Dakini ACTION Late Shift

23:36 / 29.07.07

I'm thinking that the apparent crime itself will be shown at the beginning, but there will be more to it, and all that. I'm trying to experiment a little bit with how I put it all together. Ultimately it'll probably veer more into character-driven territory.

But we'll see if it works. I've never written detective fiction before, so this is all new and experimental to me.

23:40 / 29.07.07

I'm a bit too fond of writing characters who figure things out without letting the audience/reader in on how they worked it. This is not good for detective stories.

23:52 / 29.07.07

This is part of the reason this first draft is all plot mechanics....let's me work the mysteries so I know what clues to set up and how my detective would solve it.

Hello Everybody!

So is it more in the Holmes mode or the Spade/Marlowe mold? Or, Dirk Gently?

23:58 / 29.07.07

Dirk & Marlowe, by way of Poiroit.

23:58 / 29.07.07

Hey, Venger! How's by you, then?

00:08 / 30.07.07

Im good. Well except for the fact that my favorite fast food restaurant closed a few months ago for what I thought was renovations but they reopened today under a new name and the food is horrid. I still have dreams about the poutine they used to serve. It had the best taste anywhere. Ofcourse, the fact is they closed down after numerous health code violations. But I'd risk my health for gravy like that! Although, truth be told, eating poutine in itself is a health hazzard.

00:13 / 30.07.07

Ah, poutine...always better in theory than practice.

00:19 / 30.07.07

No, you dont understand how good this poutine was. It was good in theory and practice. If Crowley had tried it,just once, he would have written Poutine in Theory and Practice. Its that amazing!

00:26 / 30.07.07

Though, if Crowley had written such a book he would have implied heavily that only he had attained the pedigree necessary to perform such poutinnanical acts.

Ok. Now we're cracking with the story.

00:30 / 30.07.07

Of course, now that it is no more, all I, and Papers, have is the theory of it. And, you, the memory. Kinda sad, that.

00:30 / 30.07.07

(page eight already? This shift used to be just a baby MERE DAYS AGO. We'll need to birth a fresh one soon)

00:34 / 30.07.07

This has certainly been the fastest shift in recent memory. I think it was the discovery that much can be posted about food and alcohol, sometimes in connection with work and wanting to get out of it.

00:37 / 30.07.07

Yes, Im quite pleased with the amount of interaction going on in the last few lateshifts.

On one possible bright note, myneighbour knows the owner of the old place so Im going to see if he can get the gravy recipe for me. mmmm graaaavy.

00:41 / 30.07.07

To get inspiration, I'm reading one of my favourite short stories, Daniel Handler's "Delmonico." It's from the Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories anthology McSweeney's put out a while ago. Handler being Lemony Snicket, of course, when he's writing grown-up stuff under his own name.

00:46 / 30.07.07

I've never read any of his work, but I have seen the Lemony Snicket movie, which I enjoyed. Mostly for its lack of Robin Williams.

00:50 / 30.07.07

I like his grown-up work. "Delmonico" is a little pulpy mystery story, a nice little set piece.

00:58 / 30.07.07

Having read some of the Lemony stuff, I think he'd almost have to be better writing for an adult market. In a market where he could cut a bit looser, anyway.

I'm trying to come up with interesting notes for future developments and adjustments, but the Warren Zevon isn't to help, so much as help keep sane. Also, a small part of me wants the Robin Hoody Grace Jones-a-like to sing 'Poor, poor pitiful me' lounging in an oak tree just outside the city of orphans. Other parts of me know it ain't gonna happen.

00:59 / 30.07.07

just make it a prophetic dream squence.

01:01 / 30.07.07

That's very good advice.

01:05 / 30.07.07

[M]ake it a prophetic dream squence.

That's the punchline to a joke that starts: 'So, Moses, Jacob, and a duck walk into this bar...' right?

And, yes, good advice.

01:08 / 30.07.07

I'm still debating whether the solution to the mystery involving mild bestiality implications is better than the collegiate backstabbing solution. Hrm.

01:20 / 30.07.07

When in doubt, always bring in farm animals.

01:22 / 30.07.07

It worked for Goerge Orwell.

01:22 / 30.07.07

That's gonna come back to haunt you, Venger. At a very important juncture. Or a very funny one, anyway.

01:23 / 30.07.07

We'll see. This scene I'm writing is very awkward. I have some inkling of a heated interview scene for next, but we'll have to see how this one ends.

01:23 / 30.07.07

The barnyard, I mean, not the Orwell.

Although, really, if you can make the murder Orwell-related, possibly with Orwell - predeceased - a suspect...

01:28 / 30.07.07

That's not half-bad.

It goes well with the very large picture of Lincoln hanging in the crime scene.

01:35 / 30.07.07

I thought Lincoln was shot, not hung.

01:37 / 30.07.07

That's what they want you to think, Venger.

I'd love a headline that read: Accidentally Killed While They Were Busy Hanging Lincoln.

01:39 / 30.07.07

Family Guy keeps distracting me.

I'm trying to incorporate some very light steampunk elements into the setting....thoughts?

01:43 / 30.07.07

Instead of a car, the main character travels by hot air balloon.

01:49 / 30.07.07

That's it, I think. Rather than coming up with a showcase steampunky item, just swap stuff out that already appear in the story. Car/Dirigible, coal powered heat or air conditioning at the hotel, or, y'know, a steam fountain pen.