I really need to post here more often, but the truth is I'm usually so busy writing, I don't find a lot of time to write about writing. In an effort to keep everyone up to speed on what I'm doing, I'll give a brief rundown of what's been going on.
Earlier this year, there was some serious interest in a pilot script I wrote called "Luminaries," an all-original, American mash up of two of my most beloved genres: Sentai and Teen Drama. The producer in question, the vice-president of a notable company out in L.A., really liked it and wanted to pitch it to a few networks, including SyFy, which would be my first choice, personally. I wrote up a treatment, we even got an artist on board to do some concept art for the pitch. Everything was going along swimmingly, and then...
The president of the company vetoed it. Suffice it to say, I was not happy.
After this, I returned to my prose efforts, where I'm focusing most of my energy these days. My main project, or my "alpha" as I like to call it, I have discussed here before: The Crossroads Chronicles, a pentalogy about a fictional utopian society on the bank of the Delaware and the dark dystopian underbelly its facade hides.
I also have an idea for a fantasy trilogy, The Zodiac Cycle, which is still in its infancy. Not even its infancy, really; more like its gestation. Despite having had a major breakthrough on the series' mythology and internal history, that one's not going to be ready for a while.
Today, I'm going to talk about my "beta" project, a novel that I'm still working on a title for. As I was working on the first book of The Crossroads Chronicles, I realized that it was going to take me a lot longer than I'd anticipated. I thought perhaps I should find a simpler story, something simpler and shorter that I could publish sooner. I thought a lot about it, but -- as anyone who's read my introductory post knows -- I'm kind of prone toward epics, big sweeping stories about diverse casts of characters. I don't really do simple. Not often.
So, I asked myself what really resonated with me? What was something simple, something undiluted, something powerful that I wanted to express? I don't really go into my personal life on here too much, and I intend to keep things that way, but suffice it to say I went through an incredibly painful and traumatic break-up in early 2010. The thing is, it wasn't a clean break. The trauma was subtle and insidious, and I didn't recognize it until long after the damage had been done. Once I did, it was like the breaking of a spell. I could finally see things with some perspective, and it was that very perspective that allowed me to move on. And while that story is very interesting to me, I'm not convinced many people would really care about it. It's not groundbreaking bestseller material is all I'm saying. It needed something else.
Coincidentally, at that very time, my finances were pretty much in the shitter. They're still in the shitter. I was unemployed and running out of money at every turn. Things got pretty desperate, and more than once, I joked with my friends "I am this close to turning tricks just to make ends meet." And then one day, I realized that that would be a great story, the perfect way to frame my tale of the re-assessment of a young guy's self worth. So, I married the two ideas, and thus have my beta.
This untitled project is about a guy whose life is pulled out from under him and turns to online-solicited prostitution to make ends meet. The thing is, he isn't some gritty, urbane hustler. He's not tragic and sexy or some kind of meth addict. He's just a guy with a lot of debts and a very utile history of promiscuity, who finally finds a way to profit off something he's good at. What, on the surface, appears to be merely a funny, strange story about a broke twenty-something going to extremes to get over a broken heart and an empty wallet reveals itself to really be a story about being loved and desired and how we measure our own sense of self-worth.
However, this could easily fall into the trap of endorsing certain cliches and beliefs to which I don't happen to subscribe, so there were a couple of guidelines I set for myself.
1) While this is a story about realizing what you're worth, it is not about how being promiscuous devalues someone. I think that idea is bullshit, and I will not have any characters of mine paying horrible, moralistic, karmic debts for their sexuality. The hero doesn't flee to the safety and "sanity" of monogamy after some dark adventure through the underworld. He starts the story a slut and he ends it a slut, and for a while in the middle, he profits off his libido. That's it. And while his brief career in prostitution does raise certain questions for him, it's neither the source nor the symptom of his problems. It is merely a mirror he holds up to his life that enables him to see a few things lurking over his shoulder. Piggybacking off of this point...
2) This is a story about insight and growth. It's about the emotional consequences (good and bad) of the hero's actions. For me to dwell on the legal consequences or hold that tension over the reader's head would be a distraction that serves no purpose. So, right on page 1, the narrator tells the reader straight up that he never got arrested, never got raped, and never got infected with anything. The reader learns right from the get-go that those kinds of consequences are not what this story is about, and to dwell on them would be missing the point.
3) That the hero's appraisal of his own worth would not come from the acquisition of a new boyfriend. I'm not saying he doesn't get one. I'm not saying he does. Regardless, it could not and would not be where his revelation comes from. It has to come from within. He needs to be the one validating himself, not feeding off the validation of someone else.
Once these guidelines were set in place, I had my story, and I got to work. And I have to say, I'm having a lot of fun writing it. For someone who tends to go epic with intricate, multi-layered plots, having one simple, heartfelt story with some tasty subtext is a welcome change of pace. The story is moving along very quickly, and it's quite refreshing to have a project that's so uncomplicated, which is not to say it's simplistic; just simple.
I have one protagonist, two supporting characters, one antagonist, and one major love interest. Liberating does not even begin to cover it. I'm also writing in the first person, which is something new for me. I'm so used to having that third-person perspective, always one step removed from a character's thoughts to the reader's experience, but this time... no filter. It's just coming from the character directly to the reader. It's very exciting and a bit scary, as it's a new approach for me, but I'm riding it out to see where it takes me. It's actually leaving me a little raw and vulnerable as I write, which I think will ultimately give the piece a flavor it wouldn't otherwise have.
So, all in all, things are looking good. I'll let you guys know when I have a title. Until then, I'll just keep plugging.
Oh, and for those of you wondering if I plan on being so bitter and petty as to eviscerate my ex-boyfriend in fiction for the purpose of exorcising the last of my demons, please let me assure you that yes... yes, I do.
