Wednesday, April 25, 2007

I Love It When a Plot Comes Together

A few months ago, I wrote down some notes on a story about a chaplain who gets gets an unusual assignment on another planet. I really thought the story was coming together, but it hung up, mainly because I just couldn't come up with a good title.
Yesterday, on the way home from work, the title finally came to me. It struck me as so appropriate I actually stopped the car and scribbled it down on a svarp of paper.
I began writing out a first draft last night on a legal pad, and I finished it tonight, 18 pages long.
I had thought the most economical way to tell the story would be a monologue (it worked for "A Rocket for the Republic") and that's the way I did it. The protagonist comes back from a Joseph Campbellian-like adventure, and he suspects because of unusual conditions he will forget everything that happened, so he blathers out a utube email to a friend, and that's how the story's told,
I like it and you know - I don't want to sound snotty - but really that's all that counts, because in my opinion, every good writer really only writes for his or her self. Sometimes they may want the money. In my case, I want a good story.
OK, as a bonus (since I mentioned YouTube, here's one of my favorite videos I found there.



They don't make videos like that any more!

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