Groundwork: Brainstorming the Concept (aka Yes, My Wife Can be Objective)

I think I'll take this opportunity, now that the outline is done, to commit to internet-memory a few of the other preparatory steps that went into laying the groundwork for the novel.

The original concept was one I'd been trying in vain to develop into a short story for the 3rd Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards. The basic premise was that in a world where battles between superheroes and supervillains resulted inevitably in civilian casualties, a group was founded - composed mostly of individuals who lost their families in such calamities but who were themselves rescued - to watch over and protect the civilian/human families of the heroes. The members of this group were grateful to the heroes yet had nothing much else to live for, and as such could dedicate their lives to the task, and as such were equipped with some sort of weapon/technology that allowed them to turn themselves into human bombs to protect their wards - sort of like "good suicide bombers."

Sounded alright to me - until I broached it to my wife. (Paraphrased conversation folows):

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Her: Uhm... its OK.

Me: You don't like it...

Her: I just don't get it.

Me: What do you mean?

Her: Well, who are they supposed to protect the families from?

Me: Ah, well, from supervillains mainly. I mean, ordinary police could handle ordinary threats.

Her: And they do this by... exploding?

Me: Yeah!

Her: That's dumb.

Me: (At a loss for words)

Her: What if the villain has a beam weapon or something? What if they have super speed? What if they can fly? What good is a bomb?

Me: Uhm, w-well... They could... I dunno... pile up on the villain? Or, um, throw themselves at him?

Her: ... Don't get it.

Me: (Crestfallen)

Her: ... and second - you're saying that the heroes know about this?

Me: Yeah, sure. They're very grateful.

Her: They wouldn't allow it.

Me: Huh?

Her: Superman wouldn't consent to people committing suicide.

Me: Well not every hero is as conservative as Superman... and it's not suicide!

Her: Close enough - I just don't see how any moral hero would go around hiring people to do that.

Me: It's just like hiring bodyguards!

Her: Bodyguards can do more than blow themselves up.

Me: ...

Her: Sorry. I just don't get it.

Me: (Breaks down, quits writing and becomes a monk)

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So much for my brilliant concept @_@ My new premise is much better now that i've addressed the holes my wife poked in the old one... Or at least I think so.

I haven't run the new concept by her yet :P

Groundwork: Outline Done (And Man Do I Wish It Was Part of the Wordcount)

624 word key-word outline for the novel is done - and, yes, if this counted towards the 50k goal I would have used a paragraph outline and probably reached 5,000 words easily (not including the character profiles and mini-time-line).

I wish I could just jump straight into a novel; but after the experience of having to scrap 100,000+ words because I just could not make the ending work, I think I've developed a phobia to outline-less writing.

Groundwork: How to Describe a Face

Still no work on the actual prose sadly, what with the court hearing. Spent some time trying to flesh out the basic attributes of my two lead characters, when I realized that as a romance novel, I should probably be a bit more particular in my descriptions of the characters. This lead to some quick internet research on the general shapes and variances of the face and various facial features.

I'm surprised I didn't find a consolidated list/guide for writers - most of the ones I found were on pages related to beauty tips and/or plastic surgery. For reference, here's the breakdown of what I've gleaned so far"

Face Types: square, heart-shaped, triangle (inverted heart shaped), oblong, elongated, round, long, diamond and oval. (From this site)

Eye Types: (based on distance) wide-apart, close-set, evenly-spaced; (based on size) small eyes, prominent eyes, bulging eyes; (other types) almond eyes, oriental eyes, round eyes, deep-set eyes, hooded eyes, oval eyes; drooping eyes. (Used different classifications but the types came from here.)

Nose Types: [Classical definitions] Roman (aquiline/hooked), Jewish (hawk), Greek (straight), leptorrhine (Caucasian/long and narrow), platyrrhine (African/broad and flat), cogitative (wide-nostriled), snub, turn-up (celestial); [Other words which may describe a nose] pert, button-nose (note - not bottle nose, unless your character is a dolphin), angled, aquiline, arced, arched, bent, broad, concave, convex, crooked, curved, depressed, droopy, flared, full, hooked, humped, narrow, pointed, round, sharp, short, small, small-tipped, straight, thin, undulating, wide, wide-nostrilled. (Classical definitions from this little treasure; many of the additional words from here.)

Hope this helps other aspiring writers as well. Let me know if you have anything more to add ^_^

7,000 Words Down; 50,000 Words to Go

No, I haven't gotten my math wrong - the 7,000 words I've gotten "out of the way" were for the 3rd Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards. Ah, word limits... There's nothing quite like the feeling one gets when one is able to find those three sacrificial words that allow you to slip in just beneath the maximum word count allowed.

Still want to do a wee litle outline before starting on the actual text of the novel. I know that part of the joy of NaNoWriMo is the "No Plot, No Problem" mentality - but that'd be, for me, like going out on a boat without a life jacket; sure I can swim if push comes to shove, but I'd like to have a fallback in case I cramp up.

What's In A Name?

"Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten." - G.K. Chesterton

It was the first thing that sprung to mind when I tried to come up with a name for this newly minted writing-centered blog (Thanks to Chesterton via Neil Gaiman). Who am I to resist my masculine intuition? (Now there's an oxymoron if I ever saw one)