h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

In our course, we have got as far as writing synopses for our great works. I read mine out to the class and they said: 'too dark' and 'Brian is one dimensional'. Aargh!

The character of Brian is key to my story. I see him as a man who tends to mood swings. (I don't think he's really bi-polar, but he might be close to it.) The trouble is that I haven't shown him as he would be on an up-swing - sociable, energetic, full of bright ideas. I've shown him depressed and drinking too much.

I need to go back and rethink, AGAIN.

Too dark, eh?

Now I am curious about Brian.

The edge between the up-swings and the down-swings is a difficult one, because of that never knowing when the mood will change. That terrible uncertainty. You can never trust the light or the dark.

I've known people like Brian.

Will your story still be dark if you introduce some of his up-swings? I think too much light is as dark as too much dark.

What?

Maybe its not dark, though, if you add another dimension, it will be more like a light/dark mix, or something entirely other .....

I have no idea what I'm talking about, heheh, but you know me, so that's OK. .

I think you are brill doing this university writing course.

Interested in Brian. Need updates.

H

Hi Helen, cactuscafe. Nice to see you here.

Perhaps my problem is that the people I've spent my life among have been, well, anoraks. Given to studying hard subjects and doing steady jobs, but not very exciting.

It would be good to have a pattern of light and dark in this story- chiascuro.

If you're interested, here's the synopsis.

DREAMING IN STONE
St Thérèse du Roc, South West France. Alison Delaney, her husband Brian and teenage son Steve are trying to live the dream of a better life. But the old house and its barns are crumbling and Alison and Brian are sinking into debt as they try to set up bed and breakfast accommodation. Pragmatic Alison resorts to working in the garden, while fantasist Brian tries to write a novel, and resentful Steve clashes with his father.

Brian arrives with a case of wine, and admits that he has failed to raise a loan from the bank. Alison agrees to go to England to borrow money from her brother Tim and his wife Helen. But Helen is suspicious and, although Tim agrees to give Alison a loan, he wants to come and see the place.

When the builder starts work, the Mayor arrives and tells the Delaneys they can’t proceed. The changes would be out of character with the nearby historic church. Stunned by this reversal, Brian sinks into drink and depression. Thrown back onto her own resources, Alison decides that she must get a job to earn enough to stay in France.

She starts work in a restaurant in nearby Caillou, and falls for the chef-manager, François Allombert. As Alison confides her money worries to François, he tells her about his wife’s desertion, and they become lovers. When Steve learns of this relationship from François’s daughter, Nathalie, he is angry with both his parents, feeling that they have betrayed him.

Tim and Helen arrive in France, but are shocked to find that the work to renovate the barns has been abandoned. Tim warns Alison that she and Brian face bankruptcy and urges her to sell the house. Brian angrily rejects this idea, but looks for another way to earn money.

Having come up with a plan to sell bric-a-brac, Brian buys a car, using the money that Tim lent. For Alison, this is the breaking point, as she can no longer pay Tim back. She turns to François, who urges her to leave Brian and offers somewhere to stay. Alison confides in Steve, who is horrified at the idea of being left alone with his father and wants to go with her.

Brian finds Steve preparing to leave and a row breaks out, during which Steve tells his father about Alison’s affair. Furious, Brian confronts Alison and knocks her down, injuring her. Steve calls the police and ambulance, and Brian is arrested.

Worried about Alison’s safety, Tim helps her and Steve return to England. Left on his own, Brian descends into depression, and drowns himself in the River Lot. The family return to France for Brian’s funeral. The possibility that Alison will meet up with François again is left open.

Hey, how honoured I am! The synopsis of Dreaming In Stone! I do love that title.

Chiascuro! Great word, one of my husband's favourite words, along with crepuscular and quite a lot of other words I never even heard before. . He does love a word.

Now! Onto this synopsis, which I just read three times, and will no doubt read again in a minute. I am totally hooked, of course, and what's too dark about it? OK, so Brian drowns himself, but it all seems very realistic to me, perhaps quite an extreme situation, but believable.

Starts with a dream of a better life, and then the shadows appear .... as they do, slanting over the stone walls. What? You started me off now. .

Perhaps your colleagues felt that the characters could have worked it out, without a suicide?

Of course, the part of me that loves a happy ending wishes they could have worked it out, but hey ... . And anyway, what is a happy ending? Doesn't sound as if settling down in France with Brian was Alison's chosen dream, in the end, otherwise she wouldn't have had an affair would she?

Is it fiction based on real life events? People you know? Or those mysterious characters in your head ... heheh.

It came as a shock, the drowning bit, of course, first time I read it, but that's the shock of a good story. A friend of ours killed herself, and it is weird, and you do wonder if people could have worked it out, but sometimes its not like that.

Now I want a coffee with Alison, of course. . What about Alison? Who is Alison? I must have a coffee with Alison! Now!

Have you written those detailed back stories yet?? Please send drafts. .

Awful thing is ... and this a bit cheeky .. what I would give to have been at Brian's funeral, like all those tensions in the atmosphere, a story within a story.

Cor honestly, writers. Now I am so involved , its like I know these people. .

More! More!

Laters, and thankyou, and now I have to go eat toast.

H

Many thanks, Helen. You are very encouraging. I often decide that my writing is junk, and that I ought to find something more useful to do.

This story idea orignated with an article in the Guardian magazine, about an English couple who bought an old manor house in Brittany. They said they were going to provide a golf course and holiday villas, but nothing got finished, they drank too much and, in the end, the man murdered his wife.

But the question is always, with fiction, would the characters do these things?

At the moment, I intend Brian to drown himself and Alison to return to England but I haven't got that far in the story yet, and I might change my mind before I get there.

He what?? ohmigod. I read the Guardian magazine sometimes, but never saw that article.

Fact can be so much weirder even than dreams. Perhaps. Except dreams can defy logic, whereas fact remains within the laws of nature.

And yet fiction can defy the laws of nature, like a character can fly, , although it wouldn't be believable, unless it was written as a dream or something. . Or if it was a story like a Marc Chagall painting, with all those magic characters flying around.

Now, this is a very philosophical evening. . Now I have to go drink sherry, but I will be back because I'm not done yet.

Later. mmm. Nice sherry. We drink sherry every night. . We are teased by the people in our life. . hmm.

What does mean, by the way, if I may exploit your writer brains for a minute? I have often heard the term used, to describe a certain type of writing, and I never can figure out what it means.

OK, to get back on topic....

You often decide that your writing is junk, and that you ought to find something more useful to do? ???

OK, so now I need to interview you.

From where do you get these notions that your writing is junk? Is it internal voices or external comparisons. Or is it sometimes that it just doesn't flow and go where you want it to go?

If you gave up writing, how would if affect you? Sounds to me like you have the vocation. Could you give it up? Do you have a choice? What about all your amazing poems and stories? They won't have a home, or a creator or anything. hmm

End of interview. .



If I was about to write a story about a writer,I would start it with the above paragraph. Sums it all up, to me. Perhaps this is magic realism. Or The Power. What power? The power of the writer. Brian could do anything you want him to do. Could he?

Even fly. .

Its magic,to me, thinking about all this. I like talking to you, mvp, writerlady.

H

Magical realism? It's a fictional genre where the world seems realistic, but things happen that are strange or even impossible.
It's associated with South American writers, but I'm not sure I know the difference between this and surrealism. After all, what could be odder than a man waking up to discover that he's turned into a cockroach?

I like to think that writing is power. The writer has power to create a new world, but that world has to have its own logic.
Because writing, like conversation, is a two way process. The writer
says "I'll tell you a story that will entertain or amaze you." And the reader says "All right, I'll read it, but only if it makes sense to me."

I've certainly given up on stories because they've stopped making sense to me - like Umberto Eco's 'Foucault's Pendulum'.
I dare say Dmitri would understand that book though!

and the film, with Romanian subtitles. . I'll ask him.

Hmm. I just read the Wiki entry on this aforementioned Foucault's Pendulum, and I understood it word for word. yuh right. as if. Looks kind of fascinating, though. I wish I had different antennae, so I could pick up the message.hurrumph.

However I did pick up a message re magical realism.I just got it!! Thankyou!! And so bright shone the light of realisation , that I just followed up with some reading about it. Funny how things suddenly click,fall into place.

There is, it seems, a subtle difference between surrealism and magical realism. And roaches are involved. , but I won't go on and on about it here, you know what I'm like with my anorak obsessions. . I will go infest my own pages.

And I got something about that two way process also, I'm like a neon realisation light effect tonight, and I thought about magicians for some reason, the enchantment of illusion.

Hmm. Thanks for the thoughts ... fascinating ...

I could do with some bright lights of realisation to help me with my depiction of Brian.

But I'll probably have to make do with good old and .

OK, here's some and





but don't forget my updates on Brian, Alison and everyone else. heheh. Remember I am involved with these people.

PS

Its official, both Dmitri and Willem have read (and understood) Foucault's Pendulum. Proof of such matters can be found in Willem's journal, or in my journal, or in someone's journal, depending on circumstances. .

I can see I'm not clever enough to do these literary things

Perhaps, now the weather's improving, I should go and work in the garden and look for and

heheh. Course you can do the literary things, you have to, because I'm waiting for my update on Brian and Alison. I won't allow you out into the s till you have written Brian's destiny. haha. hmm

I didn't know there was a smiley, or a birdie.That's so cool.

happy spring! its so light in the evenings now!

I think my story's a bit like a plant. I planted this little seedling and it grew. From time to time I prune it, then it grows again. I'll prune it again, but I won't take an axe to it just yet.

I'll let you know how I get on.