The hero (female, unnamed) wishes to sing on stage, however because she knows she's "not pretty," turns her dream into a joke of cynical sorts. As part of a bet when she's insulted, she attends an audition (undecided: agency or talent tv show), but crossdressed--her goal only to get past the first round in this guise. There, her best friend (undecided name and gender) who's talented but has terrible morals, fails to recognize our hero and disses her in some way. Prideful, easily butthurt, and feeling betrayed, our hero makes it her goal to keep up the pretense and show up best friend in the next round. They become rivals and our hero becomes just as two-faced as best friend. Crossdressing hijinks, a fake friendship, and realization of one's dreams!! Details still to be figured out. /o/
Sure, it doesn't sound all that exciting or deep but this is where I ended up given: 1) what I'm interested in, i.e. singing, and 2) the fact that I'm not good with external conflict or action/excitement.
Except I wish someone could take the reins now because BOY OH BOY I don't know what the hell to do with the rest of this and I want to just WATCH my idea unfold without having to actually get on my knees and put effort into rolling out the narrative myself. Except a short summary of my script is due on Tuesday. Fuck. I'm way too lazy and indecisive for this shit.
The most significant undecided detail I think is the gender of the best friend rival because it changes the entire storyline. Only, I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO PICK. QUICK--SOMEONE FLIP A COIN. Having a girl makes for bitchy backstabby girls and perhaps a friend that uses hero to her benefit somehow. Having a guy means potential love interest(*) and a more dense character, except I can't seem to think of an explanation for the twofacedness.
*I've already ruled out hero falling in love with rival, because I do NOT want her to reconcile just for the reason that she's fallen in love. Rival carrying feelings for hero still has potential though. I'm not gonna delve into romance at all if rival is a female because I have no personal experience with homosexuality so far and don't know if I'll be able to portray it convincingly in my very first script.
And I can't decide if I want hero and rival to change and reconcile in the end or not. On the one hand, happy endings happy friendships yay. On the other hand, you can't expect everyone to change their entire character that quickly, and if rival is actually a bad friend, then what reason does hero have to keep her/him as a friend? That would take quite a bit of redemption.
Also. I have nothing other than this. Meaning I have NO ideas for any subplots. Or points of suspense/surprise/twists. Or characters other than hero, rival, and hero's dad. I've been so concentrated on "I HAVE TO THINK OF A HERO WHO HAS A GOAL AND AN OPPONENT AND CONFLICT AND THINGS THAT THE AUDIENCE CAN SEE HAPPENING" that I forgot that I have to construct the entire world in which this hero lives. And that's a month's worth of work if you ask me.
PS: HELP. SOMEONE PLEASE SUGGEST A NAME
Sure, it doesn't sound all that exciting or deep but this is where I ended up given: 1) what I'm interested in, i.e. singing, and 2) the fact that I'm not good with external conflict or action/excitement.
Except I wish someone could take the reins now because BOY OH BOY I don't know what the hell to do with the rest of this and I want to just WATCH my idea unfold without having to actually get on my knees and put effort into rolling out the narrative myself. Except a short summary of my script is due on Tuesday. Fuck. I'm way too lazy and indecisive for this shit.
The most significant undecided detail I think is the gender of the best friend rival because it changes the entire storyline. Only, I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO PICK. QUICK--SOMEONE FLIP A COIN. Having a girl makes for bitchy backstabby girls and perhaps a friend that uses hero to her benefit somehow. Having a guy means potential love interest(*) and a more dense character, except I can't seem to think of an explanation for the twofacedness.
*I've already ruled out hero falling in love with rival, because I do NOT want her to reconcile just for the reason that she's fallen in love. Rival carrying feelings for hero still has potential though. I'm not gonna delve into romance at all if rival is a female because I have no personal experience with homosexuality so far and don't know if I'll be able to portray it convincingly in my very first script.
And I can't decide if I want hero and rival to change and reconcile in the end or not. On the one hand, happy endings happy friendships yay. On the other hand, you can't expect everyone to change their entire character that quickly, and if rival is actually a bad friend, then what reason does hero have to keep her/him as a friend? That would take quite a bit of redemption.
Also. I have nothing other than this. Meaning I have NO ideas for any subplots. Or points of suspense/surprise/twists. Or characters other than hero, rival, and hero's dad. I've been so concentrated on "I HAVE TO THINK OF A HERO WHO HAS A GOAL AND AN OPPONENT AND CONFLICT AND THINGS THAT THE AUDIENCE CAN SEE HAPPENING" that I forgot that I have to construct the entire world in which this hero lives. And that's a month's worth of work if you ask me.
PS: HELP. SOMEONE PLEASE SUGGEST A NAME
Maybe end it with the hero realizing that bad friend was a bad friend and that she should just let go (LET IT GOOO) and move on? Make more people for her to be friends with as she realizes that her friendship with bad friend is not worth all these bad things he/she is doing!
ReplyDeleteUhh let's see now. Let's add some further events through conflict. How would each person in there react to learning her secret (you don't have to use all of it ahaha just think up the scenario for each character and idk pick one or two that are appealing). A director? Fellow audition mates?
How about the rest of her life? What are her other hobbies, what does she do? Does she attend school? Does she work in a cafe? Does she have other friends?
Actually, there's something to elaborate on. Are there other friends other than Bad Friend? How does she treat Bad Friend in front of them compared to when she's not in front of their other friends and when she's in crossdressing form? Do any of them know what she's doing? Do they support her dreams, and do they support her when she tells them her secret?
I think maybe you should make a Chiisana-based character! Since I feel like your main character wouldn't audition without an extra Chiisana-push!
I also love the idea of Bad Friend falling for Main Character as she in turn is trying to bring closure. It brings an added conflict and subplot.
From the way that I see it, her crossdressing is the main plot with the auditions and the Bad Friend being subplots? Unless I'm seeing this wrong and the Bad Friend is actually the main plot and crossdressing is the subplot... Because only one of these gets a big resolution at the climax, while the others get smaller resolutions! And uh yeah I think that's all the ideas I got on me oops ahahaha GL!
Waaaa, I love you Lee!
DeleteYeah, I started thinking more about this world last night after the post. xD Added two characters:
-Hero's brother who's her confidant. He lets her borrow her clothes and teases her and is direct and outspoken, kind of reckless. Not a good singer.
-HOW DID YOU KNOW I WAS GONNA MAKE A CHIISANA-BASED CHARACTER LMAO I'm gonna name her Molly and she'll be another contestant in the audition. Softspoken Molly x Outspoken brother OTP
(I feel like these two are becoming my two favorite characters loool they're so endearingly easy to root for. Idgaf about spoilers since coming up with and writing this stuff is the journey itself so I'll just tell you that I plan to have Molly break out of her shell stuffed with silenced regret and win the competition.)
And yeah, hero and rival will go to school together! I already thought of having some classroom hijinks where they both fail at answering some questions to the lecture they missed for auditions. So far this serves mostly only as a breather but I'll have to think more on how to make it more relevant to the plot lol.
Oh and more related to school! It's a bit cliche but I also want to make hero's parents an opposing force who were okay with cheekily going along with the bet for the 1st round but don't want their daughter to go down this path seriously or fall behind in school, so hero will have to enter the 2nd round in secret. Of course, brother comes to the rescue with tutoring heheeee
I think the climax will have to deal with whether hero will go on stage and out herself on her gender but still sing to her heart's desires? I just don't know if rival bad friend should discover the secret at this point or before it.
I guess you're right. OAO While battling rival was the motivation and goal, it's ultimately not the most important thing to address at the climax... hm.
I also haven't thought about adding anyone to hero and rival's "friend circle." I want them to be amiable outside of auditions, even if it means for the hero to fake a smile to find out information like what song rival is singing, etc.. >:D Admittedly I'm a little personally afraid to make more and more characters because I feel like I'm just gonna be writing one dimensional caricatures. Though I guess if you're just a supporting character with no actual role, that's not entirely a bad thing.
I think the important thing is to figure out what's needed and then later on you can merge multiple "character" spots together to make one more rounded character ahaha
DeleteThe parent thing won't be too bad so long as you make sure they have decent reasons ahaha the cliche about parents is only because they seem to oppose the main character for little to no good reason in a lot of stories?
Ohgosh imagining the Bad Friend's reaction to her outing herself on stage is glorious ahaha Or if Bad Friend finds out just before she walks onto stage to out herself like she just gives this speech about how "I realized that you're not as good a friend as I thought you were so have fun with the rest of your life cuz I'M FREE" and then marches onto the stage like a queen aaaaaa
The best thing about creating characters is imagining them doing things like this and just having feelings over it ahahaha
If the Bad Friend is in fact a guy who ends up getting a one-sided crush on her, will he have a crush on her disguise or on her outside of auditions. Or *gasp* both? I'm just imagining him having a crisis like "I'm straight? ...BUT OHNO HE'S HOT? ESPECIALLY WHEN MAD AND GLARING AT ME?"
Or, if Bad Friend learns of her secret long before she marches up, then there's some extra conflict! How does Bad Friend feel about it? How does he/she react? Will he/she threaten to reveal her secret? How does that add onto her decision to finally go on stage and out herself?
Yo I should just put some of my writing ideas and writing stuff up and we can just toss ideas back and forth ahaha NO SPOILERS WHEN IT COMES TO PLOTTING MATES WOOOO
PLOTTING MAAAAATESSSS <333 WOOOO EHEHEHEHE
DeleteOKAY SO I HAVE NAMES NOW. And genders. I ended up going with a girl for rival (I'm on the rocks about "Bad Friend" because I don't think she's a bad personnnn. She just has questionable morals and holds double standards because she's decent to the friends she accepts--usually if they benefit her though--but just a bitch to errone else 'cause she dun curr 'bout them) because I feel like guys are a lot more transparent and wouldn't be all two-faced like how I planned to write her/him. OKAY CHARACTERS
Melanie aka Mel = protagonist who enters a TV talent show crossdressed for a bet. prideful and competitive yet knows her limits. has a complex over her lack of "feminine beauty" and thus is dependent on make-up. overall a lighthearted type of cynical. sings online.
Hilary = known as Mel's "best friend" at school (in actuality, only non-online friend) and is totes a bitch. sees an extent of cheating as resourceful.
Mark = Mel's brother. outspoken, honest ... stays home and plays League.
Lily = the Chiisana character who used to be Molly until I gave two other characters names that start with M and it was awks. softspoken but is not the stereotypical goody-goody sweet character. she just has trouble expressing herself. turns out to also sing online wao such coincidence!!
Sean = he's the filler character that I may leave out if the script gets too long. (I didn't realize it only has to be 35 pages.. unless that's a lottttt in which case I TAKE IT ALL BACK I UNDERESTIMATED YOU) he's the 4th singer in the girls' group for the audition and is a bit of an opposing force to Lily as he sees singing purely in terms of technique rather than expression.
LET IT GOOOOO LET IT GOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
I'm not sure if parents opposing the singing seriously thing has good enough reason BUT IT WORKS GREAT as a plot device lololol. I was just thinking the 1st round would be during the end of summer and the rest of the auditions are after school starts. And she's in senior year and has college apps and SATs and stuff.
Hm... Hilary would probably feel really betrayed that Mel did that to her. Which is basically how Mel felt when she suddenly was on the receiving end of Hilary's bitchiness when she was usually safe. But I feel like Mel doesn't actually have that much to gain from all this in the end unless it's out of "it's so you can see what you've done and learn!!!" ~*good intentions*~ so I'll have to think about this more. I feel like there's so much to resolve that I'm not sure if I'll have to start dropping some subplots. :(
REMEMBER BACK IN THE DAY WHEN I WAS LIKE
"I CAN'T THINK OF ANY SUBPLOTS"
NOW LOOK. HALP.
Ahaha ohman, I'm like this a lot too ahaha I start thinking that it needs to be perfect and I add on all these things and in the end, it doesn't work cuz it's too elaborate ahaha oops. Maybe simplify things if it gets too much ahaha
DeleteMan, I'm imagining the main goody trio all having names starting with M and it's some kind of hilarious cute ahaha
Foils are super nice since like the whole purpose of foils is to show characteristics off through differences! So uh idk maybe make a t-chart for the foils (Are Hilary and Mel foils? What about Lilly and Sean?) to plan out their characters ahaha like differences on sides and similarities in the middle.
Also are good intentions necessary? I started thinking about that and I had a WAIT A MOMENT moment. Like, I know that there's a lot of protags nowadays who lack morals or good intentions or stuff like that... Hmm...
Maybe the story's actually also about Hilary's change as she realizes how she treats people outside her friend group...Hmm....
Sorry ahaha not much atm since I'm braindead from school @u@