Schrödinger's Novel

[Jove]

Hey brain. Hey brain. You're a jerk.

I had two choices: The first made my stomach hurt, the second made my head hurt.

I have enough headaches as it is so I decided to go with my gut (literally, this story is a lot like getting punched in the stomach) and run with my very first NaNo idea. (well, actually, first two mated together and smashed into one big horrific mess)

When you try to ignore something for too long, it eats at your insides. That's how this story was, so I kept feeding it every so often, slowly figuring out more of it each time.

Now I'm at the point where I feel like I can actually write the thing.

The story actually started in 2009, although to be fair I came up with it way back in elementary school. To say that I've grown attached to it is a bit of an understatement, though at the same time I sort of despise it.

The two NaNos being combined started as a joke at first, just a 'What if?' Then I noticed how well everything worked together. Neither story stood well on their own and felt incomplete, and the characters fit really well together, so here we are.

It's strange. I know how the story begins, and now I know how it ends, but I don't know really know what happens in the middle. I'm kind of excited to find out.

--

If you think the above paragraphs were worded oddly then you are correct. Actually, every other set of sentences starting with the first also works as a pseudo-synopsis of sorts. Hm. I have a legitimate synopsis written but I think I'll clean that up a bit because it's kind of a mess.

The title is "Papercuts" (first novel) and "Fanglorious" (second novel) combined. It grew into a series. I imagine there will be something like four to six books, although maybe more because of these stupid loveable secondary characters and their stupid storylines.

I am writing a story about a story (only it's not a story because it's real) (the story in a story is, not the story)

We space now

[Jove]

Now with 50% more actual synopsis! 50% more awfulness as well, but that goes without saying.

SPOILER: Click to show

Elijah Sargent is having one of the worst years of his life. Last March his beloved grandmother Ada passed away, leaving him nothing but a blank red leather journal and her ramblings about how the end of the world is coming. Not long after that the few friends that he has shun him, leaving him a social outcast. Fourteen years old and two grades higher than he should be, Eli has never really fit in much anywhere, even leaving out his eccentric family and his odd penchant for finding dead things.

When autumn arrives, things are mostly the same as always. The small Mississippi town has always been known as a place where weird things happen, though there seems to be more missing persons than usual. Some cattle mutilations here and there, and whispers of unnatural creatures lurking the woods. Same old, same old.

Then a girl named Beatrice moves into the empty house across the street. Eli thinks he's met her somewhere before, but he can't quite recall. She always carries an umbrella and can predict things before they happen. She likes cats and wishes she was a bird. She calls him 'monkey-face' and has him selling lemonade in the cold of November. She says she's a witch, and that at some point she's probably going to kill him.

Eli isn't much of a believer in the supernatural, so he doesn't take any of it very seriously. Unfortunately for him the supernatural not only exists, but it seems to be hell bent on trying to cause his untimely death. Complicating matters further is his strange classmate Lucy, who is not only out to find all that is non-human and prove it exists, but to help it destroy humankind altogether.

All of that would be enough to cause permanent damage to any impressionable young man's psyche, but then there's the matter of the little red journal he hasn't paid any mind to. The little red journal that, as it happens, takes whatever is written in it and makes it reality.

I like how only 3/4 of the main characters are mentioned. Poor Adrian.

[Avery]

That sounds like an extremely awesome book. One that I would definitely read. Good luck with it!

[Jove]

Oh, thank you. :3 The synopsis makes it sound much lamer than it is.

Going to try and get some character profiles done this week. These fool children have been running around in my head for a while now so I know most of them pretty well, it's just getting it typed up. One day I will write something with less than ten characters. Today is not that day.

[Zylaa]

Stop putting down your synopsis, I think it sounds fantastic. =D *joins in wanting to read it*

[Jove]

With three days to go and a tropical storm on the way I think now is an excellent time to sit down, write down everything that's in my head, take a step back, look at it, and go "Wow, this makes little to no sense."

It kind of comes with the territory when you take age-old concepts of things that don't exist, turn them on their heads and shake them a little and go "No, this is what I want you to be." Only now that I think about it isn't that maybe what Stephanie Meyer thought she was doing? Is this the level I am operating on? Nobody is sparkling, anyhow. Anyway that is the last time I mention her name anywhere in this thread. It's a terrible tragedy that that series is what comes to mind nowadays when anyone says "vampire."

I don't even know why I'm talking about vampires, honestly. I'm not even writing a vampire novel. Nor am I writing a zombie novel, or a werewolf novel. I'm writing a novel in which some of those things might show up, but they're not what it's about. It's amusing to me. How messed up are the things in your novel if vampires and zombies are considered a less interesting development than the other stuff that goes on and more of an inconvenience than anything else?

I also ended up with something that is more confusing to write than the story I decided not to write because it was too confusing.

I am finding it really difficult to describe characters without spilling spoilers all over the place. Get ready for some super vague stuff I guess.

[Jove]

So just when I finally thought my brain was gonna let me write this thing I sit down and realize my entire brain process and all my excitement for writing this story is currently "Hurry up and get this one down so you can write this other stuff!"

Which is obviously a terrible reasoning for going into write anything, but especially something that you really care about and possibly hope to get published one day.

And of course good ol' Parasites Paraducks Paradorks is there to remind me how much more interesting and fun it sounds and how much everything reminds me of how I want to write it and how little I actually want to write anything else.

Never mind all the research and planning that has gone into Papercuts whereas almost none has gone into Paradorks. If I end up doing it I'm going in pretty much blind. Not that I haven't before but I thought I had gotten over being allergic to planning things. As soon as I put one little iota of OUTLINES into anything my brain goes "lol this is boring. I want a sandwich."

The worst part of it as soon as I even consider rolling with it my brain is like a kid with candy. Even now I'm grinning just thinking about it. Like I knew all along I was going to give in to my brain and the last two weeks was just me kidding myself so I could throw myself from the cliff into a bottomless chasm.

...

Well, you asked for it, brain. Don't say I didn't warn you.

[Jove]

Disregard space, aquire cats

To make a long story short I scrapped Pair of Ducks Paradorks for the time being because I can not write it. I started it no less than eight times this month, probably wrote half a novel's worth of words that I immediately deleted, punched myself in the face a couple times, then accidentally deleted all the documents I had for Papercuts which amounts to a year's worth of work or so. I got to thinking about underdog stories and wondered in this scenario, who is the underdog? It's not the big dumb time travel adventure that is apparently so amazing I don't even have the ability to write it. It's pretty obvious that it's the horrific, graphically violent, fourth wall eating, narrator snarking, what-genre-is-this-even story about a kid who gets his head stepped on and enjoys it.

So that's what I am writing. I have less than four days to write it. I know you're thinking WHY AREN'T YOU WRITING NOW instead of talking about it but I am. I'm writing it at the same time I write this. Because I can.

SPOILER: Click to show

Besides, it's not like you've got anything to lose. Like Elijah. There's a guy who really has got nothing to lose. But then he goes and loses things anyway because that's what he does. That's Elijah. He probably would have put this book down. Think it was stupid. "This is stupid." He would say as he put it down.