Dream Journal #8

This actually shook me up a bit, though once I was suitably awake such thoughts seemed a bit silly.

Also a bit strange how I was only an observer the entire time, rather than switching places with the main character ever so often.

And a random welcome to all of the hits from Ukraine!

19 Apr—20 Apr

I was watching a DVD of some sort of anime. The first few clips (they were all too short to really be called episodes, since it wasn't as random as Hetalia) played without any unusual intervention and introduced the main character and her family. The main character was a brown-haired Japanese teenager who was rather cheerful and liked to ride her bike. I don't think she ever had a mother.

Then, after the end of one clip, a menu opened where I could choose which clip to watch next, each of which was near the same time in the storyline and so could be watched in any order. As I selected and watched clips, more options came up after every one, sorted by the character with which they were involved, including more characters (all connected to the main character) as I progressed. In this manner I continued to watch the series, where everything in the main character's life started falling apart. Her little sister was slowly dying of a mysterious illness; her boyfriend, with whom she played basketball, proved to not care enough for her during her troubles and left her; and her father, who was still quite young, was losing his memory in some mundane way piece by piece. I was hesitant to watch the father's first clip because I knew how bad it was going to get.

The main character also had a companion that was some kind of light brown, furry bat. He talked and pretty much only showed up from time to time for comic relief. His first segment (or at least the first that featured him enough to count as his category) was actually the fourth of his listed clips, but I couldn't select the previous ones, which, I reasoned, had to be because I hadn't watched the right clips in other categories yet. Caleb came into the room where I was watching the DVD and made a snarky comment about the bat and his colourful, furry ear lining. I shooed Caleb off and continued watching.

At some point the main character was running back to her village past a rocky area that happened to be some sort of shooting range. She had to run between rounds of shots (which were small, black rocks instead of bullets) and then hide behind outcroppings as the people, who never took any heed of her, fired. There was also some point when she and her bat friend were dropped off from a bus in the middle of the village/city, and she had to find her way home past a flooded roadway.

Writing from Music

As opposed to just writing to music.

At an orchestra concert a while ago, I had been innocently listening to the music when Luke (sitting next to me) asked what kind of head-story I had formed from the music. I, of course, had done no such thing, but I gave it a shot for the next piece and ended up with some short concerning a werewolf and a fleeing female (no relation to Dynblaidd).

That was the last song of the night, and my little story wasn't interesting enough to flesh out, but I thought I might give it another try. I've already toyed with an idea concerning "Just a Job to Do" by Genesis (which somehow came on shuffle as I was writing this, just like the original post...), but I think I might check out some more classical-type music. Being without lyrics, it'd be a lot more challenging, but it's worth a shot. If I come up with anything interesting, I'll put up a New Fiction Idea and give credit to the song; if I fail several times, I may just post a sequel to this with the fragments I got from the songs.

Have you ever sought inspiration from music without lyrics? Do you have any songs you'd like to recommend?

New Fiction Idea #22

Inspired by a Genesis song that somehow against all odds (/slightly off pun) came on my iPod on shuffle as I typed this up. 'Tis destiny.

Working Title: A Job to Do

Genre: Suspense/Action

Protagonist: Danielle, a twenty-three-year-old woman with fair skin and dark brown hair, which she keeps mid-back length and only ties up for jobs. She is an assassin who prefers to use handguns but is proficient with sniper rifles as well. She takes her job seriously and unemotionally, though she's spent her entire life in this system and wants to settle down with a family eventually.

Other Main Character: Lennon, a twenty-two-year old man with short, black hair but bangs that are as long as possible without getting in his eyes. He's well-built and "ruggedly handsome," beard stubble and all, but he has yet to take a relationship seriously. He's also a trained killer, though not from the same organisation as Danielle, and specialises in faux suicide operations.

Antagonist: Lennon and some others in his organisation.

Setting: A few slightly futuristic Earth cities, possibly extending to some parts of the countryside. There's little gang activity, but, due to the high-class, high-profit nature of the city and its buildings, a lot of important people end up there (although they're not usually executed on-site, because that would be a tad too suspicious). Assassins make good money and are often trained from a young age after being sold (usually for drugs or such) or, on rare occasions, stolen. Only two assassination organisations are dominant in the main city of the story, and they have a bit of an underground rivalry.

Plot: Danielle carries out her many heart-thumping missions and, in the process, meets Lennon. They're both easily convinced the other works at some other office in the city, and they strike up a bit of a relationship. Unfortunately Danielle then succeeds in offing someone the rival organisation did not want her organisation to get, and Lennon is then assigned to take care of her. Unswayed by the small amount of time they had spent with each other, Lennon pursues his goal but, since she lives a dangerous life and could be killed by others of his organisation at any time anyway, decides to make it a cat-and-mouse game, toying with her but cutting closer every time.

Point of View: Third-person limited, alternating between Danielle and Lennon.

Honestly, it sounds a bit more like a movie to me, but I barely even consider it possible to do a script long enough for a short film, so that's not happening. And, I mean, you know how action novels never get made into movies, anyway.

It's definitely just in its first stages and needs more original elements, but hey. If I had everything worked out, I would be writing it now.

Revised Chasers Excerpt

Thanks to the feedback on the first version of my Chasers excerpt, I've come up with a (slightly) revised new one. I've cut off after Clyde's entry because I made no changes after that.

This certainly doesn't have to be the final draft, per se, so let me know if I should add a little more.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

She awoke with asphalt grating her back. No warm light touched her face, and a look straight ahead to the sky confirmed the sun wasn’t out. Nor were any clouds, nor were stars. Only a vast black canvas hung above her.

Something seemed off about that.

With an exhale, she pushed herself up to a seated position. She could see well enough despite the lack of celestial bodies. Tall streetlights, which contributed no more to the lighting than the absent sun, stood on either side of a pristine street, painted lanes glowing brightly over the black asphalt. No sputtering of engines filled the air, but she felt it was still a good idea to get to the sidewalk.

Managing to stand easily enough, she hurried onto the stone slabs and rubbed her arms. While the atmosphere wasn’t as cold as it appeared to be, her short sleeves still left her with a bit of chill.

In front of her now was a tall building, more window than steel. A reflection watched her: bangless, pale blond hair, some of which was pulled back into a ponytail; tanned skin with haywire patches of freckles; a round face with thin lips, thinner eyebrows, and blue-green eyes squinting in scrutiny. Apparently all of it belonged to her.

Unsettled by the lack of familiarity, she turned away and walked, keeping the building in the corner of her eye to catch any doors. There weren't any; the glass of the next building also had no way of entry. The next still had no door, and after passing another, she realized no signs marked the buildings, either. All of the glass was the same, shining in the lack of light, free of handprints and smears. A few buildings edged their windows with brick rather than steel, but they had no more discernible a purpose than the others.

“Oi!”

Draft Dodging

Overall I'm quite new to the editing process. I've certainly had rought drafts, etc. for school papers (ten pages over historical reasons for the theory of the humours... ugh), but I've rarely done such things for my fictional works. Usually I just churn out a chapter of fan fiction, fix any of those pesky squiggly red lines, and post it.

I've been a bit better on The Long and Winding Road. I've still done little editing, but I at least reread the chapter and edit for flow issues, misincorporated words, etc. I haven't read up on any "official" terms for editing techniques, but I would consider this something like fine-level editing.

So, if the raw writing is my first draft, the published fan fiction would be my second draft. After that, some major editing needs to be done in accordance with the original characters in the alternate version of the story. Once that third draft is done, another fine, readability edit is a good option so I'm not distracted by small errors, and that gives me my fourth draft.

My fifth draft, then, would be the result of larger-scale editing: seeing if individual scenes or even chapters are necessary to the storyline and such. I'm still only vaguely sure about how this whole process works, so I really can't be sure about anything past that. I'll need to make sure things are consistent with each other and with the real world (or the post-apocalyptic real world, at any rate). Extra revisions may be needed after giving that draft to a test audience, and then I guess at some point I'll come to my nth, final draft and hit Smashwords.

I'm sure my 2YN class is going to cover editing quite well, so I'm not too worried about my inexperience just yet. Still, it all seems quite daunting, especially when my previous editing experiences weren't for anything I really enjoyed.

How many levels of editing do you aim for? Any tips for me?

New Fiction Idea #21

Because the vampires get all of the attention these days.

Working Title: Dynblaidd

Genre: Fantasy

Protagonist: Aaron, a half-Dyn with wavy, dark brown hair. He's rather tan, with hazel eyes and a crooked but white smile. While he's very friendly, sometimes even a doormat, to those he considers his family (which in this world encompasses close friends), he's cold to others and rarely lets them in. He still smiles a lot at them, but when it comes to aristocrats he can't even manage that much. He pursues Robin-Hood-like fantasies as well.

Other Main Characters: Galen, an aristocrat with very dark, reddish hair. His eyebrows would be thick enough to warrant suspicion he's not entirely human if he weren't the eldest son of his very noble (human) family. He's incredibly hostile towards the Dyn of any variety and does not smile in public (it's doubtful he would in private, either). He's engaged to the daughter of the wealthiest family, though he's never met her, and as such has been practising to become the effective ruler.
Andraste, a quarter-elf with platinum blonde hair and violet eyes. She's very quiet but is eager to help anyone that makes requests of her. As far as racism goes, she's extremely open-minded for her time.

Antagonist: Seona, a blonde elf of an averagely pale complexion with light blue eyes. She's indiscriminately hospitable, but she's excellent at ensnaring people. She's very protective of her family but can be irresponsible when it comes to her extreme prejudice of the Northwest.

Setting: A large island, separated into the Northwest and Southeast by the River Tell. The Northwest is populated by a vast majority of humans, and the Dynblaidd (Dyn for short). The Dynblaidd appear mostly human, but with thicker hair and eyebrows, as well as claws of steel-like consistency; a larger but more stooped stature; tails about half the length of their forearms; and long, sharp teeth with slightly larger canines. Their strength waxes and wanes with the moon; the new moon has them near death, while any sliver of moon has them about the same strength of humans and the full moon at about thrice the strength of humans. Regardless of other heritages mixed in, all have a taste for human flesh (whether pureblood human or human-Dyn "mutt") but can resist to degrees varying from Dyn to Dyn. They've occupied the lowest castes of society since a group of technologically-superior humans drove them to near extinction. The Northeast is an aristocracy with a fairly high quality of life, for humans.
The Southeast is populated by a majority of elves, and humans. While every species has access to magic, the elves are particularly skilled at it. The Southeast is broken up by mountains into city-states, but a king claims control over its entirety.
The two sides of the island have finally stopped warring some forty years ago. The Northwest has yet to fully recover and still distrusts and fears the other side, particularly the elves. Little commerce or communication is carried out between them, and immigration more or less doesn't exist.

Plot: A starving Aaron finally secures a job as one of many servants in Galen's household. He uses the position to his advantage, Robin-Hood-ing it every chance he gets, and slowly makes the unfriendly acquaintance of the young master. Eventually the two antagonize each other enough a private fight ensues, and Aaron pulls the expensive, heavily-jewelled family amulet off Galen's neck to discover it had been repressing Galen's Dyn nature. Now under threat of death, Aaron is forced to assist the young master in finding the elven woman who cursed him to be Dyn before it becomes permanent and hereditary.

Point of View: Third-person, limited to Aaron.

It seems sort of counter-intuitive to have werewolves vs. elves instead of the more traditional lineups, but I'm hoping that can turn out to be a good thing.

One of the Lukes has suggested it needs another element to not be hackneyed. I've been able to come up with two, one of which would only amount to a twist ending, and other being a conversion of the story to fan fiction (and I'm sure we all know who would have to be Galen).

Dream Journal #7

I have returned from Asia, so the blog is back in business. Might as well reopen with something interesting.

04 Apr—05 Apr

I was at home with my mother. I'm not sure exactly what was wrong with her, but she began acting so terrible and somehow cruel that it made me cry. Huddled on the green couch under covers, I texted Grandma Mona*, tapping letter by letter, always fearfully checking if my mother was watching. In the end I couldn't bring myself to send the text message and just sat there crying.

Later the same day, my mother seemed to have been healed. We went to a museum, its walls dull pink, that was about the size and layout of a house. The exhibits were mostly sculpture-type things, including one human-height skeleton with an elongated skull like a cross between a triceratops (I seem to like them subconsciously?) and a rodent. In the centre of one room stood Lori**, a younger Kennedy*** in her arms, with the latter's face buried in Lori's shoulder. We may have conversed for a bit before my mother and I moved on. We commented that it was a shame Dad didn't make it today. Somehow we knew the apocalypse was coming soon, and we thought that everything there would be reduced to skeletons by the time we could come again. I briefly imagined the Lori-and-Kennedy exhibit as skeletons before another museumgoer brought up that museums change exhibits fairly often, anyway. My mother and I realized how much that really undermined what we were saying.

My father joined us in a restaurant, which we had earlier visited for breakfast while my mother was still being tyrannous, for dinner and a show. It was Disney-based, with many characters from different worlds interacting, and I somehow already knew some of what to expect. In the introduction, various groups of actors, from different Disney movies, came in. I particularly remember Luke**** and two other boys with purple wolf masks resting on top of their heads. Parts of the show included a party, with a long table full of stacks of punch bowls and other food containers that were obviously empty but pretending to not be. Rapunzel dipped out some invisible punch as she was talking to someone. At one point it was hinted that Peter Pan was going to arrive, so I looked to the ceiling excitedly. To my disappointment the actor was not Sealand, but he still "flew in" on cords and tumbled to a landing just in front of the stage (which was actually a few steps lower than the dinner area). It turned out that Peter Pan was actually also Pinocchio, and he made a show of stuffing some of his strings in his clothes before going to interact with the others.

During the intermission, I ended up heading outside on some sort of concrete porch. A grid of folding chairs seated quite a few people who were ambiguous church friends. At some point a bald man dressed in black with a scowl on his face walked by while I stood there, and I hurried to hug him while informing him he looked like he needed a hug. Then I realized he was a random stranger and felt awkward about it, so I pulled away, though not without having gotten his attention first. As I stood there being awkward, the man made some sarcastic comment about how he was doing fine. This also had something to do with him tasting beer but no longer drinking it, and one of the men sitting on the porch congratulated him and told him not drinking was a good thing.

I went back to the show after that. Now only a small amount of ice was left in my drink cup (which likely had Dr. Pepper in it previously), but I started drinking and it soon ended up being a full glass of ice water. My mother announced she was leaving to track down someone she could pay for the meal, as well as for the morning meal in the restaurant she had failed to pay in her reign of terror earlier.

* Grandma Mona is my paternal grandmother. She's single and not tech-savvy, so I have no idea why I would try to confuse her by texting her.

** Lori is a family friend whom we haven't visited in a while.

*** Kennedy is Lori's daughter. She's a lot younger than me, but she was probably about three in the dream, and again terribly shy.

**** Luke (not the one mentioned in The Scribes) is a school friend who's pretty awesome. He did excellently in the recent improv contest, if that gives you a good idea about him.