I've realized now that everything I write is built on trust. It's the red thread tied between the reader and the writer, the connection a good writer can make. I'm trusting you judge me solely on what I write through your own interpretations, not how others say I am.
Does this sound personal? Maybe it does. Good writing should feel personal.
One thing about me is I like creating stories. The sad thing is that I've never finished writing an entire story in my life. I've dropped so many stories behind me, like Hansel and Gretel's trail of bread crumbs, ready to be gobbled up by crows. That isn't to say I haven't learned or improved. I've reread my old stuff, and to be honest, most of it was the worst crap I had ever read in my life.
There are two stories forming in my head now. I switch back and forth between the two when I get tired of one or the other. I just want to write it all down now so I can look back years from now and wonder just how the hell my mind worked back then.
The first is tentatively titled The Ecstasian Phantom. The story revolves around the idea that two complete strangers can lead strikingly parallel lives. Aurora Maciel was a beautiful yet vulnerable vocalist of the band "Her Highness" who died under mysterious circumstances. Two years later, Charlotte de Chagny, a gifted musician who was not blessed with a showman's charisma to match her talent, leads a double life as a driven high school student at Rosecrans High School and the mysterious Ecstasian Phantom at night. The mask Charlotte wears as the Phantom once belonged to Aurora, which Charlotte discovered in a wooden chest inside an unused room of Ecstasia, the city's opera-house-turned-rock-stadium. The Ecstasian Phantom appears to haunt/protect specifically the band "Her Highness," leading many to speculate that the Ecstasian Phantom is Aurora Maciel's ghost.
Of course, Charlotte has her reasons for watching over "Her Highness." After Aurora Maciel's death, "Her Highness" disbanded and the three other members split off in their separate directions. The guitarist, Rhys Faulkner, was Aurora Maciel's ex-boyfriend and is extremely skilled at the guitar, but the most impressive quality about him is his innate ability to draw energy off of a crowd, something Charlotte sorely lacks. Eventually, Charlotte learns more about Aurora Maciel through a series of interviews with the band members of "Her Highness" as journalism assignment for the school newspaper. As the Ecstasian Phantom, she plays pranks on other bands and eventually manages to bring "Her Highness" back together. Charlotte manages to keep her identity a secret, though two others discover her secret as the story progresses. As she grows closer to Rhys at school, Charlotte is torn between her respect for Aurora and her growing fondness for Rhys.
And I already decided how the story ends, which is remarkable for someone who loses interest in things so easily as me. But I refuse to give away anymore, just in case I actually manage getting around publishing this story online.
The second story is far from being as fully fleshed out as The Ecstasian Phantom. So far, the project is being referred to as Alexisabelle. The two heroines of the story are Alexis and Isabelle, who I have yet to develop into solid characters. Basically, the story is loosely based on my slowly deteriorating friendship with Rose Mortmain. Of course, my life is not nearly dramatic enough for my standards, so I've thrown in a lot more drama into the plot. Alexis and Isabelle were very good childhood friends, though each harbored specific insecurities concerning the other. Alexis is attractive in her own unconventional way; she is not beautiful but her personality is rather ambition-driven and forceful. Isabelle, on the other hand, is a natural beauty with a sweet temperament.
Alexis is rather sore about Isabelle's beauty - Isabelle is always the first one people notice or the one who receives special treatment. Because natural beauty is a quality you're either born with or without, Alexis cannot help but feel inferior to her best friend. She guiltily thinks of Isabelle as being born with an advantage. Isabelle, however, admires Alexis' strong personality and tries to emulate that sort of confidence whenever she feels stressed or pressured. Their friendship gradually falls apart as Isabelle is drawn toward the glamorous yet dark world of modeling and superficiality while Alexis stubbornly sees this as an act of betrayal.
The rest of the plot is up in the air so far. The tentative idea is that Alexis and Isabelle's lives run off in separate paths before reuniting in the end. I've toyed with the idea that Alexis runs away from home, abandoning her previous ambitions for Ivy League universities and whatnot, and rebuilds her own identity separate from Isabelle's. Isabelle will have a relatively successful career as a model until she naively falls in love with a gorgeous yet troubled young man (his profession remains undecided), who eventually becomes so mentally disturbed he begins to abuse her. His condition gradually worsens and in the end he threatens to kill her. As of now, I have yet to decide just how Isabelle manages to escape and how I should bring their lives back together.
One thing the story will centralize on though, is once again, Identity. Alexisabelle's friendship is built on a series of letters quite similar to the ones I wrote with Rose Mortmain as Juliet Kitteridge. The two friends refer to each other with alter-ego pen names through their letters. Though the letters end as they drift apart, the names remain a part of them as they go off their separate directions. Alexis follows her dream to be an author; but I have yet to decide whether she uses her pen name after she runs away from home or whether she uses it as her pen name for her books (yes, confusing, I know). Isabelle legally changes her name to her pen name in an attempt to evade her former lover who is bent on killing her.
I like stories whose central characters grow throughout the story. Thus, Alexis develops her own sense of identity separate from Isabelle and redefines her idea of beauty. Isabelle discovers courage as she struggles in a torrential fight for her life. Charlotte from The Ecstasian Phantom learns how to let loose on stage and perform like a star.
Of course, all this is a matter of whether I manage to actually put the story down on paper now, isn't it?
1 comment:
i remember those letters. they were as good writing should be. beautiful, and personal. little did i know until later on were snatches and bits stolen from song lyrics. how rock & roll
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