Step 4

Okay, so I'm going to keep working on Step One, since... well, I'm not happy with the current one. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, though to be honest I'm not all too worried - it's... really not the end of the world if I can't boil a complex story down to one sentence. A paragraph is enough, methinks.

Anyway, here is Step Four - "So now just keep growing the story. Take several hours and expand each sentence of your summary paragraph into a full paragraph. All but the last paragraph should end in a disaster. The final paragraph should tell how the book ends."

I don't know if I added a sentence or he subtracted one (looking back, he subtracted one) - That really should read that all but the first and last paragraphs should end in a disaster. It's five paragraphs long, not four. Just for the record!

Anyway, this was mostly written on the bus. I love the bus system, seriously. So good for writing - except that I'm having trouble reading my own handwriting. *sighs*

Here's the one-page summary, which most accurately (so far) lays out the story.

Gary Gray was a fairly normal first-year music major, at least as far as "normal" ever applies to a creative-arts major. He really only had one exceptional quirk; electronics had always acted strangely around him - everything from an iPod to a streetlight might turn off when he drew near. But when a transformer exploded as he walked underneath it, his powers seemed to grow - instead of accidentally turning off electronics when he walked too close to them, he could actually physically see the electricity in his grasp; it was the control that he couldn't seem to manage.

This fact makes itself all too clear when Gary, who had until this point mostly been trying to ignore his abilities, tries to be a "superhero" and save the terrified occupants of a city bus, trapped by a gunman yelling at a baby to shut up. Gary gets up and knocks the gunman's arm downwards, then - praying that, for once, his powers will work the way he wants them to - attempts to "taze" him; instead, he manages to shoot himself in the foot, and the pain causes him to unleash his power full-force and uncontrolled, igniting the gas tank at the back of the bus, killing about a dozen terrified people. He begins "training" in earnest with his adoring little brother Jesse, who eventually realizes what happened on the bus, and is torn about how to feel.

Jesse decides that the only way for Gary to properly see his improvement is to tape him demonstrating; when he later accidentally uploads it to YouTube, it goes viral; this video, combined with a third-hand account of Jesse's testimony about the bus incident is more than enough to interest the government; Gen Jared Reeves and Mjr Gen James Anderson are sent to the Gray residence to attempt to recruit Gary as a governmental assassin; unfortunately, Gary's anger and fear get the better of him, and he kills Mjr Gen Anderson.

When Gen Reeves reports this to his superiors, he is handed an ultimatum to pass on to Gary: someone of his power is 'one of us, or one of them' - Gary Gray must either join them, or be eliminated or contained, as the case may be. Gary is given a week - under as heavy governmental scrutiny as is possible for someone who can disable electronic devices with merely a thought; for the week, Gary continues to train with Jesse, only revealing the ultimatum - and his plan - as the time expires.

Gary tells Jesse that he has decided on an 'Option Three' - a government so willing to covertly execute one of its citizens due to his morality is clearly corrupt and evil, and since he'd always said that he would 'go out with a bang', he has decided to make his way to the Capitol and detonate himself, cutting the head off of the government, so to speak. Jesse relates this to Gen Reeves when he is approached the next day, and Gen Reeves decides that Jesse is the only person who Gary would be likely to trust enough to get close enough to kill him, and so he recruits Jesse, who is very willingly convinced that his brother has 'gone off the deep end'. The day of Gary's "demonstration", Jesse tags along for "added security" - and, before Gary is able to do any harm, Jesse plants a knife in his back, killing him due to a combination of rerouting the electricity and blood loss, and effectively 'containing the threat'.

I'm also thinking of calling this either Morally Gray or Shades of Gray. Thoughts?

Step 3.4

Mkay, so pretty much this is just a repost of Steps 1+2, updated to reflect the changes made through realizing I needed more than one major character.

...Also, I think Jesse is my favourite character now, though he's still not going to be the main character, per se. Looking like he will be finishing off the story, though.

Step 1, v2:

A young man's newfound abilities force him, his younger brother, and the Department of Defense into a tense display of power. AUGH THIS STILL SUCKS. Going to re-re-re-re-re-re-rewrite this. Summarizing is hard. D:

Step 2, v2:

Gary Gray was fairly unremarkable, until the day a transformer exploded above his head, seeming to grant him supernatural power over electricity - powers that were largely our of his control. When this 'gift' acts of its own accord and ignites a city bus's gas tank to get him out of a stressful and dangerous situation, though, he begins training in earnest with his younger brother, Jesse, to better control himself. A video of this training, posted to YouTube, is viewed by millions - and when Jesse talks to his boyfriend about it, it filters its way up to the government; when they come to the Gray residence in an effort to recruit Gary as a "supersoldier", he balks - and, without thinking, kills one of the government agents. At that, he is given an ultimatum from the government, seeking to contain him: work for them, or be jailed or killed. Gary, instead, chooses to "go out with a bang" and attack the government directly, an institution he now views as corrupt and evil - and they recruit none other than Jesse to take him down.

Step 3.3

See Step 3.1 for an explanation!

General Jared Reeves

One-Sentence Summary

Gary Gray is just an assignment, but Gen Reeves knows how to handle it less and less until God hands him the gift of Jesse Gray.

Motivation (Abstract)

Serve his country and its citizens (in that order).

Goal (Concrete)

Remove the threat that Gary Gray poses to the safety of millions of civilians, however possible.

Conflict:

As Gary becomes more powerful, and he looks less like a potential 'friend', and more like a 'foe', he realizes that conventional "containment"/elimination methods won't work.

Epiphany:

#1: Gary can't be used for his country, and is angry - and powerful - enough to be a threat.

#2: Jesse - a 17-year old - is probably the only person able to get close enough to "contain" that threat.

One-Paragraph Summary:

Gen Jared Reeves is handed a very strange assignment: A police report, regarding an inexplicable explosion of the back end of a city bus, killing a dozen; a note from a city mayor, giving a possible explanation - some sort of fourth- or fifth-hand account; and a YouTube URL, with a post-it attached to that sheet of paper - 'look into it'. As more intelligence comes to light, showing that the video was not, in fact, CG imagery - and, increasingly, that Gary's control is improving, he decides, with governmental approval, to attempt to recruit Mr. Gray as a 'supersoldier'. As Gary balks at this idea more and more violently - and Reeves watches as his friend and colleague, Lt Anderson, is killed - he shifts gears, instead covertly recruiting Jesse Gray to "contain" the threat that his older brother has become.

Step 3.2

See Step 3.1 for an explanation!

Jesse Gray

One-Sentence Summary

Respect for his older brother, Gary, changes to fear and anger as his brother's view of the world changes with his power.

Motivation (Abstract)

At the onset, little more than day-to-day goals and being happy; Jesse's a typical 15-year old boy, in high school.

As the story progresses, he wants to first gain his brother's approval, and then he gains his brother's zeal for needing to do the right thing.

Goal (Concrete)

Originally, gaining Gary's approval, through a sort of "sidekick" position.

Later, to right the wrongs that his brother wants to wreak on the world.

Conflict

Respect and adoration for his older brother vs. the morality of Gary's decisions; he wants little more than Gary's approval, but needs to choke that down in order to do what's right.

Epiphany

Just because Gary is his older brother, he doesn't need to support him or gain his approval; Gary is not always in the right.

One-Paragraph Summary

Jesse is the first person to believe that Gary has 'superpowers', and he's the one who posts the infamous YouTube video. When the bus that Gary is on explodes, he begins to question Gary's morality, and turns to his significant other/best friend (TBD) for comfort, as Jesse correctly guesses what happened. The SO/BF tells the guidance counselor, who tells the principal, who tells the mayor, and it's passed up the governmental ladder. Jesse feels both betrayed and like he has betrayed Jesse in turn; when Gary decides to "go out with a bang", though, Jesse realizes that he is the only person close enough to Gary to be able to stop him, and sides with the government against his older brother.

Step 3.1

Okay, so Step Three is to make a character sheet for each major character, listing off:


The character's name
A one-sentence summary of the character's storyline
The character's motivation (what does he/she want abstractly?)
The character's goal (what does he/she want concretely?)
The character's conflict (what prevents him/her from reaching this goal?)
The character's epiphany (what will he/she learn, how will he/she change?
A one-paragraph summary of the character's storyline

So I'm going to separate these into three posts, and then as Step 3.4 I'm going to post the modified versions of Steps 1 and 2, because, uh. Especially when writing Jesse's bio, I kind of went "wait, what?" like three times, haha.

So here's Gary Gray!

Gary Gray

One-Sentence Summary: As Gary's control over his heightened abilities grow, his need to do what he thinks is right battles with his government's plans for him.

Motivation (abstract): To leave the world better than it was when he entered it

Goal (concrete): Firstly, to gain control of his abilities. Secondly, to put them to work for what he believes is right.

Conflict: Initially, his inability to control his ability. As that diminishes (he gains better control over it), the government attempts to control him, and what was morally black and white begins to blur.

Epiphany: "With great power comes great responsibility" usually comes in the form of restrictions and consequences. Also, what the government does is not always morally correct.

One-Paragraph Summary: Gary's powers, jump-started when the transformer exploded above his head, get less and less uncontrollable as he works on reining them in, and the most important thing to him is to do the right thing. But between accidentally causing the bus to explode, killing a dozen people, and then being told that the Government wants to use him - essentially - as a weapon, he is less and less sure of what is right. Angry, he decides to 'go out in a blaze of glory' - and take the obviously-corrupted, evil government with him.

Snowflaking, Step Two.

Okay, so this step was a bit easier, because I was able to wax eloquent - and, as everyone from the NaNoWriMo crowd knows, that's something I've always been able to do!

Step 2) Take another hour and expand that sentence to a full paragraph describing the story setup, major disasters, and ending of the novel. ... Ideally, your paragraph will have about five sentences. One sentence to give me the backdrop and story setup. Then one sentence each for your three disasters. Then one more sentence to tell the ending.

Those two sections are from different parts of the actual "Step Two" description, but they're what I was focusing on.

Anyway, here's my own Step Two.

Gary Gray was a fairly normal first-year music major, insofar as 'normal' ever applies to a creative-arts major, with one little quirk - he'd always had a strange 'way' with electronics; anything from an iPod to a streetlight could turn off if he walked by. He'd never really given it much thought until the day a transformer exploded as he walked under it, badly burning him - and seemingly sparking a growth in the extent of this 'power', as well as urging it quickly out of control. It took a drunken man with a gun hijacking his bus to work one day to really show Gary the extent of his powers - if he'd known he could kill a dozen people with a single cry of pain, he would have reined in his powers much sooner. When he starts his unofficial 'training', however, a video winds up on YouTube - and while most of the commenters are awed by the 'amazing CG', the government is quick to realize the new weapon they possess. Given an ultimatum - a choice between killing and dying - Gary decides to make his own third option: remove himself from scrutiny, in any way possible.

Feel free to comment - there are definitely a lot of things I don't like about this, but I've always been awful at summarizing properly. I don't think this sounds like a bad length for 'back-cover copy', as he puts it, though, and it has the right amount of enticing information without giving away the ending too much. I think.

Snowflaking, Step One.

I'm going to be outlining the process towards what will hopefully be my next novel here, in case anyone care about the process! I'm hoping that I'll get some feedback that might help, but at the same time, if you'd rather just read the bloody novel and not know the major spoilers before I even write the damned thing, don't read this!

Okay? Okay.

So, step one, according to the site I found, is to Take an hour and write a one-sentence summary of your novel.

So I've been trying for a while to do that (I'm not sure if it's been an hour, but I've been trying to boil everything down to a single sentence - 15 words!? - since I was on the bus and finished A Prayer For Owen Meany)...

So far, this is what I have:

A teenager finds that power, in any form, can rarely be controlled - it tends to control you.

Okay, so it was sixteen words, but I really, really don't care. It's also as clear as mud what the story's about. That'll be clarified a bit in Step Two. Which I'm hoping to post tonight, since it's on my mind, haha.