Stories To Be

Bits and Pieces of my stories. Some posts here will be continuances of a story. Some will be details or ideas for a scene or other part of a story that isn't next but I don't want to forget. Each post will be titled with the name of the story it belongs to, to keep things from being confusing.

Stories In Progress

  • Bane of Death
  • Tabled Unfinished Stories

  • Troia
  • The Lost Song
  • New Mutants: Angel
  • The Unending Story
  • Finished Stories

  • End, The - Feint of Heart Warning
  • Faith Winterfields
  • Flight
  • Chronicles of Gaia
  • Project, The
  • What's At S.T.E.A.K.
  • Poems

  • Sense of Wonder
  • Happiness In Health
  • Thoughts
  • Anticipation (of News)

  • Please let me know what you think!  Comment or e-mail me.  Both positive and negitive critiques expected!

    Wednesday, October 12, 2005

    NaNoWriMo Idea #3 

    "A Revisionist History of My Life"

    That's the last story idea I'm considering for NaNoWriMo. The original idea I came up with last year. You can read it here. Basically it's, what would my life have been like and who would I be now if Mom had not moved my brother and I out to Massachusetts when I was seven?

    I was thinking on it again today. I figure the semi-truck accident would still have happened, and I'd probably still have the same issues dealing with romantic relationships.

    Also, my local friend Tim suggested I consider Chaos Theory and maybe incorporate it. Though I plan to stay more realistic with this story, that could also contribute.

    (For the record, Tim voted for "Bane of Death" as the novel I should write.)

    Labels: , ,

    posted by Jennifer Michelle  @9:28 PM


    Comments


    Sara said:
    OK, I believe that's all of them?

    I'm still voting for Bane of Death and I think this one is the idea I'm least excited about. That's not say it's bad; it's in very good company. I just think I'd rather see the other two first.

    As someone who's read a lot of comics, I'm pretty well read in the "What If?" genre. It's a tricky thing to do well. In comics, such stories traditionally hinge on taking an existing piece of comics history and imagining what would happen if one event had happened differently. "What if so-and-so had been killed?" "What if whoever had married what's her face?" "What if such-and-such never got his powers?" The problem is that it's very hard, even impossible, to write something that feels like the definitive answer to the title question. Somewhere along the way, some character is going to come to a narrative crossroads and have a couple of reasonable options to choose from. (This is assuming that the writer doesn't have the character make an unreasonable and uncharacteristic decision, which I have certainly seen done.) Only one path can be taken, and in any given story, it's likely that many such points will come up. It can be very hard to make it feel like you've provided a really solid answer to the question and not simply created more "What Ifs?". More than likely, some readers will not be convinced that the most likely outcome of a particular hypothetical situation is that the universe ends. (This is sometimes the case.)

    Of course, if and when you write this story, you will be in a slightly different position. Whereas the readers of a "What If?" comic know that this is a different take on another story which they've probably read, your readers might not. Depending on how many people end up seeing your story and whether or not you decide to explain to strangers what it's meant to be, you may have many readers who see your novel only for its own sake, not as any kind of alternate version of a life. Even those of us who know the scoop may not be familiar with every detail of the original version. So probably the only person who can really judge whether the finished piece accurately answers the question you pose is you.

    I'm guessing that you may run into one of two pitfalls here. You may find yourself idealizing your alternate life because as a writer with some distance from it, the choices you have to make seem much more black and white than they would in your real life. Or you may end up making your character stand-in's life overly negative out of a desire, conscious or not, to convince yourself that the move to Massachusetts and the life you have as a result were for the better. These aren't reasons not to try writing this story. They're just hazards you may want to watch out for. I think the best defense would be to frequently compare what you're writing to what actually happened to you when you were that age. Figure out what decisions you made and why and take that into account so you're writing your best guess at what you actually would have done rather than what you would want yorself to do or what you think you should have done looking back from an adult perspective.

    So I think the success or failure of this story will depend on how truthful you feel it is. I also think you should go with "Bane of Death" for NaNoWriMo, because this one is going to be a little more restrictive to write. I also think other people who give you advice should post in your blog so I can see what they have to say and not feel like the only one talking here.
     

    Jennifer Michelle said:
    Here's the short version of Tim's comments to me, as they were relayed to me via phone last night:

    -------
    "A Rivisionists History of My Life" - This would be the easiest to do. You'd have the best chance of reaching 50,000 words in a month, because you already know your life, and you can just go on and on. You could decide to stay realistic or go crazy. Are you going to use Chaos Theory? As in, the day after your family didn't move to Massachusetts everything radically changes. That could be interesting.

    "Bane of Death"
    - I think this is the coolest idea! I've never heard of anything like that before. And there are a lot of aspects you mentioned that I didn't even think of when you explained the concept. Wow.
    -------

    Tim didn't seem all that impressed by BBB. But I didn't really flesh out the concept for him. Of course I did flesh out BoD some for him because he wanted to know more about that one. I think BBB was just too ordinary for him.
     
    Post a Comment

    Links

    View Archive List  

    Webrings

    Go to previous site Visit random site Join our ring Visit our home page List of sites Visit next site Click Here To Join
    Prev | List | Random | Next
    This site is owned by
    Jennifer Michelle
    .
    Writer's Webring Gif
    Join Now

    Ring Hub

    Random

    Previous

    Next

    Next 5