Wednesday, March 14, 2012

SFP2: The Method

A day to mull over the main idea(s)... and another thing that strikes me as difficult is the method in which to deliver the story.  In my mind, really good stories work in two ways:  Either they are fantastical enough in the details that an entire alternate world is directly (or indirectly) created... and therefore free license is given to make anything true (Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, Star Wars, Ect.)...  OR the story is so realistic and the facts woven in are so accurate, that that the liberties taken in the fiction portion just SEEM realistic (The Da Vinci Code, The Color Purple, Forest Gump, ect.).

I tend to favor the second method.  I love when I read something that is "enlightening".  I love when you get to walk away from something you knew a variable level of information on and you have something new to add.  Even if the information is purely anecdotal, it gives you more perspective.

One idea that I toss around a lot that encompasses BOTH is the story of a normal, every day woman who suddenly realizes she has the power to end the problems of the world, if for no other reason than she just gets sick of all of the tragedy on the she hears about in news.  In my mind she would just hit some sort of breaking point in her mind and suddenly a flip would switch in her head and she'd rise up like some sort of "God"... and poof!... the wicked would be incinerated.  Which would allow me to make a personal comment on social issues and what I think matters.  I imagine the story then seguing into the after math of her rising up and cleansing the world of all "the bad people".  What would the US be like?  Africa?  Asia?  Remote areas of the world?  What could happen if the entire world was a free democracy and we all competed on the same level?  What kind of universal society would we be and what kind of social responsibilities would be on a WORLD WIDE level at that point?

It's exciting and terrifying to me to sit down and write this.  Why?  Because though I have a very general idea of the way other countries are run (communist, democratic, monarch, ect.) and a very, very, VERY mild understanding of the conditions and economic level... I know nothing beyond what I occasionally read.  The whole Kony frenzy really hit home as a primary example of how truly ignorant I am.  I watched the video and was moved enough to post it and encourage others to watch it.  I know NOTHING about Uganda, and I know I know nothing about Uganda.  YET...Child slavery = emotion.  Emotion = knee jerk reaction.  Knee jerk reaction = unqualified judgement.  Unqualified judgement = no research or attempt to seek truth.  No research or truth sought =  THE DARK SIDE.  It paralyses me.

So what do I do?  Begin writing and when I want to make specific comments look up as much info as I can in hopes I will be depicting something intelligent?  I'm overwhelmed.  I wish I could take the pills that, that dude in the movie "Limitless" did if just for a weekend so that I could read about and 100% absorb the history and current state of the entire world.  Then I'd have the story AND the way to save the world, right?  LOL.

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