12 March 2005

Incendiary Imagination Implies Inspiration? or Indigestion?

As I mentioned the other day: Positively. On. Fire.

I formulated a character some two or three days ago whilst doing the usual 3/4 mile hike at work. I was thinking about something T Campbell had written - about how he created the character of Catherine from Fans! - and something about that process influenced the development of this persona. I'm loath to be fully candid about what makes her (for now I'm satisfied that it is a she, and tentatively her name is Morgaine - after the player who is leader of the Order of the Dragon guild in Ryzom) noteworthy, but I am starting to realise a grand vista of possible scenarios that she might play a part in. Just this morning something like the following fleshed itself out in my mind:

[I'm not certain of the setting, nor how many are present. Certainly Morgaine and Fred, I'll add other characters and develop setting to better suit the conversation, I suppose.]

(Morgaine flushed even more than normal, and not snuffling as she normally does, sees her moment and launches herself, placing her shoulder very nicely into the hollow of Fred's back [I'll conjure a name later, although there's nothing wrong with Fred], effectively knocking him off his feet. Morgaine has her dagger out now and stands over him.)
(
Morgaine's voice is rising throughout the first few lines, but rising unsteadily. She's never taken this tone with anyone before, and she's trying to put ferocity into her voice that she knows she might not really have)

Fred: (startled [duh])Uhhh! Morg! What're you...
Morgaine: (trying to be loud and authoritative) Stay there!
Fred: (annoyed) Morg, what's the...
Morgaine: (afraid of losing control of the situation, panics: she screams!) Shut up!
(VERY sudden quiet)
Morgaine: (recovering, but still loud) What happened to Fred?
{OK, Fred not working because.....eh, I'll continue so you can see why}
Fred: (attempting calm, but (visibly?) surprised)Morg. I'm right here, what are you....
Morgaine: (recovering calm but still loud) Fred died yesterday but his body is walking and talking. No-one else seems to have noticed but me, and I'm DAMN well going to find out why. (a palpable hush follows)
Morgaine: (hurriedly: she senses the lull and tries to break it to stay in command of the situation) Who are you and what happened to Fred!!

Fred: (sorrow: starts to weep) I'm sorry Morgaine. I couldn't sustain him any longer.
(Fred puts his head between his knees and sobs)

{Oooh! I just pulled that last line out of my ass, but I like it.
Strike the entire sentence following "Fred died.."... much better.. thats just nonsensical bravado for plot development, its not at all a sensible thing to say.}

And that's just what my brain came up with during a trip to the supermarket! Who Fred is/was and what happened will stay in my notes (after I write it down) for now, but this is just another scenario that my mind has been toying with lately. You may or may not have realised why 'Fred' cannot work as a name: I refuse to even try to dance around phrases like "Fred's dead". That just oozes bad karma. Not even to mention the fact that its been done. In spades.

I've even been considering the media types for these various concepts. For example, the political thriller I mentioned last time would have to be a book; there is simply far too much internal dialogue for it to work as a more visual form such as a movie, graphic novel or comic strip. Since it is the internal dialogue and character development that is the real hook, the visual aspect would fall flat. On the other hand, the scene I wrote above could work as a comic, although a movie might be better for capturing the emotions. I did end up just know writing that rather like a screenplay.

Where the hell did all this creative energy come from? Maybe I can turn it into something lucrative. That'd be a nice change of pace. The downside right now is that I just do not have the discipline to sit down and turn out a story based on the above. Hell, I cannot even seem to clean my apartment.

Bah.

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