Working Title Here

Well, my muse decided to gift me with an interesting twist to Justin's motivations today...it turns out that Justin slept with one of his male co-stars (the one based on Orlando, if anyone's interested), and that's why he flipped out about Lacey being male, because he thought that meant he was irrevocably gay. I think it's a great twist and I like the way it just comes out of nowhere; I think it works well that way. You can't telegraph everything ahead of time.

Current Mood: productive

I posted this excerpt over at my Nano profile, so I thought I'd post it here as well. It's mostly dialogue, which is good because my exposition sucks. It's so long, and boring, and it doesn't move forward at all.

( on to the excerpt )

Current Mood: hungry

Well, I do have a POV now...the problem is that it's first person, which means it's limited to what Caitlin knows at any given time. A couple of major plot points will have to be shifted further into the novel, and as I wrote today I came up with a whole new event. So things are going well, although I'm terribly tired of exposition. I think all I did today was exposition, really. Only at the very end did the plot start to move. But I'm done 4 days of writing! w00t!

Current Mood: cheerful

Wrote this at work yesterday...I don't know if it'll make it into the story or not (it probably will, but who knows?), but I thought I'd post it here anyway. A quick note: "The Royal Court" is the name of Lacey and Molly's website/LJ community (think Bit of Earth, for those of you who know that story).

Quick summary of what's going on at this point: Justin is dead, and Caitlin, Morwen, and Rose have started to bring to light Molly and Lacey's misconduct in planning the convention. Lacey has realized that Justin's death is her fault, but she hasn't told anyone besides Molly about her former identity. She wants out of the fandom for good, and figures this is the only way to get away from Molly.

To all the friends I’ve loved before,

I just want to say how sorry I am for my part in the utter catastrophe that The Royal Court turned out to be. What was once a place for fans and friends to gather to share love and light has become a black hole of hatred and deception. The lion’s share of the blame for the fall of PenCon and by extension TRC falls upon my shoulders. Molly never would have gotten away with so much if I had just stood up to her one time. One time! She was my dearest friend and I wanted so badly to overlook her negatives and focus on her positives. I truly thought I could turn her around. When I couldn’t, I allowed myself to indulge in the same behaviors I most despised. I lied and I lied and I lied some more. I lied to everyone who was important to me, whose opinions of me I held in high regard. I lied to you and I misled you and you’ll never know how sorry I am for that. If I hadn’t lied to Molly, maybe none of us would be in this mess. If I had been up front with her about my relationship with Justin, maybe she wouldn’t have sabotaged PenCon. Maybe we could have all gotten together and had a lovely time. We’ll never know.

There’s something else I must apologize for as well. I know you blame me for Justin’s death and why shouldn’t you? Justin trusted me, loved me, and I abused that love and trust at every turn. I encouraged him to cheat on his girlfriend, the love of his life, and for that alone I’m sure I’m going to Hell. I let him believe that he could love me. I can’t say I didn’t enjoy the attention it brought. Raise your hand if you wouldn’t want a bona fide movie star to proclaim undying love to you. I let that attention go to my head and for that I am sorry. I am truly sorry for the role I played in Justin’s death, and it seems only fair that I should atone in this particular way.

I didn’t write this letter so you would feel sorry for me. I wrote this letter because I want to go into the afterlife with a clear conscience. I wanted all of you to know that I truly am sorry for all the horrible things I’ve done. If I had just let all of you down maybe I could live with myself, but with what’s happened to Justin... I don’t deserve to live anymore, and there is nothing anyone can say to convince me otherwise. I know some of you may think I’m taking the easy way out rather than facing the consequences of my actions, but I assure you there’s nothing easy about this.

Goodbye, dear friends.

Lacey

Current Mood: awake

All of this is, of course, subject to change at the whims of the muse.

Caitlin meets Lacey and Molly in a Yahoo! group for Pendragon Chronicles fans. Lacey and Molly are interested in meeting the stars of PDC, and when they find out from Caitlin about Justin’s strong background in charity work, Molly suggests putting on some kind of charity event in order to attract Justin. They decide to make a charity garden for the children’s hospital that Justin supports. The project goes pretty well, with some rough spots due to Molly’s laziness, and Justin and Lacey begin to correspond, which eventually leads to a full-on affair. Meanwhile, Molly is talking about having a convention. When Molly finds out about Lacey’s affair, she gets so jealous that she sabotages the convention.

At the hotel, Justin goes to sleep with Lacey only to discover that Lacey is actually a guy. Humiliated and horrified, Justin leaves her. Lacey leaves the hotel. The next morning, Caitlin discovers Justin dead in his hotel room, having committed suicide. When Caitlin tells Beth, Beth begs her to find out why.

Caitlin starts to investigate and discovers that Lacey was the last person to see Justin. She finds out about the affair, but not about Lacey’s true identity. As she digs, she finds out why the convention crashed and begins reporting it on her blog. Caitlin’s online popularity grows as she dishes the dirt about the PenCon crash. Finally, Molly’s jealousy leads her to reveal to Caitlin that Lacey is transgender. Caitlin realizes that must have made Justin kill himself, but she doesn’t want to tell anyone.

Lacey enlists Caitlin’s help in faking a suicide online in order to get out of Molly’s clutches. Finally, the stress causes Caitlin to have a breakdown and she goes into the hospital. She meets Ben and they develop feelings for one another. Caitlin finally admits to Beth that she knows the truth about Justin’s suicide and learns to deal with her part in the situation.

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: Snow Patrol - Gleaming Auction

The characters:

Caitlin Campbell — 25 years old, brown hair, brown eyes, a tiny girl who easily blends into a crowd; grew up in Lititz and never left Lancaster County; been friends with Beth since they were 4 years old and became friends with Justin because of Beth; very much into the Internet and online fandom and feels left out of real life because no one around her understands her interests; connects with Lacey and Molly through their message board; volunteers to help with the garden and PenCon in order to feel included and popular; uses her connection to Beth to help Lacey and Molly manipulate Justin and uses Justin to gain status in fandom

Justin Klinefelter — 26 years old, blond hair, brown eyes, interesting scar from pipe bomb incident, tall and gangly; an incredible actor who became a professional at age 18 after dropping out of high school; starred on Boys of Summer and was cast in The Pendragon Chronicles shortly after the show ended; has dated Beth since high school; keeps Beth around for the good publicity—through her he has gotten involved with a lot of charity work, which is what attracts Lacey and Molly; carries on a long distance affair with Lacey while still dating Beth

Lacey Douglas — 21 years old, brown hair, brown eyes, stick-thin and average height, born Douglas Henning, transgender (male to female), attracted only to men; grew up in rural Massachusetts and went to college in Boston for one semester before dropping out; befriended Molly online in a group for Pendragon Chronicles fans; goes along with Molly’s wild schemes because she’s afraid Molly will reveal her secret if she doesn’t; has good intentions and tries her hardest to turn Molly’s machinations into beneficial things

Molly Corbett — 28 years old, brown hair, blue eyes, short and stocky, rather dumpy-looking; a naturally manipulative and melodramatic person who is obsessed with celebrities and being famous; devoted to Jordan Carr in an almost stalkerish way; “settles” for Justin due to Caitlin’s connections to him; attracted to Lacey even though she’s never been attracted to a girl before; questions her orientation and breaks up with her husband in hopes of landing Lacey; comes up with the fake charity idea in order to eventually meet Jordan

Beth Radliff — 25 years old, red hair, green eyes, confined to a wheelchair due to spina bifida; has dated Justin since she was a junior in high school; got Justin involved in charity work once he was famous; resents Justin using her for good publicity, but stays with him because she thinks one day they will get married and she will always have someone to take care of her; best friends with Caitlin since they were in kindergarten; has no clue about Justin’s relationship with Lacey

Ben Griffin — 26 years old, brown hair, hazel eyes, tall and solidly built; worked as a liquor store clerk and was involved in a robbery, saw a co-worker get shot to death; is in the hospital for PTSD

Other incidental things

The Pendragon Chronicles — a fantasy movie trilogy about the life of King Arthur; Justin plays Sir Gawain

Boys of Summer — a teen drama about surfers in California; Justin’s first professional acting gig

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: Snow Patrol - Wow

Many parts of this story are inspired by events that happened to those LotR fans who were unfortunate enough to come in contact with Amy Player and Abbey Stone. The character of Molly is very loosely based on Abbey, and the character of Lacey is even more loosely based on Amy. For a full accounting of those events, please visit turimel or Turimel's website, and buy Turimel's excellent book on the subject, "When A Fan Hits The S***."

With that said, my work is a work of fiction, and therefore will not attempt to retell the true story in an accurate fashion. However, if I feel something comes very close to echoing Turimel's words or the words of anyone else who was involved, I will make every effort to give credit where credit is due.

Current Mood: awake

I suddenly realized that before I post anything, I need to get permission from Turimel to fictionalize parts of her story. So I'll hold off posting a plot summary or outline until I hear from her. Not that I can figure out how to code the damn outline anyway without completely retyping it.

Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Music: Snow Patrol - Tiny Little Fractures

Wow, it's really been awhile! I'm going to keep this journal as more a meta journal than a story journal (I think), but I'm sure I'll be posting plenty of excerpts. I'm going to be posting my outline here in a minute. I'll also be tagging entries as meta or excerpt. I'm thinking even about making a wiki. This is really kind of exciting!

I can't wait to get started now. Except I really need to get my main research novel back from my friend S, and she's a bitch to get ahold of. I'm thinking I may just have to get a new copy from Turimel -- she has some neat Sean-autographed ones, but I don't know that I can afford it. Or that it would come in time (although I think it would).

Anyway, I'm linking this post from my main journal, so feel free to friend me, and if you have a NaNo-related journal, leave its username in the comments so I can check it out.

Current Mood: awake
Current Music: Barenaked Ladies - Everything Old Is New Again

I am sooooooo behind.

( dialogue! get your expository dialogue here! )

Current Mood: apathetic

You know what's sad? Writing this is the closest I've gotten to getting laid in months.

( Graphic gay sex acts ahead. Ye be warned. )

Current Mood: horny

( more fun with the time machine )

Current Mood: creative

I haven't written since Thursday. I'm a bad girl.

( i swear, i'm really not this horrible )

Current Mood: exhausted

( And now for something completely different... )

Current Mood: accomplished

I'm 25% done with this bitch, yo!

( section 8 -- hop in the time machine )

Current Mood: accomplished

( Let the angst begin! )

Current Mood: artistic

( Section 6 ahoy! )

Current Mood: lazy

( oh, it's getting interesting now... )

Current Mood: determined
Current Music: damn you, Berlanti!

( Well, section 4, really... )