Thursday, April 11, 2013

Thursday's Children: Inspired by Old Time Radio Drama



Starting a new novel is a little intimidating. Especially after the intensity of Hate Jacket. To be honest, I'm flailing and procrastinating. I'm sure this is normal. Not only did I finish it, I participated in Pitmad, and sent my baby off to be (hopefully) accepted. We'll see.

So, in attempt to distract myself from all the negative thoughts floating in my head, I need to write something. Last week, I talked about the silly idea I was playing with. I'm not writing it right now. Silly stuff is hard for me to write (despite being a super-goofball on twitter).

The reality is I need something serious to write. I want to write silly, but it isn't as easy for me as it is for some. Yes, my stories can have humor, but as a whole, they seem to have some dark elements in them.

The exception being Sir Grumpsalot that was recently published in Veux Magazine, Issue 11 (page 32-33). Seriously, it's cute and the magazine did a wonderful job with it. Serious props go out to Ada Adams and the other editors.

So, back to your regularly scheduled blog post.

That's right.

I'm flailing.

Ok. I have an idea. It started as a dream, but is morphing into something awesome. One of my inspirations is the old radio show, The Shadow. I was first introduced to them in a drama class in 8th grade. They were fabulous and so well done (for that era). I did some research on it and didn't realize that the guy who wrote it did so for 20 years.



Anyway, my main character has the ability to see a persons darkest desires/wants/fears, etc. Basically all the bad stuff people hide behind closed doors in their heads. She doesn't like this ability because she can't control it. She looks into a person's eyes and she sees it. What she sees doesn't go away.

I've been doing a lot of research on this in the hopes that I'll find some mythos behind it. As of yet, I haven't found anything. Which is weird, because I would think someone would have had this myth somewhere.

The end result is that I need to create my own. I don't want to link too directly to the Shadow because of it's long history and I don't want to interfere with it. So, no, her great great great uncle was not the guy the radio show was based on. Not gonna happen.

What I do know for certain is that this will be a Dual POV. The MC is going to be around 19-20, so it falls under the "New Adult"/"Adult" category (depending on your preference). Not sure if there are going to be romantic elements or not yet. It's still early, but I do have the first two chapters sketched out in my head.

'Till Next Time

14 comments:

  1. Sounds cool! As for procrastinating, when you see me on Twitter that's generally what I'm doing. Feel free to shoo me back to my own WIP. Fingers X'd for Hate Jacket :)

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  2. The Shadow knows...I remember that! So cool. Thanks for joining Thursday's Children!

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    1. Thanks, Kristina! Have you listened to the old radio programs at all? It's amazing how they put them together. The movie they did in 1994 was kind of cheesy, but still cool in it's own way.

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  3. Seeing the darkness within - creepy premise, and a terrible burden if you couldn't turn it off. Good luck!

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  4. Okay, I love this premise (I've never heard of The Shadow) and the fact that you have to create your own myth for it. That's totally cool. Good luck with Hate Jacket!! :)

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    1. Thanks Kate. I think they have around 60 of the original episodes on a website to download. I think I gave the link to the wikipedia page.

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  5. have you read any of the jim butcher books about the harry dresden files? harry is a wizard and there is this concept of soul-gazing in there when a wizard looks directly into another person's eyes for any length of time. he or she can see the true nature of the other person's psyche or soul. something to consider when developing your own mythos. Not to mention that the books are excellent.

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    1. Yup. I have read all but the most recent Dresden books (last one I read was Ghost Story). Love them.

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  6. It's amazing, but writing is almost like those old radio dramas, no? The theatre of the mind...

    Sometimes I like to read my WIPs out loud, with the voices and all, to test how they would sound. It's like reading my very own radio drama, lol. It can ultimately lead to better dialogue and simpler sentences...

    Good luck with your new project!

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    1. Thanks John. I've done that before with my stories. Very handy.

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  7. I love the idea of creating a completely new mythos! Good luck with the new WIP and I hope you'll update us from time to time! :)

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    1. Thanks Chris! Yeah, I couldn't find what I needed and none of it wanted to fit in my head, so I guess I'm going to have to make up my own. Will probably modify an existing one.

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