Post by Yoyti on Oct 27, 2013 20:44:05 GMT -5
I thought I'd make one of these.
So, as I've said before, I plan to split up my NaNo into two pieces. I have now decided that I'm doing it Savoy style. A main piece (estimated 35K) and a shorter companion piece (estimated 15K). Neither of my story ideas have much in common. But then, neither do Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci.
I'll probably write the main piece first, but I'll describe the companion piece here first because it's rather lackluster, and I want to end on a high note.
It is titled Flower Games, and is a tale of escalating revenge.
Specifically, some event prompts someone to get flowers for a colleague. Unfortunately, the giver of the flowers did not consider that the selection might not look good in the colleague's cubicle. The colleague seeks revenge... by getting as a return gift an obviously garish bunch of flowers -- which excites another colleague's allergies. So things escalate (and the local florist does everything he can to keep it going), and eventually the entire office is buying each other flowers -- including one instance of someone somehow getting a cherry tree in full bloom into someone's cubicle, and another instance of someone dusting the entire cubicle of their target with flowers -- whole wheat, white, rye, semolina, and so on. Eventually the game goes too far (although I'm not sure how much farther it can go), and the story ends abruptly.
The main attraction is titled Dostoevsky Jones, after its protagonist.
Tsetinurus Klax is a military general, for the army of a unified alien (well, alien to us) species. It is a very militaristic society, and they have been developing a secret weapon. Unfortunately, the weapon requires rubidium to function. A lot of rubidium. And this planet -- and indeed, all of the local planets and planetoids -- are lacking in rubidium. The closest reasonable stock of this alkaline metal is Earth. The caveat is that Earth is also very militaristic. The catch being that Tsetinurus needs the weapon to conquer Earth, but he needs to conquer Earth to get the rubidium to operate the weapon.
So he decides to send out some troops ahead of time, in disguise as humans, so as to secure enough rubidium to take over Earth and get the rest of the rubidium. He does some research, and finds out that while names such as Leoncavello Mascagni are bound to attract attention, names like John Smith are too bland and might seem out of place. So for each of his troops, Tsetinurus selects one uncommon name and one unremarkable name to find a good medium. The result is our protagonist, Dostoevsky Jones.
After Dostoevsky has gotten settled on Earth, it quickly becomes apparent that Tsetinurus did not do enough preliminary research. This prompts Tsetinurus to send another wave of troops (with slightly better names, but still not great) to cover his mistakes.
Dostoevsky runs into one of the new troops, and they get to talking. Some of their conversation is caught on tape (or whatever the appropriate digital equivalent is) and Dostoevsky is quickly implicated in a terrorist plot. (I know, he's out to take over the planet, but seriously, he's the hero. We're supposed to sympathize with him.)
With Dostoevsky's trial looming ahead, Tsetinurus panics, and sends out alien (to us) lawyer Fiona Faraday (a considerable improvement over his previous name selections) to argue Dostoevsky's case. But as she's only been on Earth a few days, the trial goes very poorly. But it does go on for a while, and as the trial progresses, the arguments become crazier, the logic becomes more flawed and the courthouse altogether goes crazy. Eventually it is revealed that over the course of the trial, more and more alien troops have arrived to intervene, and by the end, everyone in the room is an alien.
So, as I've said before, I plan to split up my NaNo into two pieces. I have now decided that I'm doing it Savoy style. A main piece (estimated 35K) and a shorter companion piece (estimated 15K). Neither of my story ideas have much in common. But then, neither do Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci.
I'll probably write the main piece first, but I'll describe the companion piece here first because it's rather lackluster, and I want to end on a high note.
It is titled Flower Games, and is a tale of escalating revenge.
Specifically, some event prompts someone to get flowers for a colleague. Unfortunately, the giver of the flowers did not consider that the selection might not look good in the colleague's cubicle. The colleague seeks revenge... by getting as a return gift an obviously garish bunch of flowers -- which excites another colleague's allergies. So things escalate (and the local florist does everything he can to keep it going), and eventually the entire office is buying each other flowers -- including one instance of someone somehow getting a cherry tree in full bloom into someone's cubicle, and another instance of someone dusting the entire cubicle of their target with flowers -- whole wheat, white, rye, semolina, and so on. Eventually the game goes too far (although I'm not sure how much farther it can go), and the story ends abruptly.
The main attraction is titled Dostoevsky Jones, after its protagonist.
Tsetinurus Klax is a military general, for the army of a unified alien (well, alien to us) species. It is a very militaristic society, and they have been developing a secret weapon. Unfortunately, the weapon requires rubidium to function. A lot of rubidium. And this planet -- and indeed, all of the local planets and planetoids -- are lacking in rubidium. The closest reasonable stock of this alkaline metal is Earth. The caveat is that Earth is also very militaristic. The catch being that Tsetinurus needs the weapon to conquer Earth, but he needs to conquer Earth to get the rubidium to operate the weapon.
So he decides to send out some troops ahead of time, in disguise as humans, so as to secure enough rubidium to take over Earth and get the rest of the rubidium. He does some research, and finds out that while names such as Leoncavello Mascagni are bound to attract attention, names like John Smith are too bland and might seem out of place. So for each of his troops, Tsetinurus selects one uncommon name and one unremarkable name to find a good medium. The result is our protagonist, Dostoevsky Jones.
After Dostoevsky has gotten settled on Earth, it quickly becomes apparent that Tsetinurus did not do enough preliminary research. This prompts Tsetinurus to send another wave of troops (with slightly better names, but still not great) to cover his mistakes.
Dostoevsky runs into one of the new troops, and they get to talking. Some of their conversation is caught on tape (or whatever the appropriate digital equivalent is) and Dostoevsky is quickly implicated in a terrorist plot. (I know, he's out to take over the planet, but seriously, he's the hero. We're supposed to sympathize with him.)
With Dostoevsky's trial looming ahead, Tsetinurus panics, and sends out alien (to us) lawyer Fiona Faraday (a considerable improvement over his previous name selections) to argue Dostoevsky's case. But as she's only been on Earth a few days, the trial goes very poorly. But it does go on for a while, and as the trial progresses, the arguments become crazier, the logic becomes more flawed and the courthouse altogether goes crazy. Eventually it is revealed that over the course of the trial, more and more alien troops have arrived to intervene, and by the end, everyone in the room is an alien.
