I am mostly a discovery writer. I get an idea in my head, run with it for a while, and this works as long as I can keep momentum going. When it stalls out, however I run into trouble. Time and time again it happens that I get to a certain point, and find I don't know where to go next.
This sort of stop-and-start is great for an amateur, but I want to move on into the big leagues. I want to cook up a story and finish it. So for this project I've started outlining scenes and characters.
Getting ideas for neat characters has not been a problem for me. Fleshing them out may be problematic, but getting a core idea for a character is not. So I've been building ideas for the characters I want for this story, and here's what I've come up with:
Character notes:
Mr. Silver is a True Fae who is trapped
on Earth because of his obsession with trying to create life. He is
an exceptionally talented Fetchmaker, and is convinced he can make
fetches that are better than the originals he kidnaps and sells to
other fae. He is Gepetto trying to make his precious little
Pinocchios into real boys. He's come close, but sometimes his fetches
fail. To prove that he can create life (by his definition), he weaves
a clause into the contracts he takes...the people he replaces will
inevitably return back to the real world and have to face down the
fetches that have supplanted them. To date, all of these contests
have been in the changeling's favor, but Mr. Silver is convinced that
soon one of his doppelgangers will win. Janet's counterpart has just
escaped her master and is returning home, so Mr. Silver is eager to
do everything he can to give Janet the tools she needs to destroy her
other half.
Janet is a fetch created by Mr. Silver
to replace an artist he abducted as part of a contract. She was
created 10-12 years ago, in between Winter and Spring Semesters at
Bradshaw College. She has lost her ability to create art. She's
decent at reproductions, still lifes, portraits, and the like, but
suffers from a lack of truly original content. The stuff she produces
comes off as nice, but not especially innovative. After being told by
a well-meaning teacher that “there's a fine line between being
inspired by something and simply copying it,” Janet gave up her
dream of being an artist and instead started to study business. After
graduating, she decided she still wanted to be involved in the art
world, so she started a Gallery called “Reflections” showcasing
works that showcase images that reflect the human condition. One of
her clients is, in fact, Mr. Silver, who pawns off failed fetches as
manikin sculptures. Janet is married to Henry Atwood, an artist she
met while setting up her gallery. They're talking about adopting a
child because Janet seems to be infertile.
Jack Flash (true name unknown for now)
was an investigative reporter who explored and debunked the
paranormal. He came to Bradshaw to look into rumors and ghost
stories, but one of those ghost stories (the tale about Ivy House)
turned out to be real. Jack got stranded in the Hedge, captured by a
goblin slaver party lead by The Cheshire Cat, and sold to The
Gentleman With Thistledown Hair (may want a different name). He was
turned into a candle in The Gentleman's hall because the Gentleman
“liked his spark”, and was forced to endure constant pain from
the flames and being unable to move, speak, or even close his eyes.
He spent ten years in Faerie this way, until a maid (another person
stolen from our world) came to the castle. She hummed a snatch of one
of Jack's favorite songs (“Jumpin' Jack Flash” by the Rolling
Stones), which allowed him to remember that he'd once been human and
escape. He tried to bring the maid with him, but they were separated
in the Hedge and he was forced to go on alone. Jack came back to find
that only half the time he'd endured in Faerie had passed on earth,
and that something was living his life in his place. He came across
his fetch in bed with his wife, and killed the both of them in a
rage, after which he burned down his old house and fled. He returned
to Bradshaw to find and destroy all the links to the Hedge he can, so
that no one would have to suffer what he went through. He's taken to
hunting down fetch, destroying them, and stealing their shadows,
which he hopes to return to the people they replaced. He's paranoid
and prone to violence, and doesn't have a reliable income. He acts as
a foil to Janet.
“Jill” is the real Janet, freshly
escaped from Arcadia. She was taken in college, and for her only a
few years have passed. She's much younger than her fetch because of
this. She spent most of her durance forced to tend her master's
garden of stained glass flowers, stealing colors from the mortal
world to please his sensibilities. She will bear a few oddments of
that sort with her. Her time in Faerie has left her brittle, like the
glass she worked with, though not to the same extent that Jack was
changed. She has no idea what to do now that she's free, and jack
will be pushing her to confront and destroy her counterpart.
Henry Atwood is a local artist/writer
that met Janet through her attempts to start a gallery. They worked
on the gallery together, fell in love, and married. I don't know more
about him yet.
I'm also working with a program called Dramatica, which is a group of story theories which I've read in the past and enjoyed. Dramatica was developed for screenwriters, but it's really good for a lot of different types of writing. I'm using it as an attempt to get a handle on my story, as well as Dan Well's 7-Point System, which I've pimped on this blog before. I expect that as I write and discover, I'll toss parts of the outline away, but it will be good exercise. We'll see the fruits of this as I post more bits from the outline up here.
