A Creative Writer Unplugged

New main character ideas #3 and #4: Darren and Draven (Ryan)

2011-10-18T10:42:00.000-07:00

I just don't get it.
Why, why, WHY is it whenever I try to write a story, my thoughts and ideas jump around like wild animals?

This time, just when I was going to write Brian in for a few chapters, all of a sudden Ryan Gosling's film Drive started giving me ideas, and pretty much got rid of Brian. The end result: Darren and his student, Draven (note: Ryan is his real name). I got the idea for both of them by playing Gran Turismo 5 when I put Goodyear racing tires (in the GT Auto section in GT mode, they're strangely marked as wheels belonging to Polyphony Digital!) on a 2010 Chevrolet Camaro SS, colored Victory Red. If my Supercar series were to become a TV show, I would've had Jake McDorman play Darren. His student, however, is undecided, as I thought Landon Liboiron should play him, but now I'm having second thoughts.

In season three (the third in the series I'm working on right now), Darren and his student, Ryan are aspiring professional racers. Both attend classes at Stanford University, out in northern California. However, life isn't easy for Darren's student, Ryan, when he gets a letter inviting him to the tournament, as everyone has stepped up their game after seeing the dominating performances by Veronica and Zack, two past tournament champions. In addition, mysterious racers from all walks of life are showing up, ultimately forcing Ryan to investigate and find out who they are.

The idea behind the character of Draven, or Ryan originally came in the fall of 2007 when I was taking classes in my third year at Wake Tech. On the way to my next class one morning, I run into someone my age, but with a medium build wearing a short-sleeved shirt and tan shorts with white and blue (I think) skateboarding-style shoes (I think they were the DC brand), and he kinda resembled James Lafferty a little, but with brown eyes. Unfortunately, I didn't speak to him and kept on walking.

It's obvious I got the idea for the character of Darren by seeing the trailer/TV spot for Drive.

The last month was hectic, and could be more of the same. I just hope new ideas that come don't jump around like wild animals...

New main character #2: Brian

2011-08-31T13:07:00.000-07:00

This doesn't look too good for Cameron...

This time, to join Stormy is the real main character of Supercar 3, Brian Strock, a 25-year-old struggling comic book artist and college student attending online classes at Stanford University. I got the idea for him by seeing the AXE commercials with actor Jake Sandvig (Easy A, Fired Up!, Sky High) on TV and on YouTube; in fact, Brian bears a striking resemblance to him. As I'm writing this, I'm watching some Top Gear (the U.K. version) videos on YouTube. It's rumored the mysterious young woman he accidentally dreams about, Stormy, co-hosts a motoring show similar to Top Gear (kind of what the character of Reina's occupation is in the Wangan Midnight manga, as I read on Wikipedia a few years ago).

Shows like Top Gear and The Car Show are where I get some ideas for scenes involving cars. Just as I'm writing this, I'm switching back and forth between Richard Hammond of Top Gear racing against a fighter jet with a Bugatti Veyron 16.4 (yes, the 1,001-hp car with a top speed of over 250 mph that costs $2,000,000) and Jay Leno reviewing a 2009 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1, a 638-bhp V-8 beast that has a top speed of 205 mph--both on YouTube. When I go out to the mall sometimes, I stop at Barnes & Noble and pick up a copy of DuPont Registry, where I also get ideas.

Well, I'd better get to work on S-Car 3. I hope to get done a lot faster than last year...

New main character: Stormy (this changes everything for Supercar 3...)

2011-08-29T10:48:00.000-07:00

Curse you, 1990s memories!

This is what I get for listening to the music from and playing El Viento, Alisia Dragoon and Dragon's Fury--all for the SEGA Genesis/Megadrive. Just when I got to writing, just about a few weeks ago, those three games had to go and mess everything up. This led me to create a mysteriously alluring young woman named Carrie "Stormy" Moran, early-to-mid 20s with brown eyes and brown hair, standing about 5'8". Also, I think I got the idea for her by going to the mall on tax free weekend, where I ran into a cashier...twice. It's a shame I didn't buy anything, as I didn't have enough money that Friday. Ouch. (The original idea for the character of Carrie came around 1999-2000 when playing certain Nintendo 64 racing games with a beach setting on a track and stopping the car just to hear the waves.)

The main characters of both games, Annet (El Viento) and Alisia (Alisia Dragoon) also kinda gave me an idea for her after seeing a YouTube video by user cubex55 showing a player dominating El Viento.

It seems every time I play that game since 2008, I always got a game over at the Restiana boss fight. The game is made by Wolfteam, first released in 1991. Motoi Sakuraba did an excellent job with the soundtrack. It had a SEGA CD-only sequel, Annet Futatabi, or in English, Annet Returns/Annet Again, released in 1993 and only in Japan (over in Japan and Europe, the SEGA CD accessory is called a Mega CD).

The other game--released in 1992 by Game Arts--Alisia Dragoon, is a masterpiece, just like the game mentioned above. Like Viento, Dragoon's soundtrack, done by Fumihito Kasatani, is also excellent. I played this recently and still need more practice. I wish this game had a PS3, Xbox 360 and/or Wii revival...

The third game, Dragon's Fury, is so addicting, as it's a pinball game, and like the other two games mentioned above, the soundtrack rocks. The game was originally released in 1990 for the PC-Engine (in the United States, the name is TurboGrafx-16) by Naxat and RED, and made its way to the SEGA Genesis in 1992 by Technosoft and converted by Tengen. The soundtrack's composers--Toshiaki Sakoda, Masanobu Tsukamoto and Toshiharu Yamanishi--all did a superb job of making it creepy and dramatic, which fits the environment of this game.

Back on the subject of Stormy: Another idea for her likely came from my frequently browsing the websites of clothing retail stores in most shopping malls across the United States until I saw a model matching Stormy's description of brown hair and brown eyes. The idea of Carrie/Stormy drastically changes everything about SC3, including one of the storylines. She's charged with the task of finding Cameron before the tournament starts and sometimes watch over him, as the things he did in Supercar 1 were intolerable and Jennifer and Madison flushed him out.

It's a beautiful day, so I'm going to enjoy it--and hopefully get more character ideas soon...

Back to school with the Supercar series

2011-08-15T04:49:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I got started on the third chapter of my Project Supercar writing project series (#3) The Timeline Warriors, and I hope to get the prologue done this week. Every year, I used to replace the previous main characters, but not anymore, starting with series three.

One of my goals in life is to have my books become New York Times best sellers (I need to find a publisher first!), and to take creative writing classes to try to get better.

Now to the story: The main character is Cameron, a 22-year-old troubled California youth who was last seen in Supercar Academy (2009, the first in the series) who takes classes at Stanford University online. I got the idea for him from reading about actor James Lafferty on the Internet Movie Database and thinking about a friend from high school I once knew in my final year (I think he was a freshman and I was a senior; I haven't talked to him in seven years). His life suddenly changes when characters from last year's story, The Worldly Newcomers (2010, Supercar 2), Zack and David, as well as Supercar Academy (Supercar 1)'s starting protagonist, Jennifer--who first saw him two years ago--tries to get him off a very destructive path. However, there are other drivers who are willing to ruin Cameron's day and hope to dominate for their interests and purposes in life.

But life is a nightmare when mega-corporation SpiraTech Industries continues their quest for world domination, usually by developing an all-powerful racer whose purpose is to defeat the world's best racers on world circuits in every style across the globe, forcing Cameron to make a difference, fight his inner demons, and find a way to destroy their evil plans for the third series in a row.

Other characters include a mysteriously alluring young woman named Amanda that Cameron comes across, a fan of CBS' longest-running daytime game show--and the longest-running in the United States so far--The Price is Right--that really wants Cameron to come with her to a Season 40 (2011-12) taping, an FBI and an NCIS agent, American and Japanese police officers in training (well, they're on the force for the high-speed chases), and more.

Most successful race drivers usually started off with a go-kart when they were young, and then work their way up to where they wanted to go in life (NASCAR, Formula One, etc.). In order for Cameron to get really far in the tournament and in life (and if he wants to be a professional race driver), he'll have to start here.

Well, that's a summary of what I'm writing right now. Now it's off to enjoy the rest of the day, and hope that the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series at the Watkins Glen road course doesn't get rained out again...

Time to get back on the saddle...

2011-08-10T09:44:00.001-07:00

Wow, time flies a lot...

...and this year has been evil. So I got some new hardware between 2010-11 - a flat screen TV, a printer, as well as a new desktop. The old one that was rusty and had spilled stuff on it is no more - the monitor that came with it died October 2010. For the next day, I had to write down stuff in my purple notebook until I had a dream that showed me what I could've done: connect the desktop plug to the back of the TV (a Samsung SyncMaster P2370HD--which does have PC support, but you'll have to deal with constant "No Signal" interruptions in PC mode unless your operating system is Windows XP or above--not sure if it supports Macintosh or Linux).

My desktop--refurbished and all--is a Dell OptiPlex GX520 running Windows XP Service Pack 3. My old one which got upgraded to Windows 2000 from Windows 98...didn't do a thing. Every time since 2008 when I tried to get audio to play, I got a scratchy modem-like sound. And Firefox kept CRASHING on me! Oh, and videos were stuck, too.

I also got a wireless keyboard and mouse from Inland, and they work perfectly. My new printer, an HP Photosmart Plus, works wonders, too.

Now I have a lot of work to do, find a publisher, and still have to figure out how to work OpenOffice/LibreOffice Writer--mostly because the italicize feature I've been used to doing by placing an underscore at the beginning and end of a word in Microsoft Word 2000/2003/2010--is gone in Open/LibreOffice Writer, which concerns me a little. And I have to figure out the first new story I'm going to write using this new word processing software - as the three projects I'm working on currently - do not count - as they were all written using Microsoft Word. I'm contemplating getting Microsoft Office 2010--just...not right now.

I've written this phrase for my characters to say in the Supercar series of books I'm writing, and I think I'll apply it here: My adventure is not over.

About me; welcome!

2010-01-12T11:24:00.000-08:00

It was December 25, 1994 at the tender age of 8 that I had discovered writing. My first computer was a Brother WP-3410 word processor, which, was a gift on that day. I turned it on to find that a chapter from Sideways Stories from Wayside School was written. Sadly, it was thrown out in 1999.

Over the years after 1994, I've been getting ideas and keeping them stored somewhere. Of course, I'm still asking a few questions myself to this day: does listening to music create interesting characters? What is my targeted audience? What if I run out of ideas or have writers' block?

While I may not be the next Stephen King, Stephenie Meyer, the late Michael Crichton, or whoever, somehow, I've always had a passion for writing, and that's what counts. Sometimes, I'm known to pay too much attention to detail, and am still learning the ins and outs of writing. I've also tried to do screenwriting, and I'm still learning what to do after 5 years (2004). I am also trying new tactics so I can write in people and places quicker. I've even tried basing certain characters and places off my life.

To me, when writing, there are endless possibilities. And my adventure doesn't stop there! I don't think it ever has since 1994...right?