Nothing I love more than a storm that is going to lock me and my family in the house and possibly knock out the power. Wait, I mean loathe. Now, without power, I have to work with my notebooks, which isn’t a problem because that’s what I do on weekends anyway. The problem I have is that I’m not sure what idea I want to flush out.
You see, I’m about halfway done with my drama novella experiment and 8 days at 2 sections a day will be the end of it. I’m struggling here without magic, monsters, and combat, but I’m going to make it to the end. After that comes the editing of the 4th Legends of Windemere book and somewhere in there will hopefully be the debut of Beginning of a Hero on Kindle, Ipad, and Nook.
Still, I’m not sure what to do when all of that is done because I don’t which novella to do next. My plan is to finish a novel (or half) take a break to write a novella and then go back fresh to the novella. I’m just not sure where to go after the drama novella. My choices are the following:
- Story about a young woman who is the last human on an island of monsters. First-person survival horror that tells her journey to get off the island.
- Diary-style story about a minion who just started his job with a supervillain. This one is a whacky comedy in first-person style.
- Story about a family moving into a haunted apartment where the ghosts are actually helpful unless somebody pisses them off. You can guess what happens. Unlike ‘Catalysts’, I’m going to aim for suspense instead of gore/terror.
- Young woman put into an asylum and she begins to wander into the dreams of another patient, which she becomes addicted to. This one is an odd one because I’ve thought very little about it.
- Guy’s wife is killed and son is taken to be sold into child labor. He goes off to get his son back . . . I’m not sure I should go through with this one because I don’t want to anger Liam Neeson. The change was that the guy had no military training and was just an angry father who used brutality and torture to get what he wanted. This would be a dark, gritty action.
- Two sets of friends (one set male and one set female) head out to a big city for one friend to cheer up the other. Chaos ensues and the sets switch a few times until they all reconnect and return to their lives. I may have been watching Pineapple Express when I thought this up, which still doesn’t explain it.
- Fallen actress (I seem to like female protagonists in these) returns to her small town after her parents die and she has to lay low because of a PR nightmare. That nightmare is that she’s pregnant and just been dumped by her fiancee and agent for being impossible to work with. Basically, a story about a bitch’s redemption with comedy thrown in. Again, these are all genres or standards that I’ve never tried before.
- Cowboy story that involves a bunch of kids taking over an abandoned town and protect it from a band of outlaws with the help of one or a few gunmen. Thinking of making the gunmen former soldiers or survivors of another attack. Not going to be historically accurate because I want to have at least one female gunslinger. I’m not sure if I want to have the kids or the heroic gunmen be the narrator/focus characters.
Those are the choices I have so far, but I’m sure that I’m missing a genre or two. Any of them sound more interesting than the others?
Legends of Windemere 
I like 2, 7, and 8!
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Thanks. My wife has also voted for 2 and that one would require the most amount of prep work to map out the diary entries. She thinks I should do a comedy after a gore-fest horror and a mellow/sad drama.
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Haha that sounds pretty awesome!
Lily
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Thanks. Hopefully the finished product is as awesome as the blurb. Though, I had a few friends laughing with the idea of the minion killing his master’s arch-enemy on his second day because he hadn’t read the ‘Don’t Aim At the Hero’ section of his handbook.
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I’m bad with blurbs, you did a good job here. Your friends are right, that is pretty amusing! Have you tried browsing tvtropes for minion-related shenanigans?
Lily
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I was actually watching Despicable Me at first, but I’ll take a look at the tvtropes. I’m a little nervous about doing too much research and having all of the shenanigans (love that word) be something that’s been done. I’m guessing explosions, crazy missions, escaped lab experiments, and some odd storyline going on with the supervillain’s evil wife. I need to figure out how many entries is enough too.
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Don’t bother will tvtropes unless you want to add more funny little incidents, being aware of the tropes as you write them. Though they have supervillain stuff too. It’s more pop culture than research!
Lily
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I grew up on comics, James Bond, and video games, so I think I’ve got a good basis. I looked at the site’s minion page and most of it was what I grew up with. Thanks for the site though. It doesn’t hurt to have something like this to look at from time to time.
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Hehe it can hurt – I’ve spent hours in the library laughing at it instead of doing my math homework!
Lily
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Good point. I’ll be careful then.
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I love a good Western 😉 But then the lady in the pysch ward sounds intriguing
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Good Western might be asking a lot from me because I never really got into those types of movies. I love Silverado, but that was really it. Maybe I’ll just try to map out all of these over the next few weekends. These are all supposed to be experiments into other genres to flex my writing muscles and prove I’m not a one-trick pony. I’m a 1.5 trick pony.
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Giddyup! 😉
My top 5 Westerns would be
Assasination of Jesse James by the Cowardly Robert Ford
Rango
Appaloosa
3:10 to Yuma
Close Range
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Rango and 3:10 to Yuma I’ve seen. I keep meaning to see Appaloosa. Do Frisco Kid and Blazing Saddles count?
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LOL I haven’t seen either of them, I don’t think I’d like Blazing Saddles, just a gut feeling. Jesse James was amazing, acting was superb
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Blazing Saddles is a classic Mel Brooks comedy, but you have to like that kind of thing. It was made in a time where certain phrases and situations were very edgy.
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Yeah I know about it, I don’t warm to Mel Brooks, I’ve seen a snippet of it, but nah not my thing
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Got it. I grew up on him and Marx Brothers, so I take to it like a fish to water. I like the witty satire and word play that they do. Not a fan of the current trend of rude, crude comedy.
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There isn’t much good comedy about I find
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I have to agree. I think it’s just the popular style nowadays. I’m sure what I found funny in my youth was seen as dumb by my parents. Now, I’m in my parents’ shoes.
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Hahhaha I had this same conversation with my sweety last night, but around music
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I’ve had that one. I have no radio stations any more, so I have to rely on CD’s. It’s a little embarrassing.
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Give me your top 5
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Geez. I’m never good at picking Top 5 anything. Off the top of my head:
Queen
Aerosmith
AC/DC
Pink
Billy Joel
My musical tastes are odd. I could be listening to the Beatles and switch to Disturbed or Rob Zombie within the hour.
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I like your musical ecclecticism!!!!
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I like #2 & #7!
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I’m actually surprised that 7 is getting as much attention as it is. I’ll have to bump that one up the project list. Though, I think I’ll save it for after a dark one like 1 or 4.
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