Vicky's gift story: tentative outline
Mar. 2nd, 2017 11:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Okay, so, outlining! I'm going to think out loud at the internet for a bit, and if you have any constructive feedback, I am all ears. :)
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Here is Vicky's prompt, as discussed with her via telephone at various points: A children's book -- maybe chaptered, if you want. About "Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler" level of difficulty, or less. Can be illustrated if you want.
Two characters! Genders of your choice. One is called Icky V (Icky the Fifth), and the other is named Bean Juice. Icky V is a member of a royal family (exact position of your choice). They are the same age, whatever that is.
They have adventures. [Former roommate] requests a scene in which Icky V is trying to water plants outdoors using champagne buckets. (Not actual champagne in the buckets -- just using them as makeshift watering cans, because Icky V doesn't understand watering cans.)
Mood is generally fun and adventuresome! Sort of cool and exploratory, in a world where things are just a bit off-kilter from normal, sort of a mix of real and fantastical. Don't make the time period too distinct, maybe mid-20th-century, nothing later than 1970. No cell phones, but if there are aliens they can have some alien equivalent thereof; ditto for fantasy creatures.
I also have full permission and encouragement to use a bunch of our childhood in-jokes in the story. I have selected the Golden Rider and the evil cleaning lady of the Montana badlands, and am tweaking them a bit in order to change them from private memes into actual narrative characters. (The roller-skating gondolier mafia may or may not make an appearance later on.)
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My opening paragraphs are as follows:
I'm not going to tell you the story of how I met Icky, because it's long and embarrassing and mostly irrelevant. What I AM going to tell you is how we helped the Golden Rider fight the evil cleaning lady of the Montana badlands and unkidnap my little sister.
(This is also an embarrassing story. But not quite as much.)
-----
So my story, clearly, is about Bean Juice and Icky getting involved in a conflict between my two meme characters and rescuing Bean Juice's little sister (June Bug) from the cleaning lady.
My setting is kind of generic small town America, and I have tentatively decided that Icky V is one of the fairy-folk, who normally lives in a dimension slightly askew to earth but who has inexplicably moved next door to this ordinary 50s-stereotype nuclear family (mother, father, two kids). This helpfully explains some of the weird names; true names have power, so people tend to go by nicknames instead.
I need... hmm... a reason for the cleaning lady to come to town and cause trouble, and a reason for June Bug to stumble into trouble. Bean Juice and Icky encounter her because Icky has decided to try attending public school in order to be around Bean Juice more often. The Golden Rider shows up because that is just what the Golden Rider does; they're a knock-off of the Lone Ranger and random superheroes and stuff.
So my structure should probably go like this:
1. Icky decides to go to school. Bean Juice thinks this is a terrible idea but eventually agrees.
2. Icky's first day at school looks like it's going to spiral into entirely predictable and embarrassing disaster... but then goes sideways in an unexpected direction when the evil cleaning lady announces her takeover of the school (reason tbd).
3. Bean Juice and Icky are evacuated, whereupon it gradually becomes clear that June Bug is one of the cleaning lady's hostages. Everyone is very upset. (Icky is more upset that Bean Juice is upset than about the kidnapping itself. Only Icky is allowed to upset Bean Juice!)
4. Our heroes retreat to Icky's house to make a plan. (Random fairy weirdness?)
5. Their attempted rescue (details tbd) is foiled, probably in a really embarrassing way. Oh no!
6. This time they retreat to Bean Juice's house for cookies and commiseration. Bean Juice's parents suggest they call in the Golden Rider, who owes them a favor from some previous adventure that can stay as a noodle incident.
7. The Golden Rider arrives, hurrah! And promptly asks what the kids' plan is, instead of taking over the situation or going to liaise with the police. (Bean Juice's parents headdesk in the background.)
8. Revised rescue attempt (details tbd) with climactic fight between the Golden Rider and the cleaning lady while Bean Juice and Icky retrieve the hostages and... take them into the fairy realm, maybe?
9. More cookies at Bean Juice's house, celebratory this time, with the Golden Rider as a really weird and awkward party guest.
10. And then Icky announces that clearly Bean Juice has been holding out about how interesting public school is, and decides to keep attending. End with Bean Juice wondering what kind of chaos the next day will bring.
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I am notoriously terrible at estimating story lengths, but I think this should wind up somewhere between 15,000 and 30,000 words. Which is a bit long but totally doable, and also this story is already two years late (and may well be three years late by the time I actually get it written) so I figure I owe Vicky something relatively substantial. *wry*
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Random points. Bean Juice finds unicorns REALLY INTIMIDATING. This is a problem since Icky treats them like adorable fluffy lapdog-type pets.
Somebody else in Bean Juice's family goes by the name 'Jamboree' -- not sure yet if this is a big sibling or one of the parents.
Icky's house looks fairly normal from the street (aside from the occasional unicorns grazing on the front lawn), but the inside is bigger than the outside, and the back yard gets weird.
Bean Juice's father is a house-husband, while the mother has some high-powered research job, maybe in the military-industrial complex.
Yes, the lack of genders in this outline is intentional. I don't know if I'll be able to keep that up in the actual story -- if I can't, both main characters will default to female, because reasons -- but I wanted to see if that affected anyone's reactions. :)
-----
Here is Vicky's prompt, as discussed with her via telephone at various points: A children's book -- maybe chaptered, if you want. About "Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler" level of difficulty, or less. Can be illustrated if you want.
Two characters! Genders of your choice. One is called Icky V (Icky the Fifth), and the other is named Bean Juice. Icky V is a member of a royal family (exact position of your choice). They are the same age, whatever that is.
They have adventures. [Former roommate] requests a scene in which Icky V is trying to water plants outdoors using champagne buckets. (Not actual champagne in the buckets -- just using them as makeshift watering cans, because Icky V doesn't understand watering cans.)
Mood is generally fun and adventuresome! Sort of cool and exploratory, in a world where things are just a bit off-kilter from normal, sort of a mix of real and fantastical. Don't make the time period too distinct, maybe mid-20th-century, nothing later than 1970. No cell phones, but if there are aliens they can have some alien equivalent thereof; ditto for fantasy creatures.
I also have full permission and encouragement to use a bunch of our childhood in-jokes in the story. I have selected the Golden Rider and the evil cleaning lady of the Montana badlands, and am tweaking them a bit in order to change them from private memes into actual narrative characters. (The roller-skating gondolier mafia may or may not make an appearance later on.)
-----
My opening paragraphs are as follows:
I'm not going to tell you the story of how I met Icky, because it's long and embarrassing and mostly irrelevant. What I AM going to tell you is how we helped the Golden Rider fight the evil cleaning lady of the Montana badlands and unkidnap my little sister.
(This is also an embarrassing story. But not quite as much.)
-----
So my story, clearly, is about Bean Juice and Icky getting involved in a conflict between my two meme characters and rescuing Bean Juice's little sister (June Bug) from the cleaning lady.
My setting is kind of generic small town America, and I have tentatively decided that Icky V is one of the fairy-folk, who normally lives in a dimension slightly askew to earth but who has inexplicably moved next door to this ordinary 50s-stereotype nuclear family (mother, father, two kids). This helpfully explains some of the weird names; true names have power, so people tend to go by nicknames instead.
I need... hmm... a reason for the cleaning lady to come to town and cause trouble, and a reason for June Bug to stumble into trouble. Bean Juice and Icky encounter her because Icky has decided to try attending public school in order to be around Bean Juice more often. The Golden Rider shows up because that is just what the Golden Rider does; they're a knock-off of the Lone Ranger and random superheroes and stuff.
So my structure should probably go like this:
1. Icky decides to go to school. Bean Juice thinks this is a terrible idea but eventually agrees.
2. Icky's first day at school looks like it's going to spiral into entirely predictable and embarrassing disaster... but then goes sideways in an unexpected direction when the evil cleaning lady announces her takeover of the school (reason tbd).
3. Bean Juice and Icky are evacuated, whereupon it gradually becomes clear that June Bug is one of the cleaning lady's hostages. Everyone is very upset. (Icky is more upset that Bean Juice is upset than about the kidnapping itself. Only Icky is allowed to upset Bean Juice!)
4. Our heroes retreat to Icky's house to make a plan. (Random fairy weirdness?)
5. Their attempted rescue (details tbd) is foiled, probably in a really embarrassing way. Oh no!
6. This time they retreat to Bean Juice's house for cookies and commiseration. Bean Juice's parents suggest they call in the Golden Rider, who owes them a favor from some previous adventure that can stay as a noodle incident.
7. The Golden Rider arrives, hurrah! And promptly asks what the kids' plan is, instead of taking over the situation or going to liaise with the police. (Bean Juice's parents headdesk in the background.)
8. Revised rescue attempt (details tbd) with climactic fight between the Golden Rider and the cleaning lady while Bean Juice and Icky retrieve the hostages and... take them into the fairy realm, maybe?
9. More cookies at Bean Juice's house, celebratory this time, with the Golden Rider as a really weird and awkward party guest.
10. And then Icky announces that clearly Bean Juice has been holding out about how interesting public school is, and decides to keep attending. End with Bean Juice wondering what kind of chaos the next day will bring.
-----
I am notoriously terrible at estimating story lengths, but I think this should wind up somewhere between 15,000 and 30,000 words. Which is a bit long but totally doable, and also this story is already two years late (and may well be three years late by the time I actually get it written) so I figure I owe Vicky something relatively substantial. *wry*
-----
Random points. Bean Juice finds unicorns REALLY INTIMIDATING. This is a problem since Icky treats them like adorable fluffy lapdog-type pets.
Somebody else in Bean Juice's family goes by the name 'Jamboree' -- not sure yet if this is a big sibling or one of the parents.
Icky's house looks fairly normal from the street (aside from the occasional unicorns grazing on the front lawn), but the inside is bigger than the outside, and the back yard gets weird.
Bean Juice's father is a house-husband, while the mother has some high-powered research job, maybe in the military-industrial complex.
Yes, the lack of genders in this outline is intentional. I don't know if I'll be able to keep that up in the actual story -- if I can't, both main characters will default to female, because reasons -- but I wanted to see if that affected anyone's reactions. :)