Exclusive Behind-the-Scenes Making of DRACULAS
This is an exclusive, spoiler-laden, behind-the-scenes look at the writing of DRACULAS. What follows is the chain of emails between Joe, Blake, Jeff, and Paul, from March 27, 2010 through October 2, 2010. This is our back-and-forth to one another as we worked on DRACULAS, detailing the entire writing process, who wrote what, things that were added, cut, switched, and editorial suggestions to each other. These emails were recreated exactly as they were written, so there are typos. This is essentially a window into our co-writing process. It will probably be boring for readers, but for writers interested in collaboration, it offers a peek behind the curtains of how we did it.
It begins with Joe emailing Jeff after confirming the project with Blake over the phone...
March 27, 2010
Jeff--
Our novella SUCKERS has made $$$ this month, and the month isn't over yet.
In June, Amazon is doubling the royalty rate. Which means we'll be making about $$$ per month, EACH, on Suckers.
We should do some other collaboration. Maybe a McGlade/Mayhem piece. Or perhaps an original Kindle novel.
I've got an idea that could be used for either.
Some scientists find Dracula's bones in Transylvania (they know it's Dracula because he's got a stake in the heart and fangs.) Pulling out the stake does nothing. So they take the bones back home, and accidentally clone him.
Title: DRACULAS.
The word "vampire" has been used to death. But "Dracula" has not. And with PREDATORS coming this summer, adding an "S" to a known monster name makes perfect sense.
We could go the serious route, as an action horror book. Could go comedy. Could go McGlade and Mayhem.
Interested?
Joe
* * *
Holy crap. That's a lot of frickin' money for a book with spaghetti sauce as the primary plot driver.
Let me get back to you on the collaboration. You're right--an original, "major" novel for the Kindle would make us a fortune, and if you had e-mailed me yesterday around noon I would've said "Absolutely!" And then I would have e-mailed you back rather sheepishly and said that I might not be able to commit, because my agent got an e-mail about a work-for-hire project that will be potentially huge and will very likely leave me with no free time until 2011.
Jeff
* * *
What if DRACULAS were split three ways? Blake Crouch is involved (he and I just sold movie rights to SERIAL, believe it or not.)
If each of us write 20k, we could do it fast, get it up in a month. That way there's no big time commitment, and you can still meet your deadlines.
I'm thinking this can be somewhat tongue and cheek, but not satire. Sort of like the first Evil Dead movie. Think 28 Days Later with vampires. And none of that supernatural BS. Crosses, garlic, daylight; none of that stops them. Only way to kill them is to cut off the head. And these aren't debonair, hypnotizing movie idols. No turning into bats or sleeping in coffins. These draculas are running, screeching, blood sucking dynamos.
We're talking a balls-to-the-wall screaming vampire invasion novel. Rabid, feral, crazy bloodsuckers, draining everything that moves; people, dogs, cattle, each other. Once gets cut, spills its own blood, the others pounce on him.
Maybe we confine the action to a hospital out in a rural area. One of the doctors there somehow gets Dracula's bones, does some experiments, suddenly there's a dracula outbreak. Heroes are a soon-to-be mom and dad in labor in the maternity ward, a lumberjack recovering from a work injury, a nurse at her first week on the job, and a paranoid redneck cop.
Think about it...
Joe
* * *
Ah...so it would have been something like BLOOD DEVIL by Eli Roth & JA Konrath .
I've got an April 30 deadline for WOLF HUNT, so I won't be able to work on anything else until that one's finished. I know that they'd want me to get started on another project fairly soon after that, and right now I don't know if it's going to be a brutal deadline or a generous, leisurely one. So I'll keep you posted. If you and Blake want to rush forward with DRACULAS, we'll come up with another idea when my schedule is clear!
Jeff
* * *
Blake and I just spoke. He's gung ho for going forward. We talked about some of the plotting and divvying up the workload. Basically, we'd each take a character in the hospital and follow them through the vampire outbreak. Maybe 20k words each separately, then bring the characters together for the finale. Structure it like AFRAID: character scene ending in a cliffhanger, go to the next character ending in a cliffhanger, go to the next...
This needs to be three people. I'm crazy busy as well, but I'm lucky to not have a day job.
I'd really prefer working with you before looking for another third partner...
Joe
* * *
I don't know the timeframe on the new gig. It could very well be a case of "Can you deliver the manuscript in the next 12 months?" Or it could be "We need this by August and here's a 350-page bible of rules that you need to follow to the letter, while still delivering a creative story with emotional depth and engaging characters, which must not contradict anything in the upcoming unfinished game." But I can say for certain that until May 1st, there'll be no DRACULAS work for me.
Jeff
* * *
Oh, poop.
Okay, now I gotta ask others. I'll start with F. Paul Wilson. But when this gets made into a Wes Craven movie, remember I asked you first.
Joe
* * *
Heh heh. This is the only time in my life that somebody will come to me before F. Paul Wilson. Rest assured that this is a genuine recognition of the impossibility of cramming another 20,000 words into April and not a "Sorry, too busy!" style brush-off of the type I saw (Big Name Horror Author) give an editor at WHC, leading to the editor being red-faced, quiet, and mildly ashamed for the rest of the party.
Jeff
* * *
Has (Big Name Horror Author) published anything since (Well Known Book)?
Joe
* * *
Lots, you illiterate!
Jeff
* * *
I thought he was dead.
Joe
* * *
Well, that's what happens when you turn 40--the memory and awareness of the world around you starts to fade, big-time.
(This will be only be funny for the next 7 1/2 months.)
Jeff
* * *
Who are you, again?
Joe
* * *
That guy you owe $50,000 for ghost-writing WHISKEY SOUR.
Jeff
* * *
I didn't like that book. Mixing humor and horror is stupid.
Joe
* * *
Hi Paul--
Taking a complete shot in the dark here, but how's your writing schedule? Got any free time?
Blake Crouch and I have this insane idea for a vampire novel that would be a cinch to write, and we're looking for a third collaborator. Everyone does 20k words, split the rights 3 ways.
I know you've done vamps before, but this is really a different take on it, and the workload would be light for all involved, and also a lot of fun. Sort of like what you did with ARTIFACT, except more linear, and more commercial. And more violent.
The title: DRACULAS.
It's a lot like 28 Days Later with fangs. Capitalizes on both the vampire and the zombie popularity currently fueling genre fiction, but with some big twists. Think Night of the Living Dead in a hospital setting.
As I said, this is a shot in the dark. I know you're busy and in demand. I've got four book contracts right now (!), and I'm buried in work, but this idea won't let me be. Problem is, I just don't have time to write it alone.
Joe
March 29, 2010
Getting my head sorted out after WHC.
This sounds like fun as long as you don't have too tight a deadline.
Paul
* * *
Jeff said he really can't do it, so I asked F. Paul Wilson if he wants to join with us.
Here's some preliminary thoughts:
Prologue, three newspaper clippings from a cheesy tabloid. Headlines:
"DRACULA'S SKULL UNEARTHED IN TRANSYLVANIA! A Romanian farmer uncovered a skull with unique properties while plowing his field near the town of Brasov. The relic, which appears to be ancient and human, has thirty two razor-sharp teeth where normal flat teeth would be."
"VAMPIRE SKULL A HOAX?" Discovered by a farmer while sowing soybeans, the humanoid skull with sharp teeth is considered by many to be fake. Fueling this speculation is the farmer's refusals to let scientists analyze the discovery, claiming it is embodies an ancient curse."
"MILLIONAIRE BUY'S DRACULAS HEAD!" Eccentric recluse Mortimer Moorecook of Durango, Colorado, has apparently purchased the so-called Dracula skull from the Transylvanian farmer who unearthed it a week ago, for an undisclosed sum. It isn't known what Moorecook, who made his fortune on Wall Street during the late 80s, plans to do with the skull, though many are hoping it will be turned over to scientists for study. Moorecook was recently diagnosed with lung cancer, and couldn't be reached for comment."
Chapter 1
Moorecook gets the skull shipped to him. He's a collector of vampire memorabilia, and on hand is an historian who had studied vampire legends. When the box arrives, Moorecock cradles the head in his sickly hands--then bites himself in the neck with the fangs. He immediately goes into convulsions. The historian calls the paramedics, who take him to the secluded Miskatonic Hospital a few miles away.
Chapter 2
New nurse first week. Cancer ward. Hates seeing all the dying, but likes the job and needs the money for her sick mother, who's a patient there.
Chapter 3
Husband and expectant mother hurry to hospital while she's in labor. Twins. Could be a long labor and complications.
Chapter 4
Lumberjack hurt in accident, recovering from chainsaw injury. Twenty five stitches. He's so tough he drove himself to the hospital, so his truck--filled with axes and chainsaws--is parked in the lot.
Chapter 5
A gung-ho good ole boy gun-crazy cop (think Kevin Kostner from Silverado) is the boyfriend of the historian. Meets her at the hospital (To propose? Has ring on him?)
Alternate POVs (including draculas), chapters end in cliffhangers. No way to get out of the hospital because they spread too fast and knew enough to shred the tires on all the vehicles outside. Vamps also destroyed phone system. Hospital has a "no cell phone" rule and blocks the use of cells with a jammer.
Dracula rules:
All of their teeth (not just canines) grow long and sharp, so big they shred through their lips and cheeks.
Claws grow. Able to see in dark. Can smell blood like sharks.
Must drink blood every hour, or they die. Any blood: animal, human, blood banks. If one of them is cut and bleeds, the others turn on him and devour him. Lick up every drop off the floor and walls. Fight over bones to get the marrow.
Without blood, they autocannibalize themselves, sucking their own blood.
An hour to mutate. No cure.
No vampire gimmicks. Crosses, sunlight, garlic, stakes--nothing kills them but fire and beheading. No turning into bats or mesmerizing victims.
These are rabid dogs with bigger teeth. They exist only to drink blood. Rudimentary, childlike thoughts, and some problem solving abilities, but no speech (can't with teeth so big) and no humanity or sense of their former selves.
Joe
* * *
More possible scenes:
Millionaire being rescued at the end because they think he's normal: reverse NOTLD.
Lumberjack ripping a stitch. All the draculas nearby start sniffing the air and screaming.
Lumberjack and cop in a fist fight. Deadly, because if either of them spills blood, they'll be stampeded.
Birth scene, woman in labor, fighting off draculas who smell it happening.
Joe
* * *
Did Paul write back and say "Dude, the occasional short stories are okay, but please don't forget that I created...REPAIRMAN JACK!!!"
Jeff
* * *
Paul's in.
Joe
* * *
Wow. Congrats!
If the project gets stalled and you find yourselves on May 1st still ready to get going, let me know!
Jeff
* * *
May 1 might be doable for a start date if you can commit. Me, you, Blake, and Paul. Blake and I are working on an outline.
Joe
* * *
Okay, I can commit to a May 1st start date! I'm in!
Jeff
April 1, 2010
Jeff Strand says he's in, as long as we don't get started until May 1.
So we have our team. :)
Joe
May 7, 2010
Hey guys--
Here are the preliminary rules for DRACULAS. We have four authors: JA Konrath, F. Paul Wilson, Blake Crouch, Jeff Strand.
Everyone will be responsible for 15k words. Blake and Joe will be responsible for the set-up and the finale (though the finale will be based on everyone's input.)
The main idea for the story is a simple one: Night of the Living Dead in a rural hospital in Durango, Colorado, with vampires.
The idea for collaboration is equally simple. There will be four sets of protagonists. Each of the writers will take them through the vampire outbreak in the hospital. The chapters will be short, and end in cliffhangers. Then, when we're putting the book together, we'll alternate chapters. This is an ensemble piece with multiple heroes all battling the same evil in different wings of the hospital.
Here's what we have as far as a set-up, rules, and characters. Jeff and Paul can each decide first which character arc they'd like to write for.
Whether you want your characters to survive or not is up to you. The very finale will be a reverse Night of the Living Dead ending. Instead of killing the hero thinking he's infected, one of the infected will be mistaken for human and removed from the hospital by rescuers, presumably to go on and infect the world.
This is a fast-paced, visceral book done in real time with a lot of action set-pieces based on deconstructing vampire myths. More on that in a moment. Here's the set up:
Prologue, three newspaper clippings from a cheesy tabloid. Headlines:
"DRACULA'S SKULL UNEARTHED IN TRANSYLVANIA! A farmer in Romania uncovered a skull with unique properties while plowing his field near the town of BRasov. The relic, which appears to be ancient and human, has thirty two razor-sharp teeth where normal flat teeth would be."
"VAMPIRE SKULL A HOAX?" Discovered by a Romanian farmer, the humanoid skull with sharp teeth is considered by many to be fake. Fueling this speculation is the farmer's refusals to let scientists analyze the discovery, claiming it is embodies an ancient curse."
"MILLIONAIRE BUY'S DRACULAS HEAD!" Eccentric recluse Mortimer Moorecook of Durango, Colorado, has apparently purchased the so called Dracula skull from the Transylvanian farmer who unearthed it a week ago, for an undisclosed sum. It isn't known what Moorecook, who made his fortune on Wall Street during the late 80s, plans to do with the skull, though many are hoping it will be turned over to scientists for study. Moorecook was recently diagnosed with lung cancer, and couldn't be reached for comment."
Chapter 1
Moorecook gets the skull shipped to him. He's a collector of vampire memorabilia, and on hand is an historian who had studied vampire legends. When the box arrives, Moorecock cradles the head in his sickly hands--then bites himself in the neck with the fangs. He immediately goes into convulsions. The historian calls the paramedics, who take him to the secluded Miskatonic Hospital a few miles away.
Shortly after being admitted, Moorecock begins to transform into a vampire. He attacks the staff, and begins the spread the infection.
Chapter 2
New nurse, her first week on the job. She's stationed in the cancer ward, which she prefers; that way she can spend time with her mother, who is in the ward dying of cancer.
Chapter 3
A husband and wife in the maternity ward. She's in labor, expecting twins.
Chapter 4
A lumberjack, recovering from a chainsaw accident. His truck is parked outside, filled with axes, saws, and other useful tools.
Chapter 5
A good ole boy cop, who is the boyfriend of the historian. He'd been planning on asking her to marry him that day, and meets her at the hospital to do so. He's a gun nut.
Chapter 6-Chapter 30
We alternate POVs, following each group of characters as the outbreak goes from some isolated incidents to a full-blown hospital takeover.
Vampire Rules
These aren't brooding, charismatic charmers. These are feral pyschopaths who exists only to gorge themselves on blood.
After mutating, their teeth grow long and sharp. All of their teeth (not just their canines), and they extend so big they shred through their own lips and cheeks.
Claws grow. Able to see in dark. Can smell blood like sharks. Strong and fast, but no other supernatural abilities, and no trace of humanity left.
The draculas must drink blood every hour, or they die. Any blood. If one of them is cut and bleeds, the others turn on him and devour him. Lick up every drop off the floor and walls. Fight over bones to get the marrow.
Without blood, they autocannibalize themselves, sucking their own blood until they die.
It takes less than an hour to mutate.
No vampire gimmicks. Crosses, sunlight, garlic, stakes--nothing kills them but fire and beheading and blood draining. No turning into bats or mesmerizing victims.
No humanity, no higher thinking. These are rabid dogs with bigger teeth. They exist only to drink blood. Rudimentary, childlike thoughts. Problem solving skills and cooperation, but this dissipates the hungrier they become.
Blake and I have also got some set-pieces we'd like included in the story: big scenes that will be a lot of fun to write. I'll let him describe those...
Joe
May 8, 2010
I kinda like the gun-nut cop...like many gun nuts, he's something of a gunsmith and he customizes weapons...he's off-duty and was on his way to a gun show with a trunkful of all his super-cool heat. He was going to take the historian along so he could propose to the woman he loves most among the things he loves most. His guns have been keeping them apart - she hates them. But she's going to learn to LOVE them.
Paul
* * *
I'll take the lumberjack, unless Joe or Blake desperately want him.
This sounds like a hell of a lot of fun. Good work, you two. Pat each other on the back...violently.
Jeff
* * *
Mornin' Fellas - I talked with Joe, and I'll take the pregnant couple (my daughter was born just a year ago, so I'm still pretty close to the birthing experience)...Joe will have the nurse/mother dying of cancer.
I wanted to list out some big set pieces Joe and I have talked about:
(1) We imagined this scene where, initially, Moorecook goes into the ER convulsing, and then goes ape-shit and bites everything in sight, essentially killing 3 people and a seeing-eye dog. Hospital staff is freaking out, they put the dead in the refrigerated morgue drawers to isolate them while they wait for the CDC to show up...There's a beat of "whooo, disaster averted, let's call the CDC, and someone on staff at the morgue late at night, suddenly hears four metal doors begin to rattle, and then this awful screaming coming from the drawers, which begin to be kicked out.
(2) A woman undergoing a blood transfusion wakes to see a dracula slurping down the contents of her blood bag
(3) A nurse running in terror, tries to get to the hospital chapel, thinking she'll be saved. 30 draculas flood in, shattering the safe in a church/with a cross myth.
(4) As Joe mentioned, end of book, a 28-year-old we've never seen before is saved...this is Moorecook, who has glutted himself on enough blood to return to this eternally-youthful undead state which was his goal from the beginning...
(5) a blind man who's seeing eye dog has been bitten by Moorecook is trying to find his dog, who is now a dracula dog and turns on him.
(6) a character hears what sounds like gunshots out in the parking lot, looks out the window, sees a pack of draculas going through the parking lot, shredding tires.
(7) I think it'd be funny if either Paul's or Jeff's semi-redneck character always calls these things draculas instead of vampires.
A little about the mentality of the draculas: Of course, they're voracious for blood, b/c on some primal level, they know the more blood they drink, they might return to their previous state. No blood in an hour = death. Imagine they need it like we need oxygen.
In addition to the character ARCS we've all chosen, we each take one of the initial people bitten by Moorecook, so we each have a dracula POV. I'll take Moorecook, Joe wants to take a child, the dog doesn't count...Jeff & Paul let me know what person you want to take and I'll make sure Moorecock bites your guy/gal in the ER...in terms of the dracula POV, I really don't want to say too much about it. It shouldn't be too extensive, but I think we should all at least play around with writing a scene or two from a dracula POV and seeing what we come up with.
I'm going to write the opening, up to the point where everyone can begin their character's arcs...I think when you see what I've done, where I've left it off, it will make sense.
Peace!
Blake
* * *
Paul, you'll do great with the cop/gun nut.
Jeff, the lumberjack is all you. One thing I was thinking about his character is his chainsaw injury is on the back of his leg. And everyone who meets him is like, "How did you cut the back of your leg, dumb ass?" This actually happened to a buddy of mine.
Blake is going to take the pregnant couple. He's also writing the set-up scene. Here's the basic idea:
Once Moorecook is taken to the ER, he goes nuts and bites three people in the waiting room, ripping out their throats. These three are taken to the morgue, put in the meatlocker drawers. CDC is called to come look at a potential outbreak, but they're several hours away.
Then, a morgue attendant hears scratching from one of the drawers. Then two of the drawers. Then three. The scratching turns to pounding. The draculas, oblivious to pain, break and smash their own bodies bursting out of the drawers.
Blake is going to follow Moorecook as a dracula. But Joe, Paul, and Jeff will each follow one of these newly created draculas. So we all get to start our own mini-epidemic in the hospital, however we want.
In other words, we each write for a main POV character, and various secondary characters we create, including one of the draculas who wreaks havoc on our characters. Dracula POV is fine, as long as we agree on the ground rules for the creature's thought processes.
Let Blake and I know the type of dracula you want as your main villain. My dracula will be a twelve year old kid. You need to each pick a bad guy character.
Another note--Moorecook is the alpha male, and retains the most of his intelligence. He's going to destroy the phone junction boxes, and eventually also the electricity in the hopsital.
This is a newer hospital, so it is set up with cell phone jammers, like modern airplanes. No one will be able to use their cell phone.
Paul's cop will be able to use his radio in his car (which is loaded with weapons) but he'll have to get outside in order to do it, and I predict the hospital will fill up with draculas pretty quickly, and these things are HARD to kill.
The hospital is isolated. Ten miles from anything. Once the epidemic starts, it hits fast and hard--no one has time to get away. The only remaining survivors after the initial onslaught are the ones hiding in their rooms. Moorecook also directs some of the other draculas to cruise the hospital parking lot and pop tires on all the vehicles.
A note on how this will work: we all need to turn in pages as we write them. That was, we can cross into each other's stories. One thing we envisioned was the cop had arrested the lumberjack in the past, and when they meet up, they are hostile to one another. They would even begin to fight. This would freak out the cop's girlfriend (the historian) because if either of them spill even a tiny drop of blood--a cut lip, a busted knuckle--the draculas will be able to smell it from another floor and they'll swarm on them.
I've got two books to write by July 6. But I will have time in June to start cranking on this. Worst case scenario, I'll bat clean-up, and weave my story into the three that you guys do.
Blake is taking the lead on this one. When we've got a rough draft, we'll all have a chance to streamline and edit and expand.
Joe
* * *
(Virtual rubbing of hands) This is going to be FUUUUUUUUN!
Paul
* * *
Paul - what's your gun toter's name?
Blake
* * *
Joe - give a call when you gave a moment. I have a question about our mythology (and also an idea).
Blake
* * *
I didn't have the historian/forensic anthropologist get into the mythology of dracula in the opening chapter because I think it slow things down too much...there will time for her to wax eloquent about the myth and what exactly she's doing for Mortimer in a breather between terrifying scenes in the hospital.
Blake
* * *
Nicely done! Great start. I'm going to make it a tad bit more serious (An edge of black humor is good, but I don't want anyone to think this is parody or comedy), then do Shanna's section.
Can you sign in to Dropbox.com, make a DRACULAS folder, then send invites to me, Paul, and Jeff and explain to them how it works? Then I'll drop the file in.
Make four Word Doc templates titled BLAKE, JOE, JEFF, PAUL and put those in the folder. That way we can all work on our sections at the same time.
Joe
* * *
LOL, I just created a Draculas folder. Did you create one as well?
Did the second chapter. Third chapter is mine, in the hospice nurse's POV. She'll be the ex wife of the lumberjack.
This is gonna rock.
Joe
* * *
Great edits to my opening, btw.
Blake
* * *
Thanks. Jenny is going to go into the ER, and call Randall, her lumberjack ex-husband who is recovering from a chainsaw injury. During the call, Moorecook will escape the gurney and bite several people to death before being restrained.
Then everyone will do their character intro chapters. Then we do the morgue scene where the draculas come to life. Then we're off...
Joe
May 9, 2010
How does Clayton Theel sound?
Paul
* * *
So you'll write the Moorecook losing his shit scene from Jenny's POV in the ER? Cool. I'll write the morgue scene.
Blake
* * *
All - so Paul's cop character is Clayton Theel (great name)...I think we called the lumberjack Randall for now, unless Jeff wants to change him to something else. Clayton's girlfriend is Shanna, the historian/anthropologist. Jenny, hospice nurse, is the lumberjack's ex.
Jeff and Paul, all we need to complete the setup is a brief description of your character who comes into the ER and gets themselves bitten by Mortimer Moorecook. Maybe mention what ailment brought them to the ER. This will be your Dracula you get to reek havoc with, so go nuts.
Blake
* * *
Howzabout I use the ER doc Kurt Lanz, MD ("No, not 'Kurt' -- Doctor Lanz.") on duty who thinks he's hot shit and too good for this lame community hospital and all these hicks he's got to deal with? When he first changes he's sure he can control the blood thirst because he's a superior being, but he's so wrong. And then he gets into it.
I'd also like to add to Shanna's POV in 2 that she's going to break it off with Clay before the gun show - she can't take another gun show.
Paul
* * *
I love it, Paul. I don't know if I can do this in my Moorecook dracula POV (because he's higher-functioning than the people he infects) but I dig the idea of showing, through a dracula POV, the mental crumbling as these intelligent adults begin to lose their high cognitive functioning abilities.
Blake
* * *
That works for me, Paul.
We need to figure out if draculas die like zombies, then mutate into monsters, or if they only mutate when they get bitten and survive.
Joe
* * *
I have an answer to my own question.
If someone is bitten and lives, they become a dracula. Not as drastically as Moorecook did (he was bitten by the source, which is more virulent), but they mutate over the course of half an hour, losing their mental facilities as they change.
Those who are killed by draculas also come back to life if there is enough of them still intact and they still have enough blood left. Maybe an hour time frame to reanimate the dead tissue.
This way, we can follow certain characters becoming draculas, and also have a surprise morgue scene where the dead also become draculas, adding to the outbreak.
Joe
* * *
Just read your additions, Paul. Expertly done, you tying together four main characters, and amusing as well.
This is gonna kick ass.
Joe
* * *
Randall sounds good for my lumberjack (and I'll make him responsible for calling them "draculas" instead of "vampires.")
My dracula is Benny, a children's performer clown whose magic show was poorly received by the birthday boy. Randall and Benny bond over the embarrassing nature of their injuries.
Since Joe is mean and impatient, I'll say upfront that I won't be able to start writing until the 17th, but I'll launch right into it like a maniac after that!
Jeff
* * *
Dracula clown. Awesome. I'll put Benny and Dr. Kurt in the massacre scene. I should be able to knock that out in a day or two.
I won't be able to go full-force on this until June. So if Blake and Paul want to get going, go for it. Just keep me and Jeff in the loop.
Joe
* * *
Ditto...super-cool, Paul. Can't wait to see what toys Clay brings to the party.
Blake
* * *
Joe's also a selfish lover, let's not forget that.
A dracula clown? I'm scared of normal clowns. That's awesome!
Blake
* * *
Joe - when you get the ER massacre done, I'll work on the morgue and maybe we can have the setup done in a few days...I'm working on a couple other projects, but I should be able to get a little of this in every day. Helps that it's a blast to write.
Blake
* * *
Jeff, please use my favorite line about clowns. The birthday boy said, "That's not a clown! That's just some guy dressed up like a clown!"
Paul
* * *
That may very well be the best line of all time...
Jeff
May 10, 2010
I think my characters will be Adam and Stacie Murray. Stacie's in the hospital to be induced for her first pregnancy - twins. They're sort of a young, gentle, bright-eyed couple. Around 30. Stacie is a high-school English teacher on maternity leave and Adam is a Lutheran minister. He's been in Durango about 5 years, and recently took over a church. Sometimes he serves as the hospital chaplain. He knows Randall and Clayton. Maybe he's even tried to help Randall in the past when he's gone on a drunken tear. I do like the idea a lot that this is a small town, and all these characters not only know each other, but have history.
Blake
* * *
He'll be very disappointed when crosses don't work.
Paul
* * *
Yeah, I'm sensing a crisis of faith coming...
Blake
May 12, 2010
...Deputy Theel will be bringing to the party: http://world.guns.ru/grenade/gl15-e.htm
It's going to be loaded with his custom 40mm Beehive rounds filled with 00buck. So we're going to need LOTS of draculas. Be great to have a situation where one of your characters is facing absolutely hopeless odd and then there's this horrendous racket and the draculas' heads are being shredded...and Clay rounds a corner with this baby.
Of course he's eventually going to run out of ammo.
Paul
* * *
Nice.
He should have one of these too.
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/78284/automatic_shotgun/
Joe
* * *
The famous "streetsweeper."
Paul
* * *
Well, my priest has a can of really intense mace from his wife's purse. Take that, vampire!
Blake
May 31, 2010
I'm thinking we need a throughline. You know, a progression of story beats for the big picture -- how it's gonna go. Or maybe just a timeline so that we know what's going on with the big picture and we can plug into that.
What's the time span of the novel? 4 hours? 5? 6?
For instance...(this is just placeholder stuff):
Hour 1: carnage in the ER
Hour 2: the first victims change and begin to attack; no one aware of he threat except new victims
Hour 3: 20 Draculas now and rising - panic spreads; tires slashed; phones dead (how do we kill cells?)
See where I'm going? It will save a lot of editing and rewriting later if we're all on the same page re the timing.
Paul
* * *
Agreed.
I'm still cranking on deadlines, but hope to get started on this soon--perhaps July?
Joe
June 11, 2010
Blake is visiting me for a few days in July. We're going to hammer out the timeline and first attack scene, then everyone can get rolling on their story arcs.
Joe
* * *
Poor, poor Blake.
Jeff
* * *
I'm also forcing Blake to wear a dress and dance the Lambada--the dance of love.
But "forcing" may be too strong a term...
Joe
August 11, 2010
Hey Dude - you want me to take a shot at finishing the ER scene in Draculas? I'm in between projects and have the time at the moment. Let me know.
Blake
* * *
Sure, give it a shot.
Joe
August 15, 2010
Paul & Jeff & Joe: Howdy, boys. Hope summer's been good to you. I've finished a project I was working on, and have finally had a chance to devote some time to Draculas and try to get us all set up to do this. I visited Joe in July and we worked on the ER scene together. I've just now wrapped it up, and I think Draculas is at a point where we can all begin working on it together. I've dropped an updated manuscript in the dropbox.
To recap, here are the characters/draculas we're following:
Blake: Mort dracula/my pregnant couple in the maternity ward Adam and Stacie Murray
Joe: Oasis dracula/Nurse Jenny (Randall's ex-wife)
Jeff: Benny the Clown dracula/Randall the Lumberjack
Paul: Dr. Lanz dracula/Clayton "Deputy Dawg", Shanna's boyfriend
As we get close to launching into this, I'm finding it a challenge to coordinate everyone's movement and the timing of the outbreak. As Paul pointed out, this is going to take a little more forethought if we don't want to do major rewrites at the end (I don't - :).
I think it's a smart thing to divide this book out by hour increments. It'll make it easier on us keeping things straight and also be a cool thing for readers since this is essentially written in real time.
Here's a basic outline through the start of Hour 3, totally up for debate and changing and input, but just to get us going. Please let me know what you think...if everyone is good on this outline through 9 chapters, let's start writing...
HOUR 1
Ch.1 -- (WRITTEN) Mortimer's POV receives skull, bites himself, convulses.
Ch.2 -- (WRITTEN)Shanna's POV riding with Mort to the hospital.
HOUR 2
Ch.3 -- (WRITTEN) Jenny's POV: ER massacre, ending with Benny the Clown, Oasis' mother, and other ER patients killed by Mort (5 dead), and Oasis, Lanz, and the ambulance paramedic bitten/infected. Mort has run off into the hospital.
Ch.4 (LANZ-PAUL) -- Massacre aftermath (brief downtime). I think this should be written in Lanz' infected POV. At first, he's okay, he's barking orders. For all he knows, this is some kind of outbreak. Get the dead into the morgue. Get CDC on the horn. Quarantine those who were bitten (paramedic/Oasis). He'll talk with them. Call the sheriff's department. He ingested some blood foam, but wasn't bitten. By end of this chapter, perhaps while he's examining Oasis, he's becoming a dracula, and that should be a blast to write.
Ch.5(RANDALL-JEFF) what I'm thinking is, he limps outside to his truck and gets one of his huge chainsaws or axes or whatever (go nuts on this), and then returns while the ER is dealing with the aftermath/cleanup and goes off to find Mortimer dracula who fled the ER into the rest of the hospital chasing the softball players -- Randall gets himself into another wing. This is a short chapter...Jeff think about where you want Randall when outbreak reaches critical mass. This is our first intro to him in his POV, too, so we should probably get a sense of how he feels about Jenny.
Ch.6(JENNY-JOE) she's assisting with helping the ER wounded, and maybe by the end of this she sees the changes that are happening in the infected and runs off into some distant part of the hospital to hide. Short chapter
Ch.7(MORGUE/OUTBREAK-BLAKE) Just before all hell breaks loose, nurse Winslow in the morgue, and the doors start rattling. Oh shit. The dead are back as draculas, the injureds' metamorphoses is complete, and it's a free for all. I could see us combining POV's in this chapter, showing Lanz, Oasis, Mort and others going berserk, taking out entire wings, drinking from blood bags, etc., maybe cutting the power). I can write most of this, but would love to have short bits from Oasis, Lanz, and Benny the Clown to incorporate.
Note -- the trick is realizing there are several stages building up to full scale draculas running amok: 1st, just Mort, and his ER rampage; then the rampage of about 10 draculas who Mort infected; then, when their victims come alive, it's like 40 or 50 and we're off.
HOUR 3
Ch.8(PREGNANT COUPLE -- BLAKE) This just introduces them. They hear chaos all around them. She's in early stages of labor.
Ch.9 Arrival of Clayton fuck'n Theel. He's come to pick up Shanna (who's somewhere hiding in the hospital by this point and hasn't been answering her cell), but something's wrong...the hospital's dark, he hears screaming going on inside. Earlier he heard a call about an ER disturbance but this is clearly serious. In he goes. Probably with some ridiculous gun.
Honestly, I think after chapter 9 we're truly set up to play around with our characters. And keep in mind that the 40+ dracula outbreak hasn't arrived yet.
So, to take it to the next stage, Joe writes chapter 6
I'll write 7 and 8
Jeff writes 5
Paul writes 4 and 9
Everyone also write a scene with your draculas becoming draculas. Joe, I can't remember, are you writing Oasis or another child? I remember something about a blind girl and her seeing eye dog becoming a dracula and turning on her, but that just sounded mean, even for you ;), which means I hope you write it.
Two more things...re: outside help coming to the hospital. We establish it's in the middle of nowhere (as it truly is in Durango where I live) and I think it'd be cool if the sherrifs deputies (like 6 or 7) showed up during hour 3 or 4, and got themselves wiped out in the parking lot while the draculas were slashing tires, so then no one comes for awhile, and when they do, a respectable perimeter is set up. I just don't think there is any way we can make it that no word gets out that something terrible is going down. BUT...cell phones stay jammed, even after power is lost.
When this round of chapters is in, Joe and I can go through and smooth everything out, and we'll see where we are. In the meantime, I'll also try to put together a good hospital map, and float around a timeline for the rest of the book with major beats...sound good?
As I worked on this today, I realized we aren't going to reach a point where we all just go off and write in isolation for 15K words. I think we're all going to have to sort of address the same period of time concurrently and stay in constant contact, making sure everything jives before moving on. Should be challenging and fun.
Could I get a best guess of when you guys could get Joe and I these 1st round of chapters? Sorry for the delay in getting this going, but I think we're ready to roll now. Should be a blast.
Peace!
Blake
* * *
Okay, I just did a fer-real LOL. Mortimer crouched, then leapt after them, soaring five meters into the breezeway. As the doors slid closed, Jenny heard the most God-awful screaming and Benny the Clown shouting, "No! I'm getting bitten! Again!"
Paul
* * *
I just turned the gist of this into a Word file ("Timeline") for the drop box so it will be easier to access.
Haven't read it yet.
This comes at a pretty good time for me. Looking forward to digging in.
Paul
August 16, 2010
Thanks, Blake! Looks like you've been working your ass off on this!
I'm having dinner with Mr. Konrath on Wednesday, and we're going to work out the relationship between our dating characters. So I'll probably have my chapter done shortly after that, probably on Friday.
Jeff
August 17, 2010
This is a really great opening.
By my count, here's who's contaminated by the end of what's written:
Mortimer
EMT (bitten)
Oasis (bitten)
Oasis's mom (dead)
Benny (dead)
Dr. Lanz (tasted bloody foam)
Softball #1 (assumed wounded?)
Softball #2 (assumed wounded?)
(I added a line to the bottom of pg 16 to cover Lanz tasting some of Mort's bloody foam.)
I'll have Winslow do triage and Lanz start treating who he can. The softballers will die which will mean 4 in the morgue. I can bring a few more victims in from the floors to raise the total contaminated to 10. Since Lanz's inoculum will be the smallest, I'll make him the last to turn at the end of the chapter.
Any additions, suggestions, corrections?
Paul
* * *
Paul this sounds great...
Re: dead v. wounded...what about having the softballers massively wounded. For some reason, overweight vampires in softball uniforms strike me as pretty terrifying. But if Mortimer could have killed four others elsewhere and they're brought to the ER, that would raise the dead count to 6 and make for an appropriately loud number of dead in the morgue lockers.
Additionally, I would hit these points in your chapter for setup purposes...Mortimer is missing now in the hospital. You might mention Lanz seeing Randall limping off into the hospital carrying a chainsaw (love this image). Joe's Jenny chapter and Jeff's Randall chapter, which directly follow this one, can deal with Jenny trying to stop Randall but by God he's gonna take care of this. An important moment b/c they'll be separated and trying to get back together I would think. I would end this chapter with Lanz turning and maybe noticing others turning. One character we should keep track of is Shanna. Perhaps Lanz, still fighting the change in himself, scares her and she takes off. And if you could have Lanz send Winslow off to the morgue to make sure the dead were properly stowed away, that will set up my next chapter. Can't wait to read this!
I'll start outlining the outbreak chapter to send around.
Blake
August 18, 2010
Spitballing here:
Is Mort going to be the alpha dracula, with some influence over the others? If so, Lanz, with his ego, might want to challenge that after things get rolling. (After all, it's my hospital.) Might be a good plot complication - everything's going the draculas' way when there's an attempted coup.
Paul
* * *
I like Lanz trying to become alpha dracula, but let's remember these things are feral with only rudimentary thought processes--think Matheson's Born of Man and Woman, but not as smart.
I just did a minor polish on what we have so far, tweaking and fixing some repetitive words. I'm meeting with Jeff tonight to talk about our characters' interactions.
I don't think this will take as much coordination as Blake does. As long as the major beats are down (when the cops come, when the electricity goes out, etc.) we should be able to write four relatively self-contained stories.
Mine will be Jenny the nurse searching for her ex-husband, Randy, and trying to save as many survivors as possible. She'll start with the pediatric wing. Her nemesis is Oasis, the girl.
Paul is writing for Clayton, Shanna, and Lanz. Clayton's goals will be to find Shanna, and kill as many draculas as possible. This is the end-of-the-world scenario he's been preparing for since his dad built a bomb shelter and taught him about survival.
Blake is doing the pregnant couple, in the maternity ward. It would make sense that Moorecook wants to make a dracula army, but babies wouldn't really play a part in that. So he and his brood would use infants for food. I'd guess that Blake's heroes would try to prevent that.
Jeff's lumberjack, Randall, will be searching for Jenny. Perhaps a side quest will have him trying to turn the electricity back on--he's a handyman-type. He'll eventually have a confrontation with Clayton, which should be an important scene because if either of them spill any blood during their tussle, the draculas will sniff them out.
I'm thinking 15k words each. We could conceivably finish our sections by the end of the month, then string it together. Remember to write in your own named files, not in the DRACULAS 1.3 file.
This is going to be fun. And let's pile on the Gran Guignol. This is the anti-Twilight, and a chance to really let loose our inner gorehounds.
Joe
* * *
Paul -- I was going to say pretty much what Joe said--let's try it but make sure we keep these draculas on a single-minded, low-functioning level. Mort is the head dracula, since he was bitten by the original skull and as a result will undergo some interesting changes the more yummy blood he gulps down. But let's see where the power struggle takes us. I'll keep an eye on Lanz' progression through the hospital as you write him and we'll have our draculas collide.
Blake
* * *
As I said, just spitballing - if it don't stick to the wall, we leave in on the floor.
Paul
* * *
All - I just dropped the morgue scene in chapter 7 into the box. I was thinking that chapter could handle Winslow's pov, along with all our draculas on the loose, so feel free to add Oasis, Lanz, and Benny the Clown pov's into that word doc.
Blake
August 19, 2010
As I'm writing I find I need basic info -- like where we are and last names. (unless I missed something.)
Where IS Blessed Crucifixion?
I gave Jenny "Bolton" as a placeholder surname. I'd guess Randall's is the same.
Kurt Lanz
Clay Theel
Mortimer Moorecook
Nurse Winslow
what about Shanna?
Paul
* * *
Sorry...that went out prematurely. I spotted Durango in chapter 1 (long time since I read it). But people often refer to each other by last names, so...
Paul
* * *
Paul, effin' loved your scene. Black humor, great characters, A few quick suggestions.
1. Can the paramedic also say, "I need a tetnus shot. And rabies. And antiserum. You see that goddamn guy? Fucking give me every shot you've got."
2. Jenny tells him "I'm waiting for my ex-husband." Randall is coming back with a chainsaw, to escort Jenny to the pediatrics ward to protect the kids. That is going to be Randy and Jen's story arc--barricading themselves in the children's wing--and I think Jen should think of it almost immediately. Maybe she should insist to Lanz to evacuate the hospital, and he says something like, "Evacuate where? We're in the middle of Bumblefuck, Hickville. I'm supposed to march 234 patients out into the woods?"
That gives us a patient number, reinforces that they can't get away, and tells Lanz where Jenny will be when he becomes a dracula and decided to eject her himself.
Joe
* * *
And just to clarify:
No one writes or edits or corrects anyone else's section without specific permission from the writer. We'll all do a final edit when we put this together. But for the first few drafts, let's all make suggestions, but no rewriting.
And when you do a second draft, save it numerically. Paul 1.0, Paul 1.1, Paul 1.2, etc. Get used to doing a new draft every time you make a change or an addition. We'll all be reading each other, and may need to go back to earlier drafts and lift stuff from them. Keeping the drafts separate will make it easier.
Joe
* * *
I should be able to fling my first chapter into the dropbox sometime tomorrow, with another one by Sunday. Thus far, I've had a lot of fun justifying the preposterous idea that Randall is actually going to limp out of the hospital to get a chainsaw from his truck. He acts impulsively, realizes quickly that he's acting impulsively, but refuses to back down from a task once he's started, even as he thinks "Y'know, the hospital security probably isn't going to want to let me back inside with a chainsaw in my hands." This is a large part of why he and Jenny are no longer married.
Jeff
* * *
Nice! Looking forward.
Blake
* * *
Chap 4 is pretty much done. It ends with Oasis and the EMT becoming draculas and killing the LPN while Lanz runs and hides in the supply room. Where those two go from there I don't know.
I don't have a sense for what Shanna is doing in all this.
As requested, I added some Lanz to Blake's Chap. 7. He's still in the supply room. Here is where he thinks he can beat it but fails miserably -- he breaks out and starts chomping. I think Randall has to come through the ER while Lanz has locked himself away.
Paul
* * *
Paul - can't wait to read your new stuff. Love that Lanz runs and hides again.
Re: Shanna, I would say it's totally up to you since Clayton Theel is going to come into the hospital looking for her, which I suppose is his first motivation - find Shanna. Perhaps she needs a short chapter where she has lingered in the ambulance, trying to pull herself together, then walks into the ER when all hell has broken loose. Maybe Moorecook chases her out into another part of the hospital? I guess it really depends on what you're going to do with Shanna and Clayton for the core of your story. Do they have a phone conversation in the ambulance while he's on his way where she pretty much breaks up with him? Pushing him to search for her even harder?
Joe and Jeff have figured out how their characters are going to interact, mine are probably going to be in a vacuum until the very end, a pregnant couple fighting for their life in the maternity ward. What are you thinking of for Clayton's journey through hell? Maybe we can find a way to have him intersect with my characters?
Blake
* * *
I think we need a scene where the draculas tell everybody in the hospital that they've won the lottery, and as the people walk one-by-one into a private room to collect their winnings, the draculas kill them!
Jeff
* * *
BRILLIANT!
Paul
* * *
I think Shanna outside the hospital doors (cell reception is better there) calling Clay is a good start. She can call off the trip to the gun show. Their relationship is not working...etc. Besides she's too upset about Mortimer's collapse.
I think we should have all sorts of character meet-ups. Randall and Lanz have certainly got issues.
I see Clay as like the Terminator when it comes to killing draculas...until his ammo runs out.
Paul
August 20, 2010
Agreed, with the caveat that we can fix typos without consultation. I read Paul's chapter 4 last night and added a period to one sentence and closed out a quote that needed to be.
Blake
* * *
Joe thinks I'm just crazy and anal (which I'm not refuting) but I don't think it's a terrible idea to have a working hospital map that we can refer to to track character movement.
http://www.iredellmemorial.org/guide.aspx?id=922
This is the hospital from the town where I grew up in North Carolina . Services the same community size as Durango (45 thousand in the surrounding counties) but I like the floor plan much better (more stories). I'm not saying we have to stick to this religiously, but I think it may be good to consult. I have to have an idea of the space my characters inhabit, it also prods my creativity, and when I'm not familiar with an environment like this (thank God) I need a little help. Obviously, my characters will be based in the maternity ward. Joe's will be in pediatrics. Jeff's is trying to get the power going or something so he can communicate with Jenny. Not sure what Clayton and Shanna are doing yet but my sense is Clayton's like a kid in a candy shop, a real-life video game where he gets to play with all his toys and he's going to be fucking blasting through the place until the ammo runs out.
If everyone likes this, I'll throw it in the dropbox.
Blake
* * *
That hospital is too big, methinks. I was thinking two hundred patients, tops.
Almost done with the morgue scene, then I'll work on Jenny's scene.
Joe
* * *
It's only a 247-bed hospital, so if there are 100-150 patients during the outbreak, doesn't that seem about right?
Blake
* * *
We can always lop off the 5th floor, too. I think four stories is about right.
Blake
* * *
Also, to make putting this together easier, we need to break up our own individual sections and chapters.
So when I write the first Jenny scene, it will be JOE 1.0, JOE 1.1, etc.
When I write a new scene, it will be JOE 2.0, JOE 2.1. JOE 2.2.
Blake, I'm still working on the morgue scene. But I'll split up the Lanz section at the end and make that BLAKE 2.0.
That way, we can work on different sections, and it will be easier to piece this into a linear narrative.
Joe
* * *
Joe - I think as soon as
-you write Jenny's scene
-wrap up the Morgue scene
-write Oasis into 7
-Jeff writes Benny the Clown into 7
-Paul addresses Shanna in chapter 4
we can put all of that into the main manuscript document and we will truly be set up. Then we'll be crossing over much less than these opening chapters. Also I'm all for getting rid of chapters at the end, but I think it's been helpful up to this point.
Blake
* * *
Great chapter, Jeff.
Are you sure you want the chainsaw gone so quickly? I'd sorta like Randall to have it for a while. He could siphon gas out of his truck.
I'll write a scene where Jenny finds Randall and they go to pediatrics. But before I do, let's decide if the chainsaw is in play or broken. I like it running out of gas, but I also want him to be able to cut some draculas up.
Joe
* * *
Morgue scene done. Have at it.
Had to change the last line, because I introduced Benny earlier, but I think it works.
Joe
* * *
Ditto great chapter, love how you're bringing out Randall's stubbornness. I laughed out loud at the wrong church line--absolutely perfectly says who this guy is.
But have to admit, I was sad when he broke the chainsaw. I also hadn't imagined he would get into it with Mortimer right away. I thought maybe Mortimer's already gone by the time he gets back. I don't know. What do you think? You know everyone can't wait to see Randall fuck some draculas up with a chainsaw so maybe tease it out a bit?
Also, I have a friend who's essentially a lumberjack, but he gets real upset if you call him that. "He's an arborist. He doesn't just cut trees down. It's art." Maybe there's some comic gold there.
Blake
* * *
I love having the chainsaw taken out of the equation so quickly after all the buildup and never used for its intended purpose. Horror fans have already had their share of chainsaw mayhem. We've got a whole hospital full of ways to kill draculas!
Jeff
* * *
Oh, that wasn't supposed to be Mortimer. Just a random dracula. I'll add some sort of distinguishing characteristic to make that clear.
Jeff
* * *
In theory, the hospital could have some landscaping supplies in the basement. After being robbed of his chainsaw moment early on, Randall could find one near the end of the book and finally get his chance to go wild.
Jeff
* * *
Blake and I thought up the idea of a lumberjack so he'd have a truck full of toys to play with. Or else, why use him as a character?
Just spoke to Blake. We like it running out of gas. But it probably wouldn't break, even if used to bash in a skull. Those saws are made really tough.
How about Randall holds onto it, refusing to let it go, even though it is out of gas? Then he could finally find some gas and let loose. It would be funny, stubborn, and oddly poignant that he won't give up something he's attached to--a metaphor for his relationship with Jenny.
Or else he has more saws and axes in his truck.
Either way, we'd really like this guy to be armed with the tools of his trade, even if he can't use them until later.
Joe
* * *
Here's the morgue scene.
Joe
* * *
Standing ovation...fucking killer scene.
Blake
* * *
On reflection, I think you should write something in Oasis' POV. Equate blood to candy for her. Could even show her throwing a tantrum b/c she wants it and she doesn't have it. Maybe it doesn't occur to her right away that she might be able to kill people to get it. They're adults and on some level she still thinks of them like that. Maybe she attacks someone and gets the shit beat out of her. Then realizes she needs to go where the kiddies and the babies are.
Blake
* * *
Nice. Maybe u should write the scene.
Joe
* * *
I will, but you have to help me with Mortimer later on. So now, just write the Jenny scene, and we should have it ready to go.
Blake
* * *
I've added a very quick scene with Benny the Clown to the end of Chapter 7. But I wasn't sure if I was supposed to mess with Blake's file, so I've saved the chapter in my own folder as BENNY 1.0.
Jeff
* * *
You totally could have put in that file, but it doesn't matter. I'll merge everything into the main file soon. We're closing in on 15K words, boys!
Blake
* * *
Brilliant...favorite moment: he hopes the security camera catches him wiping the gore off his face. Also love the utility belt. I love this guy.
Blake
* * *
Pitch-perfect
Blake
* * *
It's in the dropbox now, and is the complete manuscript with all our work to present. I need to write an Oasis scene, Joe needs to write a Jenny scene, and Paul needs to write a Shanna scene, and then we really have the 1st 1/4 of the book done. If anyone wants to revamp any of their stuff, please do it in the Draculas 1.4 full manuscript I'd like to get that finalized, and then we can turn our attention to our individual character arcs.
Goodnight!
Blake
August 21, 2010
I'm actually working on DRACULAS 1.5, adding the Jenny scene. No one touch it until it's live in about an hour, then we can take turns doing rewrites. Jeff first, then Paul, then Blake. Each rewrite, make a new number: 1.6, 1.7, etc.
I took out the chapter numbers, as Blake and I originally intended--this thing is meant to read without stops. Also, HOUR 1 was replaced with HOUR ZERO and we go from there, but I'm not sure these headings are needed either. We'll keep them for the moment.
Joe
* * *
But we're going to keep chapter numbers while we're working, right? Just to keep straight the order of events.
Paul
* * *
Sure, we can keep chapters in out individual scenes. I just removed them in the main compiled document. As a result, it reads quicker, more unrelenting.
But as we write them in our folders, chapters are fine.
Joe
* * *
Yeah, let's keep the hours and character headings for now. I certainly need them to help keep my story straight and it's a good way to scan. Maybe the last thing we'll do is remove them, but we should probably think hard before doing that.
Blake
* * *
When we've all finished our main character arcs, we'll have to decide how and if to splice them together in the main document. My initial thought would be to interweave them, breaking at cliffhanging moments. What will be really cool, is we can release an alternate version of the novel (an extra) where POVs are held together through the end. So you can read Moorecook straight through, then Lanz, then Randall, then Jenny, etc.
Blake
* * *
Okay, we've got 1.5 in the Dropbox.
Paul, we need a Shanna scene from you. Blake is doing an Oasis scene. Then we're done with the first quarter of the book, and can start Hour Two.
Jeff, your first scene is Randall's POV, going with Jenny to pediatrics, then leaving her to go after Moorecook. Randall will also be looking for gasoline for his chainsaw, and to turn on the generator when the electricity goes out. Enemies will be random draculas and Moorecook in particular.
Paul, your first scene is Clayton arriving, looking for Shanna. They'll be seeking each other out, and Clayton will be trying to control the situation and get outside reinforcements, while they work out their relationship problems. Their main antagonist will be Lanz in particular.
My story arc will start with Jenny defending pediatrics against the draculas, Benny in particular.
Blake's story arc will be his pregnant couple, defending against Oasis in particular, while going through labor.
If we can each do about 7,000 words within our arcs, then we can bring them all together for the final showdown during the last quarter of the book.
After the Shanna and Oasis scenes, we'll all go back to our separate folders.
Does this work for everyone?
Joe
* * *
We should probably each have a specific number of chapters to write in our separate arcs (4?) so that when the story is pieced together we can just go A, B, C, D, A, B, C, D, A, B, C, D.
Jeff
* * *
That depends on the length of each arc, and what's happening in the rest of the story. It doesn't have to be so strict with trading POVs.
As long as we all write fast-paced, short sections (a few pages each) with cliffhanger-type endings, we can pretty much cut and paste and make it work in a number of different ways. This really won't be hard to put together. We got 15k words already, and they meshed seamlessly without too much forethought.
Joe
* * *
I'm having a hard time getting to the keyboard today (not home). I'm gonna add Shanna after Randall's "sumbich" line. She's going to wander into the hospital proper to the snack bar, then outside in front of the lobby. She'll try to tell Clay over the phone but won't. She owes him a face-to-face. I like the irony of Clay thinking this girl is crazy about him - he knows it's the guns.
Paul
August 22, 2010
All - Draculas 1.6 is now up with Paul's excellent new Shanna section. I've moved the 1.5 and Paul's conflicted 1.5 over (saving it in case Paul did anything else beyond the Shanna section). Let's all stay out of 1.6 for now and go nuts on our separate sections. Great job, all. These 1st 17,000 words really sing.
Blake
* * *
JEFF 2.0, wherein Randall and Jenny make it to pediatrics, is up on Dropbox.
Jeff
* * *
Nicely done. I laughed twice, and great action.
Two suggestions:
"Jenny pushed open a door marked "Pediatrics." So that's how it's spelled, Randall thought."
Also, Jenny shouldn't want him to go after Mortimer, and should say so. First, she doesn't want him to leave her. Second, she doesn't want him to put himself in danger. This scene could be drawn out for some drama, and perhaps they should come very close to kissing. We want to feel that their love, which has always been there, is still strong. They should both feel reluctant, and nervous, and confused, and frightened at the thought of losing each other. After all, they won't see each other again for a few thousand words.
This is a perfect time to actually make the reader feel about the characters, and it should only take a paragraph. If you're sick of writing the scene, lemme know and I'll take a shot at it.
Joe
* * *
I dunno...I feel like the whole "Randall goes after Mortimer" is already stretching suspension of disbelief almost to the breaking point. Randall is dumb and ridiculously impulsive, but leaving the woman he loves behind along with a bunch of innocent children so he can chase after Mortimer is really pushing it. If she's confused and disoriented and it happens quickly, I can see Randall thinking later "Wow, I really shouldn't have done that," but if she's begging him to stay, I feel like Randall is becoming borderline retarded.
There are plenty of other ways I can handle the scene (Mortimer could be chasing after a kid), but I don't think the reader will stick with Randall if Jenny asks him not to abandon her.
Jeff
* * *
Just read the scene, have to agree with Jeff. It's a stupid thing to do to leave those kids, even for Randall. figure out some way to MAKE Randall have to leave, and I think having a child freaked out, and run out of pediatrics and Randall have to go get him might be the way. Then Randall can get stuck, trapped, lost, whatever. Okay, I can't even spell pediatrics.
Blake
* * *
You guys are right.
How about he doesn't go after anyone? Let me write a scene where they're together, barricading pediatrics, and then have a kid run off.
Joe
* * *
That works. I think we were trying to separate the characters too early to get us on our separate arcs. Having a kid run off during the barricading process works much better than a random Mortimer sighting. When Joe is done, I'll rework the end of my scene to match the beginning of his scene.
Jeff
* * *
Yeah, Jeff, I think you can probably go ahead and start into Randall going after the kid. This sounds great. Loved the scene you just wrote by the way, other than the motivation issues. Excellent dracula head-lopping off action.
Blake
* * *
Okay. I'm back. Just spent 4 hours on the goddamn road.
No, I did nothing to the Dracula 1.5 file.
I'm readying to bring Clay into the picture. Here's the way I see Clay: Randall thinks that without his badge and gun Clay is nothing, but he's wrong. He's one of the good guys. He believes in loyalty and honor and will not back down from a commitment. I see him bitten by a dracula toward the end. He will not allow himself to become one of them. So I see him luring a bunch of them into one of the sun rooms or a large staff meeting room, and setting off one (or maybe a couple) of his high-explosive 40mm grenades, taking them all with him.
Is this okay with everybody?
Paul
* * *
Sounds good, Paul. Lanz will be your main antag, right?
Joe
* * *
Haven't thought of a main antag for Clay. Randall should hate Lanz's guts since he got Jenny fired. And Lanz hates Jenny.
Clay hates them all. They're vermin. He's the Order half of Law & Order and these draculas are radically offensive.
Paul
* * *
Totally down with it. Can't wait to read!
Blake
* * *
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire_bat
Just thinking here on ways to continue to make our monsters interesting...since we're basing our draculas more on biology than supernature (word?), what if our draculas exhibit a few creepy characteristics of the real vampire bats...they don't suck blood, their saliva contains an anticoagulant which stops blood from clotting and prolongs bleeding and they lap up the flow (I already made Oasis' tongue a sponge). Maybe this doesn't matter if our draculas are ripping heads off and disemboweling their prey. Also, what if our draculas, along with their keen sense of smell, hunt by sonar, emitting a low-energy sound pulse...they could make some disturbing sound and our characters (maybe my biology-teacher pregnant mother) could speculate on what's going on, and find ways to combat it.
Blake
* * *
When are we losing it? And is Lanz going to cut it? Obviously there's going to be some backup system, but can that be taken out too? Are we going completely dark, limited lighting?
Blake
August 24, 2010
I'm only attaching this because I won't have access to Dropbox until late tonight, and I'm not sure how it will impact what Joe is writing.
Jeff
* * *
Just added a thousand or so words of Clay's first appearance. I'm assuming most of the draculas have left the ER by now in search of fresh blood, leaving the ones they've killed behind...who are now turning.
Paul
August 25, 2010
I think that assumption is a good one. Can't wait to read this, Paul.
FYI - I'll be out of pocket in the mountains on a backpacking trip for a few days starting tomorrow and back into civilization on Saturday.
Blake
* * *
I'm having problems thinking Clay wouldn't call in the cavalry after one look in the ER -- then go in after Shanna.
I think we need more premeditation by Morty. He's been planning this all along. He hired a demolition guy to wire the cell towers to explode, disable land lines, derail the train.
After he receives the skull he makes a call and simply says: "It's here. Go."
Clay can come out of the ER, try to call the sheriff and get no service. He looks up at the hilltop and sees the cell tower lying on its side. "WTF?"
Paul
* * *
Cell phones don't work in the hospital--they have jammers, like the do on airplanes. When Shanna calls Clay, she'll have to use a payphone.
Clay can, and should, radio for help. But there's really not a lot of help. Durango's police force is only about a dozen cops, and half of them are at the train derailing. And even if a dozen cops do come, most will quickly get slaughtered. Then they'll form a perimeter around the hospital and wait for the military to assist. But between Clay arriving and the military coming can be a good two hours. Once the military does arrive, the CDC won't let them in right away, having quarantined the hospital--meaning Clay is stuck in there. They'd need P-4 containment suits, and there probably aren't many in Colorado.
Having Mort premeditate a trap would mean he knew he would go into convulsions when he bit himself with the skull, and then be taken to the hospital. While that could happen, I'm not sure it's necessary. Through simple chain of command and politics it could take five hours before the army finally storms through the hospital, and by that time our book is over.
Joe
* * *
But wouldn't it be kind of cool if Mortimer does have an idea of what will happen? What if he tried the skull on a mouse first? What if that's the opening scene? A cute little mouse getting punctured by a fang and going apeshit and turning into this ravenous little monster. Mort needs lots of blood to pull off his plan, what he really wants, which is to be forever young. What better place to go than a hospital with sick, dying people, and A BLOOD BANK? I think what Paul is getting at is giving Mort a little more forethought. We know we want Mort to walk out a young, healthy 28-year old looking man at the end (reverse night of the living dead end), so what if he has done some orchestration here? He certainly has the means. What would need to be finessed though, is how additional draculas help Mort's goal. Don't they just gobble up more blood he could have? Maybe he intends to fully kill everyone he attacks so they can't regenerate, but that doesn't happen. Or he wants an army of draculas for some other purpose, possibly he has some control over them...maybe he needs them for a diversion so he can walk out unnoticed at the end...
Blake
* * *
Blake and I were just on the phone, and we decided to go with quarantining the hospital, and having the army and CDC come in.
Mort should have some more backstory, but not to the point where he booby-trapped the hospital.
Clay can call it in, go look for Shanna, and the Calvary will come and get wiped out. Then the second tier can set up a perimeter around the hospital, to prevent the infection from spreading, but they won't go in right away.
Joe
* * *
Okay. Either way, Clay gets to make the call, which was my concern.
Paul
* * *
I'm with Joe on this one...I think it's better to keep it an out-of-control outbreak rather than something that Mortimer had planned. There are a shitload of logic issues we'd have to address is this is all part of some grand scheme.
Jeff
August 26, 2010
Have fun, Blake! I'll be heading off to a cabin in the Wisconsin woods the day after you get back.
Jeff
August 27, 2010
I'm planning a scene with Shanna in the chapel where she learns the hard way that crosses are ineffective against the draculas. Anyone else have something like this going? Don't want to duplicate...
Paul
* * *
I believe Blake has written a scene along those lines.
But that doesn't mean you can't do one as well. Or that Shanna can't also be in the chapel at the same time Blake's character is.
When he gets back from his drunken camping weekend, you two can merge the scenes.
Joe
August 28, 2010
I ended my last section with the power going out...but it seems like it'll be insanely difficult for all of us to work this element into our individual sections and keep the timeline consistent. Perhaps we should save that for the finale, where the characters all come together?
Jeff
August 29, 2010
Read your sections, Jeff. Awesome. I'm fine with the lights going out then. I can time it to coincide with you. Make sure Randall has a flashlight on his belt.
I'm almost finished with the section where Randall takes off after the girl. She went to look for her mommy. You might want to fix the ending of JEFF 2.0. Randall can still see Mort run past, and maybe even want to go after him, thinking that he'll kill him and all the others will die, just like you've written it. Except have Jenny stop him and say she needs him with her. End it that way.
Then, when the lights go out, Randall can figure it's Mort who did it. And he's right--Blake and I will write a Mort POV scene where he takes out the generator. So Randall will go looking for the generator to get it started again.
Does that work for you?
Joe
* * *
"Is that...a flamingo?" asked the old woman.
You are a sick, sick man, Joe Konrath.
Paul
* * *
<i>This had a gun show beat to shit.</i>
Just read your scenes, Paul. Awesome. Laughed at the Dirty Harry line. Clay kicks ass.
I fixed a few small typos. At the end of the Shanna chapel scene (or maybe during it) have the electricity cut out. Then we'll all be in the dark for a few scenes until Randall gets the lights working again.
Your Sheriff $$--why not name him after one of your other characters from the RJ series? Maybe a brother or father of someone who died. Be cool if this tied in to your other books in a minor way.
Joe
* * *
A few quickie notes.
We're at 30k words already, and everyone is writing standout scenes. I'm happy to be working with you guys.
We're at a point where global things are happening that we all need to address in our scenes.
1. There's gunfire, thanks to Clay. It will be heard throughout the hospital, so make sure your POV characters address it.
2. Clay used the intercom. This is something that can also be addressed. I'm going to have Jenny do the same thing to contact Randall.
3. The electricity goes out, and will remain out until Randall fixes it. Dr. Lanz is the one who did it. We should all be in the dark while writing our 4.0 scenes.
Paul, your Shanna scene you labeled 1.1 is actually 3.1. So during the current scene, or the next scene, lights out.
Blake, you can go dark right about where your scene left off.
I believe overlapping timeframes is the best way to do this. Readers will be able to pick up that this is all happening at once, and by using cues such as the gunshots and the intercom announcements, they'll be able to keep track of what is happening when.
So far, I see zero difficulty in piecing this together seamlessly. We might need to juggle a scene or two, but it's going to mesh very well.
Joe
* * *
Shanna's conversion at the end of her big scene might be a little over the top, but god it was fun.
Lanz kills the power...anyone know how to make that work? There's gotta be a backup generator. He could destroy that first, then go after the main. But total darkness -- uh-uh. All hospitals have battery-operated emergency lights in all the hallways. I don't see how we can have total darkness, folks, but we can have loooong, deeeeep shadows from which friends and foes can spring.
Randall and Clay need to bump skulls at some point.
Lanz has to go after Jenny. I'd love to do that from alternating POVs with Jenny finally outwitting and killing him -- and he can't believe that he's fallen victim to a lesser mind.
This is proving to be fun.
BTW, I've passed the 10k mark and have miles to go before I sleep.
Paul
* * *
I like Shanna's conversion. It may need to be described in a bit more detail, but it's totally plausible and you did it well.
The lights out will mean the generator will kick on, which will supply power to essential hospital equipment and utilities, but the lights will be dimmer (emergency boxes only above doorways) and the intercom will be out.
I dug the Jenny/Lanz dynamic. He's currently after her in Pediatrics. If you'd like to do his POV scenes, we can work it out.
Joe
* * *
We can tag-team it. Fun.
Paul
* * *
All - I'm back in civilization, and can't wait to read everyone's parts...Paul - feel free to do the chapel scene, I wasn't seeing a way to work it out in my scene...a question about the hospital power going out...are we going completely dark? No backup lights...having to use flashlights or glo-sticks only? Let me know.
Blake
* * *
Also, I'm writing a Lanz POV scene to take him up to pediatrics, and show he seems to be smarter than the rest of the draculas. Possibly because he ingested the infection rather than got bitten.
Paul, aren't there some diseases that can be more severe based on the method of infection? My mind is blanking. But I'm pretty sure there are some bugs that are worse if you ingest them, as oppose to inhale them, or something...
Joe
* * *
Up to speed finally on everyone's sections, and damn, boys! Really happy with how this is shaping up. Love Randall and Tina dynamic. Clay going through the hospital with his big guns is just plain badass, and Joe, we knew this already, but something is seriously wrong with you..."is that a flamingo?" OMG. Bravo, gents!
Blake
August 30, 2010
I wasn't happy with her immediate gonzetta transformation, so I toned it down.
Paul
August 31, 2010
JCPL had a fire somewhere yesterday afternoon that left much of this area of the Shore without power. (I was reading by flashlight last night.) But we're back now.
Paul
* * *
Doesn't sound too hard...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100827/ap_on_fe_st/us_odd_snake_hospital_outage
Paul
* * *
I've made it so Lanz has more of his mental faculties than most of the draculas, due to ingesting the blood rather than being bitten. It's in the JOE folder, LANZ_2.0.
But it occurred to me that Benny also seems higher-functioning and calmer than the others. I was thinking that because Benny is severely depressed, he'd take SSRIs (Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft) which might negate some of the "wildness" that being a dracula causes.
When Randall tussles with Benny, a half empty bottle of sertraline can fall out of his clown suit, and I'm thinking he can tell Jenny the nurse, and she can arm herself with bottles of pills and start throwing them in draculas' mouths. They'll still be hostile, but not as frantic. Could be cool to have her walk past a bunch of docile draculas, standing there watching her without coming after her.
Or not. Just spitballing. But hospitals are filled with drugs, and Jenny is the obvious one to use drugs against them.
Joe
* * *
The Benny/Zoloft thing is clever. Use it. But...
SSRIs take weeks to work, while benzodiazepines (Valium, ativan, xanax) can kick in in 20-30 minutes -- quicker if injected. Could have some mellow draculas.
Jenny vs Lanz -- how about Jenny gets a long intracardiac needle, attaches it to a syringe filled with potassium chloride (KCl) and rams it into Lanz's heart as he grapples with her? It will cause cardiac arrest in a human. Maybe it just slows him down enough for her to run the upper part of an IV pole through each of his eyes into his brain.
Paul
* * *
JEFF 4.0 is done. I wasn't specific about Benny's medication, but my section acknowledges that drugged-up draculas could be more docile.
On other note, only Randall should call them "draculas," unless Jenny or somebody thinks "That's what Randall called them" first.
Jeff
* * *
Jenny calls them that because she heard Randall say it. I'll have her use the intercom to talk to Randall, then she'll use the word so everyone else in the hospital hears it.
Joe
* * *
Whatever Jenny says to Randall I'll incorporate into JEFF 5.0.
Jeff
* * *
When does the power go out in the timeline?
I have it going out at the end of my Shanna/Chapel scene but I can move it later.
Lanz realizes there's a heavily armed Rambo type coming through the hospital and needs to turn things to his advantage. Ah-ha! Power failure.
I can have Lanz disable the On/Off switch of the backup generator, then destroy the main power breakers. This will leave only battery-powered emergency hall lights until Randall hotwires the backup generator to start up.
Should we do this before Lanz finds Jenny?
Paul
* * *
Lanz already confronted Jenny in the last scene I wrote, and Jenny set him on fire, which he extinguished before he ran off.
Paul, you can then have him run downstairs, past gun-toting Clay, and figure out the best way to get both Clay and Jenny is in darkness, because draculas have a tapetum lucidum and can see well in low light.
Joe
* * *
I read that scene.
Okay. I'll tackle that next.
Paul
September 4, 2010
I was just finally catching up with everyone's sections, and it looks great. I think we're at about 38,000 words right now. Jeff and Paul, I noticed that some of the files in your folders were already in the Draculas 1.6 manuscript, so Paul I moved "Paul 1.3" them into your "Old" folder, and Jeff, I moved "Benny 1.0, Jeff 1.0, and Jeff 1.1" into your old folder. It'll make it easier to add things to the manuscript if only new sections are there.
Have a great weekend, all!
Blake
September 5, 2010
Paul and I got a lot of work done in New Orleans.
Just kidding. All we did was drink.
Joe
* * *
Shocker
Blake
September 6, 2010
Anyone adverse to me putting together what we've got so far and doing a light edit (fixing errors, seeding consistencies, etc.)?
Joe
* * *
Okay, I put together just about everything we've done so far. I also added a scene with Lanz turning off the circuit breaker, and changed Shanna's cell phone message to Clay into a payphone message, and kept Randall with Jenny in pediatrics instead of running after Mortimer.
It's in DRACULAS_2.0. It reads really well. Feel free to check it out. But let's avoid going back and editing this for the moment--if we all go in and start changing things we might begin to overlap each other. There will be time to tweak our sections, and the overall manuscript, when we're finished. We'll all have a shot at fixing stuff.
Also, don't tweak your old scenes, as those have already been incorporated in the manuscript and you'd have to make the same changes twice.
What's happening next:
Jenny's stuck in pediatrics. Lanz is coming for her.
Blake and I want Benny to take Randall's chainsaw, but we'll leave that up to Jeff.
Randall needs to keep the girl safe, and get down to the basement and flip on the circuit breaker so he can use the intercom like Clay did, to get a message to Jenny.
Stacie and Adam have to deal with birth, and Oasis. Blake, I dunno where your Grammie Ann scene fits in (nice scene!) Stick it into 2.0 where it goes.
Clay and Shanna are heading to the parking lot, but they'll find Mortimer there, tearing cars and tires and radios to shreds. Should have a Mort POV scene here, doing it. He's also stronger than the other draculas, so Clay may take it as a personal challenge to try to bring him down.
Also, Shanna is going to either tell Clay, or use internal monologue, to recap how this outbreak might have happened, going back in history to recall Baron Von Wolkenstein. This will give the reader a bit more of where the vampires came from, how they spread and helped to form the vampire legend that we all know. Blake and I have a lot of this figured out, so if you can set it up, Paul, we can just plug it in.
The police will be coming soon. We all have our villains to deal with (Clay and Shanna vs. Mort and a lot of draculas, Randall vs. Benny, Jenny vs. Lanz, Stacie and Adam vs. Oasis.)
I think we can take this up to the army surrounding the hospital. Then we can begin the final act.
Joe
September 8, 2010
I put up some new Clay and cut off at a spot where Joe and Blake can put in the myth/lore they've worked up. After that, I'll have Clay give Shanna the ring (he thinks it's possible he won't see her again). They'll make it to the parking lot to find the dead staties and the slashed tires.
Paul
* * *
I added Draculas 2.2, which includes a very short moment on page 113 where Randall loses his chainsaw.
Also Benny 2.0, in which the clown picks up the aforementioned chainsaw.
Jeff
September 9, 2010
BLOOD BLOODBLOODBLOODBLOODBLOOD...STOP! He released the girl he'd been slurping, even though she still had some blood left. Moorecook wanted them to turn. He wanted as many of his kind as possible.
This implies if victims die they don't turn. But what about the morgue scene?
Paul
* * *
If they die, they come back, but they can die through exsanguination. A dracula needs a certain amount of blood left to transform. Which is why draining their blood kills draculas.
I'll try to make that clearer in the text.
Joe
* * *
Okay, I'm going to have Clay and Shanna in the parking lot with the ruined tires and the dead state cops. They can't escape but they'd be crazy to go back in...
...unless they see Jenny waving from an upper floor window. Clay will go back in to get her, Shanna will come along (because what if these dead staties turn into monsters?) and that's when Clay and Randall meet.
As I said before, Clay will be wounded and will find a dramatic way to take himself out of the picture and take a whole buncha draculas with him.
Think it would be possible to have a conference call and do a little spitballing? I'm not comfortable with the complete isolation of the hospital. Every patient room has a land-line phone. Calls would be going out left and right. When the sheriff calls in the staties, the police beat reporters hear about it. Local TV stations would be sending camera crews. National cable TV news would be picking it up and sending helicopters for aerial views. You've seen it: I guy waving a gun and the whole world's on it. People can suspend their disbelief only so far. If we're going to keep them onboard, we need cell towers down, we need land-line junctions exploding, WE NEED A CONSPIRACY!
The series potential here is obvious and I think we need yet another layer.
Paul
* * *
Here's what Blake and I have been thinking:
Jenny is trapped in a storage closet. Randall is going to fight his way back to her. I'd like him to confront Clay, and for them to have a physical tussle. (I think they should stop fighting when Randall quotes a line from the movie ALIENS, as I mentioned in a previous email.) Clay could agree to help Randall get Jenny, but first he needs to get Shanna safe.
Randall deals with Benny and his chainsaw. Jenny deals with Lanz. Adam and Stacie deal with Oasis.