Yesterday, I finally got some pages written toward my novel! Yes, I realize that it's my job to write those pages, but lately, it's been like pulling teeth. My reticence has nothing to do with my passion for the story - I think about this story all the time! It has more to do with the fact that I'm in therapy and working through so many personal issues that there hasn't been as much room in my heart for creative thinking. Maybe this is a sign that I'm going in the right direction, then, because I got a nice scene written yesterday that I think is a great start. I hope to keep the momentum going today by just letting the next scene flow on instead of doing any sort of editing or rewriting. I have fifty pages due for my novel group this weekend, so it's crunch time!
Story Board
When a fast-working virus ravages humanity and the dead begin to rise, a band of unlikely teen heroes struggle for survival. Little do they know, zombies will soon be the least of their problems.This is my newest logline for my novel. It isn't perfect, but it's getting there.
In order to help figure out my story structure, I have been following along Alexandra Sokoloff's blog lately. I heard her speak once and I felt like it changed my life. Like she was speaking to my heart! So many writers scoff at the idea of plotting your novel ahead of time. They feel more comfortable just writing to see what the story becomes. I admire these writers. I really do. But I am not one of them. I tried it with Into Darkness, and even though I think it started out okay, I never actually wrote an ending to it! I had no idea where I was taking the story so when I got to a certain point, I didn't know where else to go, and I quit. I do not want that to happen with my current WIP, which I've up to this point called Pandemic, but now am certain I need a new name for. (But that's another blog on another day.)
I took cues from Alex as well as local Carolina author Diane Chamberlain in creating index cards and a story board that follows the eight sequence movie structure. I know everyone keeps calling it a three-act structure simply because of the history of it, but I am jumping forward and calling it a four-act structure. I am even going to give my novel 4 distinct Parts that each have a name. We'll find out later if it actually works :P.
So, here is the board I worked on all weekend:
It isn't quite finished, as you can see in those last three sequences, but it's getting there. I have used five different colors of post-it notes for this novel. Each color is for a different POV since this is sort of an ensemble cast piece. Pink = the witch; Purple = my heroine, Parrish Sorrows; Blue = the hero, Noah Vincent; Yellow = Any official news or announcement about the virus (CDC, News, Internet, etc); Green = Any other POV, which includes the Sorceress, the boy, Carmen, and Crash so far. I know those names don't mean much to any of you, but to me it all makes sense :P.Then, I also transferred those ideas to matching color index cards :
Isn't it funny how simply being able to use colors and copious amounts of office supplies can help my productivity? Yes, perhaps I am crazy to a degree, but it makes me happy! I feel like I now have a strong idea of where my story is headed. I watched two movies this weekend and analyzed them for story points. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, and the new movie in theaters, The Crazies (which was excellent and scary). Tonight, I plan to watch 28 Days Later. Watching how stories similar to my own use structure to heighten tension, fear, and conflict really does make a difference. Thank you Alexandra Sokoloff!
"Left 4 Dead" vs. "Diary of the Dead"
Yesterday, I participated in two very different zombie experiences. First, I watched the 2007 (I think) George Romero movie, "Diary of the Dead". I thought, hey, it's Romero! It's GOT to be amazing, right? Wrong. It was nothing special. Cheese, for sure. Then, last night, I played the video game "Left 4 Dead", which I've actually done for the past three nights. (And, by the way, I finally beat all 4 main campaigns plus the extra Crash Course campaign, yay for me!)
The zombies in one were extremely different from the zombies in the other. According to most die-hard zombie extremists, the infected masses in L4D are not, in fact, zombies at all. Why? Because they move fast, they mutate, etc. We have no indication of whether the humans died before raising as zombies or if they just turned into zombies after getting infected. I guess, truth be told, you also don't really see them feasting on human flesh in the game. Mostly, they just seem to be leaning against walls or shambling around until they hear you or some other noise like a car alarm, in which case they run like crazies and try to kill you. Also, even though these infected scratch and attack you as a player character, you never seem to contract the infection yourself.
Romero zombies are the real zombies. Purist zombies. They are the living dead, corpses come back to life mysteriously craving human flesh. Anyone bitten by one of these zombies inevitably dies, then comes back as one. Interestingly, in this particular Romero movie, anyone who dies, period, comes back as a zombie. They walk slowly with stiff looking joints. You have to shoot them in the head to kill them (another difference, since you can kill infected by shooting them anywhere in L4D - although you do get special achievements for head shots). They are basically the same type of zombies you see in "Night of the Living Dead", Romero's cult classic, and the first of the real zombie movies.
The differences are important to me since I am currently writing a novel about zombies. I'm sure that if I write the L4D type of zombies and dare to actually call them zombies, some people will call foul by saying my infected beings are not pure zombies at all. Of course, I have to get published for anyone to have discussions about my work, but let's just assume that I do get published and that the novel does well. Do I want my zombies to follow the purist extremes? Or should I play around with the rules a little bit? From what I hear, the new movie "The Crazies" is also about zombie-like infected humans, but they are not true zombies at all. They are more like the L4D type infected than the Romero-like ghouls. Maybe I can talk my loving husband into taking me to see that tonight for a date night :P. Hey, it's research!
Happy Hello Kitty Find
Yesterday, I was able to go to the Crabtree Mall. Now, the cool thing about Crabtree is that they have a Sanrio store. Other than that, it's basically just a mall. It's out of the way for G and I, so we don't typically go there unless we're specifically going to the Sanrio store, which isn't too often. (At least not often enough for my tastes :P) But yesterday, I had two meetings in the area near the mall, and since they were a few hours apart, I decided to indulge myself by going to Crabtree and looking around.
It didn't take long before I found myself at the Sanrio store, admiring all the pretty new inventory. But I told myself I'd just pick out one thing and go. (ha) But nothing could have prepared me for the excitement of what I saw! Now, anyone who knows me knows I have been carrying around this Super Cute red purse with HK in a red leotard with a star on it and a gold cape. I love that purse, and no matter how many others I buy, I keep going back to this one.
Yesterday at the Sanrio store, I found this matching wallet!! I couldn't believe it when the sales lady pointed it out! It's perfect! It was $30, which is way more than I wanted to spend yesterday, but oh so worth it! I can now carry it around with my matching purse! Funny how little things like this can totally make your day. All I have to say is this: Thank God I didn't live near a super cool Sanrio store when I had all those credit cards :P.
Winter Wonderland
Another snow! That's three decent snows this year! The first one was the best because it was more like six inches that stuck around for a few days, but a little snow like we had last night is fine too. I think it's so beautiful as it's coming down. I stepped outside this morning and it almost sounds like it is raining - which has to be from the fact that the snow is already starting to melt. How sad. But totally understandable since just last weekend it was fifty something and sunny. Actually, I think it's supposed to be fifties and sunny this coming weekend too. /sigh. This snow never really had a chance. Still, it's nice to wake up to snow. Hopefully that means it will be a beautiful day all around.
Snickerdoodle's Hair Cut!
Snickerdoodle got a hair cut! And boy did she need it!! OMG, I wish I had a "before" pic so that you could see just how out of hand she had gotten. Her hair was wild, and I mean seriously wild. She had this ever growing collection of undercoat or just shaggy hair that kept leaving little white puffy balls of hair all over our carpet. And her nails were crazy long. (I hate to cut dog nails, so scared I will hurt them!) So yesterday, I bit the expensive Pet Smart bullet and had her groomed.
*So hard to get a shot of her looking at the camera, so this is about as good as it gets.*
When I saw her it was like the sun peeking through the clouds after weeks of rain. She was a new dog! I had them shave her again, like I did a couple times before ( according to their computers, it was november '08 the last time I took her in - what? bad mommie!). They even put these super cute pink and brown bows in her hair:
Of course they are no longer in there. The bows are always the first thing to go.
She looks absolutely adorable. Her nails were ground down and look smooth and short. She 
walks with that extra little pep in her step and wag in her poofy tail. Now if only this haircut could last forever and we could have this feeling all the time without the extreme pain to my wallet! Ah well, I'll just enjoy it while it lasts!
---> This picture is so cute! She was SO TIRED when she got home. It took so much of her energy to go on a car ride and hang out with all those other dogs and groomers all day! She was tuckered out.
Extra Purple Me
Saturday I decided to go super-purple. When I first put a purple streak in my hair, I was just testing it out to see how it looked. But the truth is that just one visible purple streak didn't feel like enough. I wanted more. So Saturday, I took the leap. I pulled out six individual sections of hair and bleached them, preparing to make just those sections purple. But then G suggested that I just put the purple everywhere. That way, the purple would go really purple on the bleached places, but just a subtle purple on the brown hair. And that is exactly what I did.
I love it! It's something different that makes me feel free somehow. Free to just do what I want and to be the person I want. It's a celebration of the fact that there's no 9-5 job that I have to answer to or be a certain way for. Even of the fact that there's no meddling mother who will shriek, "Oh my god! What did you do!" (unless of course I drive to GA in the next few weeks!). I colored my hair purple and the sky did not fall from the sky. The hair police did not come with sirens blazing. It may only be a temporary thing, but who knows? Maybe I will love having color in my hair so much that I'll just flit from purple to pink to blue and so on? It's nice to have the freedom to try it if I want.
