Wednesday, October 10, 2007

concept, characters, crap

Concept
Last year for NaNo I wrote a completely ridiculous novel about people's dreams changing the world around them. It made absolutely no sense. It constantly referenced Neil Patrick Harris and Robert Goulet. It was, to put it eloquently, utter shit.

Anyway, there was a relatively minor character named Bastian who, I believe, appeared in the novel simply because a friend of mine said something like, "I really like the name Bastian. You should have a hot character named Bastian in your novel." So I did. He seemed fun. At the time I thought that maybe I could use him in something again someday.

And I think I'm going to do so this year. Of course, October isn't even half over, and I'm pretty sure I've never actually written anything for NaNo that I thought of this far before November, so things might change completely. But I like pretending that I know what I'm up to, so for the moment that's what I'll do.

The setting will probably be the same as last year's novel (Bastian lived in Seattle), although it might not be quite the same universe in general and shouldn't really be a sequel to that book. It might have something to do with fairy tales or folklore, stereotypes, and the acceptance of oneself as a character in one's own life instead of an observer of others' lives. I imagine it'll be some sort of adventure/urban fantasy/comedy/romance. A Frankenstory, if you will. At the moment it's titled Bastian Bobertsson and the Terribly Inconvenient Adventure.

Characters
As of now, the only characters I really know are nabbed from last year's novel. There's another who is vaguely showing up in my head, but I don't know enough about him yet to have anything to say.

Bastian is 20-something, conscientious, calculating, distant, and mildly psychic. He likes numbers, green tea, and not getting involved; he also likes feeling helpful which tends to make him get involved anyway. He has an open mind. His world, by both choice and circumstance, is very small.

Bobert is Bastian's father. He has no arms, although whether he was born without or lost them at some point is, as of now, unknown. He seems friendly, but his father insists that he is quite mean. He doesn't talk much.

Shirley is Bobert's father and Bastian's grandfather. He runs an import shop in Pike Place Market that is a front for a sort of supernatural charity.

Evelyn is Shirley's twin brother. He is a librarian and fancies himself a wizard.

Crap
Seriously, this will probably be utter crap.

3 comments:

Anna Scott Graham said...

nothing that contains even the ghost of Robert Goulet can be called cruddy...

looks interesting!

Cate Gardner said...

Bastian - what a fabulous name. Your novel sounds lots of fun, I hope you enjoy writing it. Cate

Cate Gardner said...

Bastian - what a fabulous name. Your novel sounds lots of fun, I hope you enjoy writing it. Cate