Category: Brainstorming & Inspiration

Big ideas and how to get them.

The Haunted Writing Cave

Dear reader, we haven’t been completely honest with you. On the blog, we regularly refer to the first book in our ghost series as As-Yet-Untitled Ghost Novel #1, and, well, that’s a bit inaccurate. It’s had a working title for quite a while, which we use in file names, and amongst our beta readers. It’s a pretty cool name, and it doesn’t fall into the “Sounds like a Nancy Drew Book” trap. But it also doesn’t fit nicely into a set of like-minded titles for the remainder of the series.

As we’ve mentioned in the past, we like for our series titles to coordinate. This bad boy is quite singular. We’ve batted ideas around, and came up with a matching bookend for the last in the series, but the two dudes in the middle are still waiting (im)patiently.

Naming our three earlier series was much easier. Maybe we should blame this very focused and specific form of writer’s block on the vengeful spirits of our less-fortunate characters.

A writing partner is someone who will hold your hand when things get scary. Or when you’re just unwinding and watching movies.

Moonlighting: A Fascinating Mess

We’ve been watching Moonlighting. Kent’s never seen it before, whereas for Jen it’s technically a rewatch but it’s been so long that it feels mostly new. We just finished the infamous third season, and we have some thoughts about it (as do plenty of other folks).

Spoilers ahead, or things that are spoiler-adjacent anyway. If you’re like Kent and never saw it when it aired, proceed with caution.

The show started off fun. It didn’t always make a ton of sense, but the snappy rythms of the dialog and the offbeat chemistry of Willis and Shepherd gave it a nice flavor. But by the end of season three, it wasn’t fun anymore. And the seasons were short — it’s frankly amazing how small the fun era of Moonlighting is, considering what a cultural touchstone the show is. We do have two more seasons to go, and we hope some of the fun comes back. We know that Cybill Shepherd will be largely absent for season four, which will obviously impact the flavor of the show. And we know that its ratings tanked…

Lots has already been written about the behind-the-scenes problems, and how the production delays led to reruns (look it up, kiddies) which hurt audience loyalty, and thus led to cancelation. But for us, it just boils down to this: The show was fun, then it wasn’t. We’ve been talking over why we think that is. The two biggest things that stick out are that they (a) started neglecting the core premise of the show, and (b) stopped doing the zany plots and witty banter that made it fun.

Of course, the big turning point on-screen came when David and Maddie became romantic. That’s where there stops being even a token nod toward cases for the agency to handle, and where whole strings of episodes (reminder: the seasons were short…) dwell on how miserable the lead characters are. And because they’ve become miserable, they no longer have rapid-fire repartee. They have speechifying. And they have long takes of sullen silence, gloomily lit.

Many have said that the lesson of Moonlighting was that they shouldn’t have given an answer for will-they-or-won’t-they. That’s a bell that couldn’t be unrung, sure. But, did ringing it have to destroy all the fun? We say no. What if Maddie and David hadn’t made each other miserable? They could have kept making each other crazy instead, and kept pretending they were detectives. They could have had ups and downs, and kept bantering through it all. The banter could have even shaded over into bicker sometimes; snarky, witty bickering can be fun. But seriously, why wasn’t David allowed to even try to actually make Maddie happy? What necessitated making him act like a stalker? It seems like the answer was something along the lines of, “The conflict for the story is rooted in their relationship, so the relationship can’t make them happy.” Okay, but there are options in between “happy” and “miserable.”

So we think that the real lesson of Moonlighting is: Don’t let your detectives stop solving cases. The show’s failure wasn’t when it got canceled, it was when it stopped being fun. It stopped being itself on a basic level. Without MacGuffins to chase, the characters ended up just wallowing. A story can turn in unexpected directions, and can go through different moods. It should! The author’s responsibility is to ensure that through all that, it doesn’t stop being itself.

A writing partner is someone who won’t bend your story so far it breaks, and who’ll help you fix it if it does.

Down The Rabbit-Hole Again Some More

We’ve found ourselves doing more research than usual for the Ghost Novel(s). Wouldn’t want to allow any inaccuracies in our depiction of ghosts, which of course explains why we felt the need to take a deep look into:

  • lava tubes
  • sex magic
  • acorns, culinary uses thereof

…And many other topics besides. Like, it’s a long list. Whenever we spend any significant energy on looking something up, we make a note of it. We’re fascinated by the variety of stuff that winds up on the list. We’re fascinated by how hard it would be to predict what is going to show up on the list, especially considering that we really did have a solid idea of the story before we even started prose composition on it.

A writing partner is the only other person who wouldn’t think your research list was evidence of a diseased mind.

Golden Oldies

To help set the mood for the era we’re writing about, the late 1960s, we’ve been listening to a bunch of music from that time. Or rather, Jen’s been listening to most of it, and Kent has been indulging her when she comes across something particularly cool or particularly weird that she just needs to share.

The music is a mix of incredibly familiar songs and total headscratchers. For every Beatles classic, there’s a Pigmeat Markham or a Peppermint Trolley Co. For every Beach Boys song we know, there are two we were completely unaware of (that, incidentally, sound nothing like the Beach Boys).

Kent has observed that once enough time passes, a decade becomes its own musical genre, and songs that never would have been played on the same station all get lumped together because they’re of a similar vintage. This experiment is like that on steroids. We’ve been listening to Marvin Gaye, The Temptations, Aretha Franklin, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Frank Sinatra, Englebert Humperdinck, Tom Jones, and a bunch of artists we’d never heard of. Did you know that Ray Charles had a cover of Eleanor Rigby? Or that The Tijuana Brass had a version of My Favorite Things? We didn’t! But we do now.

A writing partner will ride shotgun in your musical time machine.

Whiteboard Jr

The newest addition to the SkelleyCo Amalgamated Fiction Enterprises, LLC family is a second whiteboard! This one is somewhat smaller than its big brother, and has really high-quality wheels. It’s perfect for the writer on the go! No more excuses for Rune Skelley! Doing laps around the neighborhood? This bad boy can tag along! Going to the roller disco? He’s already wearing his shiny white suit!

We weren’t really in the market for a backup whiteboard, but when Jen saw it at the salvage center, her brain lit up with potential uses for it. (Maps! Plot rainbow overflow! Character inspiration photos! Murder board!) There was no talking her out of it, which Kent must have known because he didn’t try very hard.

There’s a lesson in here somewhere, akin to “don’t go grocery shopping hungry” or “don’t go to the animal shelter unless you really want a pet.” Keep Jen out of the stationery aisle and, apparently, the used office furniture warehouse.

A good writing partner is someone who can admit he was wrong about the number of whiteboards your office needs.

Au Revoir Red Envelopes

While we’re on the subject of stone-age technology, let’s talk about DVDs. Jen and Kent are big proponents of old school media. We like owning physical copies of the things we love. We buy books and albums, subscribe to a small number of print magazines and even (gasp!) the local newspaper. And we still have a DVD subscription from Netflix. At least for the next month until they kill the service. During the early days of the pandemic we started a project to watch all the classic movies we’ve never seen. That expanded to include spooky movies for research as we write the As Yet Untitled Ghost Novels.

Now that Netflix is cutting us off we’ve been looking around for a way to scratch the same itch. We haven’t made a final decision yet, but it seems like we’ll probably add a couple of channels to our stable of streaming services, like the Criterion Channel, NightFlight, and AMC+.

A good friend of ours was an early adopter of Netflix, a million years ago, and when she told us about how this company would just send you DVDs in the mail, as many as you could watch, we were sure it must be some sort of scam. And now here we are at the end of an era, wishing it didn’t have to stop.

Vinyl Fantasy

The Auxilliary Writing Cave has lots of nice features, such as a fireplace and big, comfy furniture. A thing there that we haven’t brought up is our vinyl collection and — hold onto your butts — functional turntable. Lately we’ve made it a project to listen to all our albums (and EPs and rare 12-inch singles and everything else that the turntable can handle).

Music during writing sessions is something that brings out strong opinions. For us, the formula is that music is always good, but if what we’re doing is editing rather than composing or discussing then it has to be instrumental. For some weird reason, the lyrics don’t interfere with our ability to make up new sentences, yet they very much impede us when we’re trying to make adjustments to existing ones.

Our library of vinyl won’t be setting any records (ha!) but it is pretty big. Takes up about four feet of shelf space. It’s also a blend of Jen’s and Kent’s collections, reflecting their sometimes diverging musical interests. That divergence is actually highlighted when we consider what we have on vinyl specifically, because that format aligns with our teenage phases.

So, in an effort to devise a fair method of going through the whole stack without either or both of us going bonkers, we chose to select from alternating ends of the shelf. Currently we’re in the middle of the Star Wars soundtrack, which was preceded by the rather distracting Looney Tunes collection. We do own actual albums by actual bands, honest. Apparently our filing system has a sense of humor.

A writing partner is someone who’ll flip the record for you once in a while.

A Galaxy Far Far Away

A few months ago we went on a trip with Jen’s sister and brother-in-law. The four of us booked passage on the Chandrila Starcruiser the Halcyon, and traveled to Black Spire Outpost on Batuu.* It was a very eventful trip!

We got to visit the bridge, and we had lightsaber training. The intergalactic superstar Gaya even performed several shows! Planetside on Batuu, we had a few scrapes with smugglers and the First Order, but we managed to make it out safely.

During all the excitement, the Halcyon was boarded by the First Order, and we had to choose whether to align ourselves with them or with the Rebels. Not a difficult choice, but some of our fellow passengers got it wrong. It all ended with a climactic lightsaber duel right in front of us.

Stormtrooper!, Hoth Icebreaker, the bunks in our cabin
On the bridge, the Halcyon’s registry, surprise visit from Chewbacca
Millennium Falcon, Batuu street scene, Mando!
Lightsaber action!

* We actually went to DisneyWorld, and stayed in the Galactic Starcruiser hotel. It’s a couple days of live action roleplaying with other Star Wars fans. There’s a storyline, and the entire staff stay in character the whole time. It’s pricey, but it’s a total blast. And it’s closing soon, so if you’re interested, make your reservation today.

 

Worth the Wait – Czech Republic

Last stop Prague! A beautiful city we’d visited once before, but we had our son with us last time and there are certain sites that aren’t the sort of things you want to visit with your child (see the red photo below).

Between Budapest and Prague we drove through Slovakia. Sadly the only stop we made was at the border. We saw Bratislava from a distance, and hope to visit for real some day in the future.

Our trip was quite long, and we didn’t even pretend that we were going to do any writing while we were gone. We didn’t even take our laptops. We’ve been writing As Yet Untitled Ghost Novel #1 for about a year now, and it was really nice to look away. We came back refreshed and ready to put fingers to keyboards. As writers, we use the world around us as inspiration for our stories. Travel is a magnificent way to broaden our scope and add novelty to the idea bank. A certain location in the Ghost Series is in Eastern Europe, so if the IRS asks, this was a research trip. Our location is made up, but being able to see the landscape in person was a great help.

A good writing partner is someone you enjoy sharing a hotel room and every meal with, and someone who loves to look at your vacation photos.

Prague Astronomical Clock, St Vitus cathedral, Good King Wenceslas atop his dead horse
Two views of Prague TV tower covered with giant babies, the Museum of Sex Machines, Tyn Church
Franz Kafka’s head performs a 15-minute choreographed dance every hour

Worth the Wait: Hungary

The penultimate stop on our whirlwind tour of Eastern Europe was Hungary. Our Budapest hotel was centrally located on the Pest side of the river, and if the Chain Bridge had been open it would have been perfect. Alas, the Chain Bridge was closed for construction, which meant a lot of added walking for us when we wanted to check out the Buda side. Ah well, it keeps us fit.

Buda is the hilly side. We rode the funicular to the top and explored the Castle District at ground level, underground in the labyrinth (complete with subterranean fog), and high up in the towers of Fisherman’s Bastion (with a cup of mulled wine).

Budapest has tons of thermal hot springs. We visited Gellert Baths, a classic that opened in 1918. It has co-ed changing rooms, about a dozen pools, inside and outside, at various temperatures, and gorgeous architecture. We don’t have pictures of it because we didn’t want to dunk our phones, but you can do an image search if you’re curious.

Don’t fret. We have pictures of other things.

Hungarian parliament by night, Buda Castle as seen from our hotel room
War tubas, Fisherman’s Bastion
Run!! aka an amusing construction site, stained glass Lenin at the Museum of Communism, women’s restroom at the Museum of Communism, Monkey Bistro advertising truck, outrageous meat concoction, the horse that stole Kent’s heart