Stephen King on Writing. Also: Does "Jonas" still has a future?

Over the past week, I'd been reading Stephen King's book "On Writing"... part memoir, part instruction manual... 

I figured it'd be the piece of literature I'd get through during last week's long weekend at the shorehouse. The plan was originally going there Friday and coming back Monday. Because the weather looked iffy, we decided to stay another day.
Luckily, Point Pleasant was awesome as always when we went Tuesday. The only downside was that it was a little hot for my tastes... felt like I was melting. And our lunch wasn't the best I'd had.

It's good to note that the best food we had, we all had at home and cooked on the grill. Most of it came from this small family-run food place that had the best fish we'd had in ages. Astronomically delicious red snapper.

So I took out this book the first day and read it outside at our long table on the patio with the large umbrella.
The first part was memoir, Stephen King going into his childhood and earlier parts of his life to establish how he came to be the type of writer he was. I forget the exact page, but somewhere in the section labeled "C.V.," I experienced weakness like I hadn't since my back surgery.

Apparently the dude had bad ears when he was a kid and back in the 50's, they didn't have "ear tubes"... the procedure involved... wow, I'm feeling a little weak trying to describe it... big ass needle punctured the ear drum and drained the liquid...

Afterwards, I went a section or two before I had to stop. My stomach rolled over several times. I felt like I was going to vomit, sincerely for the first time in what feels like ages. 
Eventually I decided it was best for me to get inside and lay down. 
Damn... I never felt so close to fainting before. I grabbed onto the island in our small kitchen, my vision fuzzing out like snow on an old TV, with the intent of feeling my way to the sofa. Luckily my dad was there to help me cuz I might have ended up on the floor.

Laying down instantly took care of the faintness, but it would be hours (and one short nap) before I stopped feeling sick to my stomach. 

Geesh... I "donate" four pints of blood to myself in prep for my surgery and have to spend a week with an IV strapped to my hand and it leaves me freaking about needles for the rest of my life. Not so much that I get dizzy at the small hint of blood... I need a lot there for me to feel ill about it. 
Not to mention I'm sensitive about my ears anyway... as if that keeps me from cranking up my iPod when I have trouble hearing the music... 

so... thankfully... (would underline three times if I could)... that was the most graphic part about the book and I REALLY got a lot out of the rest of it.
...at least I felt like I did :-P I know for a fact that I will have to have a second read on of these days (in the "On Writing" section only) armed with a pad and pencil because there's plenty there to keep in mind for future productions

but in general, it'll be highly unlikely that I'll read any of his books after that...
not just my fainting spell, but because the horror genre freaks me out and I'd rather not have nightmares over it.
But I will be more likely to read the books than see the movies. "The Shining," I simply will refuse to watch.

Places where he got his ideas were also pretty interesting... how he came up with "Carrie" and the number of details in his life (past and [then] present) that came into it... sounded like genius to me.
My friend Dave loves his writing and has a lot of his books.
My dad, on the other hand, despite how much he loves movies like "The Shining", puts it as the following: "I'd rather not read 10 pages describing a room"... the man himself confessed at one point in the book that running long IS one of his greatest issues.

Let it be remembered, though, that Stephen King HATED the film's rendition of his book.

If I were to read any, I'd read "Carrie" and "Misery" because the way he described them were pretty interesting to me... all the stuff that went into it... 
"The Stand" also sounds kinda interesting... post-apocalyptic themes, talking about human nature, and all that... 

but I'd stay away from Salem's Lot, Pet Semetary, Cujo, The Shining, and a couple others for sure... because I know they'd give me nightmares. 
Not sure what it is about demonizing animals, but it just doesn't sit well with me, so anything of his that involves animals, I wouldn't touch.

...

That was the easy part of the discussion...

I have been less than enthusiastic about my most cherished novel...
heck, I haven't been...
I'd been a downer about it.

Things haven't been quite right since I started subscribing to Writer's Digest and what really did me in was hearing agents hating on prologues.
The dozens of rejections I'd gotten, I'm afraid are because nobody gets my work... or worse, I'm lacking in my writing in places I'm not aware.

Is Jonas is the wrong type of protagonist to propel a novel to the best seller's list?
Are my characters developed enough?
Does my storyline even make sense?

Recently, I'd considered deleting all of the files on my computer because they're nothing but confusion. I got as far as chapter four with my whole re-vamp idea and that's where I'd been road-blocked ever since.
The person I was 10 years ago and the person I am now are two different people... okay, not entirely, but the writing styles are so different.  I even cringe at some passages I'd written because it's not quite right. I know for a fact several areas are drawn out and slow and the pacing overall is uneven.

Then there are moments like today and the other week when I hear songs that bring me back to that time... 
and quite honestly, a couple of Madonna's songs made it into my story because they were among my favorites when I was in 2nd grade... I don't even know why that is, but something about that time of innocence came back to me and seeped into my writing.
If only I could remember the choreography for "Dress you up" that Nina had a daydream about when she saw the dress she wore to the dance. 

All I know, back then, a few artists resonated with me and their music fit into my work one way or another.
Nina was a gymnast before coming to this new school where she became a cheerleader. She could have taken dance lessons and, convincably, Jonas could have taken a few ballroom classes so he'd be able to keep up with her on the dance floor.
Then there was Plus One, that Christian boyband I took a chance on because I liked one song they did on a soundtrack. "In my heart" was featured in that Disney Channel movie "An Endless Ring of Light," supposedly based on a Madeline L'Engle book. Mischa Barton (before she was Marissa Cooper on "The O.C.") was visiting her grandpa in Hawaii for the summer and she found she had the ability to telepathically communicate with dolphins. The song just played during this scene where she's dancing in the campfire light with a young guy who happens to be a dolphin trainer at the water park.

I guess that could explain (in part) why I wrote Jonas as someone possessing psychic powers. Most of it, I'm sure, came from "Spirited Away" (Haku had magical qualities, including the fact he could transform into a dragon)...
sometimes I wonder if the "Voice in the Wind" idea has any logical reason for being there at all... it's not as if Jonaseriah was an air-bender or the spirit of wind or... so on and so forth... 

Wow... if I keep going, his entire story will unravel and there'll be nothing left but the fact he was a reincarnated angel who could manipulate the elements...  
So most likely, I'll end this entry with the bare essentials... details about Jonas and his universe that my story absolutely must have, things I refuse to edit out or make any drastic changes to.

Honestly, a bunch of the details in my story generated from "Spirited Away"...
Nina was Chihiro and Jonas was Haku, but part of me wrote it in homage to friendship. What would it be like if, years later, they met again? What kind of relationship would that be?
Also, Mai is Lin. Lin being Chihiro's only friend among the bath house workers, but also the person she asked about Haku's whereabouts. She happened to take on some of the characteristics (and stole the name) of "Yu-Gi-Oh" character Mai Valentine because Lin reminded me of her so much.
Megan Hollingstead really does sound a lot like Susan Egan and vice versa. Nowadays it's pretty interesting to hear Megan as Rangiku from "Bleach"... just as chesty, but their demeanors couldn't be more different.

Haku's unusual true form is the reason why Jonas became the "voice in the wind"... and there's also that line Lin has when Haku disappears for a while.
"Not Haku again... he just disappears sometimes... rumor is he's off doing Yubaba's dirty work."

Supposing I were to take that detail out of the equation, there'd only be one issue:
I copyrighted an earlier draft of my story under this name... I figured that was an important thing, but nowadays I hear that a story is yours once it's written down, so you don't need to do the copyrights.

I could get more to the point and call it "Nina and the Reincarnated Angel"
because it'd be a little more accurate.
Perhaps the time could still come where Jonas's voice will be in the wind, at a critical point in the storyline, so I wouldn't have to change my title.

What I ought to do is ask around one of the LinkedIn boards. Ask if anyone's interested in reading my story and giving me feedback on it. Just to see if I'm going in the right direction.

Technically speaking, I could let go of having my prologue in the beginning. But if anything, it could be a snippet of my mythological origin story.
Then I'd have to work on one crucial detail: how to begin?
Recently I'd considered just starting with Nina's first diary entry, spare the details of her family driving up to the new house and the events that follow. If anything, it's right out of the opening of "Spirited Away"... 

But that'd leave me with a slight problem if I take out the "voice in the wind" bit... 

I think I'm still a little shell-shocked from my previous attempt at rewriting the story, so I'm immediately starting to freak out in my attempt to cover my tracks.
Have I really done so much to it that it's unsalvagable? Will I really have to set it aside for years and years until I'm ready to give it another shot?

I should probably get a few opinions on it first before making any hasty decisions.
In the meantime, much like the key words at the back cover of "Twilight," I'll try to sum up the important parts of my story that I don't want to lose.

1. Nina- blonde hair, hazel eyes- she's the new girl in town
2. Jonas- dark hair, pale blue eyes- he's the mysterious guy in school that nobody knows anything about
3. Jonas has psychic abilities, including mind-reading with the slightest touch and telekinesis, moving objects away from him when he's under great pressure
4. Jonas has social anxiety
5. Mai- blonde hair, blue eyes, loves purple- is the aspiring head cheerleader, editor-in-chief of the school paper, and the gossip who knows something about everyone
6. Mai is one of the few people in school who notices Jonas and it annoys her that she can never get any "dirt" on him
7. Jonas has three horses and two iguanas.
8. Unbeknownest to Jonas, his animal companions are the earthly forms of the creatures that embodied the elements after the confrontation in his past life
9. Jonaseriah- Jonas's angel incarnation- was summoned to rid the world of evil
10. Nightariel- the essence of darkness of evil- wants to destroy the world and plunge into chaos
11. Sooner or later, Jonas will have to realize his destiny because Nightariel's reincarnation will soon be here
12. No matter what anyone says, Nina believes the best of Jonas and will support him no matter how strange things get or how many doubt him
13. After a psychic panic attack in 2nd grade that cost him his best friend, Jonas is determined to keep his distance from his peers
14. Nina is the only person Jonas has ever wholeheartedly trusted and whatever reason, Jonas feels he has no choice but to trust him... although he cannot explain it himself

okay, so much for it being the short version... then there's the sub-story line about Corey and Eric vying for Mai's heart, creating an enemy in one and an ally in another, and the school dance is the last moment of true happiness Nina and Jonas have before the final confrontation he has with his archfoe.

I can't help but think during this: I REALLY hope people won't read this and believe it has anything to do with "Twilight"... I wrote this story 10 years, long before Stephenie Meyer even dreamt the idea for her vampires.

And for anyone who made it to the end of this entry, send me a comment if you're interested in reading my story :-P 
...a little too little too late, but my offer still stands. I worked with Jonas for so long, I owe him that much. Because to give up on him would be giving up on myself... we have more in common that I'd prefer to let on.

Te Busque: What Brought Everyone to the "Club"?

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

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'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.

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?

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.

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

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.