The dictionary defines the word "word" as: noun-a meaningful sound or combination of sounds that is a unit of language or its representation in a text.
Sounds pretty basic, right?
And we all know that words fall under four basic groupings: nouns, verbs, adverbs and adjectives. And we have dozens of sub-groups for each of those four basic groupings.
No, I'm not gonna get all intellectual on you. I'll leave that for the professionals
And we definitely know that trying to string those various words together to form sentences and paragraphs, lyrics and chorus, rhyme and meters can often lead to things like this:
Such is the case of yours truly. Yours truly has been spending the past month frantically milking a story idea like the Italian cinema used to do with certain movie genres, before the twin titans of doom (lack of enthusiasm and lack of verbiage) makes their required appearance in my life.
As of last Wednesday, I was working on the second story of a planned trilogy that was both in and out of my comfort zone for preferred genres. The story itself revolves around a backpack that a man was delivering to a client. In my comfort zone, it contained a few familiar topics of choice: sex, beautiful women and fantasy/paranormal. Out of my comfort zone, it contained a few topics that I normally don't touch upon: violence, dead bodies and violence against women.
As of today, I managed to finish the second story, which because of the hurricane/tropical storm Irene that hit and coupled with the fact that I basically stayed offline that past weekend, gave me enough alone time to complete the story.
The interesting (or annoying, take your pick) thing about this trilogy so far is that I had to introduce a couple of plot swerves in order to have the stories make sense. If you remember from last week, I had posted the final paragraph in the first story that basically forced me to write the second story. Well with the second story, I had about six and a half pages written before I realized that I needed to explain that last paragraph. Ain't nothing worse that mentioning something in a story, and in fact basing the continuation of that story on that issue, then completely forgetting to refer to it.
So I had to do a major swerve in order to get the second story to properly continue the first story. The beauty of the genres that I seem to be having the most fun with (fantasy and paranormal) is that it allows certain lapses in judgement to be forgiven, so long as you more than adequately explain those lapses in judgement.
In this particular instance, I had to flesh out the reason as to why one of the protagonists said the word, "sucker" at the end of the first story. Not fleshing it out would've basically meant that I was writing a 5K word story with no coherency and no continuity.
In any event, this is what I got working for me so far:
1} A man who is a "soul catcher" but who is part human as well (a hybrid), who has to make a delivery of a backpack that he was entrusted to keep.
2} A father who is a renegade hybrid (enjoys feasting on both humans and hybrids).
3} A daughter who is also a renegade hybrid, who is adept at playing both a pseudo-eighteen year old slut and her chronological age, and who has somehow developed a conscience, because...
4} Her father was forced to arrange a hit on the soul catcher and of which she was initially forced to participate in.
So far, the story titles are:
1} The Backpack: which is about the soul catcher retrieving his backpack. This story basically sets the tone for the amount of violence that the rest of the trilogy will have.
2} The Journey: which is about the journey to deliver the backpack. This is where I had to do most of the plot swerves in order for the story to make sense.
Not sure what I'm going to call story number three, but I'm leaning towards "The Delivery" as a working title. In any event, story three won't be started until I get enough time to sit and map it out with any familia interruptus.
And that sums up the non-purple prose from my pen this week. Tune in next week because I might just have purple tinted prose to share with everyone.
The premise sounds really intriguing, G!
ReplyDeleteThose are great titles.
ReplyDeleteMama Z: Thanks. It's been pretty kewl so far in writing these stories. Hopefully I'll be able to wrap it up in a couple of weeks.
ReplyDeleteLynn: Thanks.
Sometimes the simplest is often the best.
Sounds complicated, man. I'm a big fan of purple prose, btw.
ReplyDeleteSounds pretty complicated, man. I don't think I usually give it that much thought. :)
ReplyDeleteCharles: I gather you zigged when you wanted to zag with your comment, so I published both to be on the safe side.
ReplyDeleteIt does, but I think I can make it work without too much a problem.
Purple prose is always a good thing (and you've seen me unleash some prime purply stuff here), but today purply would have been out of place with the stories of choice being highlighted today.
You promised me you'd never write about my family!
ReplyDeleteActually, I've been referring to the 18th century living conditions all week while I sat up all night in dim candlelight eating whatever would go bad first from the frig...
ReplyDeleteI see the storm was a good writing time for you. Glad it wasn't bad for you there.
I got a bunch of journaling scribbled on paper, most missing the lines, as I was writing in the dark. At least I got to practice alot of blind guitar tho.
Wish I'd been able to read your story while I was stuck. Sounds interesting!
R: You lost me on that one, which is a rarity within itself.
ReplyDeleteSnaggle: Our state got spanked pretty well along the shoreline and up to the lower part of the state. A good chunk of people are still without power though.
The storm definitely had that silver lining, only because I made a concsious effort not to be online while it was going on. I figure since no one else would really be online and my t.v. viewing is down to almost zero, this was the only logical course of action I could take.
There are those who simply don't want to make the effort. They buy product after product, open it up and see that work is involved, then stop right then and there. Then they wonder why they are not having the success they feel they deserve.
ReplyDeleteAt the end of the day, it comes down to focus and desire. The true desire to succeed, then the power of focus to study and put in to action what they learn.
Paul: Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with you on that point. For the longest time I was like that myself but it took me a long time to change that mindset.
I just keep plugging on and eventually things will start falling my way.