I’ve been working in earnest on the book for 3 weeks now and have tried three locations — 2 libraries and Whatcom Community College. I definitely like Whatcom best, there are a bunch of friends there, plus I can hole up in a library nook when I really need to focus (but I’m an extrovert, so it’s tough for me to write in a library). I hope to rope in some collaborators (let me know if you’re interested) once I’ve got the first rough step-outline (a scene list of 40-60 scenes).
In a way, it seems like things have been going painfully slow, yet there have been some very crucial changes. For one, I decided to shift the focus of the story from Bjorn to his 16-year-old daughter. Also, I have a really cool plot twist about mid-way through the book. I can’t go into a ton of detail, but I can give you the (current) one-sentence summary:
A 16-year-old girl discovers an oppressed workforce and works with her divorced father and a team from an advanced civilization to free them.
Of course, the different characters on the team are all stinking awesome. I love them already. But I read the first third of the Twilight script yesterday (incredibly well written) and was awed by how high the bar is and how far I have to go. Thankfully, I’ll (Lord willing) have lots of help brainstorming high-caliber ideas and cutting anything that’s cliché, but before I draw other people into the project I’ve got to have a basic architecture that can support such artistic heights.
One more positive note: I’ve gotten some good inspiration lately for how to work the spiritual/theological side of things, which is the part I’m most worried about. I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen a Christian movie or book where the message isn’t either weak or cliché and I know it will be very difficult to keep from falling into either pitfall. Christian music has the same two problems, but one label — Reach Records — has done an outstanding job keeping clear from both, so they’re my best inspiration at the moment.
3 responses so far ↓
HayleyAnn // November 8, 2009 at 4:58 pm |
Hey Peter,
It’s really great that you have time for writing now. How is that going? How much do you have written? and what does Twilight have to do with your story? Am I that far out of the loop? =) Hope all is well with you and your family.
(Phil.1:2)
Peter Rust // November 11, 2009 at 8:22 am |
Hi Hayley, thanks for your interest!
Writing is going well – though I have to admit I’m taking a one-month break (1.5 weeks left) to learn Sonar (I downloaded the incredibly frustrating and hard-to-use 30-day free trial) and use it to create a remix for a remix competition.
I’m finding that the writing is getting easier, the deeper I get. The story is roughly divided into three acts and I’ve got the scenes of the first act fairly set and have a rough idea of the scenes in the second act. Its a little weird, painstakingly nailing out an outline with 40-60 scenes when I know most of them will change once I put together a Story Team and we find lots of ways to make the story better, but it’s important to have a starting point.
Formally, Twilight doesn’t have a lot to do with my story (it’s in the teen romance and vampire genres and my story is really in neither of those). But informally, there are a lot of similarities. Both stories have a lot of action, yet are fully “character-oriented”. Both have a bit of a dark grunge/gothic mood to them, but it’s not overwhelming in either. Also, the Twilight script is, well, a movie script and thus reads fairly quickly — something my story will do also.
Mainly I was just impressed with how the script brought out the characters so vividly in so few words. This comes naturally when you’re condensing a couple-hundred-page novel, but to do it without writing the couple-hundred-page novel first is more challenging. One technique to do just that (which they used to do in the film industry) is what they call “full treatments” (if you’d like, I could post more about them from Rob McKee’s book “Story”).
Things are going real well with us. I’ve just finished translating Acts 1:1-14 (this time with the help/editing of our pastor, who’s a Greek pro) and am co-teaching on it at our church’s youth group tomorrow night. Jimmy’s almost 4 and Jessica just helped out a little at his preschool (at Christ Fellowship, Everson).
Earthquake Remix « Unashamed Studios Blog // November 23, 2009 at 8:54 am |
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