Welcome to our first "WTF" (that's "Wherefore, Tangled Fiction," of course) round table chat!
Valerie: sorry I'm late!
Lacey: no prob. I was eating anyway.
Natalie: And she was cursing me for EYES
Valerie: lol yes. I would curse you too. I almost changed to Carly's POV in BETHLEHEM, Lacey, but then I thought that would be crazy hard for Natalie. I guess she's not quite so considerate.
Lacey: yeah, Natalie is inconsiderate
Natalie: don't tell anyone, but I'm a *comment redacted*
Lacey: >_<
Valerie: this is a secret?
Lacey: lol
Natalie: ahem
Valerie: I like that you typed it with periods like gchat might censor you
Natalie: WELL. Maybe it's just that I trust Lacey's abilities more than you trust mine
Valerie: well...it's no secret that I'm a *comment redacted* too
Lacey: gasp
Natalie: Ok. So. Topic. Let's talk WHAT WERE YOU THINKING? One start for each of us, so pick your story!
Pause for discussion of which stories to discuss…
Natalie: Yes!
Lacey: Well, with BETHLEHEM, I was thinking Jonah would find a dead girl in the room holding a baby because of Bethlehem, and the star and all that business.
Natalie: I was TOTALLY thinking baby!
Valerie: I thought about a baby, but babies are kind of lame. They bring the energy down with their babyness.
Natalie: Now, there's a tagline: Valerie Kemp, I don’t write babies…
Lacey: And you guys went somewhere totally different with The Regulators too
Natalie: What were your Regulators? (I assume they weren’t gun-slinging cowboys)
Valerie: that was fun, to be able to hint at the regulators without having to define
Lacey: I was picturing them more like a group of people who have taken the neighborhood by force. The kind who will literally kill and eat you, if you go out during their raids. I was just picturing the world in total chaos. No government. Just groups of people, but I really like where you guys took it.
Valerie: I really wanted to switch to Carly's POV. I knew why she was there and why she was crying and all that
Lacey: Which was?
Valerie: her grandpa died. and she'd just come back from burning his body
Lacey: Ew. And ...
Valerie: He was the one who had been taking care of her and built the tunnel and all that. Well, maybe not burning him. but she had to take him far from where she was so no one would suspect she lived there and also Sam was alive, and with the people that killed her grandpa. In my mind, lol
Lacey: Ha! So you kept SAM alive! Sam ftw.
Break for extensive comparisons of Sam and Dean Winchester and the revelation that Stefan and Damon Salvator share the same first initials (S&D) and this must be the source of fraternal awesomeness. Lacey, if you hadn't guessed, is strongly in favor of the S's.
Lacey: Yes! That.
Valerie: ha! Honestly, I have no idea where I came up with that.
Natalie: That cannot be your answer!
Valerie: I thought it would be interesting to have a predicament you couldn't escape. Like what if everyone wanted to kiss you but kissing you was deadly. I will tell you that I learned from that that I really should write less. I went too far, it could've been a short by itself. I should've left more to you earlier.
Natalie: I was actually thinking about that the other day. That doing less is the hardest thing to do when you're going first.
Valerie: yeah, because once I start an idea, it starts to flesh itself out, and I want to make sure I have a whole set up, but I end up putting in too much set up, but KISS literally came out of nowhere. I was going to do a totally different opening and all of a sudden this once upon a time thing came to me
Natalie: did you know where you wanted it to go?
Valerie: um, yeah. i guess. in the sense that i thought it would be a pretty traditional fairy tale and you two would figure out how to undo the curse and there would be happy kissing. And I thought she would run into the woods. that was about it. nothing specific
Another pause for rambling discussion about woodcutters and a brief argument about TRON LEGACY which Natalie couldn't care less about, but Valerie threatens to violence over Lacey's disdain.
Lacey: (just interrupting to say my baby is speaking russian right now and its so freaking cute)
Natalie: (don't tell Valerie - she thinks babies are lame)
Valerie: (only the ones used as plot devices)
Natalie: Right. So, first, I was thinking that I wanted to do multiple POVs and then I was thinking that wishing wells are sort of risky things if you think about it and that was about it. I didn't decide what their wishes would be at all. Just that what they put into their wish would be significant.
Lacey: Wishes was a challenge. Having 3 POVs and trying to tie all their wishes together some how.
Valerie: but it was SO HARD for me to come up with the wishes! OMG!
Lacey: How did you think WISHES would end?
Natalie: I thought that we would end up following the girls through their wishes and there might be an element of self-fulfilling prophecy (as in, if you wish on chewed up bubble gum, you'll probably get chewed up bubble gum in return) and then end back at the well. But I really didn't flesh it out too far in my mind.
Valerie: i had no clue where it would end. I had no idea what Nina wished for, lol But i thought her wish would come true. since the others did. I seriously almost had an anxiety attack though. trying to come up with the wishes and outcomes for three like that.
Natalie: i loved where it went
Valerie: me too!
Lacey: There was a dead boy in a well. We HAD to use that.
Natalie: The way you did actually surprised me. And I loved how you brought it all back around. It had just enough symmetry to not be perfectly symmetrical. I think with endings (having only done two) that it's easy to get caught up in the BIG picture of everything. I think that's what really worked in WISHES. It started small, got big, and then got small again.
Lacey: Thank you. Had a great set up.
Valerie: same here. i never saw that coming!
So, where did you think these stories would go?
We'll see you in January. Thank you all for reading!!
*******
JANUARY SCHEDULE:
Jan 3 - 7: NLV
Jan 10 - 14: LNV
Jan 17 - 21: NVL
Jan 24 - 28: VLN
Jan 31 - Feb 4: Individual Shorts by All (Valerie on Monday, Lacey on Wednesday, and Natalie on Friday)
BETHLEHEM photo used with permission by J Moffat of Diamond Art on Flickr
KISS OF DEATH photo via weheartit.com (if it's yours let us know so we can credit you!)
WHAT WISHES ARE MADE OF photo by Robyn's Nest via Fickr Creative Commons
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