Wednesday, October 27, 2004

What to do, What to do...

Writing the novel in a month still seems like a wacky lark at this point, and I'm looking forward to it. I'm reading more of the No Plot No Problem book, and it's offering more insights than it did in the beginning.

In the 'wacky lark' vein, I was mentally browsing the list of story ideas from yesterday. None of the story ideas seem fun. Certainly no wackiness. Wouldn't it be more fun to write a story that had, you know, some fun in it? All the ideas seem like they would make good novels, but they're each so serious.

I'm really a goofy guy, so all this seriousness, I just don't know. Maybe I was looking for ideas worthy of being a novel, instead of something fun to write (and hopefully - read). I don't know about writing a funny book - when I try to be funny, it doesn't work. What works best is if I ramble on enough, eventually a funny nugget falls out of my mouth.

I'll have to dig around in my brain and see if anything funny floats to the top. "Funny? Where are you? Time for Dinner! Quirky? Get your butt over here and I mean Now!"

Hmn, we'll have to wait and see.

I could cheat and turn one of the serious story ideas into a silly one. Change "Nazi" to "Clown" and so forth. Um - I think that would just be creepy, not silly.

Reading The Life of Pi recently makes me realize how you can tell a story as if it were really happening, using metaphors for characters - not telling the readers that this is happening - until the end, when you basically change the meaning of the entire book with just a few lines. This is something I would like to do some time. It's a really interesting device.

This device could seem like a cheap trick, if done poorly. I think it could have been done better in Life of Pi, for that matter. It was too quick. The reveal should have been drawn out a bit more, fleshed out a bit. Hee hee. Fleshed out. (Read the book).

I have one story idea where this person solves crimes by having auditory visions/hallucinations. They hear song lyrics that portend the future and the past. They can then act on what they think is the message in the lyrics. However, if they don't know the actual song, and the full lyrics, they can misconstrue the meaning and get themselves into trouble, with funny results. Sounds hard to write for someone who doesn't know anything about music. More a Liz story. I should tell her about this idea.

I have another idea about a guy who gets a job with the express purpose of quitting in a huff. He's always wanted to say "This is bullshit. I'm out." in the middle of a meeting and just leave. Leave everything in his desk, walk right out. Right now that's all there is to the idea. I don't know what could happen next... Mebbe because the company has had such high turnover that they come to this guy for advice about how to better run the company. He's not interested in helping, so they kidnap him to pump him for information. And then... I don't know what then. They torture him for info and make him watch a brainwashing video over and over. The guy escapes from his kidnappers and... something else happens. Hmn, kind of like Office Space, and kind of not. I think the guy needs more of an agenda than just quitting a job. I'll have to think some more. So far, the 'guy quitting his job' story seems like the best fun one.

It's an hour later and I've tried getting on Blogger.com a couple of times to post this, but it's not working. Mebbe they are doing maintenance. Anyway, the more I think about the office guy idea, the less funny it seems. I guess anything can be funny, but office guy is more quirky than anything. I guess I'm overly critical of my own ideas. Yep. That's it.


Here's a fun story idea - for the end of the world to come about (per the Christian books) certain things, people, and events have to come along at the right times. One guy realizes that the end of the world is approaching, and he decides to stop it. He steals the Ark of the Covenant (See The Bible - Hebrews, Verse 4) and takes off with it, hiding it away. Trouble is, this was his destiny all along. He has taken the ark to where it needs to be. Bwah hah haa! Now that's some ironic shit.

I don't know which story to do... Of course, I still have a few days before I decide - the contest starts on Monday. Maybe I'll print all the ideas out, cut the paper into slips, and choose one from a hat. Hmn. I would like to have a couple of days to meditate on my upcoming book before I have to start writing it, you know?

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