I Should Have The Little Green Envelope Write These
In the three NaNo novels that I've written up to this point, I have been really good about creating composite characters or just making the characters that populate my pages up from scratch. This year, I've apparently thrown that writing technique to the wolves because, thusfar, the only two characters I've mentioned besides Kate (who as I've mentioned is half based on a real person) and Andy (who's just the side of me that I'm not proud of) are based almost completely on real people.
One of them, who doesn't even have a name except for "hoodie" (Andy's friend from work who lives in the same neighborhood) and Kate's best friend Tabitha (who I think I straight out stole from what I once said my friend Samantha should name her main character except the character isn't based on Samantha) are based almost 100% on real people.
And the worst part is, I didn't even bother trying to disguise Tabitha's identity. In real life the character that Kate is based on really is Tabitha's best friend. At least in the context that I know both of them. And, of course, what situation would I put Tabitha in except for the exact same situation as reality. Gave me a chance to talk a bit of smack that I shouldn't have talked, but it was cathartic to a point.
Though I think I can be a bit forgiving to myself as the original novel was going to be about Tabitha. Or Tabitha was going to be one of the two MCs (the female one, though I have been known to switch genders and keep all the personality traits of two people to disguise them).
Tomorrow, or maybe for a half an hour tonight, I'm actually going to have Andy call Tabitha and the true extent of their prior relationship (which is completely fictional, by the by) is going to be revealed. Who knows, maybe I'll actually get a subplot out of it. Fate knows my novel needs one of those as it's approach 10,000 words rapidly (at the time of writing this, I'm at 9,253 words).
Maybe Andy will even do something really bad just to screw over Kate. Though Tabitha apparently hates Andy in the novel and is really tight with Kate so this might not be a viable option.
---
And maybe I can actually write something humorous in this interchange. Thusfar all the humor has still come from the Little Green Envelope and his lack of understanding of humans (and the fact that he thinks he understands them a lot better than he actually does).
He's even been the vehicle for pointing out the satire. And I think that's a worse narrative crime than anything that I've done in creating characters.
Though I do like what I wrote tonight about his musings about the phrase, "I'd rather get a root canal.":
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” said Andy. I don’t know why you humans, especially you humans in the larger cities, are suddenly so fond of saying that word three times. In the older movies I transport, a simple “yes” or “yup” or even “h’yup” (if the setting is right – I notice a lot of dust around in the movies where that is used) suffices. “Of course, who else would she be staying with than the person I would rather get a root canal than call?”
Do you humans actually ever get presented with that choice? I think of all of the phrases you throw around, this is the worst. It’s as if there’s nothing worse in life than going to the dentist. Though I do have to say that in all of the movies I’ve transported where this scene is carried out, they do make the dentist’s office seem like a pretty scary place. There are all sorts of torture instruments just lying around and some male human (almost always) or a female human (occasionally) in a little white coat sticking them into where you talk while you squirm in either pain or just fear.
I would have to think that even if you chose the root canal, all it would serve to do was put off the other choice for a little bit until you had to do that eventually. I don’t see the human or whatever with the other option going, “well I know you just had the traumatic experience of the root canal and all so you can skip this horrible business meeting where you have to talk about a big cardboard page with some lines on it today. Or, let’s face it, you just had a near incinerator experience with the male human in the little white coat so let’s just say you never have to talk about the big cardboard page again. You made your choice and I’m proud to say you chose ‘root canal.’”
---
I didn't get a chance to do much writing tonight in general (my goal was 10,o00 words) since I was in chat for two hours negotiating the final teams for the Chicago v. New York City v. Toronto word war.
Turns out the teams are 55 people. I negotiated for this because person #52 and #53 were on the team last year and both got 50,000 (both are well on their way this year). It was a compromise because person #55 is the only one in the entirety of the Chicago volunteers who haven't broken 1,000 yet.
But in their request to be on the team, they said that they wanted to be inspired to write by being on Team Chicago. And if the word war inspires even one person to break the 50,000 mark than it's done its job.
That, of course, is my Kate side talking. The Andy side says that the point is to kick the behinds of both New York City and Toronto. I don't even know what the Little Green Envelope side would say. But chances are it would be way funnier than anything said by my actual MCs.
One of them, who doesn't even have a name except for "hoodie" (Andy's friend from work who lives in the same neighborhood) and Kate's best friend Tabitha (who I think I straight out stole from what I once said my friend Samantha should name her main character except the character isn't based on Samantha) are based almost 100% on real people.
And the worst part is, I didn't even bother trying to disguise Tabitha's identity. In real life the character that Kate is based on really is Tabitha's best friend. At least in the context that I know both of them. And, of course, what situation would I put Tabitha in except for the exact same situation as reality. Gave me a chance to talk a bit of smack that I shouldn't have talked, but it was cathartic to a point.
Though I think I can be a bit forgiving to myself as the original novel was going to be about Tabitha. Or Tabitha was going to be one of the two MCs (the female one, though I have been known to switch genders and keep all the personality traits of two people to disguise them).
Tomorrow, or maybe for a half an hour tonight, I'm actually going to have Andy call Tabitha and the true extent of their prior relationship (which is completely fictional, by the by) is going to be revealed. Who knows, maybe I'll actually get a subplot out of it. Fate knows my novel needs one of those as it's approach 10,000 words rapidly (at the time of writing this, I'm at 9,253 words).
Maybe Andy will even do something really bad just to screw over Kate. Though Tabitha apparently hates Andy in the novel and is really tight with Kate so this might not be a viable option.
---
And maybe I can actually write something humorous in this interchange. Thusfar all the humor has still come from the Little Green Envelope and his lack of understanding of humans (and the fact that he thinks he understands them a lot better than he actually does).
He's even been the vehicle for pointing out the satire. And I think that's a worse narrative crime than anything that I've done in creating characters.
Though I do like what I wrote tonight about his musings about the phrase, "I'd rather get a root canal.":
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” said Andy. I don’t know why you humans, especially you humans in the larger cities, are suddenly so fond of saying that word three times. In the older movies I transport, a simple “yes” or “yup” or even “h’yup” (if the setting is right – I notice a lot of dust around in the movies where that is used) suffices. “Of course, who else would she be staying with than the person I would rather get a root canal than call?”
Do you humans actually ever get presented with that choice? I think of all of the phrases you throw around, this is the worst. It’s as if there’s nothing worse in life than going to the dentist. Though I do have to say that in all of the movies I’ve transported where this scene is carried out, they do make the dentist’s office seem like a pretty scary place. There are all sorts of torture instruments just lying around and some male human (almost always) or a female human (occasionally) in a little white coat sticking them into where you talk while you squirm in either pain or just fear.
I would have to think that even if you chose the root canal, all it would serve to do was put off the other choice for a little bit until you had to do that eventually. I don’t see the human or whatever with the other option going, “well I know you just had the traumatic experience of the root canal and all so you can skip this horrible business meeting where you have to talk about a big cardboard page with some lines on it today. Or, let’s face it, you just had a near incinerator experience with the male human in the little white coat so let’s just say you never have to talk about the big cardboard page again. You made your choice and I’m proud to say you chose ‘root canal.’”
---
I didn't get a chance to do much writing tonight in general (my goal was 10,o00 words) since I was in chat for two hours negotiating the final teams for the Chicago v. New York City v. Toronto word war.
Turns out the teams are 55 people. I negotiated for this because person #52 and #53 were on the team last year and both got 50,000 (both are well on their way this year). It was a compromise because person #55 is the only one in the entirety of the Chicago volunteers who haven't broken 1,000 yet.
But in their request to be on the team, they said that they wanted to be inspired to write by being on Team Chicago. And if the word war inspires even one person to break the 50,000 mark than it's done its job.
That, of course, is my Kate side talking. The Andy side says that the point is to kick the behinds of both New York City and Toronto. I don't even know what the Little Green Envelope side would say. But chances are it would be way funnier than anything said by my actual MCs.
posted by incendiarymind at 8:42 PM
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