I've figured it out. I am not writing a book. I've decided to try something different. I cannot quell the torrent of nagging ideas wishing to be written into stories. If I don't get them out of my head somehow, they just sit there festering in it like that soup in the fridge from two weeks ago that you avoid dealing with but will only get worse. The biggest problem with dealing with it has always been holding onto it long enough for it to develop or become absorbed into another story while allowing it to ruin many a night of sleep. Then it takes me forever to type it all out. However, if I don't try to develop these ideas as full blown novels but instead short stories, I can greatly speed up the process of bailing these things out of my brain. Shorter gestation, shorter writing, quicker cathartic release.
Yes, short stories. I've got around a dozen ideas right now and I've already finished writing two of them out fully. It's an eclectic gathering of Sci-fi and horror but mostly magical realism and the absurd. I suppose this means that I'll have to announce the release of a short story collection at some point in the future. And no this does not mean my novel writing days are at an end, merely on hiatus...
Showing posts with label Writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Writing. Show all posts
Monday, March 21, 2016
Tuesday, February 9, 2016
The brain is willing but the spirit is weak...
Glad this one's finally over. I want to take a break from writing books for a while. Perhaps that sounds funny because I don't consider myself a prolific writer. Six books in eight years and not one of them has broken a 70k word count. I can't type and I have hardly any free time, therefore it takes me forever to write anything. NaNoWriMo blows my mind. How does anyone have the time and mental constitution to write a book in a month? I like writing but it takes so much energy out of me. As a parent of two, I'm already exhausted all the time. Whenever I take on a project, even if it's just something I do on the side for fun, my brain is constantly thinking about it at all times until the project is finished. It's like starting a marathon that you can't quit. Maybe it's naive of me to think that I can "take a break" when so many of my projects are started because my inspiration has reached critical mass and essentially drags me kicking and screaming to the keyboard. And don't think that my brain was in want of more ideas when I hit the publish button for Phylum, because it wasn't. I guess what I'm saying is I want to plug my brain's ears and go la la la la la la la for as long as I can get away with it.
Monday, March 30, 2015
The Ecto Chronicles:The Final Draft
For quite a long time I've thought that I should go back and rewrite Soulbond. It was my first book after all and like most authors' first books, the writing doesn't hold up as well as their latter body of work. I tried to go back to it a couple of times but never ended up making anything more than a few superficial changes. I knew things needed to be changed but I didn't know what or how. Now that I'm planning to take the individual Ecto novels off of the shelf, I really want The Ecto Chronicles to have the polish it needs so that I can be done with it and don't have to look back and cringe, thinking I should have cut this changed that.
Suffice it to say that I have resolved to go through it all one last time to create a definitive manuscript. I've already started doing this and am happy to say that I'm actually making a significant amount of changes which I interpret as my plot development and writing style having developed enough that I can see a day and night contrast between my first book and the way I write now. I'm confident that by the time I'm done re-editing the Ecto books, I'll have something highly polished that I don't have to fret over any longer.
Suffice it to say that I have resolved to go through it all one last time to create a definitive manuscript. I've already started doing this and am happy to say that I'm actually making a significant amount of changes which I interpret as my plot development and writing style having developed enough that I can see a day and night contrast between my first book and the way I write now. I'm confident that by the time I'm done re-editing the Ecto books, I'll have something highly polished that I don't have to fret over any longer.
Friday, December 20, 2013
Writing Helloween Thirteen (Pt. 2)
(Highlight the invisible text to read spoiler trivia.)
When coming up with a power for the main villain I wanted it to be something brand new to the series. If this is the last bad guy you see, he'd better be memorable. I had it narrowed down to either metal manipulation or blood manipulation. With metal manipulation, the bad guy would be able to control the shape and consistency of any metal he touches. He'd also wear metal bracers or gauntlets that he could morph into spikes, claws, blades or long sharp wire tendrils. He'd have similar capabilities to the T-1000 in Terminator 2. I ended up going with the blood manipulation power because it helped solidify the plot and it fit in perfectly with the overall horror motif. It also had an interesting mechanic that if he used his own blood as a weapon, he'd naturally want more of it to play with so he'd end up collecting it over time and storing it to use later. Specifically the idea for Helloween Thirteen being a game show came from the video game Silent Hill 2. In the hospital level while you wait in the elevator, a bizarre transmission comes over your radio. It's literally a game show with a host that knows your name and asks you questions. It comes out of nowhere and leaves with no explanation for ANYTHING. The challenge is completely optional. The correct answers correspond to a combo lock on a mysterious box in the hospital. If you get it right, you get a big stash of supplies. If you get it wrong, you get seriously injured. It was just one of those really odd and disquieting moments in a video game that stuck with me.
I wrote the actual game Helloween Thirteen to resemble a twisted version of a cadet's military training as described in the first chapter of the book. The game can be thought of as an obstacle course with a linear path through several challenges to an eventual finish line. Things like the presence of eggs, the fact that Travis dresses up like a private and relies on his training to accomplish specific tasks creates a scenario akin to a nightmare which has incorporated elements from his own reality.
Inspiration for the climax came from Hard Target. Hard Target is an action movie starring Jean-Claude Van Damme which I've seen twice in my life. Once when I was probably ten or younger and once when I was 23. That's a big gap. I remembered absolutely nothing about the movie except the name and the climax with the Mardi Gras floats.
Six is killed in the way that Angela from the first book was originally supposed to be killed. Angela's cause of death was changed because I didn't think it fit the scenario even though I really liked it. I'm glad I got to finally use it.
Are Six's powers magic?
I really want to say no because I've written all of the previous books as if magic doesn't exist in this universe. This is a science universe where things that would be considered paranormal in our universe are more or less explained and controlled. So what is magic? In pop culture it's basically an unseen power with little or no explanation behind it that can be tapped into with a set of steps in some form of a ritual or discipline. Well isn't that unseen power basically what ether is? But ether is pretty much established as a rule or an ambient force of nature like plate tectonics or the Earth's magnetic poles.
Then there's the aspect of Six using elements from magic books to enhance his innate abilities. That means one of two things. If I declare that ether is definitively science then Six has made a hybrid of science and magic by controlling ether manifestation through these old world spells. Or it means that these "magic spells" have graduated from magic to science because they were true all along and were actually based around the user being an ether channeler. That opens a whole new can of worms.
When coming up with a power for the main villain I wanted it to be something brand new to the series. If this is the last bad guy you see, he'd better be memorable. I had it narrowed down to either metal manipulation or blood manipulation. With metal manipulation, the bad guy would be able to control the shape and consistency of any metal he touches. He'd also wear metal bracers or gauntlets that he could morph into spikes, claws, blades or long sharp wire tendrils. He'd have similar capabilities to the T-1000 in Terminator 2. I ended up going with the blood manipulation power because it helped solidify the plot and it fit in perfectly with the overall horror motif. It also had an interesting mechanic that if he used his own blood as a weapon, he'd naturally want more of it to play with so he'd end up collecting it over time and storing it to use later. Specifically the idea for Helloween Thirteen being a game show came from the video game Silent Hill 2. In the hospital level while you wait in the elevator, a bizarre transmission comes over your radio. It's literally a game show with a host that knows your name and asks you questions. It comes out of nowhere and leaves with no explanation for ANYTHING. The challenge is completely optional. The correct answers correspond to a combo lock on a mysterious box in the hospital. If you get it right, you get a big stash of supplies. If you get it wrong, you get seriously injured. It was just one of those really odd and disquieting moments in a video game that stuck with me.
I wrote the actual game Helloween Thirteen to resemble a twisted version of a cadet's military training as described in the first chapter of the book. The game can be thought of as an obstacle course with a linear path through several challenges to an eventual finish line. Things like the presence of eggs, the fact that Travis dresses up like a private and relies on his training to accomplish specific tasks creates a scenario akin to a nightmare which has incorporated elements from his own reality.
Inspiration for the climax came from Hard Target. Hard Target is an action movie starring Jean-Claude Van Damme which I've seen twice in my life. Once when I was probably ten or younger and once when I was 23. That's a big gap. I remembered absolutely nothing about the movie except the name and the climax with the Mardi Gras floats.
Six is killed in the way that Angela from the first book was originally supposed to be killed. Angela's cause of death was changed because I didn't think it fit the scenario even though I really liked it. I'm glad I got to finally use it.
Are Six's powers magic?
I really want to say no because I've written all of the previous books as if magic doesn't exist in this universe. This is a science universe where things that would be considered paranormal in our universe are more or less explained and controlled. So what is magic? In pop culture it's basically an unseen power with little or no explanation behind it that can be tapped into with a set of steps in some form of a ritual or discipline. Well isn't that unseen power basically what ether is? But ether is pretty much established as a rule or an ambient force of nature like plate tectonics or the Earth's magnetic poles.
Then there's the aspect of Six using elements from magic books to enhance his innate abilities. That means one of two things. If I declare that ether is definitively science then Six has made a hybrid of science and magic by controlling ether manifestation through these old world spells. Or it means that these "magic spells" have graduated from magic to science because they were true all along and were actually based around the user being an ether channeler. That opens a whole new can of worms.
Red Eye is an antagonist archetype commonplace in slasher movies and survival horror video games who is relentless, much more powerful and seemingly indestructible compared to the protagonist who can only rely on stealth and quick thinking to stave them off until an eventual showdown. Red Eye has the clothes of Jericho Cross, the eyes of a T-100 terminator, the concealed weapons of Baraka, the bandages of the invisible man, the ‘personality’ of Jason Voorhees but inspired mostly from Mr. X. (If you get all of those references, I’m impressed.)
In Helloween Thirteen, Travis is in his early forties but has the body of about a thirty year old.
Influences and inspiration for Helloween 13 include Silent Hill, Saw, Die Hard III, Hard Target and The Game.Trinity is the first female not to be deliberately named after a video game character. Instead her name begins with ‘Tr’ just like her parents’ names.
If Six were a Batman villain, he would be a cross between the Riddler and Calendar Man.
The boogeyman that Trish makes up to scare her daughter is essentially Bobby Barrows, AKA “Scissorman,” from the Clock Tower video games.
The general scenario and quote “You miserable pycho!” from the scene where Travis comes across all of the eggs in the burning building is directly transposed from a scene in the cartoon SWAT Kats. In the scene, one of the protagonists is riding a missile through the sky launched by the episode’s villain. He knows in order to make the missile inert, he simply has to cut the red wire. When he opens the panel on the missile, he finds that the interior seems to be nothing more than a mass of red wires.
In Helloween Thirteen, Travis is in his early forties but has the body of about a thirty year old.
Influences and inspiration for Helloween 13 include Silent Hill, Saw, Die Hard III, Hard Target and The Game.Trinity is the first female not to be deliberately named after a video game character. Instead her name begins with ‘Tr’ just like her parents’ names.
If Six were a Batman villain, he would be a cross between the Riddler and Calendar Man.
The boogeyman that Trish makes up to scare her daughter is essentially Bobby Barrows, AKA “Scissorman,” from the Clock Tower video games.
The general scenario and quote “You miserable pycho!” from the scene where Travis comes across all of the eggs in the burning building is directly transposed from a scene in the cartoon SWAT Kats. In the scene, one of the protagonists is riding a missile through the sky launched by the episode’s villain. He knows in order to make the missile inert, he simply has to cut the red wire. When he opens the panel on the missile, he finds that the interior seems to be nothing more than a mass of red wires.
Friday, November 8, 2013
Writing Helloween Thirteen (Pt. 1)
(Highlight the invisible text to read spoiler trivia.)
Helloween Thirteen is meant to be a summation of the whole Ecto Series. If you look at book 1 and book 4 side by side, you'll see two wildly different worlds, geographically, technologically and sociopolitically. The main characters are different, not just different characters but they've also changed as individuals over time. It has elements of all of the past titles. Nirvana, killer robots, mischievous children, the katana, almost getting arrested in a cemetery, return of an old antagonist and the result of a story arc that started back in book one and went on behind the scenes, bringing everything full circle.
This was by a large degree the most difficult book in the series to write. By design many of the chapters had to be treated as little stories within the whole that required there own plot development and setting. On top of that, there are three different perspectives/story lines, (sometimes more,) that intertwine through all of this and somehow need to flow together and not step on each other's toes. I have an extreme fear of plot holes and loss of continuity in the story or any of the rules I've established for the world. I can become fixated and obsessed with stupid minutia like how well known should movies from before the Great Outbreak be, are there safety barriers and security that make it impossible for people to run onto the subway tracks and can an advanced four-year-old really draw that well? In this situation it was easy to screw something up if I wasn't paying very close attention to everything. I've already said that I don't make outlines for stories and just write from start to finish what's in my brain but this time was going to have to be different. Things got hard and I took a long hiatus. Eventually I realized that I just needed to make a timeline of events so that I could keep everything straight and stop getting lost.
Even while writing the train fight scene in the first book I was wondering what was going to happen to the clones after everything was said and done. What a strange existence they'd have. The end of the train fight was left open ended in that the reader knows that at least one of these clones survives. I wrote it this way just in case I wanted to revisit it later but at the same time if I didn't do anything with it, it wouldn't leave a gaping hole in the story.
The story is set in New Chicago which is of course a new iteration of the Chicago Illinois that everyone knows. It was where the final battle took place in the end of the first book. I like the idea of going back to it and showing that it has a little bit of post war/battle affluence. Many writers like to use locations that they've lived in and are familiar with. I don't. Unfortunately the only alternative to that is using somewhere you're unfamiliar with. I don't really know much about Chicago other than the interior of O'Hare National Airport. If I was going to use more or less a real city with a mandatory site seeing aspect as a plot vehicle, I needed to do some research on it.
You can always bet on any large city having zoos and parks but what about iconic natural or man-made landmarks like the Chicago River or the Sears Tower. I need to know specific things about them if I'm to use them. For one it would be good to know that the Sears Tower isn't called the "Sears Tower" anymore. When did this happen? I didn't know that. It's the Willis Tower now. I decided instead of specifically using the tower, I'd sort of reference it in a parody type skyscraper.
When I checked to make sure that Chicago had a river running through it, I got completely distracted by how unnaturally green the Chicago River is. It's seriously the same hue as radioactive Nickelodeon slime. It's completely bizarre. I would NOT want to go swimming in it.
The last checkpoint challenge that I wrote was the buried treasure in the sand one. The rest of the story was more or less done except for this single challenge. I was really struggling to come up with a setting and concept new to the game. (That's what I wanted for each one of them.) I actually went to a Chicago tourism website for ideas. When I saw a picture of the Oak Street Beach, I knew that was the ticket.
When I came to the ending of Helloween Thirteen, I realized that it wasn't just the end of this book but also the end of the series. Assuming that nothing else was written after it like I'm planning, I needed to sort of sum everything up and end with the correct mood or lasting impression that I wanted. I couldn't leave things open or awkwardly unsure like in A Fistful of Ether. Part of the reason was that even with everything more or less ending well, this was still an incredibly dark book with some very ominous implications. Is this finally the last apocalyptic disaster that these characters have to face? Even if it's not, I still wanted this family to have an established sense of perseverance and an aura of invincibility.
Helloween Thirteen is meant to be a summation of the whole Ecto Series. If you look at book 1 and book 4 side by side, you'll see two wildly different worlds, geographically, technologically and sociopolitically. The main characters are different, not just different characters but they've also changed as individuals over time. It has elements of all of the past titles. Nirvana, killer robots, mischievous children, the katana, almost getting arrested in a cemetery, return of an old antagonist and the result of a story arc that started back in book one and went on behind the scenes, bringing everything full circle.
This was by a large degree the most difficult book in the series to write. By design many of the chapters had to be treated as little stories within the whole that required there own plot development and setting. On top of that, there are three different perspectives/story lines, (sometimes more,) that intertwine through all of this and somehow need to flow together and not step on each other's toes. I have an extreme fear of plot holes and loss of continuity in the story or any of the rules I've established for the world. I can become fixated and obsessed with stupid minutia like how well known should movies from before the Great Outbreak be, are there safety barriers and security that make it impossible for people to run onto the subway tracks and can an advanced four-year-old really draw that well? In this situation it was easy to screw something up if I wasn't paying very close attention to everything. I've already said that I don't make outlines for stories and just write from start to finish what's in my brain but this time was going to have to be different. Things got hard and I took a long hiatus. Eventually I realized that I just needed to make a timeline of events so that I could keep everything straight and stop getting lost.
Even while writing the train fight scene in the first book I was wondering what was going to happen to the clones after everything was said and done. What a strange existence they'd have. The end of the train fight was left open ended in that the reader knows that at least one of these clones survives. I wrote it this way just in case I wanted to revisit it later but at the same time if I didn't do anything with it, it wouldn't leave a gaping hole in the story.
The story is set in New Chicago which is of course a new iteration of the Chicago Illinois that everyone knows. It was where the final battle took place in the end of the first book. I like the idea of going back to it and showing that it has a little bit of post war/battle affluence. Many writers like to use locations that they've lived in and are familiar with. I don't. Unfortunately the only alternative to that is using somewhere you're unfamiliar with. I don't really know much about Chicago other than the interior of O'Hare National Airport. If I was going to use more or less a real city with a mandatory site seeing aspect as a plot vehicle, I needed to do some research on it.
You can always bet on any large city having zoos and parks but what about iconic natural or man-made landmarks like the Chicago River or the Sears Tower. I need to know specific things about them if I'm to use them. For one it would be good to know that the Sears Tower isn't called the "Sears Tower" anymore. When did this happen? I didn't know that. It's the Willis Tower now. I decided instead of specifically using the tower, I'd sort of reference it in a parody type skyscraper.
When I checked to make sure that Chicago had a river running through it, I got completely distracted by how unnaturally green the Chicago River is. It's seriously the same hue as radioactive Nickelodeon slime. It's completely bizarre. I would NOT want to go swimming in it.
The last checkpoint challenge that I wrote was the buried treasure in the sand one. The rest of the story was more or less done except for this single challenge. I was really struggling to come up with a setting and concept new to the game. (That's what I wanted for each one of them.) I actually went to a Chicago tourism website for ideas. When I saw a picture of the Oak Street Beach, I knew that was the ticket.
When I came to the ending of Helloween Thirteen, I realized that it wasn't just the end of this book but also the end of the series. Assuming that nothing else was written after it like I'm planning, I needed to sort of sum everything up and end with the correct mood or lasting impression that I wanted. I couldn't leave things open or awkwardly unsure like in A Fistful of Ether. Part of the reason was that even with everything more or less ending well, this was still an incredibly dark book with some very ominous implications. Is this finally the last apocalyptic disaster that these characters have to face? Even if it's not, I still wanted this family to have an established sense of perseverance and an aura of invincibility.
Thursday, October 17, 2013
What's Next
I hate to say that the Ecto Series is definitively finished and closed forever because how do you know? You can always revisit something no matter how long it's been since you 'finished' working on it. You never know when inspiration will rear its ugly head again to torment you. But for the first time since I finished book one, I'm at the end of a book and have no ideas of where to go next. The ecto well has run dry. That's not to say that I'm done with writing all together. I'm already a few chapters into a brand new sci-fi book set in a new place with new people. So that on top of having a new job, a kid and going back to school, I won't be writing about ectos again any time soon.
However, I may work on an omnibus edition that includes all four books and maybe some extra stuff in the not too distant future.
However, I may work on an omnibus edition that includes all four books and maybe some extra stuff in the not too distant future.
Thursday, June 6, 2013
Helloween 13: First Chapter
So I'm most of the way done with Helloween Thirteen. My progress has picked back up again and I'm moving along. I keep trying to think up things to post here but I've been drawing a blank. So I've decided I should just post some of the book. I should probably write some kind of summary/blurb for it but it would have to contain spoilers and I don't really want to do it just yet. Maybe in a little bit. So here is chapter one of the fourth book in its entirety.
CHAPTER ONE
"Listen close, kids. We’re doing something different today." Travis strode down the line of officer cadets, all standing at ease in the cool mid morning air. "You’ll be running the full obstacle course… with an egg. Each one of you will be issued one egg. Once you have your egg, keep it on your person at all times. Hold it in your hand. Put it in your pocket. Balance it on your head. I don’t care as long as you keep it safe and have it with you at the end."
Travis stopped in front of one cadet and leaned in close to inspect his shoulder. A solitary piece of fuzz clung there. Was it new or had he just failed to notice it at the other lineups? He looked at the cadet who was staring blankly off into the distance and then back at the fuzz. Then he flicked the artifact to the wind, shook his head and continued down the line.
"The objective of this exercise is to make it to the end of the course under six minutes without damaging the egg. The ones that can accomplish this will receive a ration of water. The rest will receive… Well, I don't need to tell you that you never want to be the rest."
He shot a glance down. "Feet too far apart. That is not how you stand at attention." He yanked the cadet out of line by the shoulder. "On the ground. Twenty now. It's week three. I can't believe I'm still having to do this."
The cadet dropped to the ground with his hands in the dirt. Travis stood there above him. "Are these instructions clear to everyone?"
A unanimous "Sir, yes sir!" resounded from the line.
Cadets never asked questions. They were usually too afraid.
"Are we going to have a lot of fun today?"
"Sir, yes sir!"
Travis waited for his helper friend to finish handing out the eggs. He was getting special treatment for trying to stand out.
The cadets were all dismissed to the course. Travis retrieved an old battered book from his pocket and opened it. "Today’s reading will be excerpts from Thoreau’s Walden." He conjured up his reading voice which was much softer and more eloquent than his drill instructor voice. It was good practice for him to switch back and forth. It helped him keep it a persona which was what he wanted. Something he could turn off and on when he wanted.
"Solitude. This is a delicious evening, when the whole body is one sense, and imbibes delight through every pore. I go and come with a strange liberty in nature, a part of herself…" He spoke deliberately with careful annunciation and appropriate pauses into the tiny microphone which he had on his lapel. His words boomed through the outdoor PA system over the grunting men who were starting to sweat, some already bleeding from shallow barbed wire scratches. Very little of this sank in while they were in this state, he realized, but he liked to think that it at least made some kind of subliminal connection… though concepts like the solitude of nature were lost on most people in New Chicago.
Out of his peripheral vision he saw them, much slower than usual, sometimes pausing at obstacles to readjust their eggs according to what they thought was safest. There were many large pileups. The objective had changed. Being the quickest and most agile meant a lot less now that they had to protect something fragile.
Travis glanced up at the wall briefly in between sentences and saw a cadet at the bottom placing his egg on the dirt just against the side of the wall.
Travis snapped his book shut. "Foster!" he exploded. "In front of me, now!"
Foster turned with a start and began to run towards Travis.
"With the egg, Foster! With the egg!"
He quickly doubled back, snatched his egg from the ground and assembled in front of Travis.
Travis leaned in close to scream in his face. "What the fuck did I just tell you? Are you hard of hearing?"
"Sir, no sir."
"Did I not explicitly say never to leave your egg?"
"Yes sir, you did, sir."
"Then why did you leave your egg? Did you think I wouldn’t see? Do you think I’m stupid?"
"No sir, I don’t, sir."
"I have eyes in the back of my head! Smash that egg over your head, cadet!"
Foster took the egg from his side and slapped it over the top of his forehead. It exploded in his hairline and began to drip into his eyebrows.
"One more, cadet!" Travis handed him another egg which he took with great speed and smashed over the other one. "Apologize to the eggs!"
"I’m so sorry, eggs."
Travis had to fight back a smile. "Now run laps double time around the track until those eggs are fried. I like them burnt."
"Sir, yes sir!"
Travis sighed through his teeth and reopened Walden, muttering the words as he found his place again. He wandered over closer to the course and began to read once more. "For what reason have I this vast range and circuit, some square miles of unfrequented forest, for my privacy, abandoned to me by men?"
The heaviest cadet scaled the wall. Panting and face flushed. He pulled himself over the top and attempted to lower himself down gracefully with the egg in one hand. He landed hard but on his feet, only stumbling.
Travis slapped him on the back roughly as he jogged by. He continued walking toward the end as he read, occasionally shooting suspicious glances at the cadets.
"Garret," came a firm voice from behind him.
He turned to see First Sergeant Lancer walking briskly toward him. They stopped and quickly exchanged salutes.
"You have a moment." It wasn’t a question.
"Yes," said Travis.
They turned to walk along the course.
"They really want you in that position," said Lancer in an unusually soft voice.
"I like where I am, though," replied Travis. "I’ll just end up behind a desk somewhere."
"You have a lot of experience that would be better appreciated in a higher position."
He didn’t know what he was talking about, thought Travis. The vast majority of his ‘experience’ would be wasted. It would be much better passed on to soldiers as an instructor. He wished he could say this opportunity was because he was highly qualified but he ultimately suspected that the only reason they were doing this to him was just to get his name attached to the facility as some kind of promotional trophy.
Ever since he had left Helios so many years ago, it had been difficult to regain the respect that he'd lost from becoming a deserter and not to mention perpetually looking like he was in his mid twenties. But now that he was aging again, he could at least look a little more experienced. This new assignment meant more money and a hell of a lot more time, and the time was by far the most enticing thing.
"And what about them?" He gestured to the course. "Would you just pull me out in the middle of week three?"
"Still early enough. Do you know how many NCOs we have floating around, ready to fill this assignment? The bottom line is that you’re the best we have for the position. If you’re only concerned about the continuity of the program, don’t be."
"Can I think about it some more?"
"Okay, but hurry."
"I’ll have my answer by tomorrow."
They parted ways and Travis jogged over to the end of the course. He waited there and watched as the first cadet climbed out of the dust. "Present egg."
The cadet handed over his egg. Travis took it and turned it over between his fingers as he inspected it. A crack on the side. He shook his head, "Oh, too bad."
The next cadet appeared.
"Present egg."
"I don't have it, sir."
"Then where the hell is it, cadet?"
"It fell on the ground back at the rope swings, sir."
"And you didn't bring it with you. Go keep Foster company on the track until you remember how to follow instructions."
This kind of taxing endurance training, was viewed as archaic and inefficient by many. But this was how he learned back in Greywall, and at a much earlier age. This was why he chose to work at a base infamous for its intense curriculum.
As it turned out, he had to send a disappointingly large number of cadets to the track. He began handing out the promised water bottles to those that had completed the challenge. They were small bottles but greatly appreciated as they twisted them open and began to chug them.
"Where's your egg, cadet?" He looked the egg over quickly and began to hand over the water but pulled it back abruptly from grasping hands. He squinted his eyes close to the surface of the egg, holding it up to the light and shook his head. "Tiny hairline crack right there, see? This water's mine." He twisted off the top and took a sip. Then he dumped the rest out into the dirt. He made an exaggerated sigh of refreshment and then turned to the rest of the line. "It takes around five days to die of dehydration and a month to die of starvation. That's a long time. Aren't we all thankful we only have to go one day?"
"Sir, yes sir."
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Writing A Fistful of Ether
(Highlight hidden text to read spoiler trivia)
Me: And with that the whole story is told. All conflicts are resolved and everything is wrapped up in a nice neat package.
Brain: No it isn't. What happened to Trish?
Me: She went home and lived out a mediocre life. Not everyone gets a gold medal at the end of the day.
Brain: You developed her character and then left her high and dry at the end. She wasn't even included in the climax. Also you're completely ignoring the other problem.
Me: What other problem?
Brain: Precisely my point. Also do you realize that the way you ended the second book just created a whole new blank canvas?
Me: But I don't WANT to do another book.
Brain: Wait! Wait! You know what you could do? Sci-fi western!
Me: Well that's... Damn you.
So there I was again at the end of a book but still left with a setup that was much too enticing to not persue. This time however, I didn't have a giant backlog of story waiting to be written or an inspiring song to spur me forward, just a character that I liked and a nagging feeling that there was still more to do. And that sci-fi westen scenario... Trish went from side character to supporting character to singular main character. She gets to have her own adventure in a brand new scenario.
The idea for the third book, (not the setting,) was originally for a prequel to the first book, centering around a younger Travis in his military life prior to defecting to Apex. Trish was just as easy to cast in the roll since the two have things in common and very similar backgrounds. I still wanted Travis in the story as not quite a supporting character but more like a secondary character. It's about both of them but it's still primarily her story. From square one in the first book I fostered some kind of relationship between them because I liked the way they interacted. It's a sort of a Léon: The Professional kind of way. There was always some kind of hierarchy separating them but in A Fistful of Ether, they are finally equals.
I had characters that I liked and a setting that I liked but what's the conflict besides all of their personal baggage? One of the questions I asked myself is, What's next for ectos? Are they being run out of town with torches and pitchforks yet? (Maybe for book 5... Somebody please stop me.) I've imposed a sort of guideline on myself for creating sequels. My thought is that the series is about ectos. The books need to have ectos doing ecto things and the next book should also one-up the last book in some way. The mythos that I've created needs to be updated and expanded. There needs to be something new that's never been seen before. In the first book the whole idea was new because the world hadn't been established prior but it was more or less Travis' double soulbond that was the weird thing that broke the rules. In the second book it was the living ether computer which could do nearly anything virtually and even had influence over the physical world. So what's new this time? What if you could bottle up ether and give it to the masses? What if it could be made ten times more powerful? What if it fell into the wrong hands? Well, wouldn't that suck? That conflict will do nicely.
Several western movie themes and clichés are present in the story such as a sheriff, a hired gun, a town reliant upon a mine, a burlesque saloon, running the law out of town and poisoning the water supply.
While trying to develop a plot that I liked, one passing concept was that Travis was actually hired by the antagonists which would pit him against Trish in a very emotionally conflicted scenario.
Travis’ dead man’s pseudonym 'Victor Stanton' is a reference to Arch Stanton, the name on the grave next to where the treasure is buried in the movie the Good the Bad and the Ugly.
Van makes a reference to Charles Bronson, who was the star of Once Upon a Time in the West; also the star of the Death Wish franchise mentioned by Andy Merrick in the first book.
Trish Merrick shares the nickname "Blondie" with Clint Eastwood’s character "The Man With No Name" which is also referenced in the name of Zack’s drink.
Baxter the ice cream man was inspired by Billy Corgen in The Smashing Pumpkins music video for Today.
The Warren Brothers were inspired by Kane and Lynch of the same titled video game and the Macdougall Brothers from the Outlaw Star animated series.
The Warren Brothers are constantly in conflict with one another. Incidentally, their ecto powers are fire and ice.
Teflon appears in the overall story timeline the moment Trish develops a crush on Travis. He dies when the crush is finally realized.
The working title for the book was 'Psychotropia.' The joke working subtitle was 'A Sirius Incident.'
Me: And with that the whole story is told. All conflicts are resolved and everything is wrapped up in a nice neat package.
Brain: No it isn't. What happened to Trish?
Me: She went home and lived out a mediocre life. Not everyone gets a gold medal at the end of the day.
Brain: You developed her character and then left her high and dry at the end. She wasn't even included in the climax. Also you're completely ignoring the other problem.
Me: What other problem?
Brain: Precisely my point. Also do you realize that the way you ended the second book just created a whole new blank canvas?
Me: But I don't WANT to do another book.
Brain: Wait! Wait! You know what you could do? Sci-fi western!
Me: Well that's... Damn you.
So there I was again at the end of a book but still left with a setup that was much too enticing to not persue. This time however, I didn't have a giant backlog of story waiting to be written or an inspiring song to spur me forward, just a character that I liked and a nagging feeling that there was still more to do. And that sci-fi westen scenario... Trish went from side character to supporting character to singular main character. She gets to have her own adventure in a brand new scenario.
The idea for the third book, (not the setting,) was originally for a prequel to the first book, centering around a younger Travis in his military life prior to defecting to Apex. Trish was just as easy to cast in the roll since the two have things in common and very similar backgrounds. I still wanted Travis in the story as not quite a supporting character but more like a secondary character. It's about both of them but it's still primarily her story. From square one in the first book I fostered some kind of relationship between them because I liked the way they interacted. It's a sort of a Léon: The Professional kind of way. There was always some kind of hierarchy separating them but in A Fistful of Ether, they are finally equals.
I had characters that I liked and a setting that I liked but what's the conflict besides all of their personal baggage? One of the questions I asked myself is, What's next for ectos? Are they being run out of town with torches and pitchforks yet? (Maybe for book 5... Somebody please stop me.) I've imposed a sort of guideline on myself for creating sequels. My thought is that the series is about ectos. The books need to have ectos doing ecto things and the next book should also one-up the last book in some way. The mythos that I've created needs to be updated and expanded. There needs to be something new that's never been seen before. In the first book the whole idea was new because the world hadn't been established prior but it was more or less Travis' double soulbond that was the weird thing that broke the rules. In the second book it was the living ether computer which could do nearly anything virtually and even had influence over the physical world. So what's new this time? What if you could bottle up ether and give it to the masses? What if it could be made ten times more powerful? What if it fell into the wrong hands? Well, wouldn't that suck? That conflict will do nicely.
Several western movie themes and clichés are present in the story such as a sheriff, a hired gun, a town reliant upon a mine, a burlesque saloon, running the law out of town and poisoning the water supply.
While trying to develop a plot that I liked, one passing concept was that Travis was actually hired by the antagonists which would pit him against Trish in a very emotionally conflicted scenario.
Travis’ dead man’s pseudonym 'Victor Stanton' is a reference to Arch Stanton, the name on the grave next to where the treasure is buried in the movie the Good the Bad and the Ugly.
Van makes a reference to Charles Bronson, who was the star of Once Upon a Time in the West; also the star of the Death Wish franchise mentioned by Andy Merrick in the first book.
Trish Merrick shares the nickname "Blondie" with Clint Eastwood’s character "The Man With No Name" which is also referenced in the name of Zack’s drink.
Baxter the ice cream man was inspired by Billy Corgen in The Smashing Pumpkins music video for Today.
The Warren Brothers were inspired by Kane and Lynch of the same titled video game and the Macdougall Brothers from the Outlaw Star animated series.
The Warren Brothers are constantly in conflict with one another. Incidentally, their ecto powers are fire and ice.
Teflon appears in the overall story timeline the moment Trish develops a crush on Travis. He dies when the crush is finally realized.
The working title for the book was 'Psychotropia.' The joke working subtitle was 'A Sirius Incident.'
Friday, February 15, 2013
Writing Hard Reset (Pt. 2)
The first book of the series was almost named Soul Machine in reference to the Lamassu computer. The name is referenced by Andy's emulation in the second book.
This is my favorite of the four books. It has my favorite cover. It has my favorite antagonist setup. I love the idea of a computer so powerful that it can actually affect the minds of people around it and even their physical surroundings in a merging of reality and the virtual realm, where almost anything is possible. It has my favorite chapter, 'Dreaming in Digital.' It's like a lucid dream where the dreamer has total control. It almost felt like an experimental writing assignment and it ended up being something truly intimate, surreal and disturbing. It showcases the tragedy of the tragic villain which I always prefer over the random bastard villain.
The whole story is told in three main perspectives, all three experiencing their own trials in a robot apocalypse scenario. We have the impromptu command center where high ranking Apex officials are pulling strings to minimize damage done by the villain and ultimately formulating a game plan to stop her. There's the villain who basically gets to sit back and fool around, watching everyone scramble. Then there are the people in between. The three transients who are just trying to figure out how to survive on the streets in the chaos.
This was a good chance to show off Travis' military training and leadership. I don't know about others but I think it's really cool to see ANYONE applying their professional knowledge no matter the situation or the profession but especially military training in a crisis. Trish knows where to get weapons. Solomon is an expert on vehicles and has a trump card power. All three characters have their own personal back story chapter mostly highlighting the issues they're dealing with.
Solomon's story is interesting because it shows the corner of the ecto lore that I hadn't really gone over, what it's like to actually become an ecto. How exactly does it all work?
But of course I like Trish's story the most. From a writing standpoint, the thing that makes her appealing is the fact that she's a kid and easily the youngest character. Her perspective and experiences are by nature going to be radically different from most others in the story so it gives a much needed balance. When you force a kid into an adult dominated situation it has the potential to become like a comedic relief. Kids do stupid things and there doesn't need to be a reason for it. It gives me an excuse for silliness which I always want because it's no fun being serious all of the time, even when the world is ending.
I remember when I was younger and went to my friend's house. He lived next to a creepy abandoned house that still had all of the former owner's stuff. He'd tell me bogus ghost stories he made up about the place and then we'd go jump the backyard fence and screw around with whatever we found over there.
I had another friend who lived on a ranch near a creek and the woods. One time after the sun went down, we went outside, got on quadrunners and split up to go look for mountain lions. Why in the hell would anyone do this?
Yet another time I was at a friend's house with another friend. It was 2 AM and we were hungry so we rode bikes to the nearby McDonald's. It was a ruralish area. The restaurant wasn't open. Some cops pulled into the parking lot and told us we were out past curfew. Not one of us even knew a curfew existed. It's not like the idea of a curfew was unfounded since we had just come from TP-ing someone's front yard tree about 20 minutes prior. The cops escorted us home, idling slowly behind our bikes. Then they woke up my friend's parents. They were extatic. Never got in trouble for the toiletpaper though. Again, a completely senseless act. What was the point? These kinds of things are important to remember so that when you're children do the same, you don't try to remove them from the gene pool for the good of humanity. This was the kind of content that I tried to recall when writing Trish.
This is my favorite of the four books. It has my favorite cover. It has my favorite antagonist setup. I love the idea of a computer so powerful that it can actually affect the minds of people around it and even their physical surroundings in a merging of reality and the virtual realm, where almost anything is possible. It has my favorite chapter, 'Dreaming in Digital.' It's like a lucid dream where the dreamer has total control. It almost felt like an experimental writing assignment and it ended up being something truly intimate, surreal and disturbing. It showcases the tragedy of the tragic villain which I always prefer over the random bastard villain.
The whole story is told in three main perspectives, all three experiencing their own trials in a robot apocalypse scenario. We have the impromptu command center where high ranking Apex officials are pulling strings to minimize damage done by the villain and ultimately formulating a game plan to stop her. There's the villain who basically gets to sit back and fool around, watching everyone scramble. Then there are the people in between. The three transients who are just trying to figure out how to survive on the streets in the chaos.
This was a good chance to show off Travis' military training and leadership. I don't know about others but I think it's really cool to see ANYONE applying their professional knowledge no matter the situation or the profession but especially military training in a crisis. Trish knows where to get weapons. Solomon is an expert on vehicles and has a trump card power. All three characters have their own personal back story chapter mostly highlighting the issues they're dealing with.
Solomon's story is interesting because it shows the corner of the ecto lore that I hadn't really gone over, what it's like to actually become an ecto. How exactly does it all work?
But of course I like Trish's story the most. From a writing standpoint, the thing that makes her appealing is the fact that she's a kid and easily the youngest character. Her perspective and experiences are by nature going to be radically different from most others in the story so it gives a much needed balance. When you force a kid into an adult dominated situation it has the potential to become like a comedic relief. Kids do stupid things and there doesn't need to be a reason for it. It gives me an excuse for silliness which I always want because it's no fun being serious all of the time, even when the world is ending.
I remember when I was younger and went to my friend's house. He lived next to a creepy abandoned house that still had all of the former owner's stuff. He'd tell me bogus ghost stories he made up about the place and then we'd go jump the backyard fence and screw around with whatever we found over there.
I had another friend who lived on a ranch near a creek and the woods. One time after the sun went down, we went outside, got on quadrunners and split up to go look for mountain lions. Why in the hell would anyone do this?
Yet another time I was at a friend's house with another friend. It was 2 AM and we were hungry so we rode bikes to the nearby McDonald's. It was a ruralish area. The restaurant wasn't open. Some cops pulled into the parking lot and told us we were out past curfew. Not one of us even knew a curfew existed. It's not like the idea of a curfew was unfounded since we had just come from TP-ing someone's front yard tree about 20 minutes prior. The cops escorted us home, idling slowly behind our bikes. Then they woke up my friend's parents. They were extatic. Never got in trouble for the toiletpaper though. Again, a completely senseless act. What was the point? These kinds of things are important to remember so that when you're children do the same, you don't try to remove them from the gene pool for the good of humanity. This was the kind of content that I tried to recall when writing Trish.
Friday, February 8, 2013
Writing Hard Reset (Pt. 1)
There was never any preconceived idea of making a whole series of books about this. The thought of making a sequel occurred to me towards the end of writing the first book. All I really needed to go off of was the short part in the first book where Jill mentally assimilates with technology and the song Electric Eye by Judas Priest. Really, I could have titled the entire series with Judas Priest songs. Book one: Screaming for Vengeance, Book two: Electric Eye, Book three: Hell Patrol, Book four: The Ripper. See? Remember how I said that the only way to quell inspiration is to create? Well it goes both ways. Creation also yields inspiration in an annoying perpetual cycle.
The character Trish who was originally only mentioned in the first book ended up getting her own chapter in the first book. I liked her and wanted her to get more "screen time" so I made her a supporting character in Hard Reset.
Hard Reset resembles a loose cyberpunk adaptation of the Wizard of OZ with no Scarecrow. I didn't start it intending it to be this way but once I noticed the similarities which were uncanny, I couldn't help but steer it that direction. Trish, (our Dorothy) is living in a life where no one understands her. She wakes up after a huge disaster and finds that she's now in a strange land. On her new journey, she meets Travis, (the Tin Man) and Solomon (the Cowardly Lion.) Once I saw the parallels, I purposefully wrote Solomon as this character. It was nice because before that I wasn't sure where I was going with his development. He is unwittingly searching for courage. Travis' "heart" that he doesn't have is Dr. Mills. Trish is trying (or being forced) to go home to her parents. Her new found dog who's name tag says 'Otto' is an anagram for Toto, who is of course the dog from the wizard of OZ. Jill, (the wicked Witch of the West,) is constantly watching them on their journey and occasionally popping in to harass/try to kill them. It's not until the protagonists meet Skip, (OZ,) the hacker behind the curtain that they are helped/sent to the witch's castle in order to kill her. And in the end, everyone gets what they need.
Other sources of inspiration include a couple of episodes of Neon Genesis Evangelion. In one episode, the primary enemy turns out to be essentially a computer virus which is slowly infecting their computer systems. They can slow it but they can't stop it. Should the virus assume total control, it's the apocalypse. I like this episode for two reasons. One is that it is a sudden death crisis scenario. There is a finite amount of time on the clock and if you can't figure out how to beat the bad guy before that, it's over. It creates an immediate and constant sense of urgency. Characters have to think fast but can't make mistakes. The second reason is that it's an unconventional kind of battle. The soldiers that are always relied upon for offense are practically useless and the technicians and desk jockeys are suddenly thrust onto the front line in a role reversal.
The character Trish who was originally only mentioned in the first book ended up getting her own chapter in the first book. I liked her and wanted her to get more "screen time" so I made her a supporting character in Hard Reset.
Hard Reset resembles a loose cyberpunk adaptation of the Wizard of OZ with no Scarecrow. I didn't start it intending it to be this way but once I noticed the similarities which were uncanny, I couldn't help but steer it that direction. Trish, (our Dorothy) is living in a life where no one understands her. She wakes up after a huge disaster and finds that she's now in a strange land. On her new journey, she meets Travis, (the Tin Man) and Solomon (the Cowardly Lion.) Once I saw the parallels, I purposefully wrote Solomon as this character. It was nice because before that I wasn't sure where I was going with his development. He is unwittingly searching for courage. Travis' "heart" that he doesn't have is Dr. Mills. Trish is trying (or being forced) to go home to her parents. Her new found dog who's name tag says 'Otto' is an anagram for Toto, who is of course the dog from the wizard of OZ. Jill, (the wicked Witch of the West,) is constantly watching them on their journey and occasionally popping in to harass/try to kill them. It's not until the protagonists meet Skip, (OZ,) the hacker behind the curtain that they are helped/sent to the witch's castle in order to kill her. And in the end, everyone gets what they need.
Other sources of inspiration include a couple of episodes of Neon Genesis Evangelion. In one episode, the primary enemy turns out to be essentially a computer virus which is slowly infecting their computer systems. They can slow it but they can't stop it. Should the virus assume total control, it's the apocalypse. I like this episode for two reasons. One is that it is a sudden death crisis scenario. There is a finite amount of time on the clock and if you can't figure out how to beat the bad guy before that, it's over. It creates an immediate and constant sense of urgency. Characters have to think fast but can't make mistakes. The second reason is that it's an unconventional kind of battle. The soldiers that are always relied upon for offense are practically useless and the technicians and desk jockeys are suddenly thrust onto the front line in a role reversal.
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Writing Soulbond (Pt. 3)
I don't make outlines for what I'm writing. I don't even do notes most of the time. I just write directly from what I have in my head in chronological order from start to finish. Then I go back over each sentence a hundred times and fuss over them neurotically. I think this Oscar Wilde quote describes my approach about right.
"This morning I took out a comma and this afternoon I put it back again."
I'm also a lousy typist. I'm slower than most because I have to look at the keyboard while I methodically punch out the words.
I don't read very much either. Again, it's because I'm slow. When I was younger, I absolutely hated reading. In school when the class was assigned a book to read, I'd either meander through the pages at a snail's pace or just give up and pretend to read.
As an adult I tried to get more into reading. Gradually I did get a little faster but it still takes me half a year to finish a novel. Not entirely because I'm slow but because I also can't focus on books for very long. When I started looking for books to read, I didn't even know what I'd like. I'd walk through the book store and pick up anything with an interesting cover. Maybe I'd like sci-fi. I picked up Anvil of Stars by Greg Bear. Don't do this. Don't start with Greg Bear.
So I'm a writer that can't type and hardly reads. Suffice it to say that I don't know from books. I know from movies and video games. That is where my influences come from. I can pinpoint two specific works that inspired the creation of Soulbond. The first is Armitage III Polymatrix which is essentially an animated Bladerunner. I saw it when I was about 13 and something about it resonated very deep within me. Maybe it's Kiefer Sutherland's voice. The first version of the movie I had was a VHS tape I recorded off of the Sci-fi Channel, (now "Syfy." Seriously, what the hell is that?) I was so amazed by this move that I watched the tape over and over, multiple times in a day. I've seen a ton of animated sci-fi movies since but nothing else hits the spot like Armitage.
The second thing that inspired me was... I'm hesitant to say, Mortal Kombat. Mortal Kombat is a fighting game that is different from other fighting games. There's more blood and gore. And you can definitively kill you opponent. It's about superhumans and demigods trying to kill each other with spectacular superpowers. That's what I want. If you look at Soulbond and its sequels you'll find that the encounters are very much like they would be in a fighting game. It's often one on one in an interesting location that may even include some form of deadly hazard. Of course this aspect could just as easily have come from Indiana Jones, which has been spliced into my DNA since I was about six.
As I've already said, the fight scenes and the action were the first things I conceived. After that I had to ask myself the obvious question: why are these people trying to kill each other?
"This morning I took out a comma and this afternoon I put it back again."
I'm also a lousy typist. I'm slower than most because I have to look at the keyboard while I methodically punch out the words.
I don't read very much either. Again, it's because I'm slow. When I was younger, I absolutely hated reading. In school when the class was assigned a book to read, I'd either meander through the pages at a snail's pace or just give up and pretend to read.
As an adult I tried to get more into reading. Gradually I did get a little faster but it still takes me half a year to finish a novel. Not entirely because I'm slow but because I also can't focus on books for very long. When I started looking for books to read, I didn't even know what I'd like. I'd walk through the book store and pick up anything with an interesting cover. Maybe I'd like sci-fi. I picked up Anvil of Stars by Greg Bear. Don't do this. Don't start with Greg Bear.
So I'm a writer that can't type and hardly reads. Suffice it to say that I don't know from books. I know from movies and video games. That is where my influences come from. I can pinpoint two specific works that inspired the creation of Soulbond. The first is Armitage III Polymatrix which is essentially an animated Bladerunner. I saw it when I was about 13 and something about it resonated very deep within me. Maybe it's Kiefer Sutherland's voice. The first version of the movie I had was a VHS tape I recorded off of the Sci-fi Channel, (now "Syfy." Seriously, what the hell is that?) I was so amazed by this move that I watched the tape over and over, multiple times in a day. I've seen a ton of animated sci-fi movies since but nothing else hits the spot like Armitage.
The second thing that inspired me was... I'm hesitant to say, Mortal Kombat. Mortal Kombat is a fighting game that is different from other fighting games. There's more blood and gore. And you can definitively kill you opponent. It's about superhumans and demigods trying to kill each other with spectacular superpowers. That's what I want. If you look at Soulbond and its sequels you'll find that the encounters are very much like they would be in a fighting game. It's often one on one in an interesting location that may even include some form of deadly hazard. Of course this aspect could just as easily have come from Indiana Jones, which has been spliced into my DNA since I was about six.
As I've already said, the fight scenes and the action were the first things I conceived. After that I had to ask myself the obvious question: why are these people trying to kill each other?
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Writing Soulbond (Pt. 2)
(Highlight the invisible text to read spoiler trivia.)
One of my most favorite music videos is the video for Elektrobank by The Chemical Brothers. It's one action scene played out and synchronized to one song. It's not just action to music though. There is a story surrounding the video, a context. This girl in the video has put in a lot of training to get to this point. There's obviously a heated rivalry between her and one of the other top competitors. The girl's mom shows up late to her routine. The viewer never sees the development or the cause behind any of these plot points. It's like we're missing the rest of the story. It's like we're watching the climactic scene taken directly out of a feelgood sports movie. This is the closest emulation of what the original Soulbond movie idea was, that I know of. The fight scenes I spoke of. They would look just like this.
I've already explained that I've come to terms with not being able to do a movie. But as a holdover from the original idea, the chapter titles are all appropriately picked song titles; sort of a book soundtrack.
The song ‘Replica’ by Fear Factory is the title of the chapter where Andy fights a replica in a factory.
Coming up with a good character name is one of the most difficult things for me to accomplish. If left to my own devices with no help, I tend to come up with bland names like Andy or Travis. In the past I've pulled names from the phone book and famous baseball players. When I started Soulbond I immediately needed help again. I decided I'd go with a theme and I ended up sticking with it the whole way through. All female characters' first names are lifted from video games, specifically horror video games. Why? Because. The only exceptions are Trish and Misty whos' names come from outside the horror genre.
The character Laura Marks is inspired by two pain in the ass instructors I had in art school. One instructor in particular was so impossible that I was convinced that there was no way that you could show her anything you did and leave a generally good impression. She could critique the Garden of Eden. She'd give it a C+.
In the first draft of the book there were no nanobots, murder/AID side story or cannibalism. The character Trish only existed in mention.
The four codename tarot cards drawn in the debriefing all accurately predict their respective characters' immediate futures.
A dullahan is a type of ghost forced to carry its severed head. It is also the last name of the Quantech CEO who was shot in the head.
One of the biometrics specialists at the AID is named Michael as a self reference from several bad short stories I wrote in high school. They were all completely different in genre but somehow shared a recurring character of the same name. (I told you how hard it is for me to come up with good names.)
There are several movie quotes and references throughout the book, many of which come through Andy. The quote written in gold in Andy’s tomb is from Bladerunner.
In the movie Equilibrium, Christian Bale shoots his partner in the head through a book of Yeats poetry. This is referenced in the first chapter of the book.
VEO, though never explained in the book, stands for Violent Ether Outflux.
One of my most favorite music videos is the video for Elektrobank by The Chemical Brothers. It's one action scene played out and synchronized to one song. It's not just action to music though. There is a story surrounding the video, a context. This girl in the video has put in a lot of training to get to this point. There's obviously a heated rivalry between her and one of the other top competitors. The girl's mom shows up late to her routine. The viewer never sees the development or the cause behind any of these plot points. It's like we're missing the rest of the story. It's like we're watching the climactic scene taken directly out of a feelgood sports movie. This is the closest emulation of what the original Soulbond movie idea was, that I know of. The fight scenes I spoke of. They would look just like this.
I've already explained that I've come to terms with not being able to do a movie. But as a holdover from the original idea, the chapter titles are all appropriately picked song titles; sort of a book soundtrack.
The song ‘Replica’ by Fear Factory is the title of the chapter where Andy fights a replica in a factory.
Coming up with a good character name is one of the most difficult things for me to accomplish. If left to my own devices with no help, I tend to come up with bland names like Andy or Travis. In the past I've pulled names from the phone book and famous baseball players. When I started Soulbond I immediately needed help again. I decided I'd go with a theme and I ended up sticking with it the whole way through. All female characters' first names are lifted from video games, specifically horror video games. Why? Because. The only exceptions are Trish and Misty whos' names come from outside the horror genre.
The character Laura Marks is inspired by two pain in the ass instructors I had in art school. One instructor in particular was so impossible that I was convinced that there was no way that you could show her anything you did and leave a generally good impression. She could critique the Garden of Eden. She'd give it a C+.
In the first draft of the book there were no nanobots, murder/AID side story or cannibalism. The character Trish only existed in mention.
The four codename tarot cards drawn in the debriefing all accurately predict their respective characters' immediate futures.
A dullahan is a type of ghost forced to carry its severed head. It is also the last name of the Quantech CEO who was shot in the head.
One of the biometrics specialists at the AID is named Michael as a self reference from several bad short stories I wrote in high school. They were all completely different in genre but somehow shared a recurring character of the same name. (I told you how hard it is for me to come up with good names.)
There are several movie quotes and references throughout the book, many of which come through Andy. The quote written in gold in Andy’s tomb is from Bladerunner.
In the movie Equilibrium, Christian Bale shoots his partner in the head through a book of Yeats poetry. This is referenced in the first chapter of the book.
VEO, though never explained in the book, stands for Violent Ether Outflux.
Saturday, November 24, 2012
Writing Soulbond (Pt. 1)
This story was gestating in my brain for at least four years before I ever thought about touching a keyboard. It wasn't really a story before that, just a bunch of scenes. Whenever I listen to music, especially something that strikes an emotional chord with me, I see little movies or music videos in my head. For instance, every time I hear the song Hot Rod Lincoln, I think about a fast car but not just any fast car.
If I was directing a short film/music video for the song I'd have it open up on a middle school science fair. Some nerdy-looking kid has an audience assembled behind him of peers, teachers and parents. His demonstration is taking place outside. In front of him is essentially a greatly modified RC car which is many times faster than ordinary RC cars. He kneels down to carefully place a rat in the driver's seat. You see he has successfully trained this rat to drive a small car through an obstacle course. The kid places a pair of tiny driving goggles on the rat and shuts the cockpit. Before he can collect himself and start the demo, the rat floors it. All eyes are on the car as it shoots straight through the first turn, out of the school parking lot and out of sight. The kid doesn't even try to run after it because he's in shock and the car is going much too fast anyway. He begins to cast nervous glances to the audience. Well, this is awkward. I knew I shouldn't have put the nitro in.
Cut back to the rat who's jamming down the sidewalk, nearly knocking confused pedestrians into the street. A barking dog on a leash lunges at the car but the rat swerves out of the way and into a grocery store where it causes more havoc in the produce section. The majority of the video would be this rat-driven car instigating chaos wherever it goes. It gets hang time off of someone's home made bike jump and destroys important paperwork in a government office building- no no, THE DMV!
The car rockets past two Latinos in a lowrider who are stopped at a red light. The one driving lifts up his shades and then the two just look at each other, both confused about the RC car doing 50 on surface streets and amazed by the fact that it just narrowly avoided being crushed by two vehicles in a busy intersection. The rat makes it to an onramp and onto the freeway where it really puts the pedal down. The car is now going underneath speeding vehicles and weaving wildly in and out of traffic. A highway patrol cop looks up from writing a citation to see the car zip by. He radios ahead to the next cop down the road. Soon after, the rat looks in its mirror, (yes there are mirrors,) to see flashing lights.
The rat speeds up but by this time the tiny tires, not made such speed, have become hot and burst into flames. The RC car swerves to the shoulder and slows to a stop. A highway patrol car pulls up behind and a state trooper steps out to investigate the car. He's astounded to discover that it was being driven by a rat wearing tiny goggles as the animal emerges from the cockpit to waddle around on the ground. The trooper turns back to the car as he pokes one of the smoking melted tires. He flips the vehicle over to look underneath and sees a name and address scribbled there in permanent marker.
Cut to the kid from the science fair who is now at home basking in shame and lament for an award that he would have won easily if everything had gone to plan. The doorbell rings and his mom opens the door. The trooper is standing there with a melted RC car in one hand and a shoebox containing the goggle-wearing rat in the other.
That's just one example but most of the time when it happens, I see a fight scene. Originally when I envisioned Soulbond, it was an action movie with heavily choreographed fight scenes set to music. Like if Dragon Ball Z was more like Disney's Fantasia. Not that they really fight in Dragon Ball Z because they're usually too busy talking, having flashbacks or powering up but you get my point.
I knew I could never make a movie so I just resigned it to a fantasy which I could drag out and play with on long train rides in and out of the city. Then one day for whatever reason i realized something that now seems so obvious. Microsoft Wordpad! Writing! It's an artistic outlet accessible to everyone. I could still create it in some form... just with no music. Though apprehensive at first about my own abilities and undertaking an entire book which I had never done before, I knew that writing was still my most effective medium of expression. The problem with creative inspiration is that once it crosses a certain threshold of development, it doesn't go away. It doesn't even take a break. It consumes you. It makes it impossible to sleep. Really what prompted me to start writing the story was so I could finally stop thinking about it.
If I was directing a short film/music video for the song I'd have it open up on a middle school science fair. Some nerdy-looking kid has an audience assembled behind him of peers, teachers and parents. His demonstration is taking place outside. In front of him is essentially a greatly modified RC car which is many times faster than ordinary RC cars. He kneels down to carefully place a rat in the driver's seat. You see he has successfully trained this rat to drive a small car through an obstacle course. The kid places a pair of tiny driving goggles on the rat and shuts the cockpit. Before he can collect himself and start the demo, the rat floors it. All eyes are on the car as it shoots straight through the first turn, out of the school parking lot and out of sight. The kid doesn't even try to run after it because he's in shock and the car is going much too fast anyway. He begins to cast nervous glances to the audience. Well, this is awkward. I knew I shouldn't have put the nitro in.
Cut back to the rat who's jamming down the sidewalk, nearly knocking confused pedestrians into the street. A barking dog on a leash lunges at the car but the rat swerves out of the way and into a grocery store where it causes more havoc in the produce section. The majority of the video would be this rat-driven car instigating chaos wherever it goes. It gets hang time off of someone's home made bike jump and destroys important paperwork in a government office building- no no, THE DMV!
The car rockets past two Latinos in a lowrider who are stopped at a red light. The one driving lifts up his shades and then the two just look at each other, both confused about the RC car doing 50 on surface streets and amazed by the fact that it just narrowly avoided being crushed by two vehicles in a busy intersection. The rat makes it to an onramp and onto the freeway where it really puts the pedal down. The car is now going underneath speeding vehicles and weaving wildly in and out of traffic. A highway patrol cop looks up from writing a citation to see the car zip by. He radios ahead to the next cop down the road. Soon after, the rat looks in its mirror, (yes there are mirrors,) to see flashing lights.
The rat speeds up but by this time the tiny tires, not made such speed, have become hot and burst into flames. The RC car swerves to the shoulder and slows to a stop. A highway patrol car pulls up behind and a state trooper steps out to investigate the car. He's astounded to discover that it was being driven by a rat wearing tiny goggles as the animal emerges from the cockpit to waddle around on the ground. The trooper turns back to the car as he pokes one of the smoking melted tires. He flips the vehicle over to look underneath and sees a name and address scribbled there in permanent marker.
Cut to the kid from the science fair who is now at home basking in shame and lament for an award that he would have won easily if everything had gone to plan. The doorbell rings and his mom opens the door. The trooper is standing there with a melted RC car in one hand and a shoebox containing the goggle-wearing rat in the other.
That's just one example but most of the time when it happens, I see a fight scene. Originally when I envisioned Soulbond, it was an action movie with heavily choreographed fight scenes set to music. Like if Dragon Ball Z was more like Disney's Fantasia. Not that they really fight in Dragon Ball Z because they're usually too busy talking, having flashbacks or powering up but you get my point.
I knew I could never make a movie so I just resigned it to a fantasy which I could drag out and play with on long train rides in and out of the city. Then one day for whatever reason i realized something that now seems so obvious. Microsoft Wordpad! Writing! It's an artistic outlet accessible to everyone. I could still create it in some form... just with no music. Though apprehensive at first about my own abilities and undertaking an entire book which I had never done before, I knew that writing was still my most effective medium of expression. The problem with creative inspiration is that once it crosses a certain threshold of development, it doesn't go away. It doesn't even take a break. It consumes you. It makes it impossible to sleep. Really what prompted me to start writing the story was so I could finally stop thinking about it.
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