The louder the volume, the lower the intelligence.

- Mister Rengerz on uncommon sense

circa 1996

Here’s an image of the Wizard of Oz I did for the Antonio Del Buono Elementary Performance Group

mythical creature of mirth and whimsy

Howdy Let’s wrap up the the broad outlining of I Was A Teenage Vampire today, by turning our attention to the third and final act.

But before we get there, I want to give you an update regarding yesterdays post about the difficult middle act. Remember how I mentioned that we need to stay open to ideas when our middle act is sketchy (and not rush to finish our story, resulting in a half-baked mess)?

Well, since yesterday’s post happened … epiphany!

I realized while looking over the mock-up cover art for IWATV, I saw the Vote For Carter button, and realized I needed to see things through Derek’s father’s eyes, and recount his perspective growing up as a teenage vampire during the turbulent 1970′s (how could I have forgot that part – it’s only on the title of the book?!?!).

All right. So now I feel better about moving forward with this middle act. When it’s right – it just clicks.

Now. The last act.

If the middle of IWATV is all about Derek and his father bonding tightly together, then the final act is all about Derek angrily rebelling against his father for convincing him to tell Body his dark secret (resulting in Body rejecting him at the end of act two).

Though Derek’s father is hurt, he also understands, and gives his son room to be angry with him.

Meanwhile, Derek is mortified that his one time secret is now public school gossip fodder. Naturally, Derek seeks out Body (who’s now hanging out with a new group of friends). But Body angrily denies he said anything to anybody.

Later that day, the bullying reaches a crescendo, and Derek is alone and isolated, feeling he’s hit the rocky bottom of his young life.

Finally, back at home, Derek seeks out his father for solace, but only finds his mother in the kitchen. She informs her son that his father is still out of town, but will be back soon. Derek retreats to his room in the hopes of simply burying himself under the covers with his I-Pod.

No such luck. This night is just getting rolling, because as soon as Derek reaches his room, he’s ransacked.

Derek’s father arrives back home, greets his wife still cooking in the kitchen. When he queries where everyone is at, his wife informs him that their oldest son is still at football practice, and Derek is upstairs in his room.

Derek’s father seeks out his youngest son, but doesn’t find Derek in his room. Just then, the doorbell rings downstairs. Derek’s father answers to find a frightened Body.

Body confesses that he and his new buddies set up Derek, but now they’re getting ready to hurt him.

Body and Derek’s father race off into the night to find Derek.

Now, I should tell you, I know how I want to end this clinching scene, but I don’t know if I really have the guts to go through with it.

Okay. This is how I feel it should go.

Derek’s father and Body reach a creek outside of town and find a gang of Derek’s schoolmates standing and taunting a limp figure lying motionless on the ground.

Derek’s father pushes the boys aside and rushes in to rescue his son, only to discover that the leader of this lynch mob is his oldest son (who was disgraced to learn that his little brother was a vampire).

Rising with his fallen son in his arms, Derek’s father carries his son’s body away (refusing to even look back at his oldest son).

The closing scene depicts Derek’s father sitting next to Derek’s body, almost like in a wake. But suddenly Derek awakens. Derek hugs his father, and wonders what happened to him.

“You suffered blunt force trauma to the head, and passed away a few hours later. But being a vampire has its advantages.”

Okay. There we go. I’m content with the overall outline, and the flow of action over three acts.

Obviously, at this point I still have a few loose ends to tie up. What about Derek’s felonious older brother? What happens to him? So we’re not finished yet.

But things feel pretty good.

Okay, let’s get to our second day of outlining I Was A Teenage Vampire in broad strokes.

Before we get there, though, I have a confession. The middle act of a story is my most challenging task. The middle is what gave me the hardest time while writing Ring Dragonz (over a full year of frustration). Truthfully, I’m pretty good at filling out the beginning and end of a story, but the middle remains a crafty nemesis for me.

This remains true for IWATV.

However, what my experiences with Ring Dragonz did teach me was not to be mushy in the middle. Usually most authors have strong ideas for the beginning and ending of their stories, but the second act can be foggy.

This is very common, and simply means there’s something missing that will still need to be worked out. If you’ve ever watched a Hollywood movie and found yourself disinterested or bored after a good start, that means the screenplay writers and filmmakers had a good idea (or concept) for a movie, but rushed into production without solidifying the middle.

The middle is the most neglected portion of a three act story.

Let me offer you a concrete example from Ring Dragonz.

Beginning: Seven Chapters
In the first third of Ring Dragonz, Walsh, Henry, and Peter win a robotics competition, earning them a trip to Hong Kong to compete internationally. But after arriving, Henry’s sister, Anne Mai, is kidnapped.

End: Seven Chapters
The boys risk life and limb to rescue Anne Mai by following a trickster, Sheshen, into the bowels of a hidden dragon’s lair hidden deep under Hong Kong, unleashing the fury of a powerful golden dragon.

I had no middle act. I was missing the middle eight or nine chapters of action, except for the idea that the boys might do some random sleuthing.

After a lot of idea grinding and diligence – epiphany. Anne Mai would be the middle act.

As a kidnapped character, through Anne Mai’s eyes I could establish the mystery of the dragon’s lair. From this realization was born the dungeon, Ping the talking brick, and a ton of other ideas that became the most popular fixtures in the book.

Important to note here, when you’re stuck, try looking at scenes and actions from other characters’ perspectives, even villains and possibly ancillary characters can open your eyes to new perspectives and possibilities. Think of how one car accident can be witnessed differently from five different people.

So, knowing this, I’ll need to be flexible and keep the doors wide open for ideas to evolve and change as I move forward with I Was A Teenage Vampire. Having said that, let’s have a look at what we’ve got so far for the second act.

Derek continues to be guided daily by his father about how to deal with his changing condition. Vampirism. I really want this section to be a beautiful metaphor about a father guiding his son, and for Derek, despite all the stresses he’s faced with, to be blessed with the kind of father and son relationship that most of us only wish we had.

The social issue of vampires on the nightly news seems to be reaching a boiling point throughout the country, and the world.

Derek gets in deep trouble with the senior bullies I alluded to last time.

Act two closes with Body discovering that Derek is a vampire (whether by accident or Derek’s own soulful confession).

Okay. Back at it tomorrow for act three outlining.

Today, the process begins with a quick thought on germs.

No, I’m not talking about microorganisms that can cause you to get sick when you don’t wash your hands regularly.

I’m speaking about the very beginning, beginning of an idea. Germs.

Ring Dragonz was born as a dream that I had back in 2001 that was so vivid I thought I was living a movie. In fact, the final chapters of Ring Dragonz are written almost exactly as everything unfolded in my dream.

As soon as I awoke from this dream, I was so excited about this story, characters, and the whopper with cheese twist ending, that ideas were spouting out of my brain faster than I could write them down.

So now what?

The Ring Dragonz germ (idea dream) supplied me with the characters, the villains, and the ending.

A good start.

Next up? Outline.

For Ring Dragonz, I made the critical rookie error of trying to write an entire book without outlining. Don’t make this mistake. In my excitement, I got a hundred pages into it, hit the wall, and became totally stuck.

So I went back to the drawing board and started outlining.

Because I’m a visual and linear thinker, I taped about sixty-five sentence strips together (those things elementary school teachers use in their classrooms) and started making a literal time line of events in the story from the first paragraph to the last.

This step took me about a month and a half, but was well worth it, because once finished I knew my book was all but written. All I needed to do was just follow the time line and write the manuscript as it was in the outline.

Another thing you need to do while hanging out here at square one: choose your audience. Who are you writing for? Are you writing for kids? Great. If so, what age group of young people? Adults? Okay. Young adults, or mature readers? Choose your audience.

Next, the genre (sci fi, fantasy, etc) should be getting clear at this point, too. Your initial germ should be pointing you in the right direction.

Now let’s look at I Was A Teenage Vampire.

SPOILER ALERT: obviously, if you’re going to follow this blog daily then you aren’t worried about the fact that you’re about to discover all this book’s secrets before it ever makes it’s way onto bookshelves.

The germ: Derek, a soon-to-be incoming high school freshman, finally hits puberty, only to discover that he’s a vampire (in a world where vampires live as second-class citizens amongst humans). Derek’s father helps him come to terms with his late-blooming identity as a vampire.

The audience: is high school age and up.

The genre: is fantasy, comedy, and a coming of age story. If that sounds like I can’t make up my mind, don’t worry. Many genres naturally overlap (or cross-pollinate), and I like to mix genres like cooking spices, combining them to create a great dinner.

The outlining: starts with me envisioning the finished book in my mind. What’s it look like? How thick is it? What’s on the cover? Who will enjoy reading it?

By asking myself these questions, I get the gut feeling that I Was A Teenage Vampire is about 15 – 18 chapters long. Using ten pages a chapter as an average, I know that this book will probably be between 150 and 200 pages long, and I envision high school teens (probably more girls than boys) reading IWATV.

I’ve also decided to follow the three act structure for this book, which is the most common story format: beginning, middle, and end (five act structures are usually reserved for long, dramatic works). This means I will try and divide the flow of energy (or action) into thirds, and make a conscious effort to make sure that each act is strong. I like to imagine three flowing tributaries coming together in a wide, rolling river.

With this in mind, the outline I have so far for IWATV consists of Derek, an awkward but honest teenage boy, waking up one late summer morning having finally hit puberty. Excitedly, he shares this revelation with his parents and siblings. However, only Derek’s father shares his enthusiasm.

As Derek’s summer closes and high school draws nigh, he and his best friend since elementary school, Body, are nervous about being incoming freshman. But even more troubling than that, Derek starts to notice some strange things are beginning to happen to him – things he can’t explain.

Soon enough, Derek’s suspicions quickly grow into a realization that he might be a vampire. In the world Derek lives in, vampires are a minority of humanity that struggles to be accepted. For this reason, Derek feels terrified to confess his suspicions to his family, or best friend, Body.

The evening news always leads with stories of vampire activists clashing violently with lawmakers and police for equal rights for all “human monsters.”

But then a supernatural incident occurs after school one day (notice I don’t even know what this scene will be yet), in which Derek’s father comes to the aid of his teenage son, leading Derek to confess his dark secret.

Derek’s father then surprises him, and alleviates his son’s guilt, by confessing that he, too, was a teenage vampire growing up. Derek is so thankful to have his father as an ally, guiding him amidst all his confusion.

So far this action comprises the first third of I Was A Teenage Vampire (along with the introduction of some bullying seniors at school).

One last note for today. I really like a story with a good prologue hook. But I wait and don’t write the hook until the entire manuscript is finished. Not everyone does this, but it seems the best way for me to gauge whether or not a book actually needs a prologue. My initial gut reaction is that IWATV probably won’t need a prologue. But we’ll see as we go along together here.

Tomorrow, we’ll look at the broad strokes outlining of the middle action of the book

Here’s a sneak peek at the mock-up cover art for my newest project:

I Was A Teenage Vampire.

What’s going to make this project unique is that I’ll actually be writing my second novel online (in what I think is a first).

So, in place of my regular daily posts here on ringdragonz.com, I will actually be posting pages from the actual manuscript, including chapter revisions, and blogging about the writing process as I go along.

Any teachers interested in having their students follow the process as it unfolds can even post me questions throughout, and I’d be more than happy to answer any and all queries

Mister Rengerz