Prompt Snippets and Plot Bunnies
Aug. 5th, 2010 07:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rsadelleI told ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
inlovewithnight that I had things written for many of my prompts. I'm lazy about posting because I don't want to take the time to add things to my master list and delicious tags, but I think that things should be organized. So what I'm going to do is just post some things and worry about organizing them on the weekends. This post is some snippets and plot bunnies that aren't big enough for their own posts.
*
Warning: This first bit includes slavery and mention of a past suicide attempt.
Gabe rescues Pete, in space
Warning: This first bit includes slavery and mention of a past suicide attempt.
Gabe and co. buy slaves using faked credits and set them free. Pete's owner has just died or had everything confiscated to pay his debts or something, so Pete (sex slave) and co. (other kinds of slaves) are for sale. Gabe can't bring himself to buy just one of them, so he buys Pete, Patrick, Andy, and Joe. Gabe brings them back onto the ship and tells Alex or Ryland (whoever's piloting) to get them out of there quickly and calls Victoria and Travie (who are very much together and whose good times are interrupted by Gabe's summons) to ask how long their credits are going to hold.
This whole story would be from Pete's pov, so all of this background would be things either that the reader would infer or that Pete would learn later.
The next person they meet is Nate, who has a patch of skin on his forearm that doesn't quite match - a slave mark that's been erased. Gabe turns them over to Nate to get them fed. This is the point at which I stopped working my way through this story in my head because everything Pete I write turns to horrible angst and because I don't really believe in one person saving another. That said, I did write this bit:
Pete chokes down one bite before the taste registers, and then he's out of his chair, pushing past Nate - if they're lying, that will earn him a beating, but if they're lying he's going to get one anyway and this way he won't have to clean up after himself too - and heaves into the sink, throwing up that one bite and the meager little the trader had fed them before that.
"Are you okay?" Nate asks.
There's the scrape of spoon against plate, and then Patrick says, "Cinnamon. Pete can't have cinnamon."
Cinnamon tastes like that night - always given special significance in Pete's head and never talked about - the night that was so bad Pete tried to escape via the only route available to most slaves and discovered, halfway through, like a cruel joke, that he'd rather live.
"Right," Nate says, "no cinnamon."
*
Mike/Gabe kink (setup)
Warning: Mention of hitting within the context of a kink relationship.
Gabe's at a party at Pete's, chatting with some girl. He's still on his first drink and he's not even really flirting. He hasn't really been into that recently, but whatever. This incarnation of Gabe Saporta doesn't think about the reasons for that.
He can feel someone watching him. His guess is Bill, or maybe Tom because he's weird like that, but when he turns to glance over his shoulder, it's Mike who has a steady eye on him.
Gabe excuses himself and goes to the kitchen where he exchanges his half-full Red Bull and vodka for a bottle of water. When he comes back, he toasts Mike across the room with his water bottle.
Alcohol means they'll have sex, messy and sloppy and fun, but water means they're going to play, and Gabe would rather have that tonight.
This was an exercise in writing something where half the story is in the reader's head (and I wrote it in my head, which is making me laugh). Not only are all the characters and their existing relationships in the reader's head, but the structure of the story tells you a lot if you read fan fic: "play" and water instead of alcohol mean kink, Gabe not wanting to think and Mike leaving the choice up to him means Gabe is subbing (I only realized this after I'd written it), and Mike and Tom being at the same party means Gabe's going to get hit with something (Mike's hand, his belt, one of the nylon cord floggers in the toy box in Gabe's closet). The way that Gabe and Mike don't have to talk about it at all also sets this up as an ongoing relationship, which tells the reader a lot.
Of course, I couldn't quite leave it there; this could also expand into a bigger story about Gabe:
That was what finally ended it. As they got bigger, he needed to stop thinking more and more. Bianca didn't like seeing bruises on him, and he wasn't willing to ask the people he played with not to leave marks.
And:
Gabe refuses to buy his own copy of The Ethical Slut - it feels like a line he's not ready to cross - but Mike and Emma have two on the bookshelf in their bedroom, and Gabe's reading his way through it on trips to L.A.
(Except as much as I love that sentence - both for the sound of it and the story it sets up - it doesn't follow logically from the one before. But you could probably make it work somehow.)
*
Things I wrote for prompts in my previous post:
William rescues sex slave Mike, in space forinlovewithnight
A Good Dude (Pete/Ashlee, Jessica/f, Pete tries to set Jessica up with a good dude) fortrcunning
Mike and Greta fight space pirates foricanbreakthesky
*
Plot Bunnies
Someone this week commented on my Ryan ODing plot bunny (1, 2, 3), which I keep thinking I'm going to transcribe but probably never will. The comment prompted me to actually listen to it, which I couldn't do just after I finished it. The first part's a little shaky, but after that it really sounds like I know what I'm doing. Noticeable element: you can hear me pause to think, but I never say "uh" or "um" in those pauses, which is something I totally learned from Di-Phi.
Anyway, I bring this up not just to mention that but also because I always meant to tell you what I would have done differently if I'd written it instead of telling it into the phone. At this point, I can only remember two things, so here they are: First of all, Brendon and Spencer getting together was originally going to happen earlier. Ryan would accuse Spencer of loving Brendon more the second time he was in the hospital, and that's when Spencer and Brendon would get together. I think this probably makes it a happier story.
The other thing that I forgot I was going to do with it was put in some kind of conversation between Spencer and Patrick about what the limits are of what you can do in that position and that it's not Spencer's fault.
*
There was a big bang story where a writer turned Gabe into a Catholic priest, and in the discussion I read,rhipowered said, "Ugh, Saporta possibly being Sephardi (I wasn't aware) and the historical issues of forced conversion were tickling at the back of my mind but didn't fully click until I read your comment." This made me think you could write a very interesting story about Gabe the priest discovering that his family had been forced to convert by the Inquisition. The summary for this story would read:
Father Gabe Saporta has risen fast and high in the Church hierarchy. But now he's stepped on the wrong people's toes and he's been banished to the archives to dig through and help catalog centuries of Church records. When this assignment leads him to discover the records detailing his own family's forcible conversion at the hands of the Church's Inquisition, he begins to question the basis for his whole life.
This could also be the plot of an original novel. If you write that book, I expect to be thanked on the Acknowledgements page.
*
Songwriter William Beckett and artist Christine Bandy decide that parenting is a full-time job and since songwriting and creating art are also both full-time jobs, they really need a third person to help them out. In the meantime, Bill's best friend Adam's friend Mike has just moved back to Chicago after a breakup and is staying on Adam's couch. There is some event (like dinner at the Bandy-Beckett house or a picnic in the park) that brings them all together and Evie likes Mike, so Bill and Christine hire him. Mike, of course, is exactly what they needed to keep their lives in order. He's good with Evie, he helps Bill with a tricky bit of music, and something about him just inspires Christine. Somehow this also gives purpose to Mike's life so he falls in love with Bill and Christine as they fall in love with him. The trick to this story is to make Mike a real person and not just Mary Poppins (practically perfect in every way).
inlovewithnight that I had things written for many of my prompts. I'm lazy about posting because I don't want to take the time to add things to my master list and delicious tags, but I think that things should be organized. So what I'm going to do is just post some things and worry about organizing them on the weekends. This post is some snippets and plot bunnies that aren't big enough for their own posts.*
Warning: This first bit includes slavery and mention of a past suicide attempt.
Gabe rescues Pete, in space
Warning: This first bit includes slavery and mention of a past suicide attempt.
Gabe and co. buy slaves using faked credits and set them free. Pete's owner has just died or had everything confiscated to pay his debts or something, so Pete (sex slave) and co. (other kinds of slaves) are for sale. Gabe can't bring himself to buy just one of them, so he buys Pete, Patrick, Andy, and Joe. Gabe brings them back onto the ship and tells Alex or Ryland (whoever's piloting) to get them out of there quickly and calls Victoria and Travie (who are very much together and whose good times are interrupted by Gabe's summons) to ask how long their credits are going to hold.
This whole story would be from Pete's pov, so all of this background would be things either that the reader would infer or that Pete would learn later.
The next person they meet is Nate, who has a patch of skin on his forearm that doesn't quite match - a slave mark that's been erased. Gabe turns them over to Nate to get them fed. This is the point at which I stopped working my way through this story in my head because everything Pete I write turns to horrible angst and because I don't really believe in one person saving another. That said, I did write this bit:
Pete chokes down one bite before the taste registers, and then he's out of his chair, pushing past Nate - if they're lying, that will earn him a beating, but if they're lying he's going to get one anyway and this way he won't have to clean up after himself too - and heaves into the sink, throwing up that one bite and the meager little the trader had fed them before that.
"Are you okay?" Nate asks.
There's the scrape of spoon against plate, and then Patrick says, "Cinnamon. Pete can't have cinnamon."
Cinnamon tastes like that night - always given special significance in Pete's head and never talked about - the night that was so bad Pete tried to escape via the only route available to most slaves and discovered, halfway through, like a cruel joke, that he'd rather live.
"Right," Nate says, "no cinnamon."
*
Mike/Gabe kink (setup)
Warning: Mention of hitting within the context of a kink relationship.
Gabe's at a party at Pete's, chatting with some girl. He's still on his first drink and he's not even really flirting. He hasn't really been into that recently, but whatever. This incarnation of Gabe Saporta doesn't think about the reasons for that.
He can feel someone watching him. His guess is Bill, or maybe Tom because he's weird like that, but when he turns to glance over his shoulder, it's Mike who has a steady eye on him.
Gabe excuses himself and goes to the kitchen where he exchanges his half-full Red Bull and vodka for a bottle of water. When he comes back, he toasts Mike across the room with his water bottle.
Alcohol means they'll have sex, messy and sloppy and fun, but water means they're going to play, and Gabe would rather have that tonight.
This was an exercise in writing something where half the story is in the reader's head (and I wrote it in my head, which is making me laugh). Not only are all the characters and their existing relationships in the reader's head, but the structure of the story tells you a lot if you read fan fic: "play" and water instead of alcohol mean kink, Gabe not wanting to think and Mike leaving the choice up to him means Gabe is subbing (I only realized this after I'd written it), and Mike and Tom being at the same party means Gabe's going to get hit with something (Mike's hand, his belt, one of the nylon cord floggers in the toy box in Gabe's closet). The way that Gabe and Mike don't have to talk about it at all also sets this up as an ongoing relationship, which tells the reader a lot.
Of course, I couldn't quite leave it there; this could also expand into a bigger story about Gabe:
That was what finally ended it. As they got bigger, he needed to stop thinking more and more. Bianca didn't like seeing bruises on him, and he wasn't willing to ask the people he played with not to leave marks.
And:
Gabe refuses to buy his own copy of The Ethical Slut - it feels like a line he's not ready to cross - but Mike and Emma have two on the bookshelf in their bedroom, and Gabe's reading his way through it on trips to L.A.
(Except as much as I love that sentence - both for the sound of it and the story it sets up - it doesn't follow logically from the one before. But you could probably make it work somehow.)
*
Things I wrote for prompts in my previous post:
William rescues sex slave Mike, in space for
inlovewithnightA Good Dude (Pete/Ashlee, Jessica/f, Pete tries to set Jessica up with a good dude) for
trcunningMike and Greta fight space pirates for
icanbreakthesky*
Plot Bunnies
Someone this week commented on my Ryan ODing plot bunny (1, 2, 3), which I keep thinking I'm going to transcribe but probably never will. The comment prompted me to actually listen to it, which I couldn't do just after I finished it. The first part's a little shaky, but after that it really sounds like I know what I'm doing. Noticeable element: you can hear me pause to think, but I never say "uh" or "um" in those pauses, which is something I totally learned from Di-Phi.
Anyway, I bring this up not just to mention that but also because I always meant to tell you what I would have done differently if I'd written it instead of telling it into the phone. At this point, I can only remember two things, so here they are: First of all, Brendon and Spencer getting together was originally going to happen earlier. Ryan would accuse Spencer of loving Brendon more the second time he was in the hospital, and that's when Spencer and Brendon would get together. I think this probably makes it a happier story.
The other thing that I forgot I was going to do with it was put in some kind of conversation between Spencer and Patrick about what the limits are of what you can do in that position and that it's not Spencer's fault.
*
There was a big bang story where a writer turned Gabe into a Catholic priest, and in the discussion I read,
rhipowered said, "Ugh, Saporta possibly being Sephardi (I wasn't aware) and the historical issues of forced conversion were tickling at the back of my mind but didn't fully click until I read your comment." This made me think you could write a very interesting story about Gabe the priest discovering that his family had been forced to convert by the Inquisition. The summary for this story would read:Father Gabe Saporta has risen fast and high in the Church hierarchy. But now he's stepped on the wrong people's toes and he's been banished to the archives to dig through and help catalog centuries of Church records. When this assignment leads him to discover the records detailing his own family's forcible conversion at the hands of the Church's Inquisition, he begins to question the basis for his whole life.
This could also be the plot of an original novel. If you write that book, I expect to be thanked on the Acknowledgements page.
*
Songwriter William Beckett and artist Christine Bandy decide that parenting is a full-time job and since songwriting and creating art are also both full-time jobs, they really need a third person to help them out. In the meantime, Bill's best friend Adam's friend Mike has just moved back to Chicago after a breakup and is staying on Adam's couch. There is some event (like dinner at the Bandy-Beckett house or a picnic in the park) that brings them all together and Evie likes Mike, so Bill and Christine hire him. Mike, of course, is exactly what they needed to keep their lives in order. He's good with Evie, he helps Bill with a tricky bit of music, and something about him just inspires Christine. Somehow this also gives purpose to Mike's life so he falls in love with Bill and Christine as they fall in love with him. The trick to this story is to make Mike a real person and not just Mary Poppins (practically perfect in every way).
(no subject)
Date: 2010-08-06 02:10 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-08-06 02:54 am (UTC)Alcohol means they'll have sex, messy and sloppy and fun, but water means they're going to play, and Gabe would rather have that tonight.
That line is gorgeous.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-08-06 03:03 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-08-06 03:04 am (UTC)That line is probably the key to Gabe in that bit.