writery stuff

[lauralh]

I woke up 50 minutes before my alarm went off, but I just lay in bed with Reg and thought about my novel(s).

So, I started with thinking about The Novel, because in what I originally wrote, the main character (Charles) has a best friend (Archie) from basically luck, his dad moved to Sloan, CT from southern Jersey for no discernable reason. Also his sister was gay, and I figured out a way to combine these two facts. I mean, originally "his dad got transferred" but I had a concept of Sloan as a pretty small (pop. 12K) town, and I couldn't figure out what would run the economy beyond lumber mills.

So I decided that Mr. Huron was an orthodontist, and his wife's sister knew someone in Sloan, but that wasn't enough for me. Then I got into this big notion of Archie's sister being harassed at school for coming out, and as a result she set fire to one of the school buildings, got kicked out before her sr. year was half-done, and no other school in the county would take her. NYC too expensive, so they went past it, to Sloan.

The thoughts on Cybil and Zeezrom were, well, more Cybil/Zardacom thoughts. I have a scene of them talking a bit about Zeezrom's childhood after they escape the pirates, but not about Cybil's childhood, since she was raised by "the state" like everyone else on her planet. You start with robot nursemaids, but then by the time the kids start talking they need human guardians, etc etc. And then at age 3 they start school and so forth. The interesting thing is since I established all this, I read something about how smart parents aren't necessarily having smart children, because of genetic drift, or statistical normality, or something. I forget. But yeah, I want to have sperm races to get the best one for the egg now.

Comments

[moderndayknight.livejournal.com]

your lj cut is f'ed up

oops

[herbaliser.livejournal.com]

fixed

TCM

[betahuman.livejournal.com]

I read all the way through TCM without wondering how Charles and Archie became friends.

What I _did_ wonder was how the gang only took an afternoon to convince an entire high school to cast a spell with them. That snapped my suspenders of disbelief pretty hard.

it's been a while since I read that part, but I think it's

[herbaliser.livejournal.com]

because there was a big flippin' dragon flying around setting fire to shit?

Good point

[betahuman.livejournal.com]

But in a world where magic's existence is not common knowledge, I think people would be looking for more commonplace explanations for what's going on. Upon hearing "Magic is real and 1000 year-old prophecies are being fulfilled as we speak," I think I would cling pretty hard to any other theory that presented itself.

My favorite part of the book is what happens after the big spell, anyway. I've wondered what the story would be like told from Scott's point of view, as I think he has the most compelling story.

[herbaliser.livejournal.com]

a) well, maybe, but I don't know that people would have any better ideas than to let the spell go for it. "and if it doesn't work, we call in the national guard" ??

b) Scott's descent would be great fodder, wouldn't it. ::evil cackle::

[betahuman.livejournal.com]

a) That's the thing. They would call the national guard almost immediately. Which I think is partly why the whole spell thing is set up so quickly. Otherwise, every government agency is gonna be on that town's ass in, like, two days.

b) Yep. Scott's story works really well. I'm not sure what all those other characters (and magic and prophecy, etc.) are doing in his book. My bias is that having once been raised a hellfire-baptist, I now despise messianic prophecy as the motivation of a story.

[herbaliser.livejournal.com]

a) I am fairly sure I have shit going on during the weekend so the city council etc. are not around to deal with it.

b) Well, it is a fantasy story. I'm not sure how you could have Scott helping to save the town from the evil dragon without the magic and other characters.