October 19th assignment Brainstorming

Monday, Oct. 19
*Bullet* Required: Freestyle Brainstorm ▼

Spend at least fifteen minutes writing whatever ideas come to you about your plot, characters and setting.

1. Need to set up ONE file for PLOT, ONE for CHARACTERS and ONE for SETTING, ONE for OBJECTS before I start NaNoWriMo... instead of mere assignment updates.
1f. Set up folders and sub-folders? My problem is keeping track of everything more than the writing.
2. Plot, character must be placed in chronological order unless they are outside that order.
3. each setting must be unique.
4. each 'place' made up of one or more 'scene' needs to include a 'pretty thing/object'. And that will need its own file.
5. Plot for each part. Part 1 is coming together. Part 2 is weak (but plenty of time for that). Many settings and needs a stronger sense of plot. Part 3 is back in Portugal but settings are not set yet.
6. A couple friends want to be a character in the books... how to do this...
6m. Michele is Irish... therefore... send João to Ireland. Michele is from Belfast/Donegal... have to ask her about how she feels about Cork. Cork I can do.
7. set up pictures for each place/scene. I have plenty. I could set up special album at facebook. This would also help to inform people what I'm doing and later some may be able to be used to advertise or could be illustrations, therefore... black/white.
7t. put text on photos
8. Plot: research needed on 1400s, especially 1490s as this period 'haunts' the story. Good: Age of Discovery. Bad: Inquisition and Intolerance.

*Bullet* Bonus: Extended Brainstorm ▼

Add at least fifteen additional minutes to your freestyle brainstorming time.

1. João doesn't know he's a vampire... well, technically he's not. He has the vampire-trait (research needed on basic blood diseases). He doesn't know that either. He traipses (sluggish) around Portugal (enthusiastically... seems opposite of traipse) collecting (filching) pretty things joking about how he wants to meet a real vampire. And he does. But the story is sad and touching not horror. Still, João is deeply affected by this and escapes around the world. Settings: Portugal and Spain. Hostels and old cities, churches (João likes churches), old Roman and Megalithic sites. Characters: fellow travelers and hostel hosts, some are key: Nelson in Évora, Filipa in Lagos. Others exist to spur on the story or to get him to visit other places in Part 2. Objects are found.

2. He meets interesting people but this becomes an inner quest of João putting pieces of the puzzle together: how he loves the night, hates heat, burns in the sun; his anemia, his heightened sense of smell, and his love/hate relationship with garlic. His filching continues, creating... problems. Even the items he picks up innocently may be dangerous to him or others. He's clueless of course, only figuring things out long after others have to tell him. Meeting a glam vamp frightens him towards the end. He receives the news that his great grandmother is dying. Settings: The World. Probably: Ireland, Turkey, Norway, Poland, Japan, a whirlwind? Speeding up and slowing down as necessary. Hostels, inns, hotels, couches and many modes of transportation. Characters: will be international, mostly fellow travelers but locals will need to be 'drawn' sympathetically (or not). More objects are found or lost.

3. His great grandmother sends him back to Portugal. To the North East where his family roots are. They reject him and send him back to Lagos and other places so that he will learn what he must. And he does. He learns that the Age of Discovery and Age of Intolerance affected the Jews, the Moors, the witches, vampires... anyone who was different. He begins to understand the necessity of secrets to survive and their corrosive power that stains those who follow. He visits Belmonte, Chaves, Miranda de l Douro. Finally meets a group of young vampires. He returns to Évora where the story ends. Settings: Portugal. Some like Évora and Lagos will be revisited. The trick will be to describe them in sensual ways without just repeating what was sensed the first time... Research needed for places in the North East... the forgotten part of Portugal. Characters: we meet some from Part 1. Others will be new... and probably totally fiction as opposed to real but fictionalized. Objects are explained or not...