Conflicts in my story and my mind

I'm thinking about writing my synopsis before (re)starting on editing my story (I know, I keep going back and forwards); partly because I'm now considering doing a really massive overhaul on the story.

At the moment it's divided into two "books".

Book One: MC is captured by evil ruler. MC spends most of Book One trying to escape from evil ruler. MC escapes at end of Book One.

Book Two: A second conflict, much bigger than MC's initial issue, arises. MC goes on quest to resolve this second conflict. Conflict is resolved.

Book Two is much shorter than Book One, and most of the stuff I really like is in Book One. It seems to me that I need to focus more on what the really big issue is. There needs to be one plot in a book — not two. Either that, or I need to cut Book Two out altogether or have it as a "sequel" to Book One.

The plots combine in the MC finding what she really wants in life; but the physical action of the two plots are complete opposites.

Book One and Two are connected. Bits of Book Two's conflict are introduced in Book One; and as Book One progresses we slowly find that what the MC thinks she wants may not be what she actually wants — so when she achieves it, it's a bittersweet victory rather than a resolution.

Not that I have any problems ending a book on a bittersweet note, but I'm just... thinking aloud, as it were.

I'm even thinking of scrapping the whole middle of the story and merging the two Books, but that would ruin the theme of the story.

This is why I need a synopsis: I need focus. Until I know exactly how I want my rewritten story to be, there's no point in starting to rewrite it.

YouTube Tuesday: Complaining about nothing

Apparently people are now objecting to Air New Zealand's new "Nothing to hide" ad campaign, where Air NZ employees are shown wearing nothing but body paint. It's funny, it's creative, and it's all done in good taste: the most nudity you even see is a couple of nicely-toned men walking away. The first couple of times I saw the ad on TV, I didn't even notice they weren't wearing clothes.

So just to show how ridiculous I think this objection is, I figured I'd post the ad below for YouTube Tuesday.

Even better is the fact that Air New Zealand have also taped the "Bare safety essentials" to show as the safety video for their 737 domestic flights. Hey, you want to make sure people are watching the safety video, right?

The only concern I could think of is that little kids would be watching this video. But again, it doesn't show any real nudity, and I suspect a lot of kids would only notice or care if adults make a big deal about it.

Bold, brilliant and brief

Writer's Digest are holding a short story competition for stories up to 1500 words long: "bold, brilliant and brief"! And it's open to non-US residents. Deadline: 1 December 2009.

Ugh, I need to have so much writing ready by the end of this year. I've decided to apply both for the MA in Creative Writing at Victoria University (in Wellington); and for the Graduate Diploma in Journalism at Massey University (the Wellington campus). If I get in to either, it'll mean a crappy commute; but that's the way the cookie crumbles.

But I need a 20-page "sample" of excellent writing for the Creative Writing course; and a portfolio of previously-published stories for the journalism course. Eep! Both courses only accept about 20 students a year, and competition's tough. So I really need to get working.

I would much, much rather do the Creative Writing course. I don't want to be a journalist; I want to be an editor. Problem is, it's hard to get directly into an editing job without some journalism experience, so I'll probably need a few years up my belt as a journalist first. I'm also going to apply for a journalism internship, which would at least give me a foot in the door.

But I'd much rather do Creative Writing. I'm thinking a section of my current WIP (immaculately polished and revised) as my writing sample.

My problem with the Creative Writing course is that you're meant to give a proposal of what you'd write about. But what would I write about? I write most easily in the fantasy genre, but many literary folk seem to look down on fantasy — I don't want my genre to be a reason not to accept me into the course. If I could write a fantasy novel, then it'd be easy; I could write the sequel to my current WIP (which would just as easily be a stand-alone novel, if my current WIP comes to naught).

Either way, I've got a lot of work to do. It's kind of nice to have two plans; but on the other hand, I've got a lot of work to do. In the (likely) event that I'm accepted into neither course, I'll just keep on working — or possibly look at doing Honours in English at Victoria.

But I don't want that to happen — so rather than continuing to ramble on about it on my blog, I'm going to go get a good night's sleep and get up nice and early — and write!

YouTube Tuesday: Doe (a deer, a female deer)

I don't think I'll do "YouTube Tuesday" that often. But I saw another cool YouTube clip the other day: