NANOWRIMO B/V: Riley and Deac

November is almost over and I'm behind in the NaNoBlog!

Ok, fine, not really, but I should have posted about NaNo last week but was so crazed I forgot, so this week y'all get a twofer because--I'm awesome. Yeah.

The leading lady in any show I write tends to be both a firebrand and have the ability to be vulnerable. Because, let's face it, this two things are built into feminine DNA and there's nothing we can do about it. That's my opinion, anyway.

When the world does eventually blow up, it's nice to have someone who can always make the day a little brighter, fight for all she's worth, and never ever give up, no matter how much others try to break her.

Yes, that is the type of person Riley is. One of those amazing people who believes in things with every fiber of her being, and will do whatever it takes to do the right thing. And of course, she has to have a celebrity model who can carry that personality out.

Last year, I saw a movie called "Tracers", which was about a heist carried out via parkour. If you know me--or you've read this blog for a while--you know one of my weird obsessions is parkour...probably because I don't have the hand-eye coordination or athletic ability to do it, but whatever.  And one of the stars in this movie was Marie Avergapolous:
                                                                  

 Truthfully, I really wish I could see more of her work(I know she's in "The 100", but I mean things besides that). She has the ability to be fierce, fun, and fiery, yet also vulnerable when the occasion called for it. In other words, the perfect fit for Riley.

Besides a friend(Riley) the other thing a protagonist inevitably has is a mentor. Someone who can tell it like it is, and has seen what's happened--or what's going to happen--and prep the protagonist for whatever's to come(thank you Joseph Campbell). In the case of "B/V", he also has a dry sense of humor and a streak of sarcasm a mile wide. I'll even admit there are pieces of his persona that belong to some of my relatives, which adds to the fun. His name is Deac, and he's also one of my personal favorite characters.

So who's the best celebrity candidate to portray this character in my head? Actually, it wasn't that difficult to figure out; because about the time I pulled "B/V" out of my head and began putting it on paper a film got released, with an actor I had never heard of before. This film was actually this guy's film debut. He blew people away--and not just because of who he's related to. Who is this guy?  O'Shea Jackson Jr.

 

                                                                         Deac has been hurt in more ways than one. He's lost people, so he's ultra protective of those he's still got. The one thing he has no doubt about is the hatred be feels for the Agency who started tagging people in the first place.  Sarcasm is his defense mechanism along with dry humor. Based on what I've already seen, there's not doubt in my mind this guy could pull off Deac--if, that is, pigs could fly and he'd ever say yes. A girl can dream, right?

NANOWRIMO B/V: Jason

Those of you who have followed me for a while know what this means. Every NaNo, I get to share with y'all the celeb models I have in my head for each character. Because that happens to be my writer's quirk.

At the center of every story, you have the protagonist--the one who asks the questions and is a conduit for the readers and the audience members. Jason has grown up in a world where every thought, action and word is known by the Agency. Jason is actually being trained as an Agent, but he has questions that aren't answered by the Agency, so they'll have to be answered by someone else.

Once upon a time, I saw a film called ATL. It was your typical coming of age story, and being a sucker for these kind of things, of course I bought it. In this film, there was an actor--who is also a singer(and married to a singer). ATL was his first film, followed by According to Greta and....MOCKINGJAY. Know who it is yet? Does this help?

                                                      

This is Evan Ross. And yes, he's the perfect match for Jason. He's fiery, he's got that awesome glare down, and, his smile isn't too bad either. Plus, I'd love to see him with the rest of my cast--which is forthcoming. I promise!

NaNoWriTakeover: 2017: B/V

IIIIIIIT'S NANO TIME, Y'ALL!!!!

                                                         

What with being and adult with and adult life and all, this poor little blog has been neglected, except during NaNo time. This year, I also find myself in an interesting position: I'm a little bit cheating. Yes, yes, I know that NaNo is supposed to be written completely from scratch, but:

A) I  have this habit of "half-finishing" things that lie untouched for eons; and sooner or later I have to finish them and, 

B) Last year my life was so crazed I didn't even do a NaNo--or rather, I did, but I never posted about it.

Back in college, I overheard an interesting conversation between three friends of mine: one was a political science major; one a history major; the third was--well, he was someone with interesting ideas. PolySci was writing a paper about government officials and power (I forget exactly what) and she was asking History for advice on the paper--and Interesting Idea and I were eavesdropping. The gist of the conversation went something like this:

Hist: It’s kind of terrifying, the lengths officials--or anybody really--will go to assert their power.

PolySci: You know, if someone really wanted to takeover the US right now, they’d start                              

   with technology and social media. You take that over and everybody’s in trouble.

Interesting Idea: OR they could get rid of technology altogether--put it inside people;

            because you can’t hack human beings as easily as you can hack into

            technology.

PolySci: Can they can do that?

History:  What if they could?

Interesting Idea: Then the world as we know it would come to an end.

Me: That’s creepy.

Me: (That’s an interesting idea!)

Me: (That’s a VERY interesting idea)

Me: puts idea in back of head, then plays with it off and on for the next five years

Me(flashforward to 2016): Finally puts idea on paper and submits it to short play festival

Here's the REALLY interesting part--it JUST KEPT GOING!!!! I could not get the story out of my head! By the time the short version had premiered, my "long version" was just over ninety pages--granted, they were rough pages, but still! 

                                                   

That is what I will be sharing with you this time around--I can honestly say it's one of the most interesting pieces I've ever written(see conversation above). And because this is what I do every time I have a new project, y'all get to see the character sketches and tidbits that went into this thing.

The project for NaNoWriMo 2017:

B/V