And so it begins

I should be asleep, but I'm not.  I'm wired on caffeine and I'm posting on my blog...what could possibly go wrong?  :D

So I've been thinking (insert joke here) about the possibility of story involving my stuffed animals from my childhood.  I'm really starting to get into it.  The more I think about it, the more it seems like a possibility (at least in theory).  Whether or not it happens is another thing.  However, I have a lot of characters already developed, a world developed and even some plot ideas.  From what I've read on writing, that is a big part of creating a story. ..Characters, World, Plot.

However, there are some things that I've been trying to decide on.  I have a good idea of which way I want to go, but I want to write down everything so that I can see it and maybe it will solidify, or change, my idea.

Ok, here it goes:
All of the main characters (a.k.a "Good guys") are made up of my toys from my childhood.  Their personalities, names, relationships, and jobs would all be maintained from the stories that we created as children.  This will not be altered no matter what I decide for the rest.

Question 1: Is it a story for children or not?  My biggest concern with having it be a child's story is that I may not be able to capture everything I want to in just a few words.  Most children's stories are under 1000 words for picture books.  Novels for older children can be longer, but can I tell the story I want to tell in that space or will I not be able to get the complexity I need?  Adult novels have more flexible and their complexity is greater, but then the question is, can I make a story about talking toys/animals believable enough for an adult audience?  This is the biggest decision I will have to make.
Question 2:  Do I keep them as stuffed toys or do I make them real, living, creatures?
Question 3:  Keep the original world idea or change it?


These three questions are what is really slowing me down.  Obviously, they are the most important.  If I can't answer these questions, I won't have a story.

Here is what came to mind as I was driving home today...err....yesterday as it is now after midnight...
Answer 1:  I'm leaning toward an adult story.  I find it humorous to think of a stuffed animal cussing out another stuffed animal...which answers question 2...also, I will have more flexibility with the story/concepts if I gear it toward an older audience.
Answer 2:  I will keep them stuffed...gives a whole new meaning to "beating the stuffing" out of someone... :D
Answer 3:  I'm still waffling on this one.  Originally, they lived in a terraformed area of Antarctica.  This is fine, except that having it in the real world means dealing with the real world.  However, if I had a toy uprising where all the toys got together and took over the world (insert evil dictator toy) and then all of the remaining (i.e. surviving) humans would either be slaves or live in the south kingdom with the "good" toys.  It has possibilities...

That's all for now.  This is starting to get interesting.

Secret Friends -- A Poem

In my last post, I mentioned a poem about my childhood toys.  I looked through my old poetry and found it.

Secret Friends--Fantasy

My dearest friends,

As is plainly seen,

Are not of flesh and bone--

But of thought--And childhood fantasy.

Behind closed doors,

Far from view

Where no mortal eye can see--

Lives a world--Of simply fantasy.

------

It isn't much, but I think it gives you all the gist of what I was talking about.  I wrote this in my teenage years and it was significantly different than any other poem I had written at that time.  Most of the poetry I wrote was angst filled, angry, and full of hatred (and maybe a little blasphemy...I did mention I was angry...).

Breathing new life into old things

One my youngest's favorite stories involves a sock monkey.  I can't remember the title off the top of my head, but that isn't that important.  What is important is that he likes the book, and especially the sock monkey.  After listening to the story recently, he decided he wanted a sock monkey.  As it turns out, I have one, sealed in a tub in the attic.  I can't remember when I got it, but I've had it as long as I can remember.
   
For the last week, he's been asking to see it.  I finally dragged the tub down out of the attic a couple days ago.  After locating the sock monkey, I started thinking about all the stories we made up about them.  We had names for all of them.  We even developed personalities, relationships, jobs...a whole world for them.  Well, at least part of the world (more on that later).  Our imaginations, under the direction of my older brother, had created a vast world for our toys to live, play, and experience all manner of adventures.

It's been a long time since I've thought about their world.  I've forgotten most of their names and personalities, but I remember some of it.  I'm feeling there is a story in there, but I'm not sure where I want to go with it.  You see, the world we created wasn't a perfect place.  This wasn't a place full of sunshine and constant happiness that you see in most stories involving children our age.  At the same time, it still maintained some measure of innocence.  I have very few memories of my childhood that are happy, but I remember these were always amazing and wonderful.

Another problem with writing a story about the world of my stuffed animals was that it was so immense and complex.  A fear a children's book wouldn't be able to capture enough of the essence to make it live.  On the flip side, some of the innocence that made it so special would be lost if I wrote it to a more grown up audience.  A true conundrum for me that I hope to resolve soon.  I think writing a story about them would be good.  I've written a poem about them (one of the few from my teenage years that wasn't filled with angst or anger).  I'll have to post it some time.

Here is some of what I remember:

• All of the toys lived in a terraformed area of the Antarctic.  We wanted some place remote and difficult for the real world to get to.  I remember my brother also suggested that we have some sort of cloaking device to hide them from people.
• It was a mighty kingdom ruled over by the benevolent, and pink, teddy bear named Sleeptight.  He was the oldest (older than even me), and biggest of all the toys.  He was also my favorite.
• The kingdom had a prince, named Sleep.  He was my brother's favorite, so he got to be prince.
• They had enemies, so they had a captain of the guard, a stuffed buzzard, named Buzzy.
• We had a couple alien races, the Jelloons and the Gagleans.  The Jelloons were a couple of stuffed jellybeans that my brother and I had.  We only had one Gaglean, named Gagloo (that's what it said on his tag).  I've never seen it's like.  The Jelloons and Gaglean were scientists (they were after all aliens).
• Buzzy had a father, named One Ear (I think).  He was probably my first(?) stuffed animal.  I've had him as long as I can remember.  He's a panda, and yes, he is missing an ear.  One Ear had a brother, named Samsonite.  He was a large panda bear that I got when I was older.
• Buzzy had a trusty mount that we ride into combat. His "steed" was a white stuffed dog named Blue Eye.
• There were two sock monkeys.  One for me and one for my brother.  Their names were Monkey See and Monkey Do.  They were floppy (as all sock monkey's are) and were kind of silly.  I'm not sure what they did, but I'm sure it was silly.  Monkey See had more stuffing that Monkey Do so we decided that Monkey Do was more "athletic".  Beyond that, I don't remember.

There is more in there, but it is easy to see the complexity.  What can I say, we were children.  We didn't have TV or video games.  The internet wouldn't be invented until I was almost in college.  All we had were books, our toys, and our imaginations.

Monkey See is now named "Sock Monkey" according to my youngest.  He's been walking around and taking good care of him.  There is a story in here.  One of these days, I'll have to tell it.  We'll see where it takes me.