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Well the 2nd draft of 11th Sun is done so... NEW PROJECT.
I've been looking for something around her for awhile, and haven't found it. So I'm writing it. It's gonna get weird, but not unually of weird. Just like, normal weird. Maybe a little weirder than that.
Unfortunately I haven't found the voice yet. I usually write noir, that's sort of been an accident. And I usually put a lot of comedy in, that's mostly on purpose. Comedy is how I keep my thinking sharp. There's some of that. Maybe there will be more later?
The point is that it looks like this will have to be somewhere in it's second draft before it's reader ready.
The synopsis is pretty simple: Ash, a high school freshman gets his gender lobe injured (because human's have one, only it's in the fourth dimension where we can't feel it) and wakes up in the hospital a girl. Now Aisling, she finds herself taken in by a group of theater techs, and slowly discovers herself as she winds herself into the world of the stage crew.
If you've worked crew, then I'll hug you when I see you. This is pulled some from my own life, getting into tech in high school, and never getting out of it all the way. I'm sorry, but I'm kind of getting Melvilian with all of the tech details. But I'm mortified that some TD will read this and say, "That's not how you build a platform." or "That thing they're doing is going to get someone killed." If you were an actor (I'm so sorry for you) or are an actor (still sorry) here's a guide two what all those guys in black do.
And if you get turned off by attention to detail, and want a softer focus on the events, I'm really sorry. I'm doing my best not to bore you, but I'm not going to stop on this one.
Comments
Techikal errers
Do not despair Eleven, all writers of novels make technical mistakes or create impossible scenarios, some are criticised for being technically incorrect others perhaps for being impossible.
I had two brought to my attention in Footprints in the Sea. One was a person I suspect who had connections with the merchant marine telling me that no seaman would desert a sound ship in a storm or words to that effect and the other that I had my radio frequencies wrong. The frequencies one I accepted as valid and am going to correct it and am grateful for the advice, the other criticism made in a sumwhat brusque if not unpleasant tone I rejected and told the writer that he was confusing my 'NOVEL', a work of fiction, perhaps even fantasy with the 'Admiralty Guide to Mariners.'
You're writing stories with, I hope, the desire to entertain and perhaps educate a little not a text book so go ahead and make mistakes, the only thing I would advise is that should you make a real howler, correct it unless it gives us a good laugh, in that case leave it in, you admit that you like a little humour in your books, so do I.
Even though we are told by great minds that it is impossible to travel faster than llight, I still enjoy Star Treck and when I was in the army, I jumped out of aircraft with a parachute on my back despite Newton's warnings about gravity.
I shall read the story you are writing and warn you now, let not a single bolt be Whitworth when it should have been metric, I shall roar my disaproval like a mute swan.
Frances
“That is going to get somebody killed”
Such comments can be taken two ways, or perhaps more, but even when brusque, one is that you’ve succeeded as an author so well in drawing their emotions into your tale, that their anxieties have overcome their civility.
You Misunderstand
Imagine wood shop, only you're sometimes rigging things that weigh several hundred pounds to raise thirty feet into the ceiling, sometimes you're working on a catwalk 100 feet off the ground, the equipment is worth tens of thousands of dollars, and more people have died in a single fire than in the Oklahoma city bombing.
Safety is kind of a big deal in tech.
Sorry, I’ll try to clarify
My comment applies to the phrase as literary criticism in the world of fiction. If somebody makes that comment, kudos to you as an author for facilitating such suspension of disbelief.
In real life? A different suspension of hundreds of pounds over folks’ heads? No “kind of” about it.
Actual example.
Actual example.
I was on top of a 14 foot ladder, replacing bulbs in a multi-colour light strip. (1980s') Our tools were either in pouches or on a wrist strap. One of the people who thought that technical theatre was just an 'easy A' decided it would be funny to shake the ladder. I let go of a wrench. That's an adjustable wrench, dropped from approximately 18 feet (as I had my hands up in the strip). If I had _aimed_ for him, he'd have been in the hospital. That's just one wrench.
If you're on top of a 60 foot grid, you have to be even _more_ careful, and some of the light fixtures (the LED ones are lighter), even just a PAR-can, can weigh 40 lbs (mostly due to the steel clamps used to attach them to the bars) Drop a Leiko 40 feet down over the auditorium seating, and at best, you're going to destroy a light and a seat or two.
That's just talking about lights. The stage sets, even though they're made from wood, fabric, paint, and various foams, can STILL weigh a lot. Not to mention the risk of trap doors, etc.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
Hospital maybe
Or morgue. A med prof I know has more than a few ER stories (some merely disgusting rather than tragic).
The teacher told him that _he
The teacher told him that _he_ (the teacher) would have dropped it on his head.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
Traps!
I've never worked with a trap, and I thank my lucky stars I've never had to.
Holes in the stage are always
Holes in the stage are always a risk; it was necessary for Grapes of Wrath.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
Another anectdote
When I was 13 I was involved with some local community theater and an "aCtor" and we went to see a professional show (The Wind in the Willows). Everyone wanted to go walk around on the set, and our teacher person said very clearly, "Do not *ever* walk on a set you don't know."
Until I helped build a set, I had no idea what she was talking about.
Back stage fun
I look forward to your forthcoming tale - having worked all manner of tech (lights, sound, crew) for a small village theatre group, I do wonder how many of your scenarios will resonate with my experiences. Saying that, I doubt you have a nemesis like mine, an evil set designer who I am sure gets pleasure in arranging awkward set movements for me to carry out. Although, apparently, they do look good to the audience.
Two Contributions on That One
First Contribution: Informed from my own experiences, but taken to the next level, tech club is also orgy club
Second Contribution: I started a thread on reddit trying to figure out the worst play that a high school could put on. I was thinking something by Martin McDonagh, but wanted some input. Someone suggested Equis which is in the maybe pile. A Spring Awakening is also on the table. On the other hand I hate it when a YA author tries to attach symbolism to their book by making the students read something thematically similar from classic literature. "Hey, you know what my book is like? Whuthering Heights!"
"Fuck offStephanie Meyer."
The worst to put on? I'd
The worst to put on? I'd have to vote for Samuel Beckett's Happy Days.
It's the most atrocious piece of crap out there. Limited set and props, but considering how you use _all_ the lights (At least, Edward Albee forced me to use _all_ of them), you're blowing bulbs, fuses, breakers, and Y-splitters. It's also just annoying to watch.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
Can't wait!
Technical theater is my second love, right after loosing myself in a good story. Put them together, and I am there. I can't wait to read this!