Urban Shockah Votes With A Bullet posted by kza

I have a feeling this list would look different if I wrote it a day later, a day earlier, or even just at a different hour. An idea that sounds good in the morning looks uninspired in the evening, then looks fresh again the following day. So who knows what this list would look like a week from now? But as we have to check and see if the cat is dead or alive, the stories have to get slotted into an hierarchy. Here’s mine.

6. The Atmospherist. Basically, a joke entry. Potentially a good joke, or at least a fun joke, but I’m not feeling particularly funny today.

5. La Commune Planet. I like the idea of a cross-class comedy of unrequited love; I’m not sure this is the best place for it, ultimately. And right now, I’m wary of the challenges and hassles of “big concept SF” — a not very good name for the kinds of stories we’ve been coming up with, the really interesting world or concept (in this case, a Pleasure Planet that goes into revolt) that is waiting to be populated by characters, conflicts, and incidents. I’m looking for those kinds of things to be already there, up front and in my face.

4. The Scabs. And so The Scabs gets kind of a low rating as well, despite my fondness for the concept. As Grymz and I discussed offline, it’s a bit “thinky”, perhaps better suited for a novel — something that can accommodate all sorts of political and philosophical musings, while still telling a story. But a 120 page screenplay? Maybe, but I’m not ready for it yet.

3. Rasputin the Translator. I’ve surprised myself by ranking this one so high — IIRC, the last time we talked about it, we never came to terms as to what actually happens in this story. It’s still a pretty big blank slate. But we came up with some interesting characters (while keeping the Rasputin figure mysterious), and the basic situation is still intriguing. We’re still circling this one, and I smell gold at the middle — we just haven’t dug deep enough. (Mixd metaphorz rool)

2. Little Black Stray. Remember what I was saying about how capricious I could be about making this list? This was originally slotted at number one when I started this post, but I’ve had a change of heart. It’s still one of my all-time faves — in fact, I’m seriously considering using it as the base of my NaNoWriMo. I love the situation, the contrast between the hard machismo of the inmates and the soft, vulnerable woman, and the potential to flip those qualities. I really like my conception of the prison planet, and I like Grymz’s background for the woman, and the different plot twists that could come out of it. So why only #2? Well, I’m still having reservations about the prison planet itself — the “big concept SF” problem again — and how to incorporate that into the potentially explosive character relationships. And at any other time — like five minutes ago — it would’ve been #1 easily. But I feel like “up front and in my face” is the mood of the moment, and with that in mind…

1. Time to Die. One woman, one dead husband, one charismatic killer, one hard-assed warden, and one thousand rioting prisoners. See, the poster almost writes itself! I’m feeling this one is even more straight-forward than Little Black Stray — the goal of the protagonist is about as clearly defined as one would want — and isn’t as Big Concept as the others. (There’s a prison on a planet, and it’s the future so there’s lots of fancy gizmos, but there isn’t any real “paradigm shift” required on the part of the reader. If you know about prison movies, then you know about this story.) There’s still a lot to define here; there hasn’t been as much work done on it as Little Black Stray or even Rasputin for that matter. But with such a strong through-line (Woman wants to retrieve her husband’s dead body from rioting prisoners, and how do we make that hard for her each step of the way?), it seems like the ideal choice for this experiment.

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