Quirky stuff can be a real pain in the old arse…
I mean, characters with certain…endearing qualities, or things about them….or situations that don’t add a hell of a lot to the story, really, or are just there to add some flash, some chrome, to the world…
As a reader, those things are fine – the character quirks are fine, if they do indeed make the character endearing, or interesting, or something more than some kind of a goddamn charicature or cliche. And the flash & chrome is fine too – it can definitely improve the story…if you’re the reader…..
On the other hand, if you’re the writer, they can be a nightmare – one more thing to keep track of, one more thing to stay on top of, one more thing that keeps you from telling the story….
I’ve been giving this a lot of thought because of one aspect in the first draft of Night and Day. No, I’m not actually working on it yet, just thinking about it, in those idle moments of the day (driving to and from work, sitting out on the patio at work puffing my pipe, etc.)
I had this idea of having humans working for vampires being tattooed – big, bright, colorful tattoos on the sides of their neck – a status symbol and a symbol of “”ownership”” – they were employed by vampires, so “”don’t mess with my property”” (hence the tattoos on the neck – FangsBGone.)
So that’s all fine, and on the first page, I talk about the people with tatts, as they’re called – moving through the people on the street in an invulnerable glide, the swinging, hip, top-of-the-human-foodchain people with good jobs and social status. But then I have to keep talking about tatts – who has ’em, who doesn’t – what they look like – why one person has ’em, another doesn’t – what about cops – is their uniform enough or do they need a tatt as well, for off-duty.
What a pain in the ass – frankly, I kind of lost interest in it all before the first couple of chapters were written – and you really don’t hear much about tatts again in the rest of the story. So why the hell keep the concept?
I dunno – I still kind of like the idea, but it clearly needs some reworking – either I have to pay more attention to them, or perhaps less – either way, keep it consistant – if I’m going to talk about the damn things in the beginning, then I better be mentioning them all the way through. Jury is still out on what I’m gonna do…
And then there’s good ol’ Charlie Welles, ye olde hero – Charlie has two tatts – one on the left side that’s actually a “”bond mark””, which is a step up from a tatt, and one of the right, the Great Seal of the administrative Area the story takes place in. Of course, being a private detective, Charlie doesn’t necessarily want to be flashing these tatts around when he’s undercover, or on a case, pretending not to be a private detective.
So he has a gizmo – the tatts are visible in normal light to vampires, but humans can’t see them unless a light with a special frequency is shined on them. I call it a redlight. Charlie shoves it in his pocket at the end of Chapter 1, I think, and actually uses it to show off his stylin’ tatts in Chapter 2 – then his situation changes, nobody gives a good goddamn about his tatts, and we never hear about them or the gizmo again.
Another pain in the ass – he’s got to carry around this little thang and whip it out when needed – bringing everything to a halt as everyone ooo’s and ahhh’s over the tatts. Screw that.
I might keep some aspect of the idea, but again, the jury is out. Does it add anything to the story, to Charlie, anything for the reader? Right now, I’d have to say no. Perhaps with some reworking, I might be able to salvage some part of it, but right now I can’t say.
The rewrites are going to be lots of fun. I can tell…..
Cinematically speaking, watched Steven King’s Maximum Overdrive last night – hadn’t seen it in many years, and yeah, it sucks, but so what – it’s mindless, loud entertainment, and that’s what I was looking for – and the trailer, where King himself points and promises, quite forcefully I must say, “”I’m gonna scare the hell out of you”” is priceless. Tonight it’s Robert Rodriguez’s The Faculty (didn’t realize Rodriguez had directed it until recently – when I found out, decided to check it out) and after that, Wasabi, written by Luc Besson and staring the incomparable Jean Reno – should be lots of fun.
