My Monster

[MsCongeniality]

Spalding Gray had a monologue that was filmed and released as a movie called Monster in a Box. 'Monster' was about his attempts to write a novel. The project took forever and was huge, the manuscript ran well over a thousand pages. The book was ultimately published (at a svelte 228 pages) but it seemed to be despite all of his efforts rather than because of them.

I have an idea for a future InuYasha fic that I've taken to calling 'My Monster'. The general outline and notes that I've prepared take up 10 pages of text and that doesn't include the brief prologue and interludes that I've already written. I can't quite bring myself to get started on the project (as I find the whole idea rather daunting) but I can't get it out of my head either, so presumably I'll continue to sporadically work on it and maybe throw some tidbits or ask random questions here.

[MsCongeniality]

Here's some more tidbits about this project.

• It is tentatively being titled Legends of the Lost and Found. I can't take credit for coming up with that one, as it was shamelessly stolen from the Harry Chapin song and album of the same name. It's not a songfic and it wasn't inspired by the lyrics at all, but the title just struck a chord with what I was trying to do when I was driving home from work one day. (and the lyrics aren't entirely irrelevent...)
• The story centers around the idea of reincarnation and redemption through correcting the mistakes of your past selves. It will take place in three different time periods with different sets of characters, some of which will be OCs and all of whom are intended to be heavily flawed. My original inspiration for this was my (generally poor) perception of the cliches inherent in fics that feature reincarnated characters so I'm hoping that what I do here will be at least a little bit different.
• The primary character from the InuYasha cast will be Sesshoumaru with a secondary focus on Rin. I haven't decided which, if any, of the main group will be appearing in this story. I'm really not certain they need to be there at all.

Anyway, that's all I feel like talking about right now. All my notes are at home and I'm at work. So...yeah. Hope someone finds that the least bit interesting.

[Salmastryon]

Already got me interested. ;D
In two things really the fic itself, but also your "(generally poor) perception of the cliches inherent in fics that feature reincarnated characters"

I'm a curious Wolfie now ^^

[MsCongeniality]

I don't remember a particular fic that set me off or one I can reference, but a few things stuck in my head after reading some stories involving reincarnated characters a while back.

I mean, doesn't it seem awfully convenient that these characters are all reincarnated in the same place, at the same time and not only aware of their previous self but often having retained those memories? Even if the person isn't aware they are a reincarnation, it seems as though another character is and can usually provide the information to them.

I don't generally know how reincarnations are supposed to work in various religions as my research on it to date has been fairly limited, but that seems like more of an author's shortcut to me. That's what got me thinking about a story where people didn't know they had previous lives or sins to work off, where they had no knowledge of any predestination or link with another character and where the elements took place over vast distances both in terms of time and geography.

[Salmastryon]

Yes it does seem that way, which is a shame since there are so many possibilities if you don't make the characters aware of their past lives. After all since it is a fanfiction one will assume that the audience is aware enough to spot the echos of the characters as they reincarnate.

Now I was to read your story even more! ;D ;D ;D

I know you said you haven't had time to do much research yet, but have you thought at about which form of reincarnation you are going to use?

[MsCongeniality]

Salmastryon said:

I know you said you haven't had time to do much research yet, but have you thought at about which form of reincarnation you are going to use?

I've read a 'light' book on reincarnation and skimmed some world religions texts. What I've already written/planned out isn't modeled after one specific philosophy but is kind of very general.

The soul visually 'appears' the way it does in the InuYasha manga/anime (as a glowing ball of light), there are sort of genderless entities that 'judge' each soul (they weigh it and judge its actions in life), and they also mention a 'great wheel' as a cycle of birth/unlife/rebirth. Some of it is very Eastern, some of it is kind of Orphic, but then I go and change things around slightly. For example, I'm specifically choosing one of the settings (approx 1,000 CE in France) based on the presence of the Cathar heresy which included a belief in reincarnation. I'm mostly hoping that as long as I remain consistent in my presentation I can get away without going through a specific belief structure.

[Terra Fire]

Ok, you're starting to catch my interest now too. I would like to read this. For some reason, reincarnation fic's always seem to spark my interest. And if you're doing one on Sesshomaru and Rin, I think that it would be even better. Those two are my favorite.

;}

[MsCongeniality]

I haven't been inspired to the point of writing yet, but I did some revisiting of the Prologue/Interlude pieces I already have and returned to my research. The following are some of the books I've been using as reference:

Reincarnation, Nevil Drury, Lansdowne Publishing Pty Ltd., 2002.

The Illustrated World's Religions, Huston Smith, Labyrinth Publishing, UK, 1994.

The Medieval Underworld, Andrew McCall, Barnes and Noble Books, 1979.

The Book of Courtly Love, Robert Yagley ed., Barnes and Noble Inc., 1997.

Europe and the Middle Ages, Edward Peters, Prentice-Hall, 1989.

The Handy Religion Answer Book, John Renard, Ph.D., Barnes and Noble Inc., 2002.

General Medieval Source Online:
www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook.html

Webpages with information on the Cathar Heresy:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathar
www.fact-index.com/c/ca/cathar.html
www.briancreese.co.uk/cathars.htm
www.gnosis.org/library/cathtx.htm

Japan: An Illustrated History, Shelton Woods, Hippocrene Books, 2004.

I know my citation sucks but I haven't been in college for something like 10 years now. It's not like I ever actually cite things anymore and I'm too lazy to dig out my MLA Handbook (which desperately needs replacing).

[MsCongeniality]

So...yeah...this project has stalled. This is partially due to my muse taking an extended vacation (sorry Therhoda) and partially because I've been frustrated by how I am going to go about presenting this idea.

I've known for a while that the three sections were giong to be very different from one another but recently it's occured to me just how different they really are. Part 1 is a short story, Part 2 is turning into a series of vignettes (from me? who'd a thunk!) and Part 3 is a multi-chapter romance with a highly political plotline. It's tied together with scenes that take place entirely outside the story but even so, I'm not sure that people will accept such wildly varying styles within one work. Add on to that the fact that I've been stuck on writing Part 1 as a traditional narrative short story and am now considering writing it in the style of something like a 'chanson de geste' or one of the forms common to ballads of the 'courts of love' in the medieval period.

Anyway, I'm just using this as a chance to vent my frustrations, I'm not sure I expect any movement on this in the near future. Yay Artist Angst!