Christopher Louis's Blog, page 18

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Some pictures from my recent trip to the Great Smoky Mountains.

Some pictures from my recent trip to the Great Smoky Mountains.

Enjoying a relaxing trip to the Great Smoky Mountains!

Enjoying a relaxing trip to the Great Smoky Mountains!

Spent my lunch hour actually handwriting some ideas for a brand...

Spent my lunch hour actually handwriting some ideas for a brand new story. I wasn’t sure how it was going to go, but once I started, it was hard to stop me. My handwriting got worse as I went on as I was trying to get as much down as I possibly could.

Wore my kilt to a family wedding tonight.

Wore my kilt to a family wedding tonight.

9:44 pm

I officially submitted Pierce The Psyche to the Copyright office. It should take about 2 months for it go through and as long as there is nothing else I need to do, I should be able to get it out by the end of the year! I have to admit to being a little nervous sending it off. Oddly, I feel a little more guarded (or maybe protective??) about this story. The important thing though is that I didn’t hesitate - I let it go. It will soon lead me further along my path.

#11 - 13

#11. Ben’s idea to get his grandmother’s name tattooed on his wrist was based on my own desire to have my Grandmother’s name tattooed on my wrist. It had been a dream of mine for a very long time. That fact that I mention Ben and his grandmother having such a deep bond was totally inspired by my own relationship with my grandma. In fact I even used her maiden name for Ben’s grandma. 

I did not get my grandma’s name as a tattoo, as years later my mom battled cancer and I saw strengths and courage in her that I had never seen in anyone before. When she passed I decided to honor her with one. I look at it every day and remember the amazing person she was and who I miss terribly. After I got it done, I was thinking about needing something slightly more for the ending and a friend recommended, why not have David get one with Ben’s name; I knew that was what was missing. Though he is moving on with his life, he still has Ben with him in some small, but significant way.

 

#12. The scene at the mini-golf was one of the easiest to write, but also one of the most emotionally draining for me. Easiest? Yes, because I found it exhilarating for these two characters to finally stand up and declare who and what they were in a public place without shame and with the support of their friends. Ben’s love for David was so strong that he quickly blocks him from Karen’s attacks, and forces her to see the truth. This was powerful, full of meaning, and right from the heart. It flowed so easily for me.

Afterwards though, knowing what this meant and what the outcome would be drained me. I knew that this was the pivotal moment when I had to stay the course and do what I felt needed to be done. It am incredibly proud of that scene and what I accomplished, but it also pains me. I was letting one of my characters die - a character that had become very dear to me. I had to let him go, and I felt that loss.

#13. The final part of the story is filled with lots of sadness and, in a very real way, an ending. However, I don’t truly feel that the story’s end is final - to me it about a “new beginning” (which for a short time was the tentative title of the story). These characters are now facing a road ahead of them that they could never foresee, yet, there is hope. Having David ask Nic to accompany him was something that I debated for a long time because I didn’t want it to feel that these two would eventually end up together. I wanted to show the strength of the bond they made and how by being there for each other, David could find peace in his life. It was about the strength of friendship.

Oops! Apparently I forgot to share #9

Normally, when I start a project I have a basic idea and premise of what I want the story to be - a teen coming of age, or a sci-fi drama. I don’t like to think about how it is going to end, but instead, I want the story to evolve organically and let it tell me how it is going to end. However, Half A Life was the first story that from the very beginning I knew what was going to happen to wrap up the story. Knowing that was incredibly hard because I first had to work backwards; I had a concept, now I needed to fill in the blanks with how to get there. That was when I started looking at some of my old notes and found my abandoned adult fiction story. Re-reading those notes, I suddenly thought, why not use some of this to get a start. It worked, but still it was hard to build up these characters, that were becoming very dear to me, to the point that the story was going to reach the inevitable conclusion without giving to much foreshadowing so that the reader would be as surprised as the characters were. I don’t know if I could always working like that, but in this case I think it worked perfectly.

#10

Half a Life doesn’t have any chapters - instead it is told in three parts. From the very beginning I knew that I wanted to have the story told by different characters and originally thought that each time I switched to another character that would be a new chapter. At first this worked out okay until I started adding in other characters whose story wasn’t as full, but was there to add depth and a slightly different voice. I didn’t like that some chapters could then end up being only 2-3 pages. I tried playing around with how chapters fell into place and nothing sat right with me. As I started looking at the story as a whole I saw it as three essential parts - before - during - after. Once I saw that it made sense for the story to be told in parts rather than chapters. I don’t think it would have worked any other way.

#8

I’ve been asked several times if there is a character that is based entirely on me. While it is true that I allowed a great deal of myself to come through in the story (I mean, how else can I explain how I managed to include Wonder Woman, Dynasty, and my hatred of Whitney Houston into the story). I also used inspiration from events in my own life, but there is not one character that is based on me. Instead I tried to impart different parts of myself into several of the characters. Ben, for example is more of my serious side. The fact that he writes is totally me; though I have never been good at keeping a journal. Plus the way he goes about reading, and seeking out information when he accepts that he is gay, is what I did before I ever shared it with anyone. The way David pulls into himself at the end is exactly how I have dealt with losses in my life. I want to be alone and keep to myself or only be with one or two people. I also like to think that his joking spirit comes from me - I love a good laugh. The love and friendship of Ben, David, and Sarah is so much inspired by my own relationship with my best friend Teri. As for Nic, I think he was the easiest to write because as the older character he saw things differently than the boys did and used his experiences to grow from. He’s more like me today that as I was as a teen.