Azure Jane Lunatic (Azz) 🌺 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
azurelunatic) wrote2014-03-21 12:36 am
azurelunatic) wrote2014-03-21 12:36 am
... and then they gently bobbled together into one great big bubble.
Home Movies from the Cutting-Room Floor babbling within.
So today I realized that what was not working about the Much Ado pastiche version of Cutting Room Floor was that my heroine, the hapless girl who becomes the new best friend of the guy with the worst luck in the world, had no chemistry with her intended. None. Nada. This indicated a problem.
So at this point, I had two couples: Beatrice and Ben, and Meg and Jack. Those are their names, and there are good solid Shakespearian reasons for those names. One couple is the snarky couple. They are going to snark and snipe at each other from day one, and eventually be brought together by their closest friends. That's Beatrice and Ben. The other couple is the lusty couple. From the point that they get together, they will be banging pretty much nonstop, which will cause problems to ensue at some point. They will be Meg and Jack.
So I have my viewpoint character. WHICH ONE IS SHE? I know her. I know a lot of her thoughts and motivations. She's artistic, she has a sister (Claudia), she has a certain amount of rivalry with her sister, and mostly she's trying to get through these two years without getting killed by her new best friend's horrible luck, and without detonating any of the massive dramabombs scattered freely about the landscape.
The guy she had a thing for in the original plot was a bit of a drip. He was clearly handsome and talented and she was experiencing an inexplicable attraction, but couldn't get up the gumption to actually ask him any straightforward questions like, hey, would you like to get some coffee later? Just the two of us?
Somewhere between complaining to Purple in the cafeteria that suddenly it had developed Shakespeare legs, and in the shower, I realized the problem. I couldn't get a handle on whether she was going to have the snarky relationship or the lusty relationship because she was going after the wrong guy. She had no chemistry with Mr. Drip. What she needed was someone who was in that Beatrice-and-Benedick antagonistic relationship with her from the outset. And yet her relationship with Mr. Unlucky was far more charged and snarky than she'd ever be with Mr. Drip.
At some point getting in to the shower, in between the realization that the chapter where Harry becomes Harriet has got to be called Hero/Heroine, and some of the plotting around that, I realized that what Miss Protagonist needed was Scotty.
Enter half the cast of Ectogenesis in its original form, Much Ado About Star Trek, flushed and panting in their neon-green soccer shirts and the thankfully black shorts.
Miss Protagonist is Beatrice. Scotty-as-was is Benjamin. Tall, handsome, trenchcoated, and unlucky Jack is going to have to attempt to set up Beatrice and Benjamin. It won't go well. On either side. Beatrice and Benjamin will have known each other too long (some old rivalry?) (but also too shallowly to appreciate each other's good points, they'll have been in the same gifted & talented classes but not in the same classrooms?) to submit kindly to this hamfisted approach. Hilarity ensues.
Meanwhile, Harry will be established, and will have been hitting it off reasonably well with Claudia, when something happens, and Claudia declares that Harry is dead to her. You'd think that this would end things, but as Claudia's sister, Beatrice is in a position to observe that Claudia is actually torn up about the absence of Harry (who is respecting Claudia's wishes admirably) and swears to Ben that he had better make this thing right (it may have been partly Ben's fault, and a lot Jack's, and Beatrice is too mad to talk to Jack right now). (And Claudia is too proud to go back on her word and ask Harry for an apology.)
Ben's method of getting Harry and Claudia to talk again is as ingenious as it is baffling. Beatrice overhears Ben convincing Harry that while Harry may be dead to Claudia, Harriet isn't, and they at least owe Claudia an apology and if Claudia is still unwilling to talk, so be it, and Ben will stop meddling, but they've got to just try. Harry points out that when some unstable epithet in California strapped on a pair of tits and went into a lesbian separatist commune after her ex, that wasn't crossdressing, that was stalking, and he's not down for that. Ben promises to take the blame if it goes badly, and plans the requisite four escape routes.
(Claudia's reaction is excellent, although Meg chews everyone a new one.) Claudia convinces Harriet to remain Harriet for the duration of camp, just to see how she likes it. Harriet allows herself to be convinced, and ultimately does enjoy her new self enough to enroll in their senior year as Harriet.
In other news, one of my friends' teams at work is moving buildings. Today they had a small party in order to drink their way through some of the team-owned boozes so that they would not have to actually move them all. Having been invited, I went over there and partook of some hard, hard lemonade. Then I came back and did not stuff M&Ms up my nose.
I chatted with Purple. At one point I reached out a finger to poke him. He reached back. Then I was en garde and we fenced about his office, me standing and him in his office chair, rolling handily across the floor. He said something witty once he eventually did break through my guard. "Good fences make good neighbors," I said, and then we were giggling once more.
So today I realized that what was not working about the Much Ado pastiche version of Cutting Room Floor was that my heroine, the hapless girl who becomes the new best friend of the guy with the worst luck in the world, had no chemistry with her intended. None. Nada. This indicated a problem.
So at this point, I had two couples: Beatrice and Ben, and Meg and Jack. Those are their names, and there are good solid Shakespearian reasons for those names. One couple is the snarky couple. They are going to snark and snipe at each other from day one, and eventually be brought together by their closest friends. That's Beatrice and Ben. The other couple is the lusty couple. From the point that they get together, they will be banging pretty much nonstop, which will cause problems to ensue at some point. They will be Meg and Jack.
So I have my viewpoint character. WHICH ONE IS SHE? I know her. I know a lot of her thoughts and motivations. She's artistic, she has a sister (Claudia), she has a certain amount of rivalry with her sister, and mostly she's trying to get through these two years without getting killed by her new best friend's horrible luck, and without detonating any of the massive dramabombs scattered freely about the landscape.
The guy she had a thing for in the original plot was a bit of a drip. He was clearly handsome and talented and she was experiencing an inexplicable attraction, but couldn't get up the gumption to actually ask him any straightforward questions like, hey, would you like to get some coffee later? Just the two of us?
Somewhere between complaining to Purple in the cafeteria that suddenly it had developed Shakespeare legs, and in the shower, I realized the problem. I couldn't get a handle on whether she was going to have the snarky relationship or the lusty relationship because she was going after the wrong guy. She had no chemistry with Mr. Drip. What she needed was someone who was in that Beatrice-and-Benedick antagonistic relationship with her from the outset. And yet her relationship with Mr. Unlucky was far more charged and snarky than she'd ever be with Mr. Drip.
At some point getting in to the shower, in between the realization that the chapter where Harry becomes Harriet has got to be called Hero/Heroine, and some of the plotting around that, I realized that what Miss Protagonist needed was Scotty.
Enter half the cast of Ectogenesis in its original form, Much Ado About Star Trek, flushed and panting in their neon-green soccer shirts and the thankfully black shorts.
Miss Protagonist is Beatrice. Scotty-as-was is Benjamin. Tall, handsome, trenchcoated, and unlucky Jack is going to have to attempt to set up Beatrice and Benjamin. It won't go well. On either side. Beatrice and Benjamin will have known each other too long (some old rivalry?) (but also too shallowly to appreciate each other's good points, they'll have been in the same gifted & talented classes but not in the same classrooms?) to submit kindly to this hamfisted approach. Hilarity ensues.
Meanwhile, Harry will be established, and will have been hitting it off reasonably well with Claudia, when something happens, and Claudia declares that Harry is dead to her. You'd think that this would end things, but as Claudia's sister, Beatrice is in a position to observe that Claudia is actually torn up about the absence of Harry (who is respecting Claudia's wishes admirably) and swears to Ben that he had better make this thing right (it may have been partly Ben's fault, and a lot Jack's, and Beatrice is too mad to talk to Jack right now). (And Claudia is too proud to go back on her word and ask Harry for an apology.)
Ben's method of getting Harry and Claudia to talk again is as ingenious as it is baffling. Beatrice overhears Ben convincing Harry that while Harry may be dead to Claudia, Harriet isn't, and they at least owe Claudia an apology and if Claudia is still unwilling to talk, so be it, and Ben will stop meddling, but they've got to just try. Harry points out that when some unstable epithet in California strapped on a pair of tits and went into a lesbian separatist commune after her ex, that wasn't crossdressing, that was stalking, and he's not down for that. Ben promises to take the blame if it goes badly, and plans the requisite four escape routes.
(Claudia's reaction is excellent, although Meg chews everyone a new one.) Claudia convinces Harriet to remain Harriet for the duration of camp, just to see how she likes it. Harriet allows herself to be convinced, and ultimately does enjoy her new self enough to enroll in their senior year as Harriet.
In other news, one of my friends' teams at work is moving buildings. Today they had a small party in order to drink their way through some of the team-owned boozes so that they would not have to actually move them all. Having been invited, I went over there and partook of some hard, hard lemonade. Then I came back and did not stuff M&Ms up my nose.
I chatted with Purple. At one point I reached out a finger to poke him. He reached back. Then I was en garde and we fenced about his office, me standing and him in his office chair, rolling handily across the floor. He said something witty once he eventually did break through my guard. "Good fences make good neighbors," I said, and then we were giggling once more.
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WIN
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One of the reasons I prize my friendship with Purple so highly is that we inspire each other to worse and worse puns.
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(This is "the one about the good times with Mr. Unacceptable", except he wasn't Mr. Unacceptable then.)
That said, there's a NaNo novel's worth of material waiting for whenever I'm ready again.