Not With A Bang, But A Fizzle

Today's blog topics include: Details about my next big project, The Perfect Girl Drinks Root Beer; inspiration and planning for a project years in the making

Tim Cody is currently:
Working on: Root Beer outline
Playing: Alice: Madness Returns (PS3)
Reading: X-23, Volume 2
Fourth Thing: For consistency!


Tsssssss... 

...

Tsssssss...

That's me starting the new year with a fizzle. 22 days into 2012, it's time to once again get serious(ish). I'll start writing my next book soon, which I've been outlining for the better part of four years.

I finished Crimson Soul 2 late November, and only had about three weeks before my Christmas trip home--so it wasn't the time to start my next project. On January 31st, Final Fantasy XIII-2 is released; which gives me just a month before I will without a doubt once more become completely absorbed in sweet, sweet JRPG. A break of about three months between books seems to be becoming my standard, assuming I finish Final Fantasy XIII-2 by the end of February. 

The Perfect Girl Drinks Root Beer 
Nobody's perfect for everyone, but everybody's perfect for someone.

I invented the idea over four years ago. Two guys working at a soda shop in the mall food court, one of whom is going on and on about how the perfect girl is absolutely enamored with root beer. Throughout the day, a series of girls approaches and orders a root beer. Beautiful young women, and at first our soda guy thinks, "Now here's a perfect girl!" But some flaw--something that makes her imperfect--becomes readily apparent.

His theory all but shot, the perspective shifts to the girls. The narrative follows them--the book's stars--and we see how each of them is perfect for someone.

At its core, this story is one of romance, and love. Everyone's got their problems, something that makes them a weird, imperfect human. Though as the cliche goes, don't judge a book by its cover--because no matter how bad it gets, no matter how bad it can appear... No matter how much reeling in someone needs, there's somebody for everyone. Everybody's perfect for someone, and that's what this story explores.

A cast of nearly a dozen characters is about to live the most important two weeks of their lives. 

My editor usually writes my synopses, but there's the gist of it. 

This young adult chick-lit (which I like to call it because it sounds like "Chiclet") is a fairly radical departure from my Crimson Soul series. Although Root Beer (codename!) will feature light thriller aspects, they will be just that--light. Instead of finding inspiration from horror--Silent Hill, Fatal Frame, and the likes, as I've said in previous blog posts--I instead turn toward the lighter, and look toward a scene other than video games.

For a technical point of view, I study the likes of the anime series Durarara and Baccano, where the casts of characters ranges in the dozens--to better understand the possible ways of managing so many characters, and mingling them without the story becoming jumbled. Mostly, though, inspiration for the story itself comes from within. I turn toward my own life, and recount (read: "greatly exaggerate") the relationships I've lived through.

1 part real life 
1 part exaggerated real life 
2 parts fiction 

The Perfect Girl Drinks Root Beer is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of characters to actual persons, living or dead, is purely intentional and cathartic.

I've been adding to the outline for years, but really picked up steam while I was writing Crimson Soul. With about 40 pages of single-spaced notes, the next step is to get them in chronological order. The story takes place over the course of two weeks, so a calendar will help greatly.

What's also notable about this book is that I'll be starting almost entirely from scratch--which is pretty exciting, and also a little nerve-wracking. I wrote Crimson Soul 1 and 2 years ago, my more recent work on them has been rewriting--from the ground up, nearly entirely different books from what they originally were--but still, I started with a start-to-finish book.

Root Beer, however, I have about 30 pages that I wrote about two and a half years ago. This entire book, which is shaping up to feel like my magnum opus, will be a completely original work, written for the first time from the ground up. It was always refreshing to write something on entirely blank pages while I was working on Crimson Soul, but I always had that outline--which was actually an entire book--to fall back on. Though confidence pushes me forward! I am eager to get started, sirs and/or madams.

That's that and marmalade!

-Tim Cody