And Then

Feb. 21st, 2012 08:22 pm
ravenswept: (Default)
So you know when you ask a little kid to tell you a story, and often it involves little more than just whatever they make up right then and there? That's the concept behind And Then.

Part story, part MST3K, part meta, AT would be a short children's book where anything can and will... make no sense. Ideally it would have lots of pictures, as part of the fun of the story would be seeing what's being told at the same time as things get changed due to story convience.

It would most likely start fairly simply, a young boy is asked to tell a story. So he starts simply, a boy on a farm. Who decides to become a hero. With his pet dog. Who is really a wolf. Who is really big enough to ride on. Because horses are for girls.

He decides to go slay a dragon. Because that's what heros do. And then the dragon comes to him!

A big green dragon?

It's not a green dragon. It's gold.

Why gold

Because. And they fight! And the dragon opens his mouth and-

Breathes fire.

No! A cannon appears! Because it's not a real dragon! It's a flying pirate ship that only looks like a dragon.

And so on and so forth. And yes, the idea would be that the "adult" being told said story interjects here and there just to question the train of logic of a five year old; the pictures, when not picturing the story, would be from our, the reader's, point of view, so we're looking down at our story teller from time to time.

Spoiler warning, if you really care enough, the ending would ideally be a non-ending. The whole things just builds and builds til it's a huge two-page or more spread of a epic battle of awesome until the kid just runs out of steam with,

"And then... and then... everything exploded.

...

BOOM!" with his hands up, laughing, running around and out the door. The last bit would have the kid leaning in from the door long enough to say "TheendI'mgonnaplayoutsidenow,okaybye."

Yeah. That's it. That's my latest story idea.

....

BOOM!
ravenswept: (Default)
So I, along with [personal profile] limiinal (who's really the main thrust behind the idea) are going to part of a collab collection with a group of forum buddies who she also introduced to me and are awesome, with the hopeful intent of selling it as most likely an e-book or some such. It's less about sales (though those would still be good to see) and more about making a final product.

When I saw the theme behind it "Tentacles and Unrequieted Love" my mind drew a blank. Nooooooo idea what I would try to do, mainly because while I like the idea behind Lovecraftian horrors and ickor imagery, it was never something I've tried to do, mainly because my brain didn't turn that way much. So I was left wondering.

Then I remembered this little picture, and late-night, almost falling asleep brain took over.



Right now I'm thinking Venus, which I think I can work a couple different ways. Until I get a better hold of it, I'm just gonna keep prodding it with a stick until it does something interesting.

Network

Mar. 24th, 2011 03:26 pm
ravenswept: (Default)
Well, I thought I was gonna make my first real entry to the new "If I Could Remake" series I want to start, but instead I give to you another of my many ideas in progress.

Network, once it finally figured itself out, is a spy thriller about a black ops ground intelligence inflitator codenamed Ghost who was forgotten and lost during the US Intelligence department consolidation and restructuring, who continues his mission of creating and expanding contacts who owe favors in various fields for some unknown later use. Put a gun to my head, and the high concept pitch for this would be, "It's a spy mix of Vengeance Unlimited and The Pretender."

In reality, what this story was was a way to give a bunch of characters I had at the time who had no homes a place to live. There were at least four to six characters who I thought were really interesting as characters, but that was it; I knew they couldn't carry a full story all by themselves, at least not any story I could think of or wanted to tell. So I was stuck with pages of people who were itching to be worked with, as well as scenes I wanted to use them in but not enough meat for any one to go the way alone. So, now with intent, I specifically created a character to which all the others could connect to.

Rabble, babble, abble, sabble )
ravenswept: (Default)
A very nebulous idea at the moment, but one that might have potential down the line. At the moment, I just fear it's genre.

Butterfly Massacre is looking to be a paranormal romance, and by god I hope it pulls a [personal profile] limiinal and transmorphs itself into something more before the end, because PR is not a genre I thought myself apt to write. I'm helping it along by trying to avert the romance as hard as I can, because I don't really think, as it is now, that superpowered A is going to fall for normal B without a lot of concession, not just for 'teh luvz". Also, I'm hoping to play (successfully) with comes PR tropes.

No names or anything of substance yet, just a bunch of ideas. But I kinda like what it's looking like. Our hero is the female half (I'll call her Angela, because that seems rightly cliche), and she gonna be a hundreds-year old demon. A straight up hell-spawn, no half-assed pansied curse shit. She comes from the Hellz. I never really got why the girls in these things always had the be the weaker sex, so right off the bat I'm avoiding that. And there's no soft, weepy story of woe and such; back in some teen numbered century, Angela commited a sin of some kind (to go to hell you'd figured it be a biggie) and got sent to the basement. There's some background demonology stuff about how the longer a soul is in hell the more demon-like they become, with the level of sin speeding or slowing the process. So, yeah, our girl's not exactly a sweet meek princess.

The guy is a normie, your basic squishie human. And he's annoying (to her at least). He crushes hard on Angela when she shows up at his school, and being a stupid male thinks that he can impress her by trying to protect her. Really, all he's doing is putting himself, and more imporantly her, in danger. She'd like to just let him be taken down, but because of rules she can't let civvies die under her watch. But for the most part he's more an annoyance to her than any real help. I'm tempted to keep him like that and just avert the romanace altogether, but something says that wouldn't quite work. Maybe.

I'm making sure there's a reason a demon of hell is in high school as well, it's not just happenstance that she's there to kill time. It's sure not for gym class. The reason Angela is out and about is she's trying to get a second chance. It doesn't happen often, and the rules to do so are numerous, but she's still trying. To get out, she has to kill one hundred loose demons, whose whereabouts she isn't quite sure of. She got word that one was hiding in a high school, having it's way with a few students already, and is trying to track it. So loverboy is getting in the way a lot when she'd rather be hunting. Part of the annoyance is that if anyone dies while she tries to take a demon down, her tally is added to; three steps forward, two steps back.

If the story goes beyond just one part, the thing would be to take her out of school. She has no reason to be there once the demon is taken care of, and she cares more about clearing her record than staying until graduation for a boyfriend. Also, to keep those like her from just lolly-gagging their time on earth, there's a limit to how long she can just not do anything. She doesn't have to get a kill by a certain time, but she does have to have some effort to show; it's kinda like welfare, you don't have to get a job (per say) but you still have to put out applications.

There's some more to iron out, but that's the jist of it. I don't plan on attacking it right now, but it'd be something to diddle with now and then for fun.
ravenswept: (Default)
Sorry bout the lack of updates, I haven't felt very talkative. But being silent isn't doing me any good, so instead lets ramble about old ideas.

Psycho, My Own was a highschool era project that came out of no where. Well, maybe not total no where, I was really big into CrossGen comics at the time and their whole shared world universe. I think I was trying for something like that, but really I have no idea any more. No matter what way, this was going to be a huge undertaking.

Jerome Matthew Excaliber was hailed as the genius of his time. Gifted from childhood, after suffering a concussion and some head trauma at age six from falling into a river, he held multiple degrees in a wide range of fields, was a noted author and lecture speaker, and a husband and father. At some point, whether through slow deterioration or a sudden jerk, he snapped, killing his wife and two daughters, as well as a few others. Why exactly is still being determined. In the mean time, he's been padding out his mental hospital resume, going through ten of them in a little under eight years. He's attempted escape several times, gotten close on a couple of those, and generally seems to define a broken genius.

He copes, or perhaps is kept occupied, by his continued work. Wherever he is, he still keeps notebooks and thick texts of whatever he's tackling at that time. The plus side to this is it keeps him relatively calm and conducted, as well as still making use of his vast knowledge. The down side is no one can really make sense of what it is he's doing, his notes being a hodge-podge of seemingly random formuli, code, and hand copied sections of text.

With great genius also comes great mental illness, and Jerome travels the gaunlet of pyschosi. Severe paranoia, schizopherenia, debilitating obessive complusiveness, massive co-dependancy, multiple personality disorder, irrational claustrophobia, he's gone through a wide range of mental illnesses, all at varying lengths of time and severity. What works one day may not the next. What some start to wonder is if it isn't a mental problem, and intentional to keep everyone off their guard.

For the story, the most played with, and real for him, is the multiple personalities. Seemingly deterived from his Excaliber surname, they are Arthur, Gwenevere, the Lady and the Dragon. And all of them are slightly different.

Arthur and Gwen are two vocal elements, the ones that do or can act on their own. How they come into control is unknown. Arthur seems to act as the conscience of the body, being the most calm and rational of either Gwen or Jerome. He is old fashioned, often admonishing others for breaks of etiquette. By choice, doctors and orderlies would rather he be in control, as he is well aware of past actions taken by Jerome or Gwen and agrees they belong under watch.

Gwenevere plays the more loony side of things. Much more volitial and prone to aggression, Gwen is extremely jeolous towards anyone Arthur speaks to. While she can be caring and soft, she also suffers the worst of hallucinations and paranoia between the three.

How they play out in Jerome's head is strange, because while they are seperate entities, they can appear (at least to Jerome) as ghostly figures and hold a three-way conversation. But they can just as well not be aware of events that happen to another, unless specifically told. Sometimes Jerome is alone in his head, sometimes he's never alone, and sometimes he not even driving the bus.

The Lady and Dragon seem to act as shoulder angels. They don't appear physically in Jerome like Arthur or Gwen, but neither are they hallucinations. Both are amorphous, detailed more by presense and air than any physical description. Both also seem to be able to know more than they should, and often can give information about others that they should never be able to know. The Lady is the most direct, and can have a calming effect on even Gwenevere. The Dragon never seems to really speak, only appear (and then only to the eyes of Jerome (maybe)) and that alone can spark an episode in Jerome.

The general theory is the Dragon is the reason, or even cause, of Jerome's psychoic break, and may have been the first of the personalites to appear.

I don't really know where the story was going, all I had was a fairly detailed history and outline of the character. I know the story really starts to take place after he escapes his latest facility, but to what aim I have no clue. All I had was a character profile, several faux documents, and a vague idea of what I was doing.

Looking back on it, I was massively in over my head. The subject matter alone needed much, much more research than I had at the time, and I had no idea how much I needed back then. The story itself was much bigger than I thought as well, and probably too much to take on at the time of conception. While I like the character, and the possibilities he opens up, I think this idea is pretty much shelved unless I really have a revelation to what it all is working towards. And even then, to really go at it, I'd need months more of research and whatnot to not insult any and everyone over my lack of medical and mental knowledge.

I'm not even sure what kind of genre this would be, even just to have an idea of where it would go. I like the idea of the Lady and Dragon, they open up the possibilities for a more dark, Lovecraftian path. It couldn't really go The Fugitive thriller route, because he did do the crime, so he's not aiming to clear his name.

Whatever, I'm not going to waste brain power thinking about what I can't do with it. The character is interesting, but with no story it's not going anywhere. Now to put all this word power towards something I do ideas for.

Thataway

Dec. 30th, 2010 10:09 pm
ravenswept: (Default)
Back to business as it were. I know I haven't been adding much to my journal, besides the 30 movie meme, and that's mainly been because I've been at my parent's house. Not that that stops me, obviously, but that I don't like their computer. The thing is ancient, incredibly slow, and their old ergonomic keyboard is annoying. The piece is also prone to shutting down and giving me a bluescreen because I didn't pet and coddle it correctly, as well as just being junk. So I haven't been writting much. But then I remembered I had also brought my laptop with me, hijacked their satellite line, and can now do what I want without (much) fear of imminent shutdown.

And when I say back to business, I mean relaying ideas I have that I probably don't have the time or capacity for at the moment. But they're fun, and it's easier to write it down than just bottle it up.

Thataway is this weird little movie idea I had while up at my parent's. I see it as something of a road-trip movie, two guys tired of what they're doing and on a whim climb into their vehicle, drive to a highway and literally when asked where are we going; "Thataway."

Two turns into four when they pick up some hitchhikers, who stick with them for the long haul (bearing anything that happens along the way, it's all still very fuzzy). The whole thing at the moment is very aimless, just people tired of boredom and who decided to do "something." Where are they going? Even they don't know. They want to experience something, and are willing to let whatever happen, happen.

I'm trying to think of stuff to happen; nothing big mind you, but just because you can condense something down to the bare bones doesn't make that something people want to watch. And what anyone talks about can be so esoteric that only those who get the joke can enjoy it. I do foresee some mindless conversations, hopefully something that can be called back to later, but you can't have a movie based entirely around mindlessness; well, and call it good. The aim would be something mildly festival worthy at least, not some avant-garde, college experimental piece that's meant to be "art". If it's good, it can be art; if it's art, you're trying to hard.

The kinda cool thing is, if I can flesh this out to something a little more sustainable, I know a guy who might take a chance to make it. Nothing serious, it'd be people willing to do it and on his downtime, but he works for a production company and makes short films himself. And is always looking for scripts himself, so I think he might take a look. Actually, speaking of which I owe him a script layout. Better get on that.

It's always fun to think about writing films, though they are a lot of work. How you think in writting one is so much different from any other form. Just because an idea might be good for film, doesn't mean it can be turned into one (easily, at least). Though what you get can be interesting as well; Adaptation was written by Charlie Kaufman, who was asked to write a screenplay for a non-fiction book called The Orchid Thief a book he didn't think he could adapt. So instead he wrote a script about how hard it was to write the script.

But that's way off topic. One of the good things about it is that it's really low budget. Aside of working a camera into the car, there aren't a lot of high concept considerations for filming. No effects, no big locations, just a small crew, actors and a camera.

I'll probably putter around with it, building it slowly. I have other things I need to be working on, and being a script won't get a lot of attention out the gate anyway.
ravenswept: (Default)
Wow, I think I actually forgot about this one. Not completely, as soon as I remembered the whole jist came back in a moment, but I haven't thought about this one is quite a while, on any level.

Sweet Summer Jazz was another entry in my short list of ideas I thought would make a better movie than written story. Concieved around the idea of music (more specifically, "Everybody Wants to be a Cat" (yeah, I know, two links in two posts in a row, but I love this song) it was during the time when Disney wasn't putting out animated musicals any more (Home on the Range sucked and I don't acknowledge it), and all the CGI movies that came out that hand music was always pop songs inserted for a montage or to be "the song from that movie".

Also, the whole thing was kinda, sorta, but I'll deny it later, based on getting "Everybody/Cat" inserted into the movie. But I digress.

SSJ was about a teenage girl, Calli, travelling from a small town to a big city. She's a big jazz enthusiast, and wants to be a band sax player. She also had a cat who was going to be named after a musical term, but I never decided on one.

She has an uncle who own a jazz bar, who and his band are based on the cats from The Arisocats; the cat family also have human cameoes. She'll be staying with him above the bar, but she also wants any opportunity to play. Her uncle has no problem with that, but she will need a band at least; he can't just let her solo from the start.

There's more slapdash as it all goes along. Calli finds a street performer playing drums on the sidewalk. She likes what she hears, and asks the girl to play something with a steadier beat. Calli pulls out her sax and begins a small music number of getting the band together; those two and a few others are pulled together and just make their band right there on the sidewalk.

I never planned most of this out, it was many a lot of quick scene flashes and hints of music rolling in my head. There was also I lot that I thought was too remiansiant of other movies I'd seen. Later there was going to be a battle of bands, though not as a main challenge, and later a shot to get some radio play. There was also a rival band, who were more just antagonists (possibly a love interest for Calli, I forget). As I said, nothing really solid.

I remember part of the end, mainly because I knew it'd be the hardest selling point of the story. Calli would die before the end (not right before the credits, but it's not what one would call a happy ending). She'd be hit by a car and her death would pretty much break up her band, but still inspiring them to continue with music.

The idea was to be in the spirit of Miyazaki, where there is no real villian to defeat. Challenges and obsticles, yes, but nothing really sinister. Calli has a competitive spirit, and wants to prove herself despite being yound and not exactly knowing what she's doing. She also plays a mean sax solo. But at no point since this started mulling around my head did I ever see a true villian. One would just seem out of place; the story is Calli and music, there was never a need to have someone trying to stop her. Beat her to the finish, yes, there's a rival, but he's not someone who's out to "defeat her at all costs", he just wants to win the prize as much as she does.

One scene that I see pretty clearly is the funeral. Not much really, but the rival/love interest is asked to, and starts playing a small number to close things off. He starts solemn, like he was asked, but turns up the rhythm and beat, knowing that she was never big on downer music like that.

The whole thing is still really segmented, and to flesh out a complete story would take some doing. But I still like the idea, if only because I love jazz and the story itself goes against most conventions of what an animated movie needs to have.
ravenswept: (DJ Gesha)
Trying to get back into the habit of at least writing on a Mon-Wed-Fri schedule, and drawing a blank as to anything of substance, I choose to reminisce about one of the few ideas I've worked/am working with that is not mine.

The idea, which I've decided to name Owen as it was never given a real title, working or not, was one of my best friends'. At the time he was big on mafia and crime stories, mainly movies like Lucky Number Slevin and Unleashed, and had a thought of a story he wanted to write. The problem being that he, er, has no writing talent. Not really. None. At least he's aware of this fact. But since I did (presumably), he asked that we work together; he would write out his initial idea for a few scenes, send them to me, and I would rewrite them into something more resembling a coherent story.

Now there are/were several problems with this. He wasn't one much to elaborate on ideas, so after receiving his portion, I was having to ask about details he doesn't mention. Also, as this was being written in short bursts, and he not having a totally thought out narration, things were going to happen that I had no idea about and so couldn't fully elaborate to. He would read what I wrote and then use that as the basis of going forward, but that meant that while I could affect how the story moved forward, I couldn't see how exactly it did because I was only doing rewrites and extensions.

But the overall idea was fun, taking what someone else has laid down and expanding it into something more than it is. I imagine this is somewhat what ghostwriting is like, only with less pan-flashed celebrities who think people actually want to know how they got to the point of writing a book about how they got to wherever they are. Somewhat annoying at times, but still fun.

These aren't the whole of what's been written so far, but an example of what I get versus what I make it into. The first, and in bold, is the original part I got from my friend, without any fixing. The following, and not bolded, is my handy work.

***

Owen 010 )

***

Owen 101 )

***

And there ya go. The full section of what I've written can be found right here. There's not a whole lot more, mainly just the introduction part. As fun as it was, my friend hasn't yet gotten back to me with any more of the story, and as this isn't my idea I wouldn't know where to go with it.
ravenswept: (Default)
I dug this out of the depths of my flashdrive. The date is still on the word.doc 3-10-99. Wow. waitasecond, that was eighth grade for me, what happened there?

I forget what exactly the project was originally, I want to say we had to create our own, wait! that was it! the assignment was to create our own island, draw it out as well, and map out all the features. What I have here is the extra credit part, where you were to create the culture and people.

What I did with the first part was instead of a single island, I created an archipeligo. Thirteen islands, with four peoples and desperate cultures, and intersecting mythology. I was an ambishish child, which often got me into trouble come time to actually finish assignments.

Speaking of which, I never finished the extra credit work (I also lost the map). Don't remember why, but what's there is what I did do. Right as things were about to be thrown down too. Hell, I stopped midsentence, so that just shows how much I really into finishing it. Ah well, I cringe at seeing what I used to be, but still see hints of the style that would stay with me.

Rereading through it, I apparently was big on names. Because I made up as many I could apparently (but for some reason though "celtic" would fit right in). And used every one. Lots of info dumping at the beginning. Kinda makes me want to go back and rework everything. And the actual legend story at the end is something I'm keeping and want to rework into something better. The ideas are still decent... but this is just... I shake and hang my head in embarrassed shame.

Kareen: where, with all the other names I had made up, at some point I thought Tanto was a good name for a island native and not at all racist )

Oh the suspense, it pulls at me so.

Scarred

Oct. 1st, 2010 11:11 pm
ravenswept: (Ladies Love Dragons)
Once again, forces beyond my control (ie, my brain) decided that a short story I wrote at oh-god-thirty last night needs to be expanded upon. Roll back the curtains, get in line, and don't touch the guy in front of you, this is Scarred.

Talky talky, pretty pictures, talky )

And now, links.

~Wikipedia's say on Scarification.

~A body mod blog page, with the catagory of scars prominant.

~A long gallery of scar tattoos. Warning, the first couple photos are not for the squimish.
ravenswept: (Default)
Lately I haven't have much gumption to write anything; don't know why, just not feeling it. In the mean time, my brain's decided to take two vague notebook ideas and combine them into someone who has no place in any story I have so far. Just a guy, a creepy guy, who decided to walk in through the door and take a number. No idea as to what this guy will go to, but he seems like a nice duck-fucking crazy sonabitch.

A mix of two concepts, one being the build and name, and the other being his personality and mask. Mr. Thin is some sort of boogeyman and freaky as hell. He's tall and thin (gee, didn't see that coming), always seen wearing a long jacket and a wide brimmed hat. The look is kinda cliche, it's pretty much the standard now of the action hero, but it's meant to enhance his... tall and thinness. That coulda sounded better...

His name tells a lot about him. He's thin; very tall and almost stretched just that little bit beyond normal, so he looks like he's just tall but something still isn't right about him. His fingers are long as well. When I thought about his fingers, I thought about how piano players usually have longer fingers than most, so I made him a piano player. Don't know why exactly, seems strange to have a boogeyman with a hobby, but it's interesting when he plays. I wish I could play, and could write music while I'm at it, because I imagine him playing just this haunting, goosebump bringing music. Just because he can.

One of the main things about him is his face. I don't know exactly what it looks like underneigh, but he wears a mask all the time. A mask made up of a someone's (I wanna say a child's, but that seems a bit too dark, but then again...) face tied on with a few strings. It obviously doesn't fit well, and you can see miscolored skin where the mask isn't able to cover completely. Since he isn't quite human (I'm pretty sure) this is his attempt to look so, regardless that it doesn't look right.

Mainly his look is all I have down, motivation and any substantional story have yet to be found. Still, he seems interesting enough, so maybe I'll find a place for him yet. Or at least keep him in reserve and rework him into something more workable later.
ravenswept: (Default)
Another new entry in the long (and growing) line of ideas I need to actually sit down and write, today's procrastination is Lightning's Child.

This is one of the few stories whose origins I can recount. It's also one of the few that was from an actual inspiration point instead of just a random idea that grew legs or something that I set out to create.

When I was but a wee lad, I lived in Texas until I was five. There were a lot of lightning and thunderstorms in the Midwest, and lightning was always something I've really liked. I was always pissed that good, shake-the-earth storms rarely passed through after we moved, and took the time to watch them when I could. About four years ago or so, I mentioned this to my mom as we were driving somewhere, and she said that affinity for lightning had a basis in reality. Something I hadn't thought about in years, she said that as a child she would take me out on walks at the edges of thunderstorms so that I wouldn't grow up afraid of thunder. We'd go to a nearby football field, usually preceded by a stop at a 7-Eleven for Crunch ice-cream bars, and we'd watch the natural show for a while.

I never knew that (but remembered aspects of it after being told) and then was the moment the seed was planted. Nothing came about for a few days, but gradually the story grew. The basic idea was there, and I wrote down the title and a few plot elements, but really didn't do anything with it. I'd other projects already, nothing was finished, and I figured I'd be back to it soon enough.

Three years later. I really hadn't given any more thought to it, but just recently, after having gotten more involved with LJ (pre-Twitter/FB fubar), I made mention of it in some post and it returned to the surface, with freshly sprouted plot branches even.

Nathan Gale is a young man who is finding himself at a lose in life. He's mildly depressed, has a lackluster job and feels like either something is missing or he's missing something. His mother abandoned him when he was six, for reasons no one could explain, and he doesn't know whether to hate her or feel nothing.

One of the few things that can get him stirred is lightning. He loves thunderstorms. Ever since he was little, he's always felt some connection to the electric arcs, and even can tell when and where a bolt will fall. It's not always perfect, but he's gotten much better at it than when he was a kid. But it doesn't always help; when he was ten a friend wouldn't listen when they were caught outside during a flash storm, and was killed from a lightning strike under a tree.

But now he's grown listless, and decides to set out on a road trip to try and find whatever it is he thinks he's missing. With little more than a bag of clothes, he travels to Texas to the group home his mother left him at to try to find out anything he can, then gets a rental vehicle and starts to search.

I wrote something of an excerpt over here. I'm not sure if I'm keeping the first person perspective. While I like how it comes across, originally it was going to be third-person for more outside description. Maybe a mix, to keep the more solemn emptiness of Nathan but without it having to come directly from him.

If asked, I guess I'd have to say the story is something of an urban fantasy, but with less fantasy and just a more fantastical feel to it. There isn't some "hidden world" or just another layer under what we consider reality. There are just some things that don't always draw attention to themselves and most people just don't know about. I'm going for a kinda Neil Gaiman feel, like what he did with American Gods, just less dark. The whole idea that there is "more" to what we see, but that doesn't mean we're going to always see or understand it.

Nathan... wow, now that I think about it, Nathan may be as close to myself as I've come to in character creation in a long time. For the most part almost every character I've come up with (barring self-insert characters from RP games, those weren't for writing so I don't count them) I've tried to make different and have their own feel. With Nathan, and the lightning as the base foundation of the story, he's going to very close to myself.

Well, sorta. I'm not depressed (you know, most of the time) like he is. My mom is still alive- wait so is his... my mom never left me to state care, and my dad is alive and very much a part of my life. So there's that. There are probably a few things that are going to leak over into him, but I think I can keep it from being an author insert.

Pieces for this are falling together pretty quickly. There are some things I need to expand, otherwise the story will be over pretty quick, but I know what I want from the story overall. I also know how it ends; well, that's kind of a lie. I should say, I know what the climax is. But not what the end result will be.

This is going to be strange to work on, the more it comes together the more I'm seeing there's not really going to be any real "action" to this. It's mostly just a road-trip-soul-search. There's no sword-fights, explosions, fantasy lands, side-kicks (opp, wait, new character, scratch that), vampires, nothing that's really going to amp up your adrenaline. And I'm okay with that.

I just realized I'm being kinda vague on Nathan's mom. And that's because I don't know how much of her I want to give away. I could, I know pretty much the whole story, but I keep thinking that even now while it's still in the planning stages, to give it away is almost a cheat to the reader. But then I really want to give it away, because I'm kinda excited about it, because I like how it all fits.

But there it is, another hole in the brain that needs to be filled.
ravenswept: (Default)
I'm sidestepping Pyscho, My Own, which is what I'd thought I'd be going over again, but apparently I'm avoiding it (ie, i'm lazy), so instead I'm a gonna expond upon the newest distraction in my writing life, The Blackberry Wall.

And really, at the moment there isn't a whole lot to it. Nothing beyond a opening staging act, and little in the way of details, mainly because I'm- you know what, I'm not even talking about it.

Blackberry came to me simply enough; down the road from my apartment is a park, and between the park and the road is a long stretch of blackberry bushes. It's at least a hundred yards long, from where the bushes start to where it ends if you walk along the road. It's a good home defense, and that's probably why they're so abundant right there, because at the corner is a house hidden up behind the trees, and the blackberries the first line of defense.

They're also delicious, and when I go for runs I usually stop and walk that lenght and pick off and eat as many as I can.

But the smell is what started the whole thing. As the berries ripened, the smell they produce is amazing on good breezy days. Just walking by makes you hungry; it also makes you want to go the nearest BB&B and buy a couple scented candles to keep it going.

There was also a mix of me thinking about something I read about when you write a quiry letter, not to include rhetorical questions asking stupid things like "Will he be able to save the world", "Can she find love, or will she have to break her own heart" as a means of trying to hook the reader of said letter into becoming curious. So naturally my mind wandered, and asked myself "What's behind-" and then there was the title.

The overall idea is there is this tall wall in the Middle of Nowhere, English Countryside. There isn't really anything else around, just some rolling hills, a couple scattered trees here and there, a few forgotten smaller rock walls dividing pastures that have no animals grazing. This fifteen foot high wall is some hundreds of yards long, and completely covered in blackberry brush. And always with ripened berries at all times of the year, even winter. And so the smell lingers all the time; you get used to it.

No one really knows what is on the other side. Or if there is even a way to get to the other side at all. Some people who walk along it claim they hear things coming from across the brick and brush. But you learn not to really question the wall, and what's behind it. Just enjoy the year round berries.

Somewhere along the wall, but not attached to the wall, is a nice, fairly large sized home, the only obvious sign of people living out there for some miles in any direction; besides the wall. This home is where [unnamed heroine] has come to stay for [currently unknown] reasons. But she is a curious one, and questions the wall. It must end somewhere; where does it go? What's on the other side? Who built it? Why are the blackberries always in season?

She takes to walking the walls length to pass time, trying to hear something, anything. Despite being told some people do hear things, she never does. But she could've sworn she saw light coming somewhere behind the wall that one night, faint as it was. And she's tried to actually touch the stone behind the branches and thorns, but the blackberry covering is too thick. Finally she throws a rock over the wall, frustrated over her failings.

Then the rock comes back.

...

That's it. That's as far as I have so far, because I've realized several things about this story, and they are things that could get tricky for me. For one, there are several influences to this story, namely Narnia, Stardust, and The Secret Garden, and to me all of them are obvious; secret hidden world (Narnia), wall as a barrier of a secret world (Stardust), stone inclosure of hidden green wonders (Garden). And because of those factors, what I'd like to avoid is being too closely compared to those stories. The overall problem being, at the moment it doesn't look like there's a lot of different ways to go.

So, currently, this idea is stuck. I like the concept, but don't really have anywhere to go with it. It's just a fun little babble. I'd like to try to continue it somewhere, but as I said I'm not sure at the moment on how to do so that isn't a direct lift from any of the preceeding influences.
ravenswept: (Default)
...except replace "unwell" with "batshit loco".

Psycho, My Own, a story I had almost forgot about. Probably my first ambitious project, it was started way back in 2001-2002, or somewhere there about. I forget what I was thinking, and I'm curious about what I was thinking, because looking through my notes I was trying to take on a lot; and had very little understanding of it all.

I'm getting ahead of myself; all that I'm saving for another idea dump post later on. Here, I'm a gonna share the only scene I ever wrote for the story, everything else being background, character notes and faux-psychological interspective. Strangely, I'm not sure why I didn't prose it out normally, instead I apparently chose to write it in script form. So that's how you get it too.

Read my old shame )

I'd like to think there's still something there to work with. I'd really need to better research mental illness if I wanted to go forward, I know I probably got quite a bit wrong (not to mention terminology). In my defense, I was in highschool when I came up with this, so that excuses at least some of my mistakes... sorta. =_=;
ravenswept: (Default)
For those who don't maybe know, I start a lot of projects; stupidly, because there are many beyond what I can actually focus on at one time. Part of this is because my mind wanders (with tracking chip installed) often and comes up with ideas that are interesting. But because of over work, I have a pretty good collection of story titles, some in use, others needing to be started... and then those that I don't even have anything for, just a title.

So, because I feel like doing more than just letting the 30DoW meme do all the work here, I'm going to list (because lists are fun) those that I have. Enjoy.

- The Blackberry Wall
- Tigress
(alt. Tai-lan, the Tiger Princess)
- In the Wake of Kings
- Amery Lampkin, the Not-Captain
- Lightning's Child
- Little Red Riding Wolf
- Trader Wood
- Kareen
- Lord Crow
- Search of the Silence
- A Noir Story
(working title)
- Pearl Moon
- Whisper
- Stormblades
- The Smoke Dancer
- Psycho, My Own
- Gothic Cross
- T.R.O. (Technotronic Rock Operatic)
- Network
- The Three Little Pimps
(eh, why not, I'll list it)
-
eeh, there's anther dozen or so titles, but they're from stories that are so old it dips back into when I tried my hand at fanfiction

Yeesh, writing all those out makes it look like I have no drive. And it's not that (I swear), I'd just rather get something down on paper/drive and let it sit instead of letting it fester in my head while I try to work on something else. It helps, sorta, that not all those are whole books, most of what's in the middle are short stories meant to go together in a collection; then again, Tigress and Amery were among that collection, and they went through a creative mitosis of their own to become larger than their part. Bastards.

If anyone has any questions about any of these, let me know.
ravenswept: (Default)
To my credit, when I came up with that idea Bruce Almighty hadn't come out yet.

In another installment of Forgotten Idea Theatre, I will expond upon an idea I had for a movie. Why a movie? Well, because that's how it worked out. The characters were based on real people (ie actors... do they count as real people?) and that's just how it went.

This is also one of few times I can easily identify outside sources for inspiration, namely Kevin Smith's Dogma and Neil Gaiman's Sandman series. Both have fun ideas of how God(s)(ess)(es) interact with humans, and I wanted to be like the cool kids.

What it breaks down to is, a normal human guy is roped along by the God of War to visit a bunch of human counterparts to various gods, angels and so on. At the end, he wonders why he was shown them; GoW shrugs, says someone's gotta know, and it's up to him to decide if anything is done at all.

God of War, Mars, the Angel Gabriel, in this case looks like a black chick with dreadlocks. She can tap dance on a car without setting of the alarm, and at the snap of her fingers start a bar fight.

Part of the point of this piece of work is a loose idea I have of religion, which is everyone is right, they just see it differently, which is why GoW has so many following names. Everything is tied together, it just that each culture sees things in different ways, so how they come about to whatever it is they do is dependent on them.

Looking at it from the advantage of time, there's not a lot stringing the whole plot together, it's really just a bunch of meet and greets with no real overall sense of purpose, beyond showing what all these gods do nowadays. But I like them so much!

Aphrodite, I picture played by Kathy Kinney, the woman who played Mimi Bobeck on The Drew Carey Show. She runs a whorehouse. And is cranky as hell about how the perspective of beauty has changed from back in the day. Being the Goddess of Love, one of the things she can do is look at a person and know everything about their sexual life; their kinks, how many times they've had sex, what their sexual organs look like, and usually uses it to make others uncomfortable because she finds it funny.

Satan is played by Ian McKellen. Why, I don't know; maybe because I have the Devil be gay, and the first thing our human-person sees is him kissing his younger boyfriend good bye. *shrug* It's the way it went. Here is where the Sandman has it's most obvious affect, in that Lucifer isn't a bad guy, he's just the guy stuck with the job of watching over all the people who decide to go to hell. It's not his choice (...all the time), they make the decision themselves that they believe they need to suffer torment for whatever precived sins they have. He's simply the landlord, not the ringmaster.

He meets a few others, I have notes on it somewhere around here, but that's the jist of the whole thing. Playing on the perception of what that god(dess) is really like, how they interact with the real world, and so on. Jesus, as the title mentions, is a older black gentlemen who spends his time playing chess in the park. And it's like his fifteenth time back on Earth. This was one idea I wanted to play with, that Jesus, forever prophesied to some day make his return, actually has several times over, we've just been too stupid to realize it. Sometimes it's as historical figures of note, sometimes it's just as some guy.

I forget what the whole point of this was; maybe it was just an overblown idea that had headshots attached. It needs more than just, "Hey, lets go to [x] place and see [x] person!" Maybe I'll come back to it someday.

Ooh, God, I forgot about the big G. He's....she's....well, really, s/he's whatever s/he wants to be. Literally, I remember one final scene where War sits on a park bench, watching as our squishy human walks away, and starts talking to herself; then we pan to the person sitting next to her. There is no headshot of God, because throughout the entire conversation, God turns from one person to another; a business woman, a teenager, a littel girl, a Yankee's fan, a priest, all within a five-or-so minute chat. God apparently has the attention span of a hummingbird on a sugar rush. Who knew.
ravenswept: (Default)
Okay, I'll get to that, but first: the fucking hell?! Who the hell keeps green lighting this crap?! What's next, Huckleberry Hound? Snaggle Puss? Oh, wait, we need a summer action, let's do Wacky Races! I just... after the Scooby, and then the Chipmunks... Smurfs coming... GAAAH! My childhood is not yours for the taking!

***

Whew, okay... I'm good.

Just...grrr.

World building. Right.

A while back on [livejournal.com profile] a_soc_k, there was discussion on what one would do to make their fantasy world unique... or was it, how to make their dragons unique? Something, anyway, one suggestion I made was making dragons, instead of solitary or special, was multiplying them. Make them very common, to the point that you worry more about the big ones than you do about them being there.

Well, not just that. Dragons, in this world, would become the equivalent of horses, though horses would not be entirely replaced. They'd be about the same relative size, hold one to maybe two people, with fire breathing based a bit on Flight of Dragons, where they'd need to chew limestone in order to achieve flame.

The main reason I came to this was because I had an inkling of an idea of a farmboy and his dragon, and I wanted it to not suck *coughEragoncough*. So, if dragons are an everyday animal, they aren't special. Fudging on the terms of "farmboy", his family owns a dragon stable, where they breed, raise and train dragons. He actually has a family, not some orphan peddled off to an impoverished uncle somewhere; in fact, while not rich-rich, they aren't exactly hurting economic wise. Also, if he grows up around the dragons, it makes sense that he knows how to ride, could figure out how to fight on one, and has a good handle on dragon husbandry.

The dragons themselves are moderately intelligent. A little higher than say, a very smart dog; maybe a rung above a dolphin. They can be taught basic commands, can follow verbal ones as well, with their intelligence growing over age. Some can even learn some speech, though it wouldn't get to conversation level. At best, I figure they could say names, words, and identify things, but aren't going to be using pronouns and such. They can be long lived, the more purebred ones, so the time they have to learn can vary.

Feral dragons are the ones of legends, the ones that breath fire indiscriminately and grow to huge sizes. These are also the kind that are more solitary, needing more room for themselves, and will defend their territory from others. You could, in theory, catch and tame one, but why is the question you'd have to ask yourself.

The world itself has accommodated itself to their usage, with stables for dragons at most villages and towns. Messages and such can travel quicker, people can live and build further away from civilization, being able to travel further. Militarizes make use of them as scouts and are beginning to form air forces.

I haven't decided whether or not I want magic in this world or not. If so, it most likely won't be the "flashy" magic, where spells light up and things are a big spectacle, more subdued and natural. They can have a big effect, but aren't going to be huge productions.

There's a high fantasy story I'm letting simmer on the side, In the Wake of Kings, that I'm debating about whether or not I want this to merge together. I don't think it'd work well, because this seems more like a YA book, possible a series, where the plot is fast paced and there's a small core set of main characters. Kings is geared to be a huge undertaking, much more mature themes over all, with a lot of layers in terms of plot, characterization, and narrative. And with all that, I don't know if I want to combine that with this, seemingly, little dragon story. I see ways it could, and they do have some areas where they could overlap, but it still doesn't feel quite right. But at the same time, I don't know if I want another story to sit in the wings. I have enough of those.

Pretty basic, what I have so far, but it's an inkling. It promises good things, and I like how it goes against a lot of what is, quote unquote, "established" for YA heroes (ie, orphan, uber-special, called to destiny) so it'd set itself apart, I hope. When I came up with this, How to Train Your Dragon hadn't come out yet, so I'm thinking I'll need to double check to make sure they aren't too similar; I don't suspect that to be the case, but it's good to know these things ahead of time.

***

Also, I've come to the conclusion that I need to see Up.
ravenswept: (Default)
This story is giving more trouble than I want it to.

A small problem I've come across with most stories I've tried to write over the years is that I create interesting characters. That itself is not so much the problem, but that that's where the most of the creative juices seem to flow to. So the wad gets blown way before the actual meat of the matter comes to haaaannd holy shit that got dirty quick didn't it?

And interesting character can make for an interesting story, but you can't place an intersting character in a boring story or you're just stupid. Unless they're supposed to be bored. But even then you can't keep them bored or else your reader will be bored and they at least can walk away from the boriness.

Little Red Riding Wolf is born of a want to write a good werewolf story, and already having a kickass pun title, that no is not a porno.

Here's what I got so far:

Little Red Riding Hood, AKA Ashley Holtram: I had never understood why Red and the Wolf were always seperate characters in all the stories of them I've read. Usually it's just an easy dicatomy that no one wants to think harder about, and then there's when it does make for a porno. Regardless, I liked the idea of Red coming from colonial days, perhaps even pre-New World travelling, and surviving to modern day. She is unhappy about being a werewolf, and all that comes with being one, but makes due and is trying to hunt down the one who turned her, her own grandmother. I don't think it'd really do anything, "kill the sourse" not being a cure" in this world, but it'd make her feel better. She's amassed some form of wealth, you don't live centuries and not money manage, and it helps being on the run from other hunters and continually following her grandmother.

Grandmother, AKA The Big Bad Wolf: Orginially, the idea was to have Red and the Wolf be one and the same, but I realized that didn't quite work, because the Wolf is the one who attacks her. And in the story, it's the Wolf dressed up in Grandma's nightgown. Well, okay then, it's just a title, shift it over to Grandma. And thus Grandma became the villian of the story. Well, didn't become she always was, but she gets the Big Bad moniker. Something about the wolf bite triggered an extreme aggressiveness in her, it normally does, which is why she bit Red in the first place, trying to kill her, and lives her life pretty care free and in the fast lane, doing whatever she wants because she has no real worries. I haven't decided if I want her de-age at all, to increase the threat level, or keep her old and just stronger than your normal geriatric.

The Huntsman: I haven't decided if I have a place for him or not, mainly because I can't have a mortal human chase a werewolf for centuries without some major magic influence, which I'm not sure I want, or without ripping of Gargoyles and their Huntsmen in some form.

Werewolves: In journals that Red keeps, because she fears losing her memories of so many years, she tries over the years to accurately describe what is exactly means to be and transform into a werewolf. She fails, so some degree, because there are so many things she knows shouldn't be but are. Why is the transformation involuntary at the full moon? Not sure. Why only at night, when the moon is visible during the day? Her theory is it has something to do with the more dominate sun. Why is she still alive after several hundred years? She thinks it has something to do with the transformation itself, and the cell regeneration from human to wolf and back somehow is keeping the cells from really aging. Which is stupid, cells shouldn't work like that. But she can only tell frustratingly that she knows how things work but not why. Red also is different from her Grandmother, in that she's not as overly agressive as Grandma turned out to be after being bitten. Part of her being the villian is that slightly more blood-thirstyness that Red doesn't share, expect during a full moon. Werewolves can, eventually, learn to transform even when it's not a full moon, or even nighttime, but it doesn't very quickly, they have to actually practice and learn to do so, and didn't occur to Red to even try until decades later.

Vampire: Eeeh, I'm loath to include them in this, mainly because I'd like to avoid any comparision to Twilight to any degree, but I have an idea for them that I don't want to let waste away. They work in the same pseudo-science-magiciky way as werewolves, knowing the actual science but failing to explain why they still are, but no real single character yet.

And, unfortunately, that's most of what I have. The flip side of being able to come up with the characters is I usually can give them detailed backstories, but these are only to add to their characterization and not much to the story I'd like to actually tell with them. Grr, arg.

The obvious story is Red going after her Grandmother for revenge and to stop her from doing her evilly things. Regrettibly, I haven't thought of some over-arcing goal for Grandma that would need stopping, and while not needed I don't feel a story of simple revenge would do me any good. I'd like to skip a need for a love story, or at the very least have one that's not simply, "Ooh, I'm dangerous stay away", "I can't, I love you", "I love you too, that's why we can't be" jesus, I just puked a little.

It's a serious "in progress" work, but I have hopes for it. Maybe if I just picked a damn point to start from it'd be better than trying to figure out where that point will go.
ravenswept: (Default)
This was an idea I've been letting stew for a few weeks. In high school, one of my creative writing teacher's few good ideas was to have us write new versions of fairy tales. My messed up story became The Three Little Pimps (yeah, it was a good as it sounds), but I liked the idea.

I never understood why every version of Red Riding Hood had the Big Bad Wolf as the bad guy. Well, yeah, I do, but that's not what I'm going for. They were always two separate characters. So I had the idea to combine them. So yeah. Werewolves.

I thought it took the old story and twisted it a bit. And I can't remember ever seeing the idea done before, so I'm trying to work the kinks out.

There's a possibility for vampires but at the moment: a) I'm trying not to steer too close to Twilight territory, and b) I'm not sure how they'd work yet, into the story. I have a vague idea of how vampires would exist in that world, and it goes counter to most "they're undead" narratives, but how to get (one of) them and Riding Hood together is still up in air.

As for the subject title...I ran the story title past a good friend, who's been my idea filter for years, and her first comment back was the title reminded her of a porno. And then the imagery got into my head. It burned. But for the moment I can't think of anything better, so for now it stays.

DEAR GOD THERE IT IS AGAIN AAAAAHHHHH.

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