good er, morning everyone. I didn't think I would stay up after 4 a.m. but... I did!
Leslie (MaineWriter) proposed the Laramie Saga Rereading to begin today, so that those who did not get a chance to discuss the early books, would have a forum to do so as a focused rereading. (While you all wait for me to write the next story!)
I think it is a capital idea (as Jeevesy would say) and I'll get the ball rolling.
I started "Taking Chances" and conceived it as something along the same size and scope as my first BBM fan fic "A Warm Wind Blows"
http://louisev.livejournal.com/446.htmlwhich is a short story in 9 brief chapters. At that time I posted on another forum "I do not believe Ennis would ever have a relationship with somebody else after Jack's death." I wrote that, I believe, on the 24th of April.
And I woke up on the 3rd of May and had conceived how Ennis might go about doing this exact thing. And so he walked in the door of a semi-private Billiard Club advertised in a magazine he read at the library: The Red Stallion.
But Ellery, soon to be the main love interest of the story - is nowhere to be seen. My original concept for the story was Ennis would go to the bar, a young pup (Pete, who now has no spleen) would throw himself bleeding and dirty into his arms, and Ennis would come face to face with the ugly realities of the Queer World... help the kid out, learn about the dirty underside of closeted relationships, and make a friend of Pete. Then bid a hasty back to Riverton, profoundly shaken, but wiser from the knowledge that there are other queer men in the world, and that he is not alone. (End of story.)
But that isn't what happened. Ennis had other ideas, and so did Bill. (And so did Pete.)
I don't know if this is of interest at all, but judging from how differently the story unfolded from the way my original plan was, I write purely from inspiration, and that is partly why I do not like to make my living at it. I have been a professional writer in a deadline-oriented environment - and I will tell you right now, it sucks. The entire joy of writing and sharing that writing, is to be uplifted by an inspiration and barrel away at 140 words a minute... and twenty pages later - there is a character there, with a life, and a problem, and a plot, telling me how it is going to be next.
And that is how the Laramie Saga happened.
Topic: Taking Chances, by E. L. Van Hine and L.H. Nicoll (Read 3126278 times)