10/22/23
Committing to the Story
This is number thirty-three in the blog series, “My Life in Erotica.” I encourage you to join my Patreon community so I can afford to keep writing.
I’M SITTING HERE with a dozen story ideas that I have written a logline for. I’ve written a pitch for each logline. Some are pretty good. How do I go about deciding what to pursue?
With great difficulty. I mentioned a few weeks ago that for me, writer’s block is often the result of too many ideas trying to worm their way out of my head at the same time. Which will get my attention?
First, I read through all the loglines again, including the ones that I generated long after the blog post on loglines was first drafted back in September. Some of those loglines just leave me cold. For example:
Girl escapes from father’s incestuous intentions, taking a few precious items, and finding work in a neighboring city as a housekeeper, until the owner of the house falls in love.
I wrote that logline based on the German fairy tale “Allerleiruah” or “All-Kinds-Of-Furs.” I just didn’t like the implications of the first part of the story. In some versions, the father actually rapes his daughter. The only interesting part of it was how she found her future husband by being disguised and appearing at dances he gave, then disappearing again as a scullery maid. So, I separated that part out as a concept that I’d keep, but discarded the rest of the pitch.
Then there was this one:
Youngest son stumbles through a quest, succeeding where his older and smarter brothers failed, arousing jealousy and treachery as they attempt to take what he has won.
I didn’t want to deal with magic in this year’s story. I have no problem with magic as I’ve used it in other stories, like Nathan Everett’s Steven George & The Dragon, available on Bookapy.com. It’s also a magic quest fairy tale. I’ll probably do a magic story again, but this one just sounded trite. It was based on the fairy tale, “The Golden Bird.” I did like the surprise revelation of who the fox was and filed that idea away.
Young woman is caught in a lust-inflamed dream, not realizing her dream-lover is the flesh-and-blood enemy her family has sworn to kill.
I threw out the entire concept of this creeper story which is based on John Keats’ narrative poem, “The Eve of St. Agnes.” But there was a technique he used that I really liked. The entire first five stanzas were about an ‘ancient Beadsman’ praying for sinners as he apparently dies on an ash heap. The sole purpose of this prologue seems to be to set the background scene for what is to occur. And in the last stanza of the poem, we find him finally sleeping or dead on his bed of ashes having prayed for a thousand sinners. I filed that technique away and decided I’d like to include a bookend for this year’s NaNovel. Here’s another I found appealing:
Man interprets a woman’s romantic attention as a thinly-veiled attempt to gain control of his business, but his attempts to rebuff her constantly lead them closer to each other.
I liked this twist on the billionaire next door theme and decided to keep the concept of a romance made difficult because of the difference in economic class of the two people—possibly even employment. I felt I needed a real reason for them to be thrown together, though, and developed a further construct. She, not knowing he is all that rich, falls for the guy at table three in the little diner and constantly gives him little touches, extras on his plate, and her best smile. It never occurs to her that anyone who was really rich would eat at the hole-in-the-wall restaurant.
Socially awkward genius inventor hides behind his CEO’s charisma to manage company, all the while being ridiculed for his stupidity and incompetence.
I liked this general theme and set up, but it needs something besides their public personae to make it work. Can’t just be the charismatic vs. the socially awkward unless there is some kind of critical point at which the socially awkward one has to rise above his phobia in order to win both the business and the girl.
So—drumroll, please—here’s what I’ve arrived at for NaNoWriMo 2023.
Woman stranded in a new town after a short and bitter divorce waits tables in a diner where she meets the man of her dreams; but he is a socially inept recluse constantly on guard against gold diggers. When the two are thrown together, mistrust and misunderstanding nearly destroy any chance of a relationship.
The Pitch
When Erin’s divorce was finalized, she had little hope and no prospects. The sole bright spot in her week was the poor fellow who came into the diner on Thursdays and became her regular customer. She had no idea who he was, but of all her customers, he was the one who treated her kindly. She’d never really seen his face, because he kept a hoodie sweatshirt pulled over his eyes and only removed his mask while his head was down and he was eating.
Preston only got out of his penthouse office/apartment once a week. His hoodie and facemask kept him from being recognized as the billionaire creative genius behind JeriCorp Architects. He found Erin’s simple attention to be refreshing, and it enabled him to overcome his shyness and anxiety so that they actually shared a few sentences of conversation when he came in. Of course, she was too pretty to be interested in him as more than a customer. And if she knew who he really was, it would skew the relationship out of whack.
When Erin says she is going to apply for a better job, Preston encourages her, wishing her well. Neither has any idea that the job she will get will throw the two of them together as she becomes his personal assistant. But the mask mandate and change of venue keeps either one from recognizing the other.
Preston is forced into a situation where he must make a public presentation—something he has always avoided by having a president who was handsome and charismatic and was the public face of JeriCorp. When Preston predictably freezes during the presentation, Erin steps in to complete it and sell the project. The cost, however, is recognition of one another. Preston is convinced she was stalking him, especially when his president’s wife accuses her of having an affair with her husband.
Erin quits and leaves his office, but Preston’s mother berates him for losing such a wonderful woman who was obviously in love with him.
Will Preston be in time to stop Erin from leaving town? And if he is in time, is there any hope the two will find their way back together?
Not perfect yet? Well, that’s what November is for!
Of course, now I’m excited to start writing right away, but there are still steps and it’s not November yet. Since this is all about planning the novel, next week I’ll talk about “Creating an Outline.”
Please feel free to send comments to the author at devon@devonlayne.com.
