InnerRed

Novel Workshop

2004-10-17T10:24:00.000+11:00

Main Characters: Hayley Foster, DI Patrick Levington

Opening:

Hayley gets off the bus and goes to work as normal, as a babysitter/nanny for the Parkinsons. When she turns the corner into their street, she sees their house is surrounded by police cars. "They know!" Two police officers come out holding the kids. The eldest spots her and calls out. She panics and runs.

Ending:

DI Levington will put the pieces together and discover who murdered the Parkinsons and the Miltons and why.

Have not yet decided if Hayley will live or die. If she lives, she will be reconciled with her family and have to go to court for theft.

· Does your protagonist succeed or fail in gaining the objective you gave him in your opener?

DI Levington succeeds in finding the murderer. He may or may not succeed in saving Hayley's life. Hayley does not succeed in escaping justice, and may fail to survive.

· Does your story come to an emotionally satisfying conclusion?

I would say yes. Murder mysteries are pretty standard in that, if the detective or whoever doesn't find the murderer, it falls a little flat. Hayley living or dying will not affect the tying up of ends.

· Can you see yourself going through anywhere from ten pages to seven hundred and being happy to see the story end this way?

Yes, again, the DI needs to find the murderer. I think Hayley may die. I'm still not sure.

Essential scenes (not in order)

Hayley being chased by the Sachs along the pontoon walk at Kangaroo Point.
Hayley meeting Avril Sachs again.
DI Levington discovers that Hayley has stolen the money and approaches a judge to put a freeze on her account.
DC Amberley traces the Sachs to the vicinity of 2 unsolved murders.
The Sachs kidnap Hayley and demand the money from her.
Hayley manages to escape and flees onto the river bank.

Other scenes (not in order)

Interview with Mrs Foster after she reports Hayley missing
DS Michaels travels to Gympie to investigate auto shop
Hayley moves into inner-city apartment and goes on a spending spree
The detectives discover the missing insurance money
DS Michaels investigates Robert Foster
Hayley calls her mother after escaping from the Sachs
Detectives piece together how the money was taken
Discover how the signature was forged on the change of bank details form (traced, exact match)
Interview with the Sachs, they tell the detectives that Hayley gave her last name as French (not Foster).
Find out that the Milton's money was transferred 4 weeks after they died
Report on Milton's death says brake failure - no fluid. Could not slow down for corner and spun out of control.
Discover that the Sachs were minor shareholders and knew that the Miltons were major shareholders
Hayley's gradual loss of society due to her personality
Hayley's spending spree

Character	Number of Scenes (2 spare)
DI Patrick Levington	32
Hayley Foster	16

/Red out.

Writing in my head, what about the paper?

2004-09-29T21:36:00.000+10:00

Why is it that I can write stories in my head and think about them all day and never get the damn thing on paper? It annoys me intensely. I'm hoping it's just inexperience and will go away.

I have to find a way of outlining that suits me. No luck so far. Maybe that's just practice too. I hope so. It would help if I wasn't brain dead at night.

Nevermind, I'll settle into a routine soon. I hope so, anyway.

/Red out.

The Artist's Way

2004-08-30T20:07:00.000+10:00

For anyone who is interested, here are the tasks for week one, in short hand.

1. Every morning, set your clock a half-hour early; get up and write 3 pages of longhand, stream of consciousness writing. Do not reread these pages or allow anyone else to read them. (This won't make much sense unless you read the background to the morning pages, which is long and I'm not going to write it here. Suffice to say, just write. Not stories or anything detailed, just go straight from brain to hand.)
2. Take yourself on an artist's date.
3: Time-travel: list three old enemies of your creative self-worth. Be as specific as possible. This is your monster hall of fame.
4. Time travel: Select and write about one horror story from your monster hall of fame.
5. Write a letter to the censor in your defense. It is great fun to write this letter in the voice of your wounded artist child. "To whom it may concern, Sister Ann Rita is a jerk and has pig eyes and I can too spell!"
6. Time travel: List three old champions of your creative self worth.
7. Time travel: Select and write out one happy piece of encouragement. Write a thank-you letter. Mail it to yourself or to the long-lost mentor.
8. Imaginary lives: If you had five other lives to lead, what would you do in each of them? Whatever occurs to you, jot it down. Do not overthink this exercise. The point of these lives is to have fun in them., more fun than you might be having in this one. Look over your list and select one. Then do it this week. For instance, if you put down country singer, can you pick a guitar? If you dream of being a cowhand, how about some horseback riding?
9. In working with affirmations and blurts (note: blurts are what your censor says to make you feel bad) very often injuries and monsters swim back to us. Add these to your list. Work with each blurt individually. Turn each negative blurt into a positive affirmation.
10. Take your srtist for a walk, just the two of you. A brisk 20-minute walk can dramatically alter consciousness.

Hmm, busy week ahead.

/Red out.

Anatomy of anger

2004-08-21T17:39:00.000+10:00

"You bitch." Hands shaking, gut clenching and churning, jaw tight and the pressure of teeth. Tongue pressed to the roof of the mouth. Vision becomes narrow, focused, sickness, bile in the back of throat, toes curled, shoulders up and pulled in, hunched, lips pressed together, headache starting, breath shallow, jaw champing, still the sickness, can't think of anything but the anger. Perspective goes, everything is enormous, out of proportion. Driving need to get rid of the cause of the anger, fight or flight, head feels too small, too tight. Heart beating, feel the pulse in your throat, feel the muscles in your body jump and twitch.

/Red out.

Character workshop

2004-08-17T08:01:00.000+10:00

Choose a gender.
Male

Choose a place of birth.
Mossman, far north Queensland

Choose a hobby.
Fly fishing

Choose a past job.
Working in his parent's shop in high school, then with a company as a despatch officer while working through uni.

Choose a present job.
Homicide Investigation Squad, Queensland Police

Choose a past love interest.
Alison Marks

Choose an enemy.
None specifically at this stage

Choose a pet.
None

Why is your character not working at the old job?
Went to uni then became a police officer

Why is your character not with the old love interest?
Left Mossman to go to uni in Brisbane. Love interest married in the meantime. Still good friends.

Why does your character not make the hobby a profession?
Because fishing doesn't pay

How did your character make the enemy?
N/A

How did the pet once save the character's life?
N/A

What is the one thing in the world your character would do anything to avoid? Why?
Shopping. He hates it. Has never become used to the city crowds and avoids going into the city when it is busy. He has no trouble driving in the city, just hates walking there.

What has he already done to avoid this?
He will think of any excuse to avoid it, and will often go into work after dropping off the family.

What do you see him doing in the future to avoid it?
Working weekends on the case.

What is the one thing in the world your character would do anything in the world to have? Why?
He would really like to have a holiday to Canada or Slovenia to fly fish on the big lakes and rivers.

What has he already done to try to obtain it?
Saves money for it, but with three kids and work, it's hard going. Last setback was when the sewerage pipe under the house burst. They are currently living in rental accommodation as the house is untenantable while repairs go on. Thousands of dollars to repair and a mortgage to pay.

What does he hope to try in the future?
Keep saving. He's a patient man.

What is your character's name?
Patrick Leverton

What is your character's age, and physical description.
42, getting a bit heavy, retreating hairline, nice smile, chipped tooth.

Write everything else you know about your character, right now.
Patrick is married to Angela AnJin Lien, an Australian daughter of chinese immigrants. They have 3 children, Luke, Benjamin and Jessica. Patrick is liked by his contemporaries though is considered to have little ambition. His boss respects him and because of this, sometimes expects a little too much of him. The other officers in his division call him Pat. When he is upset or angry or just needs to think, he slips down into the back yard to the shed and ties flies. The only shop he will spend a lot of time in is a fishing shop and he has two close fishing buddies. One is an accountant, the other owns his own boat but is a bit of a loss otherwise, can never stick to a job. The 'loss' is an old friend of Pat's from uni. They did their business degree together, but the loss dropped out. He lives on his parents' money.

/Red out.

Crossroads: An Author Self-Interrogation Chapter 2...again

2004-07-27T08:38:00.000+10:00

Well, since SOW is finished, there's no point continuing with these questions for it. I'm at a momentary loss. I might use them again when I restart Song of Silk.

/Red out.

Crossroads: An Author Self-Interrogation Chapter 2

2004-07-23T19:20:00.000+10:00

Okay. Finally starting on Chapter 2. I think I'm still going with Staff of Oaken Wood.

1). What does your protagonist want in this story?
Tomi, the protagonist, wants more than anything to go home. Home, to him, is memories of love and comfort that he yearns for. The reason he wants it so badly is because he cannot have it; he cannot go home.

Is this desire significant enough to make a reader also want it for your character? It's significant for Tomi; it drives his actions throught the entire story. That, and fear. I can only hope it is significant enough for a reader.

Is this desire significant enough to make a reader want it for your character through the length of an entire book, as long as the character wants it for herself?
Well, it's only a short story, so perhaps that will help.

Or--does this desire, sooner or later, pale into "Who cares?" territory for the reader?
Who knows? Time and readers will tell.

Next Chapter

2004-06-24T11:37:00.000+10:00

For chapter 2, I've decided to work with The staff of Oaken Wood. It's a short story that I *gasp* finished at the end of 2003 and then put away for a while. Then I stopped writing.

The reason I chose this one is that is it at the editing stage, I have a complete storyline and I want to get it finished. It's also original and I like the protagonist.

Going to start when I finish up the fandom in 2 weeks.

PS Ooops! Opened up commenting from everyone, too. Didn't realise I had the security thing on.

/Red out.

27). In what specific experience of your life did you feel most enraged? Terrified? Humiliated? Heartbroken? Ecstatic?

2004-06-22T12:35:00.000+10:00

Heartbroken; when my Grandmother died. That was the worst day of my life.

/Red out.

26). What do you dislike most about yourself?

2004-06-22T12:34:00.000+10:00

The ease with which I slip into depression. I wish I could control it. I'm working on it.

/Red out.

25). What do you like most about yourself?

2004-06-22T12:33:00.000+10:00

That I'm a (mostly) rational person. That I'm usually cheerful. That I have a brain that works.

/Red out.

24). What is the most significant thing you've ever discovered about yourself?

2004-06-22T12:16:00.000+10:00

Um...too many searching questions. Something significant. Define significant. Significant to whom?

Oh, I know. I have weird thumbs. Most people's thumbs lean back at an angle from the last joint; mine are perfectly straight. Like a fifth finger, rahter than a thumb.

/Red out.

23). What act of heroism would you be least likely to perform?

2004-06-20T12:16:00.000+10:00

Swimming out into the ocean to save someone. Not that I wound't want to, I just can't. I'd drown. Soemone would have to rescue ME!

/Red out.

22). What crime would you be most likely to commit if you were to commit a crime?

2004-06-20T12:06:00.000+10:00

I had to think hard about this. I don't think I would. Because crimes are perpetuated against living things, and I believe that no-one has the right to cause harm to another living thing. I honestly can't think of any crime that I would commit. No stealing, no killing, no violence, what else is there? No destruction of property.

/Red out.

21). What sort of person do you feel the most sympathy for? The least sympathy for?

2004-06-20T12:02:00.000+10:00

I have the most sympathy for people who are fighting for what they believe in. People who care for other people, for the universe in general.

I have no sympathy for slack whingers who complain about how hard their lives are and how no-one understands them and how they're so alone and they can never lose weight/make friends/get a job etc. People who are always bored.

Get a hold of yourself! The only person who can change who you are is YOU! Don't whinge, get out there and DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. Stop making excuses! You think you're the only person with a hard life? There are millions of people out there who are worse off than you! Be thankful for what you have!

This, of course, applies mainly to sad little plebs who live in first world countries and who haven't got two brain cells to rub together. My sister is one of them.

/Red out.

20). What do you pray won't happen to you?

2004-06-20T12:01:00.000+10:00

Losing the one I love. That would kill me.

/Red out.

19). What do you long for?

2004-06-20T12:00:00.001+10:00

Peace. I want everyone in the world to be able to live without fear. It's never going to happen, but I want it to. Badly.

/Red out.

18). What can make you unbearably sad?

2004-06-20T12:00:00.000+10:00

The death of a loved one.

/Red out.

17). What scares you to death?

2004-06-20T11:59:00.000+10:00

Heights. Or probably the fear of falling.

/Red out.

16). What can make you very, very, very angry?

2004-06-19T09:21:00.000+10:00

Injustice. Hypocrisy. Cruelty. Violence. Towards anything living.

And the final thing that makes me go completely nanas;

ENVIRONMETAL VANDALISM.

Rrrrraaaargh!!!

/Red out.

15). What are your complexes, inhibitions, and superstitions, past and present?

2004-06-19T09:11:00.000+10:00

Now here's a can or worms. I'll start with superstitions; don't have any. Inhibitions? I don't like answering the phone. Hilarious, considering I work in a call centre. But if I'm at home and the phone rings, I will let it go to voicemail. If Fionn is home, I'll get him to answer it. I don't know why I do this, but I just don't like picking up the phone. Work is different; I don't have a choice, the calls just come through direct. But after working here for a year I still can't answer the phone at home.

Complexes; I have a lot of issues with "natural remedies". My friends joke that Natropaths are my sworn nemeses. I guess it comes down to the whole "not superstitious" thing, and also years of science, that I need to know WHY something works before I will accept that it does.

/Red out.

14). What have been your frustrations and disappointments?

2004-06-19T09:10:00.000+10:00

I'm not even going there. I'll get too depressed.

/Red out.

13). What have been your personal triumphs, past and present?

2004-06-17T07:47:00.000+10:00

I have had few triupmhs lately, or ever, really.

Finishing the PhD had gone past triumph and, with the depression and all the other shit going on at the time, was more of a relief.

I guess one triumphant moment for Fionn and I was finally fleeing Rockhampton and moving to Brisbane. We like it much, much more down here. Climate, people, places, things to do, it's much better. Nine national parks within an hours drive, what can I say? It suits us.

But I don't think I can pinpoint a particular triumph in my life.

Man, this is getting depressing.

/Red out.

12). What have been your most powerful sexual or romantic experiences?

2004-06-17T07:45:00.000+10:00

Oh gosh, now there's a question.

I'm not really a romantic person. I'm too practical to get all starry-eyed. Fionn and I have a comforatble relationship, we love and we hug, but romance is in neither bosom. We're just good together. You don't need to be a blushing looney to know when you've found the person to spend the rest of your life with.

Sexual, hmm. I think I'll just keep them to myself. *answers in her own head* There, done :P

/Red out.

11). What have been your most powerful (intense, significant, formative) non-sexual experiences (during childhood, adolecence, maturity)?

2004-06-16T07:46:00.000+10:00

Gee, that's a tough one.

I would have to say a feeling of isolation. Being the bastard daughter, as it were, and having only my mother's name for a long time, I was the subject of a lot of hurtful comments. Also being a complete bookworm and preferring the library to the sports field didn't help. I never really got on well with other children; I prefered the company of my own head.

You can imagine how this affected my school life.

Until I went to uni and met a lot of people just like me.

I think this has had a very strong effect on the shaping of my psyche.

/Red out.

10). Who have you disliked intensely?

2004-06-09T10:26:00.000+10:00

Um, no one really. I mean there were the usual dislikes in high school, and a few people who annoy me intensely, but I can't name anyone I really hate.

/Red out.

9). Who have you loved intensely?

2004-06-07T12:14:00.000+10:00

There have been only 2 people in my life who I can honestly say I have loved intensely.

My first love was my grandmother. She was a mother for me, more than my biological mother. I lived with her until the day she died. I still dream about her, and cry at her loss.

My second love is Fionn. He's the centre of my world.

/Red out.

8). Which relationships in your life have involved conflict?

2004-06-04T11:58:00.000+10:00

My immediate family. I'm not going there. Suffice to say the only person I talk to is my mother, and that's only because I am concerned about her ability to function normally. My father I feel complete apathy towards, due to his behaviour towards me when I was growing up. My sister I loathe with a passion; she is a stupid, white-trash bint and I'm embarassed to be in the same family with her. They are the bane of my existance and I am delighted to be a good eight hours away from them.

/Red out.

7). How would you describe your temperment?

2004-06-03T10:46:00.000+10:00

Volatile! I can go from calm to rage to calm in the space of 10 mintues. It's frustrating, but at least it blows over quickly.

I'm usually a cheerful person, Fionn says I am a cheerful pessimist, while he is the cynical optimist. I get depressed easily, unfortunately, which I don't cope with well.

/Red out.

6). If you had to describe your physical appearance, what would you mention first?

2004-06-01T09:59:00.000+10:00

A nose like a predatory budgie.

It's been my defining feature for so long, and the cause of so much angst in my younger life, that I often feel that it defines me as a person.

The fact that I'm reasonably tall for a woman, a good weight (not stick thin but not overweight) and have long, thick hair really means nothing.

I have a nose like a predatory budgie.

/Red out.

5). What are your special abilities and areas of expertise or particular knowledge?

2004-05-31T15:16:00.000+10:00

Ha! That's easy. Science, science, science.

I lived and breathed science, specifically biology, for most of my life. I turned an early childhood interest in frogs into a life-long love affair, culminating in a PhD. I adore natural history. I'm a fanatic environmentalist. And I just, like, science.

Other, minor areas of expertise would probably include gardening and cooking. But that's about it.

/Red out.

4). What have been your hobbies and leisure activities, past and present?

2004-05-27T12:35:00.000+10:00

Hobbies, lots of hobbies. I tend to dabble in things. Lots of crafty stuff like sewing, knitting, weaving, quilting, beadwork and embroidery. Gardening. I love gardening. I think that's one of the few hobbies I have done since childhood and still do. I'm a mad keen gardener, though laterly, my gardening has consisted of keeping various pot-plants alive until the fence goes in and I can design the garden from scratch. Ah, well.

About 5 or 6 years ago I added writing and drawing to the list. This was entirely stimulated by finding a group of like-minded fans on the web, and being able to expand my small love of a 90's TV show into an all-encompassing mania. Hmm. This is not a good thing!

But fanfiction and fanart has given me the interest to expand my skills, and now I also write and draw my own original work. Slowly, I admit, but I still do it.

I think the only other real hobby I have is roleplay. I've been doing it since high-school and I love it. It's fun, relaxing and stimulates the grey cells. I really enjoy it.

/Red out.

3). What have been your occupations, past and present?

2004-05-25T11:14:00.000+10:00

Occupations, well!

My first ever job was at 17, I was a kitchenhand at Eagle Boys Pizza. Whee. Then I was a kitchenhand at various horrible places until I moved up to waitress. I did this for a few years when I was young and working my way through university.

After I graduated I started honours and I was able to work as a tutor in the labs for the undergrad classes. At this time I also started working in Government, with the Department of Primary Industries and Dept Natural Resources. Those were fun part time jobs that I worked at on and off for about 6 years.

By that stage I was well into the PhD and so I did a lot of casual lecturing. Lecturing was absolutely the best job I have ever done. I love student contact, I love to communicate with people and share knowledge. It was great.

Then we moved south and all that stopped. I had to get other jobs. I worked as a technical writer, which was fascinating. I got to write and collate the Urban Search and Rescue manual for the fire department. Awesome fun! I learned a lot :) Then there was a lot of work tutoring uni students. Then I got a temp job with a finance company. That job became permanent and I'm still here, dammit. I really don't like the job much. It's boring and I care nothing about finance. But until something else comes along, I'm stuck.

/Red out.

2). What places have you lived long enough to know them well?

2004-05-24T09:21:00.000+10:00

Well, Australia, obviously.

If we are going into specifics, not many places. I have only lived in 2 places in my life, my home-town, which is a dinky little cow-town, and Brisbane, which is really just a much bigger dinky little cow-town. A million or 2 people bigger, but still very suburban. It's great :)

In both cases I know them like a familiar room. I also know a lot about the surrounds, especially the beaches and the bush, because I am a feral nature lover. Comes with being a biologist, I guess. But I know enough small towns and wooded hills to be able to write a description well. I remember I did that once, a descriptive piece about places I had known that made an impact on me. I don't know what you would call that sort of piece. I think it's on my harddrive somewhere. Ah, here it is.

---

Looking out, looking in...

There's a road which winds among the eucalypts and emerges onto a flat grassy plain dotted with brahmen cattle. It runs along beside a creek so deep in places that you can't swim to the bottom. It winds behind a small rocky hill and past a swamp, then you walk to a lake where the swans swim in graceful flotillas and the herons stalk silently through the reed beds.

There's a well tended lawn which sweeps upwards to a granite monument, carved and stained with the names of men who fought and died far from home. Behind it a rocky desert scene is enacted on the tropical lawn and the cacti reach swollen arms to the sky in supplication to the sun.

There's a room with concrete floor and brick walls that smell of chemicals and the ghost of old dissections; where dessicated old men preach to youth about the wonders of life. On the walls are pictures of the most gruesome sort, the body slit and exposed for what it truly is, no privacy, no compassion.

There's a house with fibro walls and a fibro roof which is always hot or always cold and always small, with six rooms and a lot of dust. Within it walks the ghost of a woman who dedicated her life to raising her three children alone, and watching over her is the ghost of the man who died providing for them. Outside two geese graze in the sunlight and the trees whisper to her memory.

There's a long beach, windswept, unsheltered, where the sand makes huge and glitering piles before the ocean pulls them down again. Above the waterline the ghost crabs run and fight upon the sand and the wading birds feast upon the worms which raise their shaggy heads above the sand to check upon the tide.

There's a room with shelves of books where a shaft of sunlight makes the dust motes dance and an old and musty chair becomes a pirate ship, an english drawing room, an elven forest, another world. Where the only sound is the whisper of a thousand million words telling of what is, what was, what could be and what will never be.

There's a fabric rose that lies forgotten in a cupboard, fake dew bespattering its artificial petals. Gathering dust and shedding memories, it is a testament to the love of a boy. It lies serene and confident, knowing nothing of rejection or betrayal or dismissal. For the rose, that love will always be, though the lovers have long since grown apart and moved on.

---

Well, I was quite proud of it at the time, but that was a long time ago.

/Red out.

Crossroads: An Author Self-Interrogation

2004-05-23T10:50:00.000+10:00

On Bookworm's suggestion, I'm doing the author interrogation.

Instructions: Write out the following information about yourself in detail. The more candid and complete you are in your responses, the more resource material you will have to draw from for writing ideas. Be liberal rather than conservative in your estimation of what should be included, and leave room for further additions later. For the purpose of this exercise, there is no such thing as an insignificant experience, and reticence is inappropriate. Include specific scenes or dramatized recollections wherever possible.

1). What is your ethnic background, especially your culture experience of that ethnicity, its language, customs, foods, rituals, etc.?

Well, I'm Australian. That's a cultural black hole in itself.

We're kind of weird over here. Because of Austalia's history, we have an interesting national identity. Australia is the most multi-cultural place in the world. Simply because we have a very, very small indigenous population, i.e., the Australian aborigines. Englad colonised us only a couple of hundred years ago. And then the immigrants came. We have a huge indian, italian, greek, irish and scottish percentage of the population. Oh yes, and the bloody pommie stock, of course. On top of that, we also have a large asian population. And then there's all the little groups, the pakistani's, arabs, africans and south americans.

The best thing about Australia is, because everyone comes from somewhere else (except aforementioned aborigines), there is very little racism and bigotry here. Very, very little. Sure, some of the older Australians go on about "towel heads" and "eyeties" etc, but it's mostly whinging. Racial crimes are low to non-existant. Yes, they happen, but nowhere near as much as places like the USA.

It's really a great place to grow up in. I love it, and I would never, ever live anywhere else. It's not perfect, but at least you know that you won't wake up one morning with the secret police knocking on your door, or you won't find your home being bulldozed to make way for homes of people of another culture.

Australia's harmony is demonstrated in the fact that we've never had a civil war. The only wars we have fought have been at the bequest of our neighbours. And everyone knows Australian soldiers are the best in the world. Sure, you could say that's because we've only been a nation for 200 odd years. But really, the reason is that Australian's, in general, are far too laid back to go to war. And it's true. We are a very, very laid back people.

Language? English for me, with the delightful aussie drawl. Customs? Well, if I was a southerner, it would be the Saturday afternoon footy. But as a bona-fide tropical Queenslander (and proud of it!) I guess the custom I follow most religiously is spending time at the beach. Sand, surf, sun, it's great. And north Queensland beaches are long and broad and sandy and empty of people, except other beach-worshippers. Foods? Anything. Australia doesn't have a native cuisiene. We eat anything and everything. Rituals? Nothing formal. Maybe a tendency to be a bit relaxed about everything.

/Red out.