Writer's Journal: Started drafting The Adjusters #25. (#24 was already drafted before I realized I needed a #23...) And I was disappointed to see that my outline said it was going to be all plot. It will probably prove difficult to inject some smut into that one. I'm hoping that as I'm writing it a suitable sex scene will spontaneously raise its hand and shout "Me! Me! Me!" Fingers crossed...
About a month ago, I talked about time-travel stories, where a protagonist goes back to inhabit his younger self and presumably do everything better, and with lots more sex. I love the sheer wish-fulfillment factor that shines brightly throughout most examples of the genre. (Fact is, most folks I know from my youth are pretty much as hopeless now as they were back them, but it's somewhat crass to point that out. But hey, who am I to knock wish fulfillment? I write mind-control smut, after all, the ultimate in wish-fulfillment fantasies.)
In any case, I've been reading a couple more stories in that vein, where the protagonist goes back not to his own youth but into someone else's body, albeit still a teenager. One that's particularly interesting is by Joe J, titled Twice Lucky: “If you knew then what you know now, how would you act?” A short description, but it's pretty much what you'd expect, a man dies and goes back in time to relive his life as someone else. The story's decent—it has a couple of very good scenes, and while it's a bit difficult to keep track of all the girls that that poor guy hooks up with, the field gets cleared out a bit by the end. I discovered that there are two sequels, which I haven't read yet: Twice Lucky II: Time for a Change and Twice Lucky III: Divergence.
Another story in that genre that looks promising is POL's Play It Again, Sam: “Sam Eldon finds himself transported back in time twenty some years and into a much younger body. This is the story of how he affects the lives of many others and discovers what destiny's true purpose has in mind.” Haven't read that one yet, but I've really liked another of POL's tales, Of Drugs, Blackmail, and Seduction, so I have high hopes here too.
All of this reading, for some reason, has got me inspired to explore that kind of world. The creative wheels have been churning for almost a week now, and I'm getting a bunch of characters starting to form in the back of my mind, and a basic story line. Plus it feels like I can even rope in the other idea I had about a sexy older neighbor. What seems to be slowly forming is a story that is a mix of the classical tropes of time travel stories of the kind above, where someone uses the experience he has accumulated to adapt to a new life as a young man, and a few new twists on the idea. If this creative churn continues, it looks like I might have a new long story to write. Don't worry, it won't affect The Adjusters, but it will provide an outlet for stuff that doesn't fit in that universe.
Here's my question to you folks. Are any of you interested in seeing what the development process of this new story is? I don't mean to sound grandiose about it, but one thing I can do is basically post my notes and scribbles and brainstorming sessions so that you can see the plot and the ideas as they develop. I know many people are interested in the creative aspect of writing, and seeing something develop from scratch might be of interest. Now, I'm not sure if I'm going to do this or not—after all, there's something highly personal about hatching out a world and characters—but I'd like to know if there would be any interest before making the final decision. Note that one nasty side effect would be a complete spoiler of the story. I guess one other possibility is to publish the story first, and then post the development material afterwards.
Let me know your thoughts in the comments below or by email.
I would like to see how you develope the story line.
ReplyDeleteMaybe a scene between the big characters in the story. Jenn and biff, Serena and a frat boy. Etc. Or the major character in the chapter. Can't really suggest without knowing more
ReplyDelete@Anonymous — Thanks for the interest. My current thinking right now is to go ahead with it, but on a different blog specifically for that purpose, so that folks that don't care or don't want to be spoiled can avoid it easily. I'll talk about it here when I get on to it.
ReplyDelete@Met — Don't worry about it, as you said, it's hard without knowing more about what's going on in the episode. I'd like it to fit right. I'll figure it out...