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July 15, 2006
when you were young
Went back and reread what I wrote night before. Tinkered with the layout a bit. Will write more tonight, which should include some sketches of the new Dead Wicked stuff I want to run past the collaborator.
Though I joke about being the world's most useless psychic, I do in fact have a pretty good intuition and a close relationship with my gut (in more ways than one). I'm inclined to believe more in instincts than so-called "psychic powers". (I detest psychic detectives, hence the reason I love the show Psych).
I see all this instinct stuff as the result of years of writing. I have a lot of characters in my head. If they were all the same, I'd be effin' bored. So I observe others, question actions and psychology, in order to understand how to shape the people in my brain down different paths.
Anyway, when I hatched the plan for this latest writing endeavor, I started by asking myself how I could change up what I felt was a good -- but flawed -- story. I liked the characters. I also liked the plot I had come up with, but I am willing to accept that both need to change to make a saleable work.
Techniques follow:
- One immediate answer was to dump half the cast. Concentrate everything down to two main characters and a handful of minors, all with distinct personalities, motives, and agendas.
- I also started to ask them questions. Sheila has great suggestions on this.
- And then there's role reversal. Sort of. In his book On Writing, Stephen King takes a lengthy news story -- it boils down to: "Man Stalks Woman" -- and reverses the gender roles of the main characters. How does that change the story?
Finally, I just finished The Hallowed Hunt by Lois Bujold, and realized that one of the things I've loved about that series is that none of the characters are plucky young teenagers on a never-ending quest to save their girlfriend. That, combined with the rest of the questions I've been asking myself, cracked open a chest of thoughts. Like: Why did Myr have to be 17? Why couldn't she be, say, 30?
So, getting back to the world's most useless psychic. After I had made the decision to try this angle was when I found the new Killers song, titled "When You were Young". I don't believe in psychic powers, but I do believe that we pick up on patterns our instincts resonate to. It resonated. I'm going with it.
And there is my haphazard reason for writing the latest iteration. I'm nuts, I know. I never said I wasn't.
In other news, I'm going to run a contest starting Monday on the ol' Livejournal This should be the start of two, count 'em, two contests for $$$free books$$$L@@K.
Seriously, though, check back on Monday. I'll announce it then.
- you sit there in your heartache
waiting on some beautiful boy
to save you from your old ways
Posted by sdshaver at July 15, 2006 12:50 PM