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McAnally's (The Community Pub) => Author Craft => Topic started by: Nickeris86 on April 21, 2010, 09:20:20 PM
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i have two books that i am working on right now, one is an urban fantasy series, the other is a science fiction piece.
i have more done on the science fiction piece because i turned the first two chapters in as an assignment for my creative writing fiction class. it needs a lot of revision but I'll worry about that latter. i have however hit a wall in the stories progression. i know where i want the character to end up but getting him there is proving difficult.
my issue is that aliens have resiliently made peaceful contact with the nations of earth and are asking inviting everyday people to become ambassadors for earth so that the aliens can see if we are ready to deal with being part of their big intergalactic government thingy.
any way the problem i am having is that my main character is the definition of average, so that means he has a loving family on earth that he has to say good bye too, and i have no idea how to go about having him say good bye to his entire family, possibly forever, while he goes off and lives with a bunch of aliens. i have no frame of reference for that in my personal life.
basically i need some help in figuring out how to get this guy off earth and having parted ways with his family on good but sad terms. any help will be much appreciated.
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... i have no idea how to go about having him say good bye to his entire family, possibly forever, while he goes off and lives with a bunch of aliens. i have no frame of reference for that in my personal life. basically i need some help in figuring out how to get this guy off earth and having parted ways with his family on good but sad terms. any help will be much appreciated.
There are several classic sci fi works that do this, but it's better to go to an original source and this one is unfortunately an easy one. Check your area for troops being deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. Usually there is a large publicly announced community event for troops, families, community neighbors. Just show up with a notebook, a tape recorder, and a box of tissues. Find a quite corner of the bleachers and just be there. The emotion, the dialog, and the facts will drip from the walls and the light fixtures. If you don't get enough, I'm sure you will find people who are willing to talk about it with you in their homes after the event is over.
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Dude.
You get to write a story about a wake where the person being waked is present.
You can even include all the snide cr8p people store up for years.
"You conceited putz, I've hated you since you tore my doll at age six".
"I never liked your nose".
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Dude.
You get to write a story about a wake where the person being waked is present.
You can even include all the snide cr8p people store up for years.
"You conceited putz, I've hated you since you tore my doll at age six".
"I never liked your nose".
BRILLIANT!
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Dude.
You get to write a story about a wake where the person being waked is present.
You can even include all the snide cr8p people store up for years.
"You conceited putz, I've hated you since you tore my doll at age six".
"I never liked your nose".
ummm yeah that does sound like a fun story but i am not sure what that has to do with my current dilemma?
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ummm yeah that does sound like a fun story but i am not sure what that has to do with my current dilemma?
Everything, if that's the way you decide he's to say good-bye.
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doesn't really fit with the story. he's leaving the planet he's not dead, and he is only saying good by to his emdiat family. mom, dad, little sister, dogs
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any way the problem i am having is that my main character is the definition of average, so that means he has a loving family on earth that he has to say good bye too, and i have no idea how to go about having him say good bye to his entire family, possibly forever, while he goes off and lives with a bunch of aliens. i have no frame of reference for that in my personal life.
Why did he choose to go with the aliens ? What are his reasons, and how much of his family agree with them ? Or did he choose at all ?
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Why did he choose to go with the aliens ? What are his reasons, and how much of his family agree with them ? Or did he choose at all ?
he went with them cause his life was boring. he had just been fired from his dead end job, he graduated collage but there were no opportunities for him to get a better job. his love life was non extant and he was really just having a really really bad day. when the offer came he didn't so much jump at the chance, he mulled it over, but how often do you get asked to go into space and learn about an alien culture and society. basically this is his travel abroad faze that some college students go through after graduation, only for him its the cosmos.
his parents are supportive of his decision in the since that they are going to miss him but they do think that its an opertunity that he can't pass up. i just have no idea how to vocalize their actual conversation.
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doesn't really fit with the story. he's leaving the planet he's not dead,
That's exactly the point. If he were dead, it would be a real wake and people would be too de mortuis nil nisi bonum to come out with spiteful stuff.
and he is only saying good by to his emdiat family. mom, dad, little sister, dogs
If that's how you want to play it.
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Have his little sister get really pissed at him, mainly because he is leaving, but partly because she can't go with him. She has a screaming/crying hissy fit.
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doesn't really fit with the story. he's leaving the planet he's not dead, and he is only saying good by to his emdiat family. mom, dad, little sister, dogs
For all practical purposes, it's the same thing as dying: he's gone, never to come back. If there are long-standing familial issues, a lot of people would see that as the perfect time to air them.
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That's exactly the point. If he were dead, it would be a real wake and people would be too de mortuis nil nisi bonum to come out with spiteful stuff.
OK, your cultural context for "wakes" must be very different from mine.
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You could look at some history books. Lots of cultures (esp Irish) threw similar wakes for loved ones when they were emigrating to Amercia as it was considered a one way trip .
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no wakes. there are time restraints and he is not of a wake popular culture. i just need help in how to say an emotional farewell right before he walks onto the ship.
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OK, your cultural context for "wakes" must be very different from mine.
Probably.
Where I'm from the boys get a 3-day ox roast when they go into the army, a bigger party than their wedding when (if) they come back.
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it depends will he be pining for his family during the rest of the story .If not an overly emtional exit wouldn't sit well
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it depends will he be pining for his family during the rest of the story .If not an overly emtional exit wouldn't sit well
I was thinking that the goodbye might actually affect the overall tone of his thinking about humanity during his absence, and affect his conduct.
Possibly to the point that the aliens notice divergence from his fit into whatever criteria they used to pick samples in the first place.
The goodbye scene itself could certainly be used to show who does and who doesn't have faith in the alien system at that time point.
I include faith to bring 'their boy' back and faith that the information gained by the aliens will be used ethically and faith that 'their boy' will live up to expectations.
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Did U try a military send off for real feel and real conversations? We've just had two in IA. Midwest is full of them. Or try role play.
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Did U try a military send off for real feel and real conversations? We've just had two in IA. Midwest is full of them. Or try role play.
i have considered military send off but with my current living situation it would be impossible to go one right now. i think the closest military port is a couple hundred miles away from where i am going to school at the moment.
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So you want a "Happy, but Sad " departure from this particular scene.
In my opinion, (again, it's just that and nothing else, I'm just putting this out there, and hopefully get some feedback that we can all work with here.) I think the 'sad' part won't be an issue; it's the getting his family "happy" about leaving. Which I think their happiness hinges on how realistic are the chances of him coming back to earth. So how REAL is that chance?
You've made it very clear that there is a REAL chance of him being gone forever. I don't/can't see a family walking away 'happy' with 'low to remote' odds presented to them. I see closure at best.
how about these angles to help shape the parting conversation;
1.) Maybe he knows for sure he won't be coming back, but told his family otherwise? (sad for him, happy for them )
2.) Maybe someone in the immediate family has a military background, who has deployed before. This would set the family up to being 'used' to this in a sense, may not result in them being happy about it, but they would have some sense of closure or understanding about it all.
3.) What setting is the departure scene taking place? Will it be in front of a transport ship? in the living room as he's leaving the house with his stuff? The location might play into the emotional value as well. "Home is where the heart is." Might be more emotional saying goodbye to a child as they leave the house they grew up in vs. watching them walk on a transport ship bound for space.
Anybody else see something that could help the dialogue or setting for his scene?
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So you want a "Happy, but Sad " departure from this particular scene.
In my opinion, (again, it's just that and nothing else, I'm just putting this out there, and hopefully get some feedback that we can all work with here.) I think the 'sad' part won't be an issue; it's the getting his family "happy" about leaving. Which I think their happiness hinges on how realistic are the chances of him coming back to earth.
Well, could you play it as him getting to leave Earth in this way is a huge honour which his family think is just totally awesome, enough that even though they miss him they are still overjoyed at him getting to do it ?
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Well, could you play it as him getting to leave Earth in this way is a huge honour which his family think is just totally awesome, enough that even though they miss him they are still overjoyed at him getting to do it ?
This is what I was getting at when I questioned whether the family thinks the boy will live up to alien expectations.
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i don't really want a happy good bye, as many of you have mentioned a military type send off works. that's what i am shooting for that they aren't happy about him leaving the planet but they are proud of him at the same time, for being part of of something greater than himself.
you guys have all been a great help.
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The USO is not just for Entertainment. They provide services and support to the families of those who have shipped out. Perhaps they have message boards like this where people will talk about their send offs and what it was like for them if you are respectful and ask from a research for writing point of view?
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Also you don't have to resolve all in the one scene . You can having him going over the goodbye and regret what he said and what he should have said .Or he can write "letters " back to his family with lines like I wish I could say this to you face to face .Also allows you to info dump on your audience a bit as well
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uhm, as my grandmother used to say. Time to get off the pot and simply write. Let us know how it goes. You'll find a way as you work with it.
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When I joined up in the army I left half of my family like a thief in the night because I did not like them, only leaving an answering machine message. To those I loved I told them "I am leaving, I am doing what I feel is right. I could stay here, but I feel I must do something greater with my life. I love you all, but I am doing this for more than just me. I am doing this for you, for me and for others. We will meet again. I don't know when yet, but we will. Now I go on to glory." Or something like that. I got plastered before I told the people I cared about good bye.