Shattered (the entry is less angsty than the subject line)

[nevanna]

nevacaruso and baaing_tree present...

...SHATTERED: the ultimate Young Adult novel about multiple personalities, childhood trauma, pagan sacrifices, and noncorporeal lesbian romance!

Read more about it below (or read the explanation linked above, which is probably more coherent).


baaing_tree and I - well, mostly Rogan, if we're being honest - came up with this idea while trying to figure out what a YA problem novel about multiplicity would be like. We decided that it would obviously have to be about a tormented young woman named Ophelia who has mysterious blackouts and writes bad poetry, and the heroic classmate who tries to save her from her past and from the other people in her head: sex-positive Fifi, adorable Little Orphan Annie, and butch lesbian Eddie.

Except... the more we talked about these characters, the more sympathetic the "alters" became, and the more we wanted John, the intended love interest and actual boundary-crossing stalker, to die a slow and painful death.

All of the system members started out as stereotypical "fragmented personalities," but then developed as fully realized characters, and the story became one of their evolution as individuals and as a system, who must learn to coexist and thrive without integrating. My favorite part of this whole process was how our intended "evil alter" became the true hero of the tale. We initially thought that this character should be male, because he was the most aggressive and protective of the bunch (stereotypes: they're what's for dinner!), and the most dramatic obstacle to John's creepy courtship of his ladylove. The first name that Rogan suggested for this entity was "Moriarty." Not that I have a problem with the idea of Moriarty as a malevolent entity in somebody's head, but the archetype that he represents didn't quite fit with this particular situation. So I suggested Edward, as an homage to both Hyde and Cullen.

The more the character in question became a protector rather than a threat, however, the more we were inadvertantly implying that Ophelia needed a guy to protect her whether he lived inside her head or out of it. Rogan realized this and suggested the gender-switch, and determined that the most evil thing about her should be her sense of humor, which she mostly uses to troll John and freak him out so that he stops trying to put the moves on her headmates. Also, she and Fifi are totally into each other (and motorcycles!), and the story ends with the formation of their band, Fifi and the Alters.

I still like stories where people have to deal with "evil" entities in their heads. But I'm well aware that this isn't the only story that can be told about brain- and body-sharing, or even the most interesting story. And the story that Shattered became is about several other things that are relevant to my interests: complex identities, metaphysical realities, and how stalking, lying, savior-complexes, and assuming that you know and understand a woman better than she herself does, are not love. (I probably would add at least one sympathetic male supporting character who is not any sort of love interest, because although John's behavior is meant to poke holes in the glorification of certain romantic leads, the point of the story is not that Menz Are Teh Enemeh.) Rogan didn't have much interested even in writing the Noncorporeal Girlfriends On Motorcycles version, and graciously offered to let me have a try at it. Thus did an exercise in So Bad It's Terrible become a potentially really fun project (that still pokes holes in several genres because that's still kind of my thing).

I still don't know when this is going to happen. NaNoWriMo isn't that far away...

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

GEEEEEENIUS!

--Rogan

[nevacaruso.livejournal.com]

NO YOU. YOU GENIUS. :D

[beccadg.livejournal.com]

I probably would add at least one sympathetic male supporting character who is not any sort of love interest, because although John's behavior is meant to poke holes in the glorification of certain romantic leads, the point of the story is not that Menz Are Teh Enemeh.

I can tell you right now there is no age at which I would have been interested in a story that didn't have a sympathetic male character in it. Depending on how young I was I might not have suspected that a story lacking one was saying, "Menz Are Teh Enemeh," but I would have felt it was lacking something important. My best friend through grade school was male. One of my best friends now is male. While I appreciate "Gurlz Rule" stories having their value, I'm not particularly fond of stories that ignore half the population of the planet. Or who make The Other Half all wrong in some fashion. Given that the story is supposed to be about "metaphysical realities," you might want to consider whether having had "Eddi" go from being an evil male in Ophelia's head to a good woman, should you still have a male presence in her head? Not to mention do you need a good male presence within and without, or in just one place? Is Ophelia balanced without a male presence in her head? If she has one there, but there are none outside of her head, does the story then say the only place to find a good man is in the mind of a mad woman?