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So just out of curiosity and not for any pressing reason at all (don't pressure me!), I've started doing an earnest outline of something I've wanted to write for literally years now. (Outlining is sometimes my friend and sometimes not so much in fic, but whenever I write anything long, I inevitably get hopelessly stalled at chapter five or six going, "Now, what did I think was going on here? What am I doing?" so I figure it's utterly pointless to start without one at this level.) Outlines are fun, because they punch through that laziness that makes you totally able to hold on, in your head to, "And this is the part where they have adventures and my protagonist looks totally cool," to the point where you actually have to work that shit out (in fanfic, this is the part I never have to write at all, because it's on tv). Also, they make you realize which characters you have invented solely because you thought they'd be cool, and not because they contribute anything to the plot whatsoever. Those characters have to be beaten with a shovel and sent away, which has already been the fate of two fine souls and arguably a third whom I have demoted to important-character's-small-child.
Here, then, is my totally hypothetical question.
Say you're a faerie knight in a fictional but contemporary city who is assigned to take care of a spoiled princess. Say that you pretty thoroughly begrudge this job, because all around you the city is falling apart from civil strife and monster attacks, and here you sit, playing honor guard while the princess takes tea, but you do your duty, until the point at which your lady's husband sends you on a few sub rosa errands that culminate in you unwittingly leading his police force straight to a pregnant faerie and her nice human landlords, whereupon violence ensues. You have no idea what the hell is going on, but you haven't trusted any of the High Court to be able to run this city for a long time, and now you think they might be evil, baby-murdering bastards to boot, so you have had it. On the advice of a friend you're not entirely sure you trust, but who seems to know a lot more than you do about politics and things, you agree to secede from this Court and establish yourself as the war duke of a second city Court, which you expect will draw to your cause the many, many faeries that your former lord and lady have made enemies of over the years, not to mention your own order of knights whom you know will be loyal to you, and *your* Court will actually protect the city, and without a creepy secret police force that kills humans and pregnant women. Civil war will naturally ensue, and you may or may not have sex with a hot bartender named John (no relation) at some point in the novel; you will almost certainly marry the pregnant woman and have a falling out with your maybe-trustworthy-maybe-not kingmaking friend over the crucially divisive issue of werewolves. GIVEN ALL OF THIS, in what sort of establishment will you set up your war room? Bearing in mind that there is already a key bar location in this story, so definitely no more bars, and probably nothing in the general restaurant family for that same reason. I have tossed around the idea of a university library and an expensive apartment building still under construction, a theater and an auto bodyshop, but I have not yet hit on anything that I feel has the right type of unexpected fabulousness.
Sell me on something, and you win -- uh -- cookies, and a line of credit in yet another novel that I arguably will never finish, but then again, I might!
(On reading over my thumbnail account of the plot, I am slightly chagrined at how, well, thinly-veiled-social-commentary it all sounds, like the Borderlands redux of V for Vendetta. It isn't meant in that way, if only because my villain is much better-looking and more interesting than anyone I dislike in RL.)
At some point, if I finish with the outline stage and actually make the commitment to write this thing, I will probably establish an lj filter so that I can complain about it extensively without bothering all the nice people who are really only here on the hopes that I will continue to make Rodney McKay strip Ronon naked and lick him (hint: yes). If you want to be on my OMG, I'M WRITING A NOVEL, WHAT THE HELL WAS I THINKING? filter, leave a comment, and I'll add you when said filter comes into existence.
Here, then, is my totally hypothetical question.
Say you're a faerie knight in a fictional but contemporary city who is assigned to take care of a spoiled princess. Say that you pretty thoroughly begrudge this job, because all around you the city is falling apart from civil strife and monster attacks, and here you sit, playing honor guard while the princess takes tea, but you do your duty, until the point at which your lady's husband sends you on a few sub rosa errands that culminate in you unwittingly leading his police force straight to a pregnant faerie and her nice human landlords, whereupon violence ensues. You have no idea what the hell is going on, but you haven't trusted any of the High Court to be able to run this city for a long time, and now you think they might be evil, baby-murdering bastards to boot, so you have had it. On the advice of a friend you're not entirely sure you trust, but who seems to know a lot more than you do about politics and things, you agree to secede from this Court and establish yourself as the war duke of a second city Court, which you expect will draw to your cause the many, many faeries that your former lord and lady have made enemies of over the years, not to mention your own order of knights whom you know will be loyal to you, and *your* Court will actually protect the city, and without a creepy secret police force that kills humans and pregnant women. Civil war will naturally ensue, and you may or may not have sex with a hot bartender named John (no relation) at some point in the novel; you will almost certainly marry the pregnant woman and have a falling out with your maybe-trustworthy-maybe-not kingmaking friend over the crucially divisive issue of werewolves. GIVEN ALL OF THIS, in what sort of establishment will you set up your war room? Bearing in mind that there is already a key bar location in this story, so definitely no more bars, and probably nothing in the general restaurant family for that same reason. I have tossed around the idea of a university library and an expensive apartment building still under construction, a theater and an auto bodyshop, but I have not yet hit on anything that I feel has the right type of unexpected fabulousness.
Sell me on something, and you win -- uh -- cookies, and a line of credit in yet another novel that I arguably will never finish, but then again, I might!
(On reading over my thumbnail account of the plot, I am slightly chagrined at how, well, thinly-veiled-social-commentary it all sounds, like the Borderlands redux of V for Vendetta. It isn't meant in that way, if only because my villain is much better-looking and more interesting than anyone I dislike in RL.)
At some point, if I finish with the outline stage and actually make the commitment to write this thing, I will probably establish an lj filter so that I can complain about it extensively without bothering all the nice people who are really only here on the hopes that I will continue to make Rodney McKay strip Ronon naked and lick him (hint: yes). If you want to be on my OMG, I'M WRITING A NOVEL, WHAT THE HELL WAS I THINKING? filter, leave a comment, and I'll add you when said filter comes into existence.
no subject
Date: 2006-03-21 05:25 pm (UTC)From:I would like to be on your filter, as this sounds very interesting!