Location, Location, Location.

I always find myself torn about story locales. I've lived in a lot of places (like, a ridiculous amount). So when I find myself telling a story where the setting isn't central to the plot, things just are kind of "meh." Which is unfortunate because my home in central Washington state. Anyone that is lucky enough to live here knows how much awesomeness there is to work with, which makes it doubly sad on my part.

I'm conflicted on the whole idea of setting a story here. I mean, there's a difference between having something terrible happen in one of the little towns versus downtown Portland. Not that bad things don't happen in small towns. I think that it may be an easier to buy the idea that big city=big trouble.

That, and it's less likely to impact me personally. With my luck, the book that would get huge (and, yes, I am dreaming big) would be the one set in my town. I would hate to have my favorite coffee shop or restaurant inundated with tourists. The west-siders are bad enough. ;)

Who knows? Maybe one day I'll get over being selfish and share. Maybe.

How You Write It.

I've been talking shop with a bunch of my friends, trying to get them to take that first leap into the literary waters. One of them said that she only wanted to write something where the bad guys wins. I thought it was a very good idea and proceeded to tell her of an author I heard had done a very interesting storyline where the protagonist and the antagonist were one in the same. I think I messed up, though, because it was similar to what she had been planning. I implored her to write it anyway. There's no way that the stories would be remotely similar. Look at the genre sections in book stores, how many boy-gets-the-girl stories are there? (Actually, I made a vampire-teen joke, but that seemed a little too easy a target.)

There are theories about the number of story types that can be told. Some say seven, some say more. I don't know. What I do know, though, is that no matter the story type, different people will tell it differently.

I really hope that my blunder doesn't keep her from writing her story. I think it's a fabulous idea.

*yawn*

Sleep-deprived brain no work so good. :)