You Can Ask Me A Question !

So, I'm going to answer a few questions a post and I'll separate them by serial !



New Thing

Will the New Thing be in 3rd person since the Epilogue of BH was in third person ?
It will be in first person because it came to me in first person. The same thing for Vice, I wanted it to be third person, but Alan's voice and perspective is particularly important. Which is too bad because I really like third person and want to write in it. One day. Far, far, far, far, far,far,far,far, away (the wheels are turning)


Can we talk about The New Thing ? Any hints to be had ?
Um, hmm. It's slow going for me between New Thing  and Vice. It's like writing a whole new language. Let me see, a hint that I can give. It will seem a bit like Litany Lane, it will have dual POV and multiple plot lines and one of the character's (not a main one)name's is tentatively Abigail. And one of the characters is based on Kevin Bacon.

Vice
We all love Minnie and Jean! But. . . how close are they? Are they actually incestuous ? Does this change or differ from Vice to Veritas. 

No, they aren't actually incestious. I never envisioned them like that. They just have issues with boundaries and this isn't Games of Thrones.

I actually made some changes between  Vice and Veritas, because in Veritas Jean and Minnie were going to have slightly different roles. In Veritas, the Dorys where never going to speak that much or have plots so,  I made them a little more demonstrative. I needed to showcase this "dark, edgy, taboo" world, and I needed the glimpses of their relationship to be a little bit...off.  As you can see I make them less close as it goes on


Blessed Hearts

Who would you consider the main character of Blessed Hearts ?
Definitely Rin. She was supposed to be the only character with a POV, but the others got in the way because she was supposed to be "dead" for a while. BH was originally supposed to be a 3-4 chapter thing, that kind of got away from me.

Ch-ch-changes
Well, this is the chapter where pretty much everything changes. At this point, I'm no longer scraping the old bits of Veritas together. I have to write who new chapters.

These chapter doesn't have specific music, but here is some nice ambiance sound ! 

Alan's been taken in by Minnow Dory and seen the Sprawl for all it is good and bad during a late-nite adventure. But after an encounter with Dakota, he is getting the sense he has stepped into something bigger than he thought...

Chapter 5

Character Inspirations

 I'm actually ahead of the game in my chapter writing which is RARE you guys. Now, Lauren (my stepdaughter) did tell me you all had some questions and I will get to those with each post, but I had this post picked out as a picspiration post, so, who wants pics? Also, can you see which one was also mentioned by Lile once ?




Sara Grace, 30 (Yes, she has 3)

Sara's Haircut

Sara's hair color

Sara's facial expression

Derek Grace (29 at death) I've had his for a while, but never mentioned it.

Alan Gray, 19

Just imagine blonde hair

Luce Grace, 13

Saint

  Minnow Dory, 16 ( and the outfit-spitation for what Alan first sees her in)

Jean, 23

Alan's Parents

 Jean and Minnow's have been mentioned before, but can you guys guess the others ?

What Luce ?... Is that you ?!
So, this is probably the biggest change from Veritas to Vice. I made Luce older and slightly more, um....lucid. In fact, he is the reason I had to re-edit Vice so many times. I had to write him in (cause, he is at the Tempus party in Chapter 1 after all) at the last minute.

I sort of had this thought that I wanted to write about a 14-year-old boy, I have no idea why. After writing Twyla in *that thing* I pondered what a character growing up in this environment would look like on the page. But, I had no place for a new 14-year-old character in the story. Then I realized this character already existed and his name was Luce. I later changed his age to 13, to put more of a gap between him and Minnie.

I also realized Sara had it way, way too easy (in fact, all the characters do...we will get to this) in the OG. She doesn't have anyone challenging her and she doesn't really ever have to parent because her kids just sit there quietly, which I now know is super unrealistic. So, I  decided to make Luce a more active and challenging  role in her life.

I also knew Luce needed to really hate Alan. Because in the original, Sara is kind of mad at Tempus and Alan, but not so mad she doesn't let him join her team. Sara's an adult, she realizes Alan had nothing to do with her husband's death and can process that. Well, Luce isn't there yet, so he  makes Alan's life hell.

But, I needed Luce's anger and pain over his father's death to have a physical manifestation fueling it which is why he loses his leg. Also, I had these thoughts during the Olympics with Oscar Pistorious before he shot his girlfriend.

Luce's picspiration is Asa Butterfield, when he was in Hugo and the same age as Luce. I had him picked out for a year and of course I later find out he would be Ender in Ender's Game, so good for him. Although it's funny because between interviews (which I watch for research, not to ignore writing) for Hugo and Ender's Game his voice sounds drastically different. Although in my head he sounds like his younger self.

Moving On
So, with each chapter will get a bit different.

Playlist:
-1- Emphasis by Sleeping at Last (I think this is in Breaking Dawn)
-2- The Boat (Benjamin Francis Leftwich (Thanks, Spotify radio!)
-3- Toulouse by Nicky Romero
-4- Elements by Lindsey Stirling ( She was on America's Got Talent)


Alan has just agreed to work for his kidnappers, but is he ready to get rid of his first body ? Also, there is going to be a lot of dubstep. Not sure why this hasn't come up before....

Shawna is Indecisive

The New Thing
The only thing I can really update writing-wise is on this new thing, which is in the bare bones phase. Normally, I wouldn't even talk about it but I've already come out with it so, I thought I'd keep you updated.

To answer some comment questions, it is in some ways a sequel to Blessed Hearts. Now, if you remember in that serial all the characters died and Soul and Rin were reincarnated. This story may/or may not explore that. But, mostly may not. But also will. Welcome to my nightmares.

I've written about 200 words and I have  a plot outline...I just need to give my characters names.  I struggled with whether to change their names or give them new ones, but I decided to give them new ones. But I'm not sold on it. I mean if it weren't for Soul this would be an easier decision. Either way, I'm super excited to start getting in to this world and becoming comfortable with it.

It also has a title, but I tend to change the titles (as you'll see) so I'll keep it under lock and key for now. When I'm 4 chapters deep I'll probably do some posting.


Vice
Well, Vice is still going along swimmingly. I've actually had to rearrange pieces because some chapters were too long. I admit, from TDOLL I know there are some parts I should strike through, but I have my reasons.

I have all of Vice  all plotted out and I do think it will be more than one part. In thinking about Vice I would love to write something small and concise, but then I look at big sprawling series and think, sure, why not ? I could do so much in this world.

Oh, speaking of names, don't be surprised if I start changing the name. I'm just not sure it fits anymore.


Vice Chapter 3
Here we are. The chapter where things really change and get different. Forget everything you know. Also, I do a thing with the font.

-1- Smoke Signals by Houses
-2- Yesterday We Had All Of Us by Fink (Don't look too much into this song, although it's my new fave)

Alan's been drugged for the second time this serial, but where does he wake up ?

Mini-Gif Post

So, I have a TDOSH ready, but nothing to blog about ! So here is a mini-gif update.

What I want from Lile after seeing all of her hilarious TDOLL posts and amazing novellas and just loving her work.

In fact, I've pretty much been watching LiLe's blog like this

 I've also been working on Vice and changing characters more with each chapter

Speaking of Vice, it been going like this recently  (surprisingly)

But still most days are

As for this new serial. Well, the plotting is going like this:

Well, this is probably more accurate:

One More

Okay, one more TDOSH. I did a section featuring Rhett and I discovered something kind of...interesting. There are a lot of lines from Veritas in this particular section of United Light. Which is odd because at this point Veritas was 3 serials away....

Did  just plagiarize myself ?

TDOSH !

 This post got long.....




Baby M
So, I don't blog much about myself, but things have changed ! I will say, I don't see it changing my writing much. Since I am at home full time I find myself writing a lot more and since my mother and MIL and SIL tell me I should let the baby get used to noise, I've been typing away. Because of  the work that DH and I do, it's safe to say she'll hear a lot of typing....unless we all start writing on iPads.
Although, interesting fact, DH writes all his first drafts by hand.

I'm between calling the baby either, Baby M or Little Lamb on the blog...I'm calling my husband DH because I think it's fun I get to use it !

Character or Plot ?
Okay, I'm about to be a bit politically incorrect (blame it on the hormones) but I'm a bit of a character-whore. I mean it, I love creating characters. I usually always write character sketches and keep them handy, most of my serials have come to me through characters.

Which is where I am struggling with this new thing (this will be the last mention of it, I promise). I was drafting plot ideas and I was like and then...government shutdown ?

 Anyway, based on a comment in the last post, I thought I'd do a role call:

United Light - Plot First
This one was plot first. I wanted to write both an updated version of Guy Maupassant's The Necklace and also write about cults. I knew I was going to have the characters start our clean and innocent and then lose themselves to payback this enormous debt...and ultimately fall in love, but then Elisa came in the picture and that didn't work out.

Rose Garland and Golden Stars - Character (obviously)
I just wanted to write a backstory for Rhett...I had no inclinations for UL2 at this point and I wanted him to have some depth. Then I got swallowed away in Coast Guard Academy life, that I decided to write a whole new thing.

Ivy Brothers - Character
 As many of you know Darcy' and Nick's POV were originally flash fictions I wrote for a magazine. So even though they had no real ending, I knew in my mind the minute I wrote him  Darcy was going to die. Then I imagined Elias and Slate. As you can tell from the serial itself I had NO idea what to do with these characters...I couldn't write them meeting because that was already established by Nick and Slate''s POV, so I wrote them breaking up.

Veritas - Setting/Character
I have a very vivid memory of how I got this one, it's in two parts. First, I wanted to write about someone with Stockholm Syndrome...blame MSNBC again. I wanted it to be a girl who started to identify with her captors.

 Secondly, Lauren was spending the night and listening to one of the Twilight soundtracks and that song " Eyes on Fire" got stuck in my head. It was stuck in my  head while I was watching coverage of the 2010 Haiti earthquake aftemath and something about the stories made me imagine a world that was wrecked and how people resurrect from that. This idea of wandering a desolate landscape. Obviously it evolved, but that was the genesis. Not sure how I got on cyberpunk.

Then of course Sara came to me as the "star" followed by the Dorys.  I'm not sure when Alan formed.

Hidden - I HAD TO
I have honestly no idea. I think I wanted to recycle ideas I originally had for Veritas. I liked my characters but I had NO plot for them. Plus I had to deal with Minnow's death...and I wanted to bring her back.

Sundays - Character
With Sundays, there is two hands to this. On one hand, I wanted to write a somewhat "sexually charged" but not explicit romance between an officer and a prisoner because I figure with so much testoserone in one place there has to be some UST. Also,I may have been reading a lot of Supernatural fanfiction....and they made it seem so normal.

But also, I wanted to write Haley as a character who is a foil to Alan. He gets taken to prison for something he didn't do, he goes through a lot, people are mean to him, but he doesn't turn bitter and awful. He actually makes a better life for himself by enlisting and still holding to his beliefs.

Mimic-Character
I just really wanted to timeskip and write these characters as adults through another person's lens. I was trying to end it in a way I could live with.

Blessed Hearts- Story
At this point, I knew I struggled with story, so I wanted to write something based on an already told story as sort of an exercise. I had an idea for Rin and Dark and for the setting of where they lived, but the execution of taking an anecdote and stretching it proved to be difficult. This is  one I have NO recollection of writing.

On Higher Ground - Character/Story
I didn't want to do this one, but fine. I just wanted to dig into that kmart realism, but also I wanted to write something about Hurricane Katrina...I just never quite got that far.

 Actually the starting point for this serial is a scene I never wrote. I saw a scene where Julianna, Rhett, Zane Brooks (who is mentioned in chapter 1 but never seen) and Cody are at a community pool by themselves during Memorial's Day. And Zane (who is in the Marines) bad talks the Coast Guard and they have this lighthearted conversation and  then  it kind of echoes  back later because  the Coast Guardsmen who save a  lot of people during the Hurricane...guys I watched so many Coast Guard documentaries on YouTube/Hulu/Netflix.

I also wanted this survival story of Julianna, her SIL, MIL and Grandmother trying to get away from the Hurricane.

I also had this scene between Rhett and his sister, Savannah...guys, I see some novellas coming.

Vice
I'd say this time around it is ALL about the characters and I'm now concentrating more on story goals than acutal plot; What is the goal of each character and how do I get them there and what do they have to give up to get there.


TDOSH !
Well, that post was longer than I intended. Who is ready for some Cortland TDOSH ? Now, incidentally this chapter has a bit of Sawyer too.

Cortland as an orderly, I go all editor and horse metaphors...