Brainstorming Sessions

[RJF]

Okay, I know that, as writers, everyone obviously likes to work alone. But at times, you're just not sure about something, you're at your wit's end, and you really need a fresh pair of eyes to look at something you have done. Speaking from personal experience, Adam and I have bounced ideas off each other frequently. Whether it's just to decide if a character's motivation is in-character, or perhaps to iron out some mythology kinks that would be glaring bloopers unless someone pointed them out to you.

Hell, even someone just saying, "Wow, that sounds really good!" and providing no input at all can really help. It's a very community-driven process at times, and this thread is all about that.

So, onto my current mythology/sheer likeliness of something happening dilemma:


Way back in Season 4 when the COs are attacked by the harpies, Cole's assistant kills their leader, correct? But the main reason he sends her after the harpies in the first place is because they attacked his wife. So, as the Source, would it make sense for Cole to have exiled the rest of the harpies from the Underworld, similar to what happened to vampires? You know, in a way that they're still demons and still active, but they no longer fall under the bracket of the Source's demons.

[Dark Witch.]

I think that would make sense. If he didn't like them completely and wanted to send them a message like he did by killing the Harpies leader, then it would make perfecr sense for them to be exiled. That is just my opinion, that would be something the Source would do. Look how many people he exiled: The Tall Man, Vampires, Zankou, the list goes on.

[Harrison]

I also agree with the above statements. Although, something that always had me thinking was that someone said in "Bite Me" that the vampires were banished into another realm. What does this mean exactly? What do you guys think the difference between different realms or one of the eleven planes in Charmed-verse is? Is there even a difference at all?

[Quadquetra]

The different realms weren't discussed as much as i wished but i'm guessing its something like how the astral plane is a different one of existence. And As we heard and saw Cole do, demons can transport themselves to these planes so the must be able to do the same with realms.

But the reason he banished Zankou and the Tall Man is because he couldn't defeat them and he didnt know the secret to killing vampires was to kill the queen so he banished them as well so i guess those he couldnt defeat he banished and the ones he could he simply vanquished.

[Nerf]

I don't know if Cole would have banished the Harpies at that time. He was about bringing demons together as a powerful force against good, instead of being stuck in petty squabbles. As Quadquetra said, the ones that were banished were those that were too powerful, or that he didn't know how to vanquish. If he couldn't control them, he banished them. For the leader of the Harpies, I think killing her was a message. He is in charge, you don't do anything without his say so (especially attacking his wife, but that was more of Cole shining through, not the Source). I don't think he would banish the Harpies, just make sure they understood who was in charge, which he did by killing their leader.

However, I don't think it is that much of a stretch to believe they could have been banished at that time. As far as I can remember we don't see them after that. So if having them be banished works for your story, I say go for it.

By the way, great thread idea.

[RJF]

As Quadquetra said, the ones that were banished were those that were too powerful, or that he didn't know how to vanquish.

See, this is the main sticking point that my idea has that I wasn't aware of before now. Although actually, pointing this out has actually given me a new spin for my idea that makes it work with this in mind.

While the points against this are relevent, I still believe that, while Cole was an extremely successful Source, his downfall was the way he acted where Phoebe was concerned. Instead of lauding a demon for attacking the Charmed Ones, they ended up dead, for instance. I think Cole would have wanted the rest of the race to suffer, not die. It would just be more cruel that way and more of a revenge than simply vanquishing them. We saw that, when it came down to it, Phoebe was his undoing so I could see this stretching into other matters as well.

[Temporal Death]

I'm having issues with tenses for a story I'm writing. I usually write in past tense, but I don't know why I had second thoughts and decided to write in the present tense. Below are two extracts, one in the present tense, and the other in the past. Do let me know which reads better to you.

“My father loves me!”

She believes each word she spits at him, too ireful to acknowledge that he had asked her about any other theories she might have about her father’s plan of action. She glares up at the towering convict as she stands, attempting to drill fear into a pair of blue eyes that match her own. Won’t work. It’s Bennet.

She’s in a tiny room, a simple cell for the deviant captive, and it is painted grey, much like the color of his soul, and cotton apparel. He holds a red rubber ball in one hand, and calmly looks past her as she stupidly waits for a split-second to see if her domineering stare had worked anyway. Nope.

The color of his eyes is the only thing blue about him. They are powerful things, eyes. Each set tells a story of their own, and Noah Bennet’s are blue because he’s away from home, away from his family, locked up in this ugly little cell of his, and the grief that’s reflected off his baby blues sends soothing tickles of joy up her spine as she storms out in anger.

The man in the horn-rimmed glasses has been a great asset to the Company, and as of late, to Elle herself. He knows things she doesn’t; he has at least a decade’s worth of field experience more than she does, and as far as he let her know, months less of wiped memory courtesy of the Haitian’s power. What she often comes to him for nowadays is the truth, and it is the very truth she slams the door shut on today as she walks out of his grey prison.

“My father loves me!”

She believed each word she spat at him, too ireful to acknowledge that he had asked her about any other theories she might have about her father’s plan of action. She glared up at the towering convict as she stood, attempting to drill fear into a pair of blue eyes that matched her own. Won’t work. It’s Bennet.

She was in a tiny room, a simple cell for the deviant captive, and it was painted grey, much like the color of his soul, and cotton apparel. He held a red rubber ball in one hand, and calmly looked past her as she stupidly waited for a split-second to see if her domineering stare had worked anyway. Nope.

The color of his eyes was the only thing blue about him. They were powerful things, eyes. Each set would tell a story of their own, and Noah Bennet’s were blue because he was away from home, away from his family, locked up in this ugly little cell of his, and the grief that reflected off his baby blues sent soothing tickles of joy up her spine as she stormed out in anger.

The man in the horn-rimmed glasses had been a great asset to the Company, and as of late, to Elle herself. He knew things she didn’t; he had at least a decade’s worth of field experience more than she did, and as far as he let her know, months less of wiped memory courtesy of the Haitian’s power. What she often came to him for was the truth, and it was the very truth that she slammed the door shut on today as she walked out of his grey prison.

[Terry]

I'd suggest a mix of both. Here:

Jun 17, 2010 16:10:08 GMT Temporal Death said:

The color of his eyes was the only thing blue about him. They are powerful things, eyes. Each set would tell a story of their own, and Noah Bennet’s were blue because he was away from home, away from his family, locked up in this ugly little cell of his, and the grief that reflected off his baby blues sent soothing tickles of joy up her spine as she stormed out in anger.

Eyes remain "powerful things" within and without the story, so it doesn't need to be in the past.

[Temporal Death]

Oh, yeah. And in pointing out that error, you have also indirectly pointed out to another (set is singular, it shouldn't be theirs; its). These are unedited anyway.

See the thing that I realised was that while using the present tense, I mostly focus more on her feeling in the now, and when it's in the past, it opens up a whole new realm for me when description comes into play, which is one of my strong points as a writer. You can simply stop a moment in the past, explore everything, and then move on. If the same is done in the present tense, I feel that the moment just passes after all the added weight.

[Active Engaged]

Figured this was the place to post this.

Do you guys think it's unusual to write the end of a series, when the series has just begun? The reason I ask this is because I've already written quite a bit of the final chapter of Heritage, and in a way, I think that's a positive thing to do. I know exactly how I want it to end, and I can know what I'm writing towards. But then again, I don't really know how the characters will change by the time I get around to the last chapter. I've also written about 3 pages of Epilogue, and another page of a Post-finale one-shot.

So yes, I want a second opinion.

[Temporal Death]

Well, like you once told me, ideas are better put down on paper, so whatever you write, keep it. As your story progresses, the characters will change, that's for sure, but then you can always step in and change those parts, or salvage some sections that you deem continuity worthy.

[RJF]

Any writing is a good idea. Think of it as a brainstorm and just don't be obsessed with sticking rigidly to it as you'll find you probably won't anyway. One of the final scenes of my fic was written way before I actually wrote the rest of the finale, and in the end I didn't even include it. Sometimes, these things can just act as a creative outlet.

It's very good to have a plan though. Just remember plans change. While it's great to have a plan for the ending, don't be worried about sticking too much to your original idea if, say, another idea pops up, or the story seems to be heading in a different direction.

You'll probably find you rewrite it when the time comes anyway. The piece you have right now, I'm guessing, will be bare of elements that actually connect it to the rest of the story. Mainly because you haven't written the rest yet.