When outlining a story, you start with the basics. You have your characters, their problem, and the solution. That's how it works. But what's in between is the fun stuff. You have good guys, bad guys, and then those questionable people. No one does this better than the Whedons. From Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Dollhouse to Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., you can expect one thing: You never know what to trust. This is what keeps such a devoted following. The eye candy helps, don't get me wrong. (Brett Dalton, if you're reading this, I swear I'm not trying to objectify you.)
You could easily write a story about a knight saving a princess and getting a happily ever after. But we've all heard that. What about the story where the princess is really a clone of a cyborg engineered zombie and the knight is a mutation of a lizard and really wants to bring the princess to his lair for his evil master?
Okay, that's a little crazy. But you get my point.
Predictable is boring. Keep your reader/watcher guessing. That's the key to a truly good story.
She tucked the knife into her boot and picked up the gun from nightstand. Beside her, his lifeless form didn't make a sound. His blank eyes stared up at the ceiling with dazed wonder. He hadn't seen it coming. They never do. They always see the dark brown hair and deep, soulful blue eyes and fall right into her trap. Briefly, she wondered who he was. The blue sheets were a sky littered with bloody clouds giving him a skyline that he soared upon as the sacrificed angel.
She stood, picking up the discarded denim skirt and shimmied it back on. She'd always put on her boots first for some reason. Perhaps it was because she was armed that way. Tying on her halter top, she gave one last look at her mark and grinned. That was an easy fifty grand.
*~*
"Laundry is clean," she reported. "Fold it and put it away by midnight into the drawer." She hung up and tossed the disposable cell into her purse. By midnight, her money would be at the bus station in a locked briefcase. It was the same routine, just a different drop each time.
How does one become the most highly trained assassin in North America? That was something she'd been asked several times. Is it in the blood? Is it the nurture versus nature? That was something the she'd asked herself many times. There really was no easy answer. She was raised in a typical American home and did average in high school. She'd even been the prom queen. So how, only five years later, did she end up making millions by killing people? How could she sleep at night and think nothing of the life she'd taken?
She was the dark angel.
Fictional stories are often judged on factual things. Which is such a strange thing to think about. But fact checking is done so much.
Do people realize that this story... our story... we gave it life. We gave it reality. We wove it around in our minds until it became a real world to us. So to tell us that we're wrong, we're not feasible, we're not believable is to tell us our hearts cannot sing.
I can't believe that. In all the universes in all the realms of all the wolds... my heart will sing.
This is kind of a continuation of the last post. When I start a book, I usually have some actor or actress already in mind. Like Nicolas in this current book? I totally see him as Josh Hartnett. And Thomas? Oh, if I could only cast Neil Patrick Harris... *sigh*
Anyway, I bring this up because it's yet another thing I wonder about. When my book is published, I have no idea what will happen. I really hope the one day it'll become a major blockbuster like the Hunger Games.
But who would really get cast? Would I end up with the ones I always pictured? I hope yes, but I also hope no. Why? Because I'm wondering if there is one actor or actress who walks in and all of the sudden I gasp and realize this is it. This is the complete personification of my character.
Who do you cast in your headcanon?
When I hear that a book is going to be made into a movie, I'm not going to lie, I cringe. I know that Hollywood wants to make the most visually acceptable version and that they really want a wow factor but they butcher most of them. For that reason, I try to watch the movie first, then I read the book. That way it doesn't ruin the experience for me. Example?
This movie was sweet and mellow when I watched it. Cute little love story with a supernatural twist. So, I thought I'd check out what the book was like.
SO MUCH BETTER.
Books go into so much more character development and they let you take the time to get to feel for them.
It makes me a little weary of if my book does hit the mainstream. What if I get a movie deal and they butcher it all to hell and back? Tell me what you think.
I really didn't know what to write today. I feel something deeply that's pulling at my soul. I know that this is my writing blog but I feel like this is all connected. Writers pull from within and when that's all in turmoil, if affects us differently. It affects all aspects of our life.
It's the silence.
My mind is a constant swirl of color and sound. At night, it's sometimes hard to shut it down to sleep. It's constant. It's total. It's something I live with every day.
Some days I long for silence.
Saw this online and just had to post it.
Well, I've got a pen to keep from typin',
And I'm bound to keep on writin'.
And I've got one more little chapter,
But I'm not gonna sleep at all tonight,
Not gonna sleep 'cause I'm the Midnight Writer.
Ha! That's kinda cute right?
So, I laid down last night but there it was. My clipboard and pen. They were staring at my from my nightstand. So I picked it up, put on some music and went to town. It's amazing how when the quiet of the night and the soft comfort of the bed clear up anything that may have bothered you throughout your day. And when "Midnight Rider" came on my playlist, I couldn't stop thinking that little verse I wrote up there.
Can I do this? Have I ever truly finished anything that wasn't a fanfic? Short and sweet is easy. Especially when you have someone else's characters and setting to go off of. But this is one hundred percent my mind. I birthed these characters through my pen and paper. This makes them bare to the world.
I looked at a stream of books as I walked through a department store today. I didn't know half of the authors I saw. This was actually a good thing. It tells me that people are branching out and realizing you don't have to be a big name to be a good read.
So why am I still second guessing every damn move I'm making with this book?
Because even if readers are indeed branching out, I may never be a mane on those racks.
It's been four solid days since I've picked up the pen and paper for my book. I don't know why. I know that I have more to write. I know what I want to write. But motivation is really dead right now. I don't know why.
I don't think this is really writer's block, per say. The ideas are here. I'm just looking at that pen and paper and sighing heavily. Why can't this part be easy?
