Preptober Prompt: Minor Characters Move the Story

There are quite a few minor characters in the story that help move the story along.

They serve four purposes in the story:

1. They share the gossip.
2. They gossip is about them.
3. They admonish someone about gossip.
4. They get involve with the friends in some capacity of admonishment, reprimand, or restoration.

Oddly enough, the people who share the gossip aren’t named.  I did this on purpose because most of the time in real life, gossipers usually aren’t identified.  They’re usually called an anonymous source or just a source.

Preptober Prompt: Themes & Motifs in the Novel

The themes in the novel are interesting.  I had to do some thinking about them.

They are:

Good versus Evil

To Gossip versus to Not Gossip

Courage and Perseverance

The Push to Stop Sinning

Revenge

Here’s some motifs in the novel:

Darkness versus Light

The Hazards of Gossip

The Power of Words

Self (inner struggles)

(Motif is an object or idea that repeats itself throughout a literary work.)

Save The Cat Beat Sheet Is Kicking My You Know What

Ugh… I’m not feeling this plotting stuff anymore.  I’m having to rework so much of the novel…  It’s getting longer and longer.  It has more than double from the original.

But… Alas, It does help improve the novel.

P.S.  Did I say that Save the Cat is whipping my… ^&*!?

Plotting Methods Used

I’ve used three plotting methods…

Simple Plot Outline…

https://jerichowriters.com/how-to-plot/

Character, Status Quo, Motivation, Initiating Incident, Developments, Crisis, and Resolution

Three-Act Structure

https://blog.reedsy.com/three-act-structure/

Act One: Opening Scene, Setup, Inciting Incident, Call to Action

Act Two (Part I): The Choice, Rising Action/Mounting Problems. Mid Point/Reversal

Act Two (Part II): More Troubles, Disaster, Turning Point

Act Three: Plan/Resolve, Climax, Denouement

Save the Cat Writes a Novel

https://www.savannahgilbo.com/blog/plotting-save-the-cat

Opening Image/Theme Stated/Setup/Catalyst/Debate/Break Into Two/B Story/Fun & Games/Midpoint/Bad Guys Close In/All is Lost/dark Knight of the Soul/Break Into Three/Finale/Final Image

Save the Cat Beat Sheet it is…

Plotting Like a Mad Woman

I’ve been plotting the whole day.  I must have been crazy.  I’ve never used the plotting method before.  I’ve just done an outline and went with the basic story structure… Beginning, Middle, End.

I decided to be different this time.  Not sure which plotting method to use.  There are too many.  Since I’ve read Save the Cat Writes a Novel, I should use that method.  I don’t even know.

So much has changed from the inception of the original form of GOSSIP.  It’s so very different now.  I feel good, thought.

Preptober Prompt: Emotions of the Novel

This one was hard for me.  For the most part, the novel is quite sad and melancholy.  There are moments of brightness, but overall, it’s miserable.  But, that’s the key… Gossip makes everyone miserable.

It’s TENSE for most of the story.  It’s also MISERABLE.  There’s quite a bit of RESENTFULNESS, HURT, ANGUISH, and DECEIT.

I would say…

It’s a tense miserable novel with a lot of hurt and resentment.

There is some relief and hopefulness towards the end.

But, misery and hurt are the key emotions in the whole IDLE TALK SERIES.

This makes me think of “Emotions” by H-Town…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ymj35w2hsCQ

Preptober Prompt: Friendship Timeline

This post was inspire by the previous post (https://gossip-ddb.blogspot.com/2019/10/preptober-prompt-character-time-line-at.html).  I thought I would discuss the friendship timeline for the five ladies of the story.

Angela meets Karen at the church.

Then they meet Helen at church.

Then the three of them meet Mary at the coffee shop and invite her to the church.  She starts going to the church after visiting a few times.

Then, they add Tammy to the group.

Learn more about the characters in the story… https://gossip-ddb.blogspot.com/2019/10/character-list.html

Preptober Prompt: Character Time Line (At Three Points in the Story)

Tammy Andrews, my main character has an interesting timeline in the story.  I had to do some work to figure out how she became friends with the four other ladies.  So, here’s that timeline.

Tammy meets Helen.  Then, Helen introduces Tammy to Angela and Karen.

But, there’s another timeline where Mary meets Tammy through the Bishop (the pastor of their church).  Then, Mary introduces her to Karen and Angela.  Which is interesting because the two of them have already met her.

I did this on purpose to make it seem like Tammy was supposed to be part of the group.  I enjoy doing this kind of stuff in my novels.

Learn more about the characters in the story… https://gossip-ddb.blogspot.com/2019/10/character-list.html

Character List

Here’s a revised character list…

Pastor Norfleet Page, III – The gossip is about him.

Easter Jimmy – She is Pastor Page’s fiancée.

Fiona Caskey – She’s the reason for the gossip.

Tammy Andrews (spiritual) – She’s the person the story revolves around.  (I coulda just said the protagonist.)

Angela Hines (alpha) – She’s one of the gossipers and a supporting character.

Helen Ware (comedienne) – She’s another one of the gossipers and a supporting character.

Mary Regal (mediator) – She’s another one of the gossipers and a supporting character.

Karen Valwood (quiet) – She’s another one of the gossipers and the antagonist.

(Side note… I’ve never had a true antagonist in a novel before.  Well, at least one that I gave the title antagonist to).

Evangelist Geronimo Broadneck, Jr. – He’s the character that helps our protagonist on her journey.

Preptober Prompt: What I Love About My Main Character

Tammy, my protagonist is a lot like me.  For the most part, she’s me.  I, like Tammy didn’t grow up gossiping, but as an adult, I got caught up in it.  It happened so effortlessly, I didn’t realize I was a gossiper until it was too late.  It was crazy.

Similar to me, Tammy’s journey is the same.  She gets caught up in gossiping after she becomes a part of the Café girls.  She meets people who feed the gossip fiend in her and the addiction grows.  Before long, she is engulfed in a sin that she can’t get out of.

She realizes the error of her ways when some gossip she has shared does some damage to someone.

Preptober Prompt: Best Smell in the Novel

The best smell in the novel is the coffee at Café Ultra.  I just hope I can do it justice when I describe it.  I’m excited about verbally creating the mix of coffee, tea, food, and people.  I may just have to go to a café to experience it while I write that scene.  That would be cool.

I just gotta find a coffee shop that matches Café Ultra’s ambience and scenery.

Preptober Prompt: Best Sound in the Novel

The best sound in my novel is of course… the church service.

Those are my favorite scenes to write.  I love writing and describing the ambience of the service and everything that’s going on.  Once, someone told me that the scene was so real that she almost raised her hand and said “Hallelujah” while the choir was singing.  That’s what I want to happen.

Church sounds like heaven in my novel.

Preptober Prompt: Character at Three Points in the Story

I decided to go ahead and look at Karen at three points in the story.

Karen is the antagonist of the story.  I’ve never really written an antagonist in my novels.  Most of my stories don’t require one.  But, for this story, as I’ve been prepping this month, the need for one has developed.

Karen doesn’t like Tammy from the beginning.  She feels that Tammy is a third wheel so to speak.  Because Tammy comes in with a positive attitude and wanting to do more than just sit around and talk, Karen resents her.  It’s kind of like… she just doesn’t like her and there’s no real valid reason.

Karen often challenges Tammy, simply because she doesn’t like her.  There are two occasions where the conflict is very serious and could cause severe problems.

In the end, Karen winds up being hateful and vindictive to all the ladies, especially Tammy.

View Tammy’s Three Points in the Story here…
https://gossip-ddb.blogspot.com/2019/10/preptober-prompt-character-at-three.html

Preptober Prompt: Character at Three Points in the Story

I want to look at Tammy at three points of the story.  At first, I thought about writing this about Karen because I need to work on creating a meaningful antagonist, but I really want to focus on Tammy.

Tammy is the protagonist of the story.  Tammy is a fun-loving person.  She moves to Collier City because of her job.  She begins to attend the church her cousin pastors.  She’s lonely and needs to meet some friends.  She ends up meeting Mary, Helen, Karen, and Angela, who have a friendship someone set up already, but because of her personality, she’s able to fit right in with the group.  The friendship starts out fun, but begins to deteriorate once the gossip goes towards gossiping more and more.

Tammy begins to realize she gossips too much when some gossip that was shared in the group gets back to her from an unlikely source at her church.  She doesn’t know the person who tells her the gossip, so she tries to figure out how it got around and how it got back to her.  This is a pivotal moment for her in the story.

Tammy changes at the end of the story, but she still experiences the pain of gossiping.

Preptober Prompt: My World (My City)

I like to create fictious places in my stories and most of my writing.  I don’t really know how it came to be, but it’s been like that ever since I can remember.  I just made up cities and states, along with flags, seals, birds, flowers, and the like.  So, when I started writing novels, I began setting them in the cities and states I had been creating in my head.  The cities and states all have back stories to them.

The city from my novel is Collier City, Maddocha.  Maddocha is a fictious state I created when I first started designing websites.  It was the home state of a character I created.  The state is name after my family and a phrase we say in the African-American community… “I ain’t mad at cha!”

The other stories I wrote were in cities that were in the central or middle part of Maddocha.  When this story came to my mind, I decided I wanted to use a city from a different part of the state of Maddocha.  Collier City is in the upper most left-hand corner of Maddocha.

Here’s some stats about Maddocha…

The population in 2000 was 24,305,182.

Maddocha Sq. Mileage is 19,447.37.

The Residents Per Sq. Mile is 1,250.

The capital city is Hardaway.  The motto is “For the love of Maddocha.”  The state nickname is “Land of Love.”  The state tree, flower, and bird are the Windsor Phonamie, Sunshine Golden Bud, and Fikleberry Finch, respectively.

Here’s some info about Collier City.

The square mileage is 1,775.  Residents per square miles is 227.

The population in 2000 was 491,700.

It’s the 10th rated city in the state.

It was chartered in 1940 by Brett Collier.  It was incorporated in 1945.

There are 8 colleges in the city, six of them are part of the Collier City Community of Colleges, affectionately known as the 4Cs.  The college are named after the neighborhoods they reside in.  There are 6 universities in the city.  The entire higher education system is excellent.

To find out more about the city, you’ll have to read the book. 😊

Preptober Prompt: If I Get Stuck

If I get stuck during NaNoWriMo, I will outline Restoration, which covers Pastor Norfleet Page, III’s restoration after this debacle that happens in Gossip.  I also could outline Backbiting, which follows Karen’s journey.  Lastly, I could also write more about Fiona’s relationship with ole dude.

I’m just ready to write!

Preptober Prompt: Theme Song of Your Novel

When I first read the prompt, “Don’t Talk About Me,” by Tony! Toni! Tone!  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuqrZcEWO_Q)  came to mind, but it doesn’t really fit since it’s about the girl that they just broke up talking about them.

Then, Salt -N- Peppa’s “Don’t Talk About Me”  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M57a3hW4_ME)  popped in my head, but that’s referring to who their sleeping with, so it don’t really fit.  This one has some curse words in it.  LOL!

Missy Elliott’s “Gossip Folks”  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYKI8tAELXY)  could work, but I’m not too familiar with the song.  It could work because it’s about people talking about her.

One last one came to me, “I Heard it Through the Grapevine,”  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hajBdDM2qdg)  by Marvin Gaye.  That’s about him hearing that his lady had broke up with him and found another man.

So, I don’t know how any of these fit, but it’s what came to mind.  I may have to do some research on this one.

Preptober Prompt: Breathtaking Story Setting

I’m not really sure at the moment which setting is the most breathtaking.  When I thought of the prompt, café Ultra came to mind.

It’s a coffee shop, so this place can be a beautiful sensory menagerie.  There will be all kinds of sights that one can see from the people, to the machines, to the pictures on the wall.  The sounds will also be magnificent as well.  The sound of the machines can be hypnotic as well as calming.  Also, the talking of the people can be interesting.  I feel like I want to have one person just people watch, but I’m not sure that will go with the story.  I may have someone watch the ladies as they come in, perhaps a dirty old man. SMILE!  (Not really).

The smells will be a whole different level of sensory depth.  I don’t drink coffee, but I like the smell of it in coffee shops.  There is one flaw with smelling this smell… it’s during allergy season.  Smelling coffee can send me into a sneezing fit.  Also, the smell of colognes mixed with the smell of coffee is interesting.

The atmosphere will be interesting and eclectic because this shop will be visited by a diverse group of people.

I’m looking forward to writing this scenery.  I think I only have it appear once, so I made need to add another scene where I can explore it more.

Preptober Prompt: Characters’ Occupations

My character’s jobs are an eclectic collection of jobs.  I decided make the jobs STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) related for most of the ladies.  Not sure why, but STEM is a hot topic in education these days, so I made the jobs that way.

Pastor Norfleet Page, III – He has a traditional church job.  He’s the youth pastor for Highway of Glory Pentecostal Church.

Easter Jimmy – She is a High School Biology teacher.  Oddly enough, I’ve found that a lot of pastors’ (preachers’) wives are teachers.  I promise I didn’t do that on purpose.  Perhaps, it was a subconscious decision. LOL!

Fiona Caskey – She’s a high school student.

Tammy Andrews – She is an IT Project Manager at a company.  I’m not really sure what the company does. LOL!  It hasn’t come to me, yet.

Angela Hines – She is an Administrative Assistant at a Financial Company.  I did this one person to show who she is.  She “acts” all bougie, but the money she has comes from her family’s money and from her deceased husband’s pension.  She has a Bachelor of Business degree but being an admin assistant is her choice.

As a side note, I was once Angel.  I had a Bachelor of Business degree and I was working as an admin assistant.  I enjoyed being one, too.

Helen Ware – She’s an actuary at an insurance company.  I did this on purpose.  She’s a comedienne and I decided to find a profession that I didn’t think “fit” with someone who’s a comedienne.  I want people to be taken aback when she tells them her profession.

Mary Regal – She’s specialized in teaching 5th graders.  But, right now, she teaches computer classes as well as offers math tutoring

Karen Valwood – She likes to cook, so I decided to make her a food service manager at a college.  The college and her dining hall have the best food service program in the city.

Evangelist Geronimo Broadneck, Jr. – He’s in Divinity school.  He’s a full-time student.  He works part time in his uncle’s car shop.  On occasion, he travels as an evangelist speaking around the state of Maddocha.

I put a lot of thought into the professions.  It was fun coming up with them, too.  Their jobs weren’t a part of their profile in the original version of the story.  Glad I added them this time.

Edit:  Here’s the character list… https://gossip-ddb.blogspot.com/2019/10/character-list.html

Preptober Prompt: What Excites You About Your Story

I’m excited about my novel GOSSIP.  I feel rejuvenated to discuss this topic.  I’m mostly excited because realistically, I can complete this one this year.

Since the previous attempt to finish it, I’ve had some ideas and thoughts that add to the story and digs deeper into the subject.  I’m ready to write.

Preptober Prompt: Number of Characters in My Novel

There is a total of 47 characters in my novel.  There is a protagonist, an antagonist, 7 supporting characters, and 38 minor characters

Edit: View the list of main characters here…
https://gossip-ddb.blogspot.com/2019/10/character-list.html

Preptober Prompt: Ten Words About My Novel

Gossip feels fun, but it does a lot of damage.

Preptober Prompt: Most Excited About

I’m most excited about the new writing year.  It’s a chance to start a new project with a different energy and enthusiasm and eagerness.  It’s also the best time of the year because the writing communities I’m a part of are buzzing with energy about writing.

I get to start a new project with the hope of completing it.  It’s like a time of renewal, regeneration, rejuvenation, and restoration.

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It's Official...

Gossip will be this year's writing project!  I'm so excited.  Starting with Preptober tomorrow.

Let's get it... Let's go!

Preptober!

It's about to be on...