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Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Strangers

The trouble with writing a book inspired by the movies Second Sight, Vibes and Jack's Back (if you're familiar with those movies, you're probably thinking "whu-huh?") when you're 20 years old and filling time between yogurt runs is you don't have the necessary background work for a character-driven plot.

That's my newest excuse.

I've been ignoring it a for a little while, but I don't know these characters. I know their physical descriptions (except for the twins Alan and Kiven who may or may not be identical - never decided).
This isn't a problem for plot-driven writers. I'm not one of those. For me, it's the people and their problems.

TT: A deeply ironic fact, considering I didn't like people until college.

I'm a third of the way through the original wordcount. I'm staring at my cursor thinking, "I could scrap the remaining original storyline and probably be fine."

But then what?

Petrov would remain. Do I want him? He's evolving from a hulk in the background to a person, so he could come, but what does he bring to the table?

McLellan has turned much whinier than originally written. He's a family man under stress, so I suppose that's possible.

I have some guy named Jake hanging around. Where'd he come from?

Worse, Gavran lacks depth. I'm not saying he's the deepest guy on the planet, but I don't know what motivates him. That can't continue. He's a viewpoint character, for goodness sake!

Tonight, I will sit down with paper and dice and work it out. They're all getting backgrounds. I don't have the old background book anymore, so I don't technically need the dice, but I miss playing with them.

The one upside is LUCK-I is emerging through the eyes of the other characters. That's unexpected and hopeful. If a machine can become a real person to me, all these other folks should fall into line.

Maybe if I watched the movies again...

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