thinking...

hmm, so i'm thinking. about my latest story. i needed to write it for my oral interp. class. so i made really quick work of it. and it turned out cute and funny, but it wasn't deep or engaging. it was one of those itty bitty pieces of writing that you read as an example in a grade school class. a piece that doesn't really go anywhere. a piece with no objective.

so now i need to strip it down and build it back up. this time i need to give the characters more depth.

to start, then need names. i'll name the guy nick. there are alot of nicks in our generation. i can name five nicks who are around my age off hand. the guy has to be generic, that's why he's invisible. he was too generic, so he just faded away. ok, his name is nick, he's 20. his birthday is june 5, 1985. he has brown hair, brown eyes and is of average build. he doesn't have a last name. he can't remember it, just like his family can't remember him.

now the girl. she's... ok, can't think of a name right now, we'll get back to that. she's angry. she's always angry. she hates everyone, because she feels that everyone hates her, in a way. she had a rough childhood. her mother left, then her father left to go looking for her. her brother was much older than she, and left for college right before her mom left. no, i take that back. she was an only child. for several months she lived alone, till child services found out and sent her to a home. this home had alot of kids. so she felt her foster parents didn't have time to like her. she never got along with kids at school, because she was just one of those unfortunate people who wasn't born with the popularity gene. so she hated her classmates. she hates all people her age. she hates everyone. her name is jo. she's 21. she just turned 21. her birthday is november 1, 1984. she was born on the day of the dead, and often wishes she was dead. or invisible. she hates people and hates talking to them. but they try to talk to her anyway. till they get to know her a little bit anyway. then they think she's a bitch. and they leave. deep down, she just wants somebody to like her (or love her, but that sounds too cheesy for my tastes).

it all started nick's senior year in high school. he didn't notice it though, since nobody really ever payed attention to him anyway. it started to become more evident when he left for college. he always attended class, but the teachers marked him absent. and when he'd approach them about it, they wouldn't recognize him. and they would forget about changing their attendance records. so they flunked him. they would somehow lose his tests and papers, or sometimes they'd turn out blank. his family stopped calling him. they forgot about him. and stopped paying his tuition, so he was forced to drop out of college. now everything is starting to freak him out. he moved back in with his family, but one day he woke up and all his stuff was gone. he was sleeping on the floor. they took his bed right from under him. his parents can't see him or hear him. so he leaves. just recently, he's noticed that parts of him have started to fade away (arms, legs, hands, feet). at first he tries to ignore it, but it's getting worse and worse, and he's really starting to flip out about it.

then somehow he runs into jo, literally. he freaks her out, and she pepper sprays him.....(that was my original written scene). no, she doesn't pepper spray him. or else it'll be hard for me to convincingly have him find her again. she can see him. or at least she can see as much of him as he can. but he's starting to forget things. and he really really needs her help. because she can see him and hear him. he does something. something nice. i'm not sure what. something that keeps jo from hating him, and gets her to help him. she really does want a friend, but she doesn't want to admit it. but how can she help him? hmm....

well, that was a good brainstorming session. now to figure out how to put it into context....