no, seriously, *anvils*

[bedlamsbard]

I suddenly want to write an adventure novel. You know, of the Indiana Jones/The Mummy/Dirk Pitt type. It can take place in Thailand and Laos and star an ex-Navy SEAL, with, you know, some kind of secret hidden treasure in Laos (which is still a Communist country, by the way, and has areas that are off-limits to foreigners...I mean, come on, begging for a story here).

Ex-Navy SEAL, because oh lord, have I read a lot about SEALs, even though none of my main characters actually are SEALs, and he can live in, like, Phuket or Koh Samet or Koh Samui or something and then get hired to lead a team into Laos for some private company or secret government agency or something...

It'll be fun and lighthearted! Okay, anvils would be lighter than my current novel (fifty-three percent casualty rate! two dead main characters by the end of the book! possibly three! one hundred fifty thousand Americans who never returned to Earth! decade of intergalactic war!), so obviously I need something to look forward to.

Comments

[scarletts-awry.livejournal.com]

I understand the feeling.

Also, adventure novels are totally fun.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

And now I have plot! Or at least a little bit of one, and it deals with one of my favorite pseudo-archaeology theories -- no, not the pyramids, the other one. I just have to bring India into the picture.

I mean, there's a possibility it's a thinly concealed SGA AU, but still. That just means it will be barrels of fun for all! (No, seriously, the MC is an ex-Navy SEAL, the secondary MC is a highstrung mathematician who does not yet have a name, and the primary supporting character -- at the moment -- is a Night Stalker pilot. It is totally SGA on Earth with the serial numbers scraped off.)

My current novel gets more depressing by the hour.

[scarletts-awry.livejournal.com]

But see-- I think a lot of good stories start out that way! Even before I was fannish--even before I knew of fandom--I took character dynamic templates from elsewhere and used them to my own original fic ends. I don't think this is any different than how other people take pieces of people they know in real life to build characters from.

(I mean, the erotica piece I was working on forever? I started thinking Stella/Danny as a roadmap, but shhh. The YA piece I'm working on now? Inspired by the Batfamily. The idea I just got Sunday? A sort of not!Mac/not!Stella. But seriously, shhh, we're not supposed to talk about these things.)

Either way--totally cool. And, well, I think the character dynamics of SGA are especially well suited for this sort of thing, because you could make an SGA fusion of pretty damn much everything--from The Scarlet Letter to Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

My current novel started out from a CSI:NY AU short story that's still around here somewhere. And it has elements from...everything, really. Especially Stargate.

Oh, God, yes. I've seen everything AUed for SGA (OH MY GOD THE SOUND OF MUSIC ALADDIN FIREFLY AND I COULD VERY EASILY WRITE A FOUNTAINHEAD AU), and I think that's fantastic, because they really are that kind of eternal character -- good for everything. (And John and Rodney really are the Epic Romance type more than any other pairing I've seen, too, which is so very cool.) (Oh, yes, my ex-Navy SEAL and the mathematician are the love story here. *wide eyes* I just have to make myself not name the mathematician "Percival" for one throwaway line.)

(The Night Stalker's name is Vivian. He's a guy.)

(The throwaway line would be, "Your name is Vivian?" "What, and 'Percival' is such a manly name?" "Percival! For Parsifal, the Perfect Knight! Do you know no Grail mythology, Hooten?" "Percival." "Oh, yes, and 'John' says everything." "There's nothing wrong with 'John.'" "There's nothing right about 'John' either. When did anyone named John every accomplish anything?" "John Paul Jones, genius." "Who?" "The father of the American Navy.")

(*cough* John is the SEAL.)