Like a rolling stone... at 12, 928 words!
Things are going well right now. I don't exactly look forward to writing every day, but I do it. I'm adding enough silliness (sans Martha Stewart... at least not yet) to keep it interesting but also trying to keep the plot moving forward.
I've come to a bit of an impasse. Remembering how last year, my novel stalled because I couldn't allow any of my characters to really be bad, I've taken inspiration from Dangerous Liaisons to have two main characters who are obviously manipulative assholes. Nicky is actually fading into the background of the story.
Here's my dilemma. These two mean characters have a sort of bet or agreement that involves Nicky - one wants to seduce her, and the other (her best friend) wants to get her to move back to Lawnville. I know, it's kind of a weak plot and doesn't make much sense. I could use some help in figuring out a) why they might want to do this? this could involve internal motivations, but could also be, what is the reward that the winner gets for the bet? If it helps any, these two characters occasionally sleep together, and they've used that as a reward in the past. Seems a little weak though. Then b) why on earth would Nicky be friends with this person? I guess she keeps it hidden away...
Anyway, I've got some highly improbable characters and highly improbable goings-on so any insight you might have into dastardly people and why they do dastardly things would really be helpful right now.
And now, for today's excerpt:
Letter 35. June 24, 198x
The Big City
Molly,
I was thinking of you all day and couldn’t get the grin off my face. So I thought I’d send you a little note just to say hi. And once I thought of that, I decided to make you a little mix. Don’t get the wrong idea – I can understand ‘no strings attached’ as much as the next girl – but it’s nice to indulge in a few hot flashbacks, isn’t it?
So please accept this mix as a gift of friendship and a thank you for a wonderful time this weekend – both the G and the R-rated parts.
Xo
Seth
Careless Atomic Healing – a mix by Seth Kayte
Side A
1. Careless Whisper, George Michael
2. Endless Love, Diana Ross & Lionel Richie
3. Woman in Love, Barbra Streisand
4. Up Where We Belong, Joe Cocker & Jennifer Warnes
5. Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now), Phil Collins
6. Atomic, Blondie
7. Do That To Me One More Time, Captain & Tennille
8. Lost In Love, Air Supply
Side B
1. Lady, Kenny Rogers
2. Slow Hand, Pointer Sisters
3. Waiting For A Girl Like You, Foreigner
4. Sexual Healing, Marvin Gaye
5. Greatest Love Of All, Whitney Houston
6. Wind Beneath My Wings - Bette Midler
7. Take My Breath Away, Berlin
8. Lady In Red - Chris De Burgh
Letter 36. June 26, 198x
Lawnville
Dear Kiefer,
Enclosed in this envelope you will find exhibits A and B for the prosecution.
I’m ready to collect whenever you can make it to Lawnville.
Air kisses,
Molly
Note to the reader: Letter 35 was included in this envelope, as was the tape entitled ‘Careless Atomic Healing.’
Do dastardly people need to have concrete rewards for wrong-doing? Isn't the joy of manipulating and controlling unsuspecting people reward enough? Does Nicky know they are dastardly? Isn't answering questions with more questions incredibly helpful?
ReplyDeletePerhaps you should watch Cruel Intentions for inspiration. I feel like I don't know enough about your characters to be able to understand their inner workings and predict their actions! Wish I could be more help!
ReplyDeleteI think dastardly people do dastardly things because they don't perceive themselves to be doing dastardly things. People often distort reality in ways so that they can appear to NOT be doing dastardly things.
ReplyDeleteSo they perceive themselves as having been victimized by the person they are hurting, or are perhaps sociopathic and don't at all empathize with others. Or perceive their motivation to be more important than whatever harm they are causing others.
Bone breaking punker - your questions are unfortunately not helping me out of my jam!
ReplyDeleteWhammy, I'll put Cruel Intentions on my list. It will hopefully be more helpful, for research purposes, than the last movie I watched - Fame (remake).
Jill - Hmmm. I think I can work with this. Maybe Molly will be self-deluding, while Kiefer's just self-centered.
I have to say I really enjoy that you are writing letters back and forth between characters. It seems to be working well. My one cousin was a letter writer and every year from camp she would write to all her letters to her family and friends. I don’t know how she had the time. Sometimes location could be the reason for writing letters. Postcards make good letters too.
ReplyDeleteI wish I could come up with a motivation for the bet but boredom is all I could think of.
Also I used the copy part of my novel to make up for word count last year when I was having trouble making my quota too. Although I literally just copied a page and pasted it, then went back and deleted when I had finally caught up.