Saturday, September 19, 2009
Poetry Contest Results
Well, yesterday I received the news - none of the poems I entered in the Redwood Writers Poetry Contest placed. The rejection e-mail was very sweet and thoughtful, which makes the non-placement much easier to swallow. The other contest I had entered my work in I have not heard on, but am assuming I did not place there either, since they said the winners would be notified by 15 Sep 09, which has come and gone. Oh, well - there are more contests to enter and more writing to be done...tomorrow is another day!
Snowflake Method - Expanded Proposal/Summary
The next step in the Snowflake Method is to take the one-page synopsis and expand it to a four-page synopsis. Here is my take on expanding the first paragraph of the shorter synposis:
Para #1
Nick Aceret is a crime novelist with a penchant for creating characters who are more than they seem to be on the page. He doesn’t realize his characters have a tendency to become more than he created him to be. Take Millie – short for Millicent Marianna Freedman – for example. Who would have thought that a one-dimensional character who barely appeared in three scenes in one novel would have the audacity, let alone the ability, to force another author’s essence out of said author’s body and move her own essence in? Millie’s freedom from the character realm only lasted a few months, and the team from the Asylum for Miscreant Characters was able to return the author to her rightful body, but still – who’d have thought this type of situation was possible at all?
Keep in mind, Millie was one of dozens of less notable characters who existed for a few scenes here or there in Nick’s Diabolical Soul crime series. Nick also created Malcolm Price, the antagonist in the series, and Marlena Kevan, a character used as a foil for Malcolm until she was written off the page at the end of the third novel. Or so Nick thought. Marlena had actually developed over the course of the three novels to a point that Malcolm saw her as a serious threat, and influenced Nick to write her out of the series. Neither Nick nor Marlena realized what was happening to them due to Malcolm’s influence!
After the incident with Millie, Tracey Averdue, an agent with the Character Stabilization Unit at the Asylum, studied the flow of Nick’s series, noting where Malcolm had encouraged Millie’s delusions of grandeur as well as how he managed to get Marlena written off the page. Agent Averdue also discovered Malcolm’s plot to switch places with Nick and brought this to the attention of Mr. Von Schutzel, the director of the Asylum.
Mr. Von Schutzel attempted to gain Nick’s attention and inform him of Malcolm’s machinations, but to no avail. Nick was deep in the throes of seeing the light at the end of the tunnel on this particular novel, hell, this particular series, and nothing was going to distract him from reaching that light! Nick put Von Schutzel’s voice in his head down to lack of sleep, overcaffeination, and finally letting go of the character who had been his bread and butter for the last ten years.
Para #1
Nick Aceret is a crime novelist with a penchant for creating characters who are more than they seem to be on the page. He doesn’t realize his characters have a tendency to become more than he created him to be. Take Millie – short for Millicent Marianna Freedman – for example. Who would have thought that a one-dimensional character who barely appeared in three scenes in one novel would have the audacity, let alone the ability, to force another author’s essence out of said author’s body and move her own essence in? Millie’s freedom from the character realm only lasted a few months, and the team from the Asylum for Miscreant Characters was able to return the author to her rightful body, but still – who’d have thought this type of situation was possible at all?
Keep in mind, Millie was one of dozens of less notable characters who existed for a few scenes here or there in Nick’s Diabolical Soul crime series. Nick also created Malcolm Price, the antagonist in the series, and Marlena Kevan, a character used as a foil for Malcolm until she was written off the page at the end of the third novel. Or so Nick thought. Marlena had actually developed over the course of the three novels to a point that Malcolm saw her as a serious threat, and influenced Nick to write her out of the series. Neither Nick nor Marlena realized what was happening to them due to Malcolm’s influence!
After the incident with Millie, Tracey Averdue, an agent with the Character Stabilization Unit at the Asylum, studied the flow of Nick’s series, noting where Malcolm had encouraged Millie’s delusions of grandeur as well as how he managed to get Marlena written off the page. Agent Averdue also discovered Malcolm’s plot to switch places with Nick and brought this to the attention of Mr. Von Schutzel, the director of the Asylum.
Mr. Von Schutzel attempted to gain Nick’s attention and inform him of Malcolm’s machinations, but to no avail. Nick was deep in the throes of seeing the light at the end of the tunnel on this particular novel, hell, this particular series, and nothing was going to distract him from reaching that light! Nick put Von Schutzel’s voice in his head down to lack of sleep, overcaffeination, and finally letting go of the character who had been his bread and butter for the last ten years.
Snowflake Method - Other Important Characters
Since I last posted, I have told the story from two other important characters - Agent Tracy Averdue and Mr. Von Schutzel, both from the Asylum for Miscreant Characters. Here is the story through their eyes.
Agent Tracy Averdue – POV
The basics of this case were as follows: The perp – Malcolm Price – was plotting to change places with his creator – Nick Aceret – and then kill Aceret off. We discovered the plot after Millicent Marianna Freedman succeeded (for a short time) in taking over her author’s body by basically pushing the author’s essence – her soul, if you will – out into the ether so Freedman could enter her body. Since Aceret had created Freedman prior to her author’s use, and since the other characters created by Aceret seem to become more than he created them to be at a higher ratio than that of other authors’ creations, we decided to review Aceret’s work to find out why. What we discovered instead was Price’s plot and the machinations he’d already accomplished to this point – encouraging Freedman’s delusions of grandeur to a dangerous point and working to get Marlena Kevan written off the page when she became a threat to his how delusion of being the superior character.
I brought this information to the attention of Mr. Von Schutzel, the director of the Asylum for Miscreant Characters. He attempted to gain Aceret’s attention and inform him of Price’s plot, but to no avail. After reviewing our options against the severity of the threat, we decided to assign Agent Kevan the task of ensuring Price’s plot did not succeed as well as the task of bringing Price to justice.
At first, Agent Kevan was a bit reluctant to take on these tasks due to her previous dealings with both men. Additionally, she did not agree with the assessment that it was Price, no Aceret, who had her written off the page in the third book of Aceret’s series. However, when she perceived the threat to both the character realm and the realm of reality, she accomplished the task at hand like any good field agent would. Successfully.
Mr. Von Schutzel – POV
When Agent Averdue brought Malcolm’s plotting to my attention, I was alarmed! We’d had other cases of characters attempting this sort of maneuver, but managed to abort the attempts before they were visible even to the other characters in the story lines – at least until Millie came along. Her brief stint in the realm of reality alerted us to look more closely at Nick Aceret’s characters – for some reason, the characters he creates have a higher rate of being more than he created them to be than those of other authors. Agent Averdue reviewed Mr. Aceret’s work and found the markers, warning signs, clues, however you wish to describe them, where Malcolm had influenced not only Millie in her delusions of grandeur, but also where he convinced Mr. Aceret that Marlena was no longer an asset to the storyline. There were also indications of his plot to switch his essence (his soul) with that of Mr. Aceret, so it would actually have been Mr. Aceret that died at the end of book five in his series, not Malcolm.
I tried to tell Mr. Aceret, to warn him, but to no avail. He was too wrapped up in his story – authors tend to get extreme tunnel vision when they are close to finishing their projects we’ve noticed – to listen to anyone, let alone a voice from the character realm – he likely thought I was his inner critic, who’d never really liked Malcolm from the start – that should have been a major indication, Mr. Aceret! – oh well.
After reviewing our options on how to best deal with the situation, we decided to bring Marlena in to work the case. She’d done a remarkable job with fetching Millie back to the Asylum and getting that poor author back into her own body after hanging about her library watching Millie nearly make a muddle of the author’s writing career – so we though Marlena would be perfect for the job, her previous dealings with the two men not withstanding. We did not expect her to be so reticent about accepting the task at hand however! Agent Averdue did an exceptional job laying out the facts to her, but Marlena had to reconcile her head with what she’d lived through, and we didn’t realize how much of a debate that would be! It was nearly too late when she finally agreed to take on the task! If it hadn’t been for Mr. Aceret’s over-caffeinating ways, we would have been too late!
Be that as it may, Marlena, the dear girl, came through and we got Malcolm back in his proper spot just in the nick of time. That is one character that will never attempt any such thing again! Oh, and we saved Mr. Aceret as well. I believe he is still on sabbatical from writing however.
Agent Tracy Averdue – POV
The basics of this case were as follows: The perp – Malcolm Price – was plotting to change places with his creator – Nick Aceret – and then kill Aceret off. We discovered the plot after Millicent Marianna Freedman succeeded (for a short time) in taking over her author’s body by basically pushing the author’s essence – her soul, if you will – out into the ether so Freedman could enter her body. Since Aceret had created Freedman prior to her author’s use, and since the other characters created by Aceret seem to become more than he created them to be at a higher ratio than that of other authors’ creations, we decided to review Aceret’s work to find out why. What we discovered instead was Price’s plot and the machinations he’d already accomplished to this point – encouraging Freedman’s delusions of grandeur to a dangerous point and working to get Marlena Kevan written off the page when she became a threat to his how delusion of being the superior character.
I brought this information to the attention of Mr. Von Schutzel, the director of the Asylum for Miscreant Characters. He attempted to gain Aceret’s attention and inform him of Price’s plot, but to no avail. After reviewing our options against the severity of the threat, we decided to assign Agent Kevan the task of ensuring Price’s plot did not succeed as well as the task of bringing Price to justice.
At first, Agent Kevan was a bit reluctant to take on these tasks due to her previous dealings with both men. Additionally, she did not agree with the assessment that it was Price, no Aceret, who had her written off the page in the third book of Aceret’s series. However, when she perceived the threat to both the character realm and the realm of reality, she accomplished the task at hand like any good field agent would. Successfully.
Mr. Von Schutzel – POV
When Agent Averdue brought Malcolm’s plotting to my attention, I was alarmed! We’d had other cases of characters attempting this sort of maneuver, but managed to abort the attempts before they were visible even to the other characters in the story lines – at least until Millie came along. Her brief stint in the realm of reality alerted us to look more closely at Nick Aceret’s characters – for some reason, the characters he creates have a higher rate of being more than he created them to be than those of other authors. Agent Averdue reviewed Mr. Aceret’s work and found the markers, warning signs, clues, however you wish to describe them, where Malcolm had influenced not only Millie in her delusions of grandeur, but also where he convinced Mr. Aceret that Marlena was no longer an asset to the storyline. There were also indications of his plot to switch his essence (his soul) with that of Mr. Aceret, so it would actually have been Mr. Aceret that died at the end of book five in his series, not Malcolm.
I tried to tell Mr. Aceret, to warn him, but to no avail. He was too wrapped up in his story – authors tend to get extreme tunnel vision when they are close to finishing their projects we’ve noticed – to listen to anyone, let alone a voice from the character realm – he likely thought I was his inner critic, who’d never really liked Malcolm from the start – that should have been a major indication, Mr. Aceret! – oh well.
After reviewing our options on how to best deal with the situation, we decided to bring Marlena in to work the case. She’d done a remarkable job with fetching Millie back to the Asylum and getting that poor author back into her own body after hanging about her library watching Millie nearly make a muddle of the author’s writing career – so we though Marlena would be perfect for the job, her previous dealings with the two men not withstanding. We did not expect her to be so reticent about accepting the task at hand however! Agent Averdue did an exceptional job laying out the facts to her, but Marlena had to reconcile her head with what she’d lived through, and we didn’t realize how much of a debate that would be! It was nearly too late when she finally agreed to take on the task! If it hadn’t been for Mr. Aceret’s over-caffeinating ways, we would have been too late!
Be that as it may, Marlena, the dear girl, came through and we got Malcolm back in his proper spot just in the nick of time. That is one character that will never attempt any such thing again! Oh, and we saved Mr. Aceret as well. I believe he is still on sabbatical from writing however.
Monday, September 07, 2009
Snowflake Method - Marlena's POV
As I stated in an earlier post, I'm in the process of telling the story from each character's POV - at least for the major and important characters. Marlena is the most important character apparently, since her POV is the longest of the three major characters. Enjoy!
Marlena Kevan – POV
I received the summons from Von Schutzel as I was hanging about in the corner of the library of the author we rescued from Millicent Marianna Freedman – aka Millie – a few months back. Man, I really like her writing style! The summons was simply that a serious situation was in the making, one that required my unique talents.
Once I arrived back at the Asylum for Miscreant Characters, Von Schutzel and Agent Averdue of the Character Stabilization Unit informed me that Malcolm Price appeared to be planning a similar feat to Millie’s – changing bodies with his creator, author Nick Aceret. They need my ability to change gender in order to throw Malcolm enough off-kilter to bring him back to the page to finish his story, and, if necessary to face his fate at the Asylum.
Von Schutzel knew that Nick had created me, but he was not aware of the circumstances of our parting, nor of the history between Malcolm and me. Agent Averdue had reviewed Nick’s previous work, but didn’t see things quite the same as I did – having lived them and all.
Being the compliant character that I am – which annoys me to no end at times like these, but then again I don’t want to end up in the Asylum myself – I agreed to the assignment with a strong sense of foreboding. You see, I wasn’t just a bit character in Nick’s storyline. I was an integral part of it, closely involved with Malcolm, first as his victim, then as his lover and accomplice. Malcolm and I made a good team, but for some reason Nick decided I didn’t fit anymore, so my character went into the river at the end of book three of the series, and I came to work for the Character Stabilization Unit at the Asylum for Miscreant Characters.
Anyway, back to the situation at hand. After reviewing the information Agent Averdue had collected, I could see very well that Malcolm was not only planning to move into Nick’s body, but also to trade places with Nick, so that Nick would be the one killed off in the book – in Malcolm’s body of course.
You see, when a character is killed off easily – gunshot or other quick method of causing death – the essence of that character simply moves out of the body and waits to be reassigned to a new story with another name and a few cosmetic changes. But when a character goes through multiple and massive trauma such as Nick is putting Malcolm through, usually the character’s essence is reduced to a quivering glob of sludge only good to feed the creative ether with. So Malcolm’s plan was to make Nick’s essence into compost (and vice versa, although Nick probably doesn’t realize what happens to characters when they are written out of existence in a storyline – most authors don’t).
So, my assignment was to stop Malcolm and save Nick. My head knew that, in general, characters have to fall in line with what their creators, the authors, planned for them to do in a storyline. Everyone has their place, but that is not to say there was no potential for growth – that depended on the character/author interaction – but in any given storyline, the author decided the level of growth, not the character. Malcolm was planning to use his place in the storyline to his own ends, though – by switching places with Nick and, in essence, committing murder. Even in the character realm, murder is considered a capital crime when committed outside the bounds of a storyline – and to have the audacity to even attempt to kill your creator – what that’s just unheard of! At least it had been until now. But it’s wrong, and my head knows it’s very wrong!
But my heart thinks in personal particulars, and my particulars in this case were that Malcolm and I had a good thing going. We made a good team when all was said and done – and for whatever reason Nick decided I no longer fit the storyline and dumped me in the river at the end of book three. So, my heart was rooting for Malcolm (even though it too knew that was he was planning was wrong, very, very wrong). About Nick – ambivalence tinged with hurt – he created me (and I’m very thankful for that, of course), put me in plenty of situations where I grew into a multidimensional character (thankful for that too) – then he wrote me off the page. Ouch! I didn’t even see that coming! Most authors at least have the decency to use foreshadowing to warn their characters who are about to get the axe – but not Nick – at least not for me! He even treated Millie with more than that, and she was a bit character who lasted maybe three scenes in book two. Sheesh!
Of course, by the time I’d worked through my qualms about the case, it was nearly too late. Malcolm had changed bodies with Nick and was writing the rest of the storyline. At least he was smart enough to know that the flow had to match, so he had to go back and review Nick’s previous work to match his ending with the already-in-progress story. That gave Nick the time he needed to make his way out of the scene and into the sewer before Malcolm sent Riley Brown – the detective created to stop Malcolm in the series - looking for the body. And, at least Nick was smart enough to know that Riley, based on a two-dimensional model, would look at the obvious escape routes first – especially considering the fall Nick’s new body had just endured – so Nick had time to move towards the (further away river) instead of the (closer river). Which is where I caught up with him – in the sewer system heading towards the (further away river).
To say Nick was surprised to see me was a bit of an understatement. But, to his credit, he recovered quickly. He was a bit arrogant and annoying, not wanting to believe we could do what we said we were going to do – a bit ungrateful when someone you wrote off the page comes to your rescue there, dear! That is until we actually engineered the switch.
When Malcolm re-entered his own body, he thought he could send Riley off balance with a bit of cajoling about Sherlock Holmes killing off his Moriarity – wasn’t done in that series, you know. He was a bit shocked to realize I was impersonating Riley and I had a gun trained square on his head. As he lunged at me, I fired and down he went. Dead.
Marlena Kevan – POV
I received the summons from Von Schutzel as I was hanging about in the corner of the library of the author we rescued from Millicent Marianna Freedman – aka Millie – a few months back. Man, I really like her writing style! The summons was simply that a serious situation was in the making, one that required my unique talents.
Once I arrived back at the Asylum for Miscreant Characters, Von Schutzel and Agent Averdue of the Character Stabilization Unit informed me that Malcolm Price appeared to be planning a similar feat to Millie’s – changing bodies with his creator, author Nick Aceret. They need my ability to change gender in order to throw Malcolm enough off-kilter to bring him back to the page to finish his story, and, if necessary to face his fate at the Asylum.
Von Schutzel knew that Nick had created me, but he was not aware of the circumstances of our parting, nor of the history between Malcolm and me. Agent Averdue had reviewed Nick’s previous work, but didn’t see things quite the same as I did – having lived them and all.
Being the compliant character that I am – which annoys me to no end at times like these, but then again I don’t want to end up in the Asylum myself – I agreed to the assignment with a strong sense of foreboding. You see, I wasn’t just a bit character in Nick’s storyline. I was an integral part of it, closely involved with Malcolm, first as his victim, then as his lover and accomplice. Malcolm and I made a good team, but for some reason Nick decided I didn’t fit anymore, so my character went into the river at the end of book three of the series, and I came to work for the Character Stabilization Unit at the Asylum for Miscreant Characters.
Anyway, back to the situation at hand. After reviewing the information Agent Averdue had collected, I could see very well that Malcolm was not only planning to move into Nick’s body, but also to trade places with Nick, so that Nick would be the one killed off in the book – in Malcolm’s body of course.
You see, when a character is killed off easily – gunshot or other quick method of causing death – the essence of that character simply moves out of the body and waits to be reassigned to a new story with another name and a few cosmetic changes. But when a character goes through multiple and massive trauma such as Nick is putting Malcolm through, usually the character’s essence is reduced to a quivering glob of sludge only good to feed the creative ether with. So Malcolm’s plan was to make Nick’s essence into compost (and vice versa, although Nick probably doesn’t realize what happens to characters when they are written out of existence in a storyline – most authors don’t).
So, my assignment was to stop Malcolm and save Nick. My head knew that, in general, characters have to fall in line with what their creators, the authors, planned for them to do in a storyline. Everyone has their place, but that is not to say there was no potential for growth – that depended on the character/author interaction – but in any given storyline, the author decided the level of growth, not the character. Malcolm was planning to use his place in the storyline to his own ends, though – by switching places with Nick and, in essence, committing murder. Even in the character realm, murder is considered a capital crime when committed outside the bounds of a storyline – and to have the audacity to even attempt to kill your creator – what that’s just unheard of! At least it had been until now. But it’s wrong, and my head knows it’s very wrong!
But my heart thinks in personal particulars, and my particulars in this case were that Malcolm and I had a good thing going. We made a good team when all was said and done – and for whatever reason Nick decided I no longer fit the storyline and dumped me in the river at the end of book three. So, my heart was rooting for Malcolm (even though it too knew that was he was planning was wrong, very, very wrong). About Nick – ambivalence tinged with hurt – he created me (and I’m very thankful for that, of course), put me in plenty of situations where I grew into a multidimensional character (thankful for that too) – then he wrote me off the page. Ouch! I didn’t even see that coming! Most authors at least have the decency to use foreshadowing to warn their characters who are about to get the axe – but not Nick – at least not for me! He even treated Millie with more than that, and she was a bit character who lasted maybe three scenes in book two. Sheesh!
Of course, by the time I’d worked through my qualms about the case, it was nearly too late. Malcolm had changed bodies with Nick and was writing the rest of the storyline. At least he was smart enough to know that the flow had to match, so he had to go back and review Nick’s previous work to match his ending with the already-in-progress story. That gave Nick the time he needed to make his way out of the scene and into the sewer before Malcolm sent Riley Brown – the detective created to stop Malcolm in the series - looking for the body. And, at least Nick was smart enough to know that Riley, based on a two-dimensional model, would look at the obvious escape routes first – especially considering the fall Nick’s new body had just endured – so Nick had time to move towards the (further away river) instead of the (closer river). Which is where I caught up with him – in the sewer system heading towards the (further away river).
To say Nick was surprised to see me was a bit of an understatement. But, to his credit, he recovered quickly. He was a bit arrogant and annoying, not wanting to believe we could do what we said we were going to do – a bit ungrateful when someone you wrote off the page comes to your rescue there, dear! That is until we actually engineered the switch.
When Malcolm re-entered his own body, he thought he could send Riley off balance with a bit of cajoling about Sherlock Holmes killing off his Moriarity – wasn’t done in that series, you know. He was a bit shocked to realize I was impersonating Riley and I had a gun trained square on his head. As he lunged at me, I fired and down he went. Dead.
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