Everything's Connected

I had an interesting story idea yesterday, and with a lack of anything else to talk about today, I thought I'd tell you about it.

Imagine this: a short story collection with, I don't know, ten or so stories. All are set in a shared universe, each is from the point of view of a different character. There is some underlying current of a connecting thread, and the whole mystery or secret truth or whatever is only clear after reading all the stories.

The Spread of Darkness

I don't know why I can't write this on time. I'm terrible. I'm sorry.

Here's Part 5 of "Just One Yesterday."

Patrick could try to get his job back, and work for a soulless hell-monster. He could try not to stare at those abysmal eye sockets. But Frank would know. Somehow, they always knew that he could see them.

He wanted to be a badass and do a tactical roll out the door to escape from danger. That wasn’t going to happen. Instead, he awkward shuffled out the door, still crouching and hoping the booth shielded him from the view of the kitchen. He didn’t look back.

He crossed the street and kept on walking. He wasn’t going to deal with this right now. His arm hurt where that thing had bit him, like little pinpoints of fire. The job search would have to wait. For now, he was going home.

Back on the Road

In the midst of working on other projects, I'm always thinking about The Long Road, my NaNo novel from last year, and how I'm going to fix it. If you're just joining us, it was essentially about three friends who go on a road trip, and slip from reality into pockets of weirdness. It didn't work out, as a NaNo novel, coming in at only 25,000 words, but it had so much potential.

The main thing I've been thinking about lately is that it needs more lead-up, more time to establish characters. Which means a minimum of two chapters before anything weird even happens. We need to learn who these people are before we throw them in the grinder.

For instance, Tony has to wander off. That's a given. It's a thing he does, that kicks off a major plot point. But he also needs to do it sooner. I need to show that this is a character trait of his, so that when he does it at the worst possible time, you're not wondering why.

Taking a Step Back

So I've written a bit of a twist in the last installment of this story, and I'm not totally sure where to go from there. Hence the lateness of the post. Also I went to go see Black Panther (super good, go see it), and then took at least two naps. Saturdays are my napping day.

I am calling the story "Just One Yesterday" for the time being, so now all the pieces are tagged with that. And I guess it's going on hiatus for the moment, since I'm not sure what happens next and I don't want to screw it up. It'll be back next week. Maybe even on time. But probably not.

What am I going to talk about today, then? Well, I'm glad you asked.

Apropos of Nothing

Titles are important. That's the first thing anyone sees of your book or short story. It has to be catchy, and good, and it has to mean something.

Well, that's the goal, anyway. I have a history of working titles that don't necessarily mean anything. They sound cool, and somehow reference something in the story or in its creation, but don't necessarily make sense for the finished project.

What do I mean? Well, I'm glad you asked. Here's some examples:

• Locking Up the Sun: This was a superhero story about a guy who could teleport. The title vaguely made sense because the main character was sent to rescue a superhero named Supernova. But really, it was just named after this song.
• Secrets and Thieves: A post-apocalyptic adventure with a wide variety of strange characters. And while yes, there are secrets, and at least one thief, I don't know that they were central enough to get a spot in the title. It's a line from this song, which has nothing to do with anything. It's just a good line.

Filling in Blanks

All right, here's Part Four. Three hours of sleep followed by at least three naps and I finally got it done. A lot of dialogue today. Hopefully moving us into the next part.

“Really?” the girl asked. “Because I just saw you fight an old Asian man, murder him, and then he disintegrated. So please, let’s hear your perfectly reasonable explanation.”

“Okay, maybe not perfectly reasonable.”

She took her phone out of her pocket. “I’m going to call the cops.”

“Are you?” he asked, sounding bolder than he felt. “You gonna tell them I vaporized a guy?”

Thoughts So Far

So we're on, what, part three of that serial story (which may be called "Second Chances," I haven't really decided)? What do you think so far? I kind of know what's coming up next, but I have yet to work out a long term plan. So I don't really know how long it's going to be or where it will end up.

I'm hopefully going to a thing this weekend about outlining, so maybe I'll learn a thing or two. Maybe I'll come back as an outlining machine! Probably not that.

So anyway, I've been trying to build this world and these characters without all the baggage of a full length novel. We just don't have time for that here. It's a fine line between no extra info, and not enough info. I'm not sure what side of that line I'm on right now. I'm hoping the answered questions in there right now will be answered by the end.

I'm going to cut this one short because I have to go to work and I don't want to put this off another day. I'd like to post on time every now and again.

Getting the Hang of This

If you've been keeping score at home, you may know that we’ve just passed the two year mark. My first post was February 2nd, 2016. I kind of forgot it was the anniversary, so I didn't plan anything special. I hope the next part of the serial story will be enough.

And yes, it's up late. I had to do adult things like buy a new microwave, and then less adult things like watch Star Trek. I'm trying to get back on schedule, I'm just really bad at it.

So here's Part Three:

The dusty remains of the thing settled on the kitchen floor. Patrick looked at his arm. Irregular teeth marks had been cut into either side. He wrapped it in a dish towel and peered out the kitchen window. There were probably more of those things out there. And he was probably supposed to fight them.

That bus station guy had been really vague on the details.

There was another knock on the door. Great, what now?