters... a brand new high school.
I meant for her to be a blank canvas that girls who read about her can see a little of themselves in her, so I really didn't give her too much definition. This is going to sound really bad, but I'm wracking my brain to figure out what I have defined about her aside from shoulder-length blonde hair and hazel eyes.
I'd been away from the project for so much. Right now, I just plain exhausted trying to think about it. Makes me want to quit moving forward.
Rejection is a very taxing thing, especially when I'm scrambling trying to revise what I think is leading me wrong.
I refuse to believe that NO agent will take me simply because I start with a prologue. It's a backstory, an origin story of Jonas and the adversary he was summoned to defeat. That is the best part of my story for quite some time and my hope has always been that people will be so wowed by it that they'll continue forward with Nina, while being curious as to how that story fits into the grand scheme of things.
Sure, my prologue is long enough to be a chapter onto itself, but I really fail to see the sense in that. Chapter 1 taking place EONS ago, and Chapter 2 takes place in the present... the distance between the two points is so vast, how does that work other than having the backstory being in prologue?
Shortly after replying tearfully to that post, I thought about Harry Potter.
To be technical, the first chapter takes place 10 years before the story actually begins, with Harry on the verge of turning 11.
That transition ran fine. So technically, I guess I could turn the prologue into chapter 1... but it sounds much less epic... I hate even considering that idea.
Whenever I'm setting up a romantasy backstory with my characters, I need the prologue.
Orion, who I originally intended to be a distant cousin of Jonas, was reincarnated a number of times before his spirit took on the form it was meant to take. The first few scenes were inspired by the Greek mythology-inspired segment from Fantasia.
Then Orion, after being a faun and a centaur became this human who'd been wheel-chair bound since he was 3, finds his calling as a merman, something that happens completely by accident, but turns out to be the right form for him to take.
Although I find it a little ironic now, looking back, that Zeus made so many mistakes creating him and picking the forms for him to take... he's THE god of Greek Mythology, he doesn't make mistakes... unless of course you take his promiscuity into account...
Chihiro's backstory is even longer... and I'd been considering toying around with it...
I'd just had very little brainpower to really work on my writing at all. I'd been so busy rereading some of short projects, reliving this and that.
It's frustrating and even more exhausting... I'm still very exhausted right now and I really don't know why that is... that I want to be a writer, to make a living as a writer, really haven't aspired to anything else aside from getting published, and I'd been stuck in this rut for a very long time.
At least when it comes to my movie blog, I have some to go back to every week. While I'm still going through this list of my favorites, I still have something going on.
Maybe the thing I'm frustrated with the most right now is I feel like my voice isn't being heard by anyone but the people closest to me. My friends and family know how much I want to pursue this and so on, but my voice is not being heard by anyone that can help me achieve much of anything.
I'd been semi-active on Twitter, but nobody replies to me on anything, even when I'm paying all kinds of compliments.
Sometimes I want nothing more to scream to all the people whose attention I'm trying to get:
"Acknowledge me, dammit!!"
I realize it comes off really rude, I shouldn't be so pushy, etc, but I'm just frustrated right now.
I don't want to hear that agents hate prologues... it's the best storytelling/exposition device I have, and if I can't take that route, I really don't have much else I can do to get anyone's attention.
I've had all kinds of difficulties attributing to it and almost always, it's my ego and confidence that takes the biggest hit.
Regarding "Jonas," I must have sent a dozen queries and gotten half those replies back.
An associate that worked with Stephenie Meyer's agent, he told me that the submission pile is so huge that I'm not likely to get a reply. That's one of the few things I really went through the trouble to make my query letter sound great because I actually knew this person and what her material was and so on.
After that, it's nothing but generic BS:
"not the right fit"
"we do not feel strongly enough about it to move forward"
the most thoughtful reply I got was: "I'm afraid I was just not hooked enough to want to ask for more. "
That at least gave me something to work with.
Naturally, this is not enough time in the day for anyone to give specifics about the rejections, if they bother to formally send them at all. I get that.
But how does one break into this business if you're not told how to improve?
In my inbox today, I got an article from one of my writer's subscriptions and it was on Agent Pet Peeve. Some of it I knew already.
Agents want to be hooked right away and want to read more to see what happens. They don't want a lot of exposition to start something. They want it to be believable and for us not to fall until clichés.
It's when they attacked one of my go-to methods when I really lost my mind and sanity for a good 5 minutes.
I almost hate to say it, but Jonas's greatest strength IS his prologue, his origin story. I've worked with the first couple chapters, trying to add more to Nina, what she's like before she goes into uncharted waters... a brand new high school.
I meant for her to be a blank canvas that girls who read about her can see a little of themselves in her, so I really didn't give her too much definition. This is going to sound really bad, but I'm wracking my brain to figure out what I have defined about her aside from shoulder-length blonde hair and hazel eyes.
I'd been away from the project for so much. Right now, I just plain exhausted trying to think about it. Makes me want to quit moving forward.
Rejection is a very taxing thing, especially when I'm scrambling trying to revise what I think is leading me wrong.
I refuse to believe that NO agent will take me simply because I start with a prologue. It's a backstory, an origin story of Jonas and the adversary he was summoned to defeat. That is the best part of my story for quite some time and my hope has always been that people will be so wowed by it that they'll continue forward with Nina, while being curious as to how that story fits into the grand scheme of things.
Sure, my prologue is long enough to be a chapter onto itself, but I really fail to see the sense in that. Chapter 1 taking place EONS ago, and Chapter 2 takes place in the present... the distance between the two points is so vast, how does that work other than having the backstory being in prologue?
Shortly after replying tearfully to that post, I thought about Harry Potter.
To be technical, the first chapter takes place 10 years before the story actually begins, with Harry on the verge of turning 11.
That transition ran fine. So technically, I guess I could turn the prologue into chapter 1... but it sounds much less epic... I hate even considering that idea.
Whenever I'm setting up a romantasy backstory with my characters, I need the prologue.
Orion, who I originally intended to be a distant cousin of Jonas, was reincarnated a number of times before his spirit took on the form it was meant to take. The first few scenes were inspired by the Greek mythology-inspired segment from Fantasia.
Then Orion, after being a faun and a centaur became this human who'd been wheel-chair bound since he was 3, finds his calling as a merman, something that happens completely by accident, but turns out to be the right form for him to take.
Although I find it a little ironic now, looking back, that Zeus made so many mistakes creating him and picking the forms for him to take... he's THE god of Greek Mythology, he doesn't make mistakes... unless of course you take his promiscuity into account...
Chihiro's backstory is even longer... and I'd been considering toying around with it...
I'd just had very little brainpower to really work on my writing at all. I'd been so busy rereading some of short projects, reliving this and that.
It's frustrating and even more exhausting... I'm still very exhausted right now and I really don't know why that is... that I want to be a writer, to make a living as a writer, really haven't aspired to anything else aside from getting published, and I'd been stuck in this rut for a very long time.
At least when it comes to my movie blog, I have some to go back to every week. While I'm still going through this list of my favorites, I still have something going on.
Maybe the thing I'm frustrated with the most right now is I feel like my voice isn't being heard by anyone but the people closest to me. My friends and family know how much I want to pursue this and so on, but my voice is not being heard by anyone that can help me achieve much of anything.
I'd been semi-active on Twitter, but nobody replies to me on anything, even when I'm paying all kinds of compliments.
Sometimes I want nothing more to scream to all the people whose attention I'm trying to get:
"Acknowledge me, dammit!!"
I realize it comes off really rude, I shouldn't be so pushy, etc, but I'm just frustrated right now.
I don't want to hear that agents hate prologues... it's the best storytelling/exposition device I have, and if I can't take that route, I really don't have much else I can do to get anyone's attention.
Saturday, April 20, 2013
Girl Power: Exploring Female-Centric Storytelling
Going as far as back I can remember, everything I wrote had the same formula.
Girl meets guy that is usually very mysterious or simply is unlike anyone they'd ever known before. Whether it's the first time they're opening up to another person (Jonas), they're a softie under a tough exterior (Lucas), it's always the fascination about the guy that drives the story. Then it's something that has to do with them that propels it forward.
I keep writing to find out what happens to them.
At the same time, although there's always a love story in whatever I write, my focus is almost always on the guy. Like the guy is my main character and the girl is the observer who become a key source of inspiration slash love interest.
I've just always had this issue with writing female characters because they have a little too much of me in them. I see my flaws pop out in them, whether it's brashness I'd never act on in reality or my insecurities.
Just for the heck of it, in a few short stories/sketches I wrote in 2011-12, I vented through my character, who was caught up in some kind of depression, just so I could work through something I was feeling. After a while, though, I just got sick of it because it's always the same thing. Kinda like my life at this moment, but I'm hoping for things to shake up a little next week.
Another issue is the mere fact I didn't have that many female friends.
This is gonna sound super crazy, but I think I can literally count the number of girlfriends I'd had in my life on one hand.
Of those 5 really substantial girlfriends, we're all Facebook friends, but don't really talk all that much... we occasionally comment on each other's statuses (more common with some than most)
but the latest addition, Sam, who I met so many people/friends through... we still keep in touch semi-regularly and for her friendship, I'm extremely grateful.
None of them were the kinds of girlfriends you see in the movies where there're always trips to the mall, trying on clothes, checking out boys and all that.
It's nothing like what they show in the movies. I enjoy my favorite movies despite the fact I don't have that in common in reality, but all the same, I wouldn't mind something similiar in addition to what I have.
Anyway, there was a reason why I was going into all this... and it does involve something I wrote. Unlike the previous short story I discussed, this one shakes out a lot better with the logistics and the storytelling and such. I thought it might be a good idea to try expanding beyond the usual stuff I wrote with a girlfriend-type story.
It'd bring into some small things from my own life, but I wanted a friendship between girlfriends to blossom through a time of crisis that makes them besties for life.
It was one of those many whispers in the back of my head of something I wanted to attempt, and it was a matter of the right muse showing up to get me started.
That muse happened to be American Idol Season 8 alum Alexis Grace.
So much time had passed now that... aw, who'm I kidding? I literally forgot every other performance of hers after she slayed Dolly Parton's "Jolene."
I only remember her "Dirty Diana" cover the week before because it was the top 13... I have zero recollection of her semi-final performance or even what song she did, but she was labeled a dark horse after whatever song she did.
In my view, it was a perfect marriage between her and that one song, and I was shocked that she went home as quickly as she did. One of the most devestating American Idol eliminations I experienced... and I'd include Clay Aiken missing out on the title in that discussion.
The only thing substantially more difficult to swallow was Colton Dixon last season going home in 7th... and for the life of me, I couldn't get why Phillip Phillips got all the votes and went on to win... I didn't get him... I still kinda don't, but I have warmed up to his original material.
Another writing trend I went through in these past couple years, after I couldn't put forth the effort to write something of novel-proportions... is that something would come up, either on TV or in a movie, I'd get really attached to a character or person and something happened to them, and I put down on paper (figure of speech, it's always via keyboard) how I saw them so I don't forget what they were like.
This was the first time I went through that process.
I'm kinda amazed, and perhaps there will come a time where I'll kick myself because of this, that considering how much I missed Colton after his elimination, I didn't fall back into the same pattern... write a little something about him.
I might hate myself in a few years for not getting his essence down in paper in the form of a character, although I did write lengthy reviews after each week of American Idol and continually say that, even though I wanted it to be a girls' year, he made me fall for him week after week.
Luckily, he got a record deal and released an amazing album, so there is zero chance I'll forget him entirely.
With Alexis, several elements came together... and it started with her physical description and the few lyrics of "Jolene" I could remember, despite having listened to her sing it half a dozen times, between the performance night, the "save me" performance and on YouTube...
going by the song as a whole, she could have turned into this girl of unsurpassed beauty that my character would develop a strong relationship with, but then a guy would come into the picture and his attention would be taken up by her...
other than "she was a beauty beyond compare," none of the other lyrics ever went into the story I ended up writing. the "Jolene" Dolly sang about had auburn hair, and supposedly was a bank teller that astounded her husband with her beauty, and she made a big thang about it by putting it in song. Somewhat of an overreaction, I'd say.
Alexis just had this look that set her apart and of course, she had a charming voice I adored.
I guess you could say she'd go on to join a list of "girl crushes" I procured over the years.
Elements clicked into place little by little the story practically wrote itself over the course of almost 3 months
22 pages, 10,905 words
The end result that blossomed became more than I could have ever imagined.
I found a pretty good vehicle for myself in Casey Carlton, who began this story as Nick Carraway getting glimpse of Gatsby, that type of narration. Then she stepped away from being the observer, going on about all these things about this girl Jolienne Carine (its a little redundant, both names are derived from words that meant pretty/beautiful), to seeing her for herself. The one time they meet, they hit it off right away, and suddenly she disappears.
Enter the meat of the story:
Jolienne is hospitalized with leukemia, dropping the name she adopted (according to her, "I traveled abroad one summer for my French class and Pierre, one of the boys in my host family, gave me the name. When I first arrived, he kept telling me how I was ‘jolie,’ which is French for ‘pretty’ or ‘beautiful.’ Somehow, the name caught on and nobody’s known me as anything else.), and seeing as Casey happens to be a volunteer at that particular hospital, their friendship grows little by little.
Supposedly, her reputed popularity was an illusion. She got this reputation because nobody else in their school looked like her and she exuded this electric vibe everyone wanted a piece of. Now that she was off the map, though, her existence as "queen bee" was forgotten about.
Naturally, she is nothing like her rep, and is a down-to-earth, extremely sweet person that got dealt a bad hand with this diagonsis.
Without Casey's friendship, she might not have survived all the treatments and such... heck, she might have been on the bone marrow donation list until it was too late to save her...
although in a later draft, I might have to change up a few facts cuz, supposedly, you have to be 18 to donate bone marrow, and I may have written them as high school freshman...
Interestingly, they said that you must be 18 and due to the voluntary nature of this procedure, they don't allow a parent or guardian to sign a release form for it... you learn something new everyday.
I doubt I'd ever be enough of a people person to follow the example of my character, getting in volunteer hours at the hospital to take down information, change IVs and such, and be a source of moral support to people who don't get regular visitors. Later on in another story, I write that she is gearing towards becoming a psychologist for cancer patients.
I wasn't aware at the time that people do do that kind of thing for a living. Anna Kendrick plays a character who has that exact position in that Joseph-Gordon Levitt film "50/50."
Casey's kind of a blank canvas that I could put in a number of situations. I'd even considered redoing this story so she and Jolienne/Alex were hospital room mates when Casey had her procedure done that would go on to inspire her decision to do the volunteer work and so on.
Taking a paper out of my own life, she had surgery to take care of her scoliosis.
Supposing I were to do it all again with that part of the story, Alex's leukemia came back years later, and only when they meet in the hospital again, under different circumstances, they recognize one another from years ago, getting all the more closer.
With all that, I could make the story twice as long as it is.
Or maybe years later, I could have a number of stories done with those two characters, with a few extra additions.
If I were to take it to the publishing routes, I'd have to change at least one name in process because when I reunited the two of them, I brought a character from "Less than Zero" along for the ride.... although the movie moreso than the book.
Speaking of things I had trouble getting over... but that's another story entirely.
Quite possibly, despite the relationship blossoms between my character and his, I could play with the idea of Alex/Jolienne and Casey going beyond friendship as well. Really playing up the "girl crush" thing and playing around with the possibilities of that.
Girl meets guy that is usually very mysterious or simply is unlike anyone they'd ever known before. Whether it's the first time they're opening up to another person (Jonas), they're a softie under a tough exterior (Lucas), it's always the fascination about the guy that drives the story. Then it's something that has to do with them that propels it forward.
I keep writing to find out what happens to them.
At the same time, although there's always a love story in whatever I write, my focus is almost always on the guy. Like the guy is my main character and the girl is the observer who become a key source of inspiration slash love interest.
I've just always had this issue with writing female characters because they have a little too much of me in them. I see my flaws pop out in them, whether it's brashness I'd never act on in reality or my insecurities.
Just for the heck of it, in a few short stories/sketches I wrote in 2011-12, I vented through my character, who was caught up in some kind of depression, just so I could work through something I was feeling. After a while, though, I just got sick of it because it's always the same thing. Kinda like my life at this moment, but I'm hoping for things to shake up a little next week.
Another issue is the mere fact I didn't have that many female friends.
This is gonna sound super crazy, but I think I can literally count the number of girlfriends I'd had in my life on one hand.
Of those 5 really substantial girlfriends, we're all Facebook friends, but don't really talk all that much... we occasionally comment on each other's statuses (more common with some than most)
but the latest addition, Sam, who I met so many people/friends through... we still keep in touch semi-regularly and for her friendship, I'm extremely grateful.
None of them were the kinds of girlfriends you see in the movies where there're always trips to the mall, trying on clothes, checking out boys and all that.
It's nothing like what they show in the movies. I enjoy my favorite movies despite the fact I don't have that in common in reality, but all the same, I wouldn't mind something similiar in addition to what I have.
Anyway, there was a reason why I was going into all this... and it does involve something I wrote. Unlike the previous short story I discussed, this one shakes out a lot better with the logistics and the storytelling and such. I thought it might be a good idea to try expanding beyond the usual stuff I wrote with a girlfriend-type story.
It'd bring into some small things from my own life, but I wanted a friendship between girlfriends to blossom through a time of crisis that makes them besties for life.
It was one of those many whispers in the back of my head of something I wanted to attempt, and it was a matter of the right muse showing up to get me started.
That muse happened to be American Idol Season 8 alum Alexis Grace.
So much time had passed now that... aw, who'm I kidding? I literally forgot every other performance of hers after she slayed Dolly Parton's "Jolene."
I only remember her "Dirty Diana" cover the week before because it was the top 13... I have zero recollection of her semi-final performance or even what song she did, but she was labeled a dark horse after whatever song she did.
In my view, it was a perfect marriage between her and that one song, and I was shocked that she went home as quickly as she did. One of the most devestating American Idol eliminations I experienced... and I'd include Clay Aiken missing out on the title in that discussion.
The only thing substantially more difficult to swallow was Colton Dixon last season going home in 7th... and for the life of me, I couldn't get why Phillip Phillips got all the votes and went on to win... I didn't get him... I still kinda don't, but I have warmed up to his original material.
Another writing trend I went through in these past couple years, after I couldn't put forth the effort to write something of novel-proportions... is that something would come up, either on TV or in a movie, I'd get really attached to a character or person and something happened to them, and I put down on paper (figure of speech, it's always via keyboard) how I saw them so I don't forget what they were like.
This was the first time I went through that process.
I'm kinda amazed, and perhaps there will come a time where I'll kick myself because of this, that considering how much I missed Colton after his elimination, I didn't fall back into the same pattern... write a little something about him.
I might hate myself in a few years for not getting his essence down in paper in the form of a character, although I did write lengthy reviews after each week of American Idol and continually say that, even though I wanted it to be a girls' year, he made me fall for him week after week.
Luckily, he got a record deal and released an amazing album, so there is zero chance I'll forget him entirely.
With Alexis, several elements came together... and it started with her physical description and the few lyrics of "Jolene" I could remember, despite having listened to her sing it half a dozen times, between the performance night, the "save me" performance and on YouTube...
going by the song as a whole, she could have turned into this girl of unsurpassed beauty that my character would develop a strong relationship with, but then a guy would come into the picture and his attention would be taken up by her...
other than "she was a beauty beyond compare," none of the other lyrics ever went into the story I ended up writing. the "Jolene" Dolly sang about had auburn hair, and supposedly was a bank teller that astounded her husband with her beauty, and she made a big thang about it by putting it in song. Somewhat of an overreaction, I'd say.
Alexis just had this look that set her apart and of course, she had a charming voice I adored.
I guess you could say she'd go on to join a list of "girl crushes" I procured over the years.
Elements clicked into place little by little the story practically wrote itself over the course of almost 3 months
22 pages, 10,905 words
The end result that blossomed became more than I could have ever imagined.
I found a pretty good vehicle for myself in Casey Carlton, who began this story as Nick Carraway getting glimpse of Gatsby, that type of narration. Then she stepped away from being the observer, going on about all these things about this girl Jolienne Carine (its a little redundant, both names are derived from words that meant pretty/beautiful), to seeing her for herself. The one time they meet, they hit it off right away, and suddenly she disappears.
Enter the meat of the story:
Jolienne is hospitalized with leukemia, dropping the name she adopted (according to her, "I traveled abroad one summer for my French class and Pierre, one of the boys in my host family, gave me the name. When I first arrived, he kept telling me how I was ‘jolie,’ which is French for ‘pretty’ or ‘beautiful.’ Somehow, the name caught on and nobody’s known me as anything else.), and seeing as Casey happens to be a volunteer at that particular hospital, their friendship grows little by little.
Supposedly, her reputed popularity was an illusion. She got this reputation because nobody else in their school looked like her and she exuded this electric vibe everyone wanted a piece of. Now that she was off the map, though, her existence as "queen bee" was forgotten about.
Naturally, she is nothing like her rep, and is a down-to-earth, extremely sweet person that got dealt a bad hand with this diagonsis.
Without Casey's friendship, she might not have survived all the treatments and such... heck, she might have been on the bone marrow donation list until it was too late to save her...
although in a later draft, I might have to change up a few facts cuz, supposedly, you have to be 18 to donate bone marrow, and I may have written them as high school freshman...
Interestingly, they said that you must be 18 and due to the voluntary nature of this procedure, they don't allow a parent or guardian to sign a release form for it... you learn something new everyday.
I doubt I'd ever be enough of a people person to follow the example of my character, getting in volunteer hours at the hospital to take down information, change IVs and such, and be a source of moral support to people who don't get regular visitors. Later on in another story, I write that she is gearing towards becoming a psychologist for cancer patients.
I wasn't aware at the time that people do do that kind of thing for a living. Anna Kendrick plays a character who has that exact position in that Joseph-Gordon Levitt film "50/50."
Casey's kind of a blank canvas that I could put in a number of situations. I'd even considered redoing this story so she and Jolienne/Alex were hospital room mates when Casey had her procedure done that would go on to inspire her decision to do the volunteer work and so on.
Taking a paper out of my own life, she had surgery to take care of her scoliosis.
Supposing I were to do it all again with that part of the story, Alex's leukemia came back years later, and only when they meet in the hospital again, under different circumstances, they recognize one another from years ago, getting all the more closer.
With all that, I could make the story twice as long as it is.
Or maybe years later, I could have a number of stories done with those two characters, with a few extra additions.
If I were to take it to the publishing routes, I'd have to change at least one name in process because when I reunited the two of them, I brought a character from "Less than Zero" along for the ride.... although the movie moreso than the book.
Speaking of things I had trouble getting over... but that's another story entirely.
Quite possibly, despite the relationship blossoms between my character and his, I could play with the idea of Alex/Jolienne and Casey going beyond friendship as well. Really playing up the "girl crush" thing and playing around with the possibilities of that.
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