Dikaiosis of the Endmembers

Not getting into the reasons why, but the Victorian-era AU was shelved two days after I started with the intensive writing. To try and recuperate, I’m going to be very quiet about what I’m doing, and hope it doesn’t set off any mousetraps upon my eternally-twitching tail.

So now I’m working on a story about a robot uprising in modern day rural USA. There is a homeless person who makes his beds out of crushed candy boxes from the dumpster outside the local cinema. There are superpowers belonging to the elderly. There might be a carnival coming to town soon.

Of course, should a carnival trundle on into this certain town, they’ll be trundling right on out again before they can even set up anything, but I foresee evil evil robots trying to break into the captive tiger cages, and the tigers going Sheer-Khan on the whole lot of them.

But still. This is all hush-hush, so ssssshhhhhh. Just between us, okay? Okay.

The nice thing about doing research for a story set in an alternate universe version of the Victorian era, London, is that everything one learns can be used for a Steampunk story later on. Seriously, this time period is a goldmine, from extreme class differences that can be used to set up an alien invasion revolution fought off by the rich and fueled by the poor, to periodic cholera outbreaks that could be caused by a magician who killed a troll and deposited it into the Themes and didn’t think about the ensuing contamination that would sure to occur.

And then there is a traditional steampunk story that could be written with this information, full of steam-powered hot air balloon warships with skulls painted on the canvas and baskets. Possibilities: they are endless!

The only thing about all of this is that I have a very firm set of characters to work with, and sadly I’m having so much fun reading about the supposed time period they are to interact in that I’ve not given them much of my time. Can’t write a story if you’re too busy reading about political parties in the late 1800’s– not to mention reading about the aforementioned political parties when they have no bearing on your story.

That is why I’ve imposed a time limit on myself. I’ve got the rest of the weekend to cackle with glee and figure out the currency exchange rate in 1874, but come Monday I simply must buckle down and write and write and write. Research is to give the plot meat, the characters dimensions. Not take over the entire process until the characters give up the ghost and pack up their toys to go home.

Not saying that there are any toys in this instance, but you know what I mean.

My current lengthy project is heavy on the dragons, and yet not a single one has appeared thus far. I think they are hiding from me. They probably just don’t want to share their gold.

The plan to lure them out of their caves so that I might steal said gold and buy myself a pony is to put the character they are “attached” to in peril and see what happens.

As Bradbury so rightfully says–and yes, I am paraphrasing here, do not think this is an exact quote–”characters are not puppets on strings, they are living people who tell their story through you”.

Just because they aren’t puppets does not mean a little manipulation isn’t in order.