Writing Process: "Valentine"

The short story "Valentine" was written in the "Pantser" method, one of the 3 ways to develop an idea into a story. That is: by the seat of my pants, using no outline, making it up as I went along. 

Of course, there are **spoilers**, so if you haven't read the story yet, do that first, using the link in the first sentence of this article.

CHALLENGE

Writing Prompt:

• Pick a song - use the title and/or line(s) from the song in the story.
• Think of a favorite movie - what is one item or one image that comes to mind from the movie
• One of the characters is dangerous. Is this clear from the start or is it a reveal?

The story was also inspired by this Reedsy.com writing prompt:

Write a story that includes the phrase “I’m free!”

https://blog.reedsy.com/creative-writing-prompts 

This is a slightly longer version of the story I submitted to the Reedsy writing contest (which is limited to 3,000 words)

Method: Pantser (Discovery Writer)

CONCEPT 

• Pick a song – If you're a Fiona Apple fan, you may recognize that both the title of this story as well as lines sprinkled throughout are from (or riffs on) the title and lyrics of her song Valentine from "The Idler Wheel..." album.
• Think of a favorite movie – I thought of Blade Runner, one of my all-time favorite movies. The item and image I got was the flying cars. In the movie they are called "Spinners." I wanted a different word, and dreamed up "chelo" (based on the Chinese word for "car, vehicle" which is "chē"), not really knowing what the "lo" in "chelo" meant, but later I came up with my worldbuilding on that ones, see below. 
• One of the characters is dangerous. Is this clear from the start or is it a reveal? – I decided I wanted one character to appear to be (and perhaps to be) dangerous, but another character (the narrator or primary point of view character) is also secretly dangerous. 

I selected the lines from the Fiona Apple song "Valentine" that I wanted to work in to the story:

• "While you were watching someone else, I stared at you and cut myself"
• "A fugitive too dull to flee"
• "I'm amorous but out of reach"
• "I've made my peace, I'm dead, I'm done"
• "I watch you live to have my fun"
• "I made it to a dinner date" – this one didn't make it into the story, but inspired Valentine watching from afar Jonathan dining by himself, and him knowing that she is there, watching him, a virtual somewhat voyeuristic dinner date

I decided to set the story in an LA that is 60 years after the original Ridley Scott's Blade Runner which was set in "LOS ANGELES, 2019" and 30 years after Denis Villeneuve's Blade Runner 2049. Maybe we really will have anti-gravity flying cars by 2079. 

Since I was "pantsing" it, that's all I knew when i started writing.

PLOT TWIST

I brainstormed Plot Twist ideas, then selected the one that seemed to have the most potential, using the 7 Steps to Create a Great Plot Twist).

The idea I chose is an example of the "Transform" type, one of the 4 Types of MAGIC Plot Twists. A combination of:

• Narrator transformation - we believe the point of view character to be living, she is actually a zombie
• Character relationship transformation - the love interest (Jonathan) killed the the narrator (Valentine) so in that sense he is actually the antagonist
• Character trait transformation - shy, innocent Valentine is transformed to a zombie, hungry to kill and eat humans ... and she likes it

The inspiration for Valentine being dead came from the lyric "I've made my peace, I'm dead, I'm done". But I didn't want a "Sixth Sense" sort of story, that she's a ghost, so instead I made her a zombie.

GENRE

• Sci-Fi
• Crime (mystery, thriller)
• Horror

WORLDBUILDING

Since this is in the Sci-Fi genre, worldbuilding is important. I already had the vision of the flying car and the name "chelo" without really knowing more than that it came from the Chinese word "chē" for "car, vehicle." Blade Runner also has Los Angeles of the future with a distinct Asian vibe, so I started brainstorming a few interesting words, inventing worldbuilding elements around the words:

• chelo - flying car, anti-gravity ("agrav") vehicle — from "Chē LO" (Car Levitating Model-O)
• cheloways - the anti-gravity "roadways" (they look like flickering rainbow-beams in the sky) where chelos can fly fast, safe, draw anti-gravity juice from the beams, and get charged at the same time
• cheloseals - the vehicle opens by unzipping at a nano level, so that the interior anti-gravity fields can be completely sealed in and the humans inside the vehicle are not exposed to the exterior strong anti-gravity fields of the cheloways, when traveling at high speed
• bi-jue - a device that can record and play back sight, sound, smell, touch, taste, and also sensations (interpretations made by the person recording it), called "sumsen" (see below) — combining the Chinese words "bi" (gesture, write, brush-stroke) and "jue" (feel, think, be aware), and it also sounds like "bijoux" (french for "jewelry" or "intricate metalwork")   
• sumsen - recorded sight, sound, smell, touch, taste, and the interpretive sensations made by the person (or persons) recording it, with derivatives "sumsen-charts" (rankings of popular sumsen tracks) and "sumusic" (sumsen tracks that are also songs)
• sentrack - the individual tracks of sensations, which can be mixed together to create a sumsen
• babbles - the physical manifestation of sumsen, nano-bubble containers of recorded sensations as they are played back to an audience, with derivative "babbleshow", meaning the industry built around sumsen and babbles (recording, producing, promoting, marketing)
• emotion-amplifier - a prototype device that can augment sumsen by adding the emotions recorded to the playback babbles
• sleather - synthetic leather, used in furniture, seating surfaces (such as chelo-seats), clothing, and accessories (anywhere traditional leather was used, but since there are no more animals, no skin to harvest, sleather is grown synthetically in sheets)

CHARACTERS

For my characters, I already had two:

• Valentine - even though the song is really about a Valentine (as in a Valentine Day's card), the name Valentine made sense.
• Jonathan - there is another song on Fiona Apple's "The Idler Wheel..." album called "Jonathan" (in fact, it's the very next song after "Valentine"), so of course I had to pick that name 

Then I added:

• Samuel Okoro (aka "Yangi") - for some reason I got the image of Valentine’s father being a musician, and I had the idea that he was from Africa. Doing some research, I settled on Nigeria, and part of the Igbo people.
• David - a friend (and coworker) of Jonathan's, named from the Biblical story of David and Jonathan.
• Leb - Valentine's brother, the name means "heart" in Hebrew
• Kanu -  an old priest, the name is an Igbo first name (can also be surname)
• Two men - these are purposefully left as mysterious strangers, only described as "the shorter one with the curly hair and heavy black beard" and "the tall, thin, white-haired, white-bearded one, with the strange eyes" — in fact, they are recurring characters that will crop up in future stories, where they will be named, and who they are will be explained in a novella I'm working on, "Daredevil", inspired by another song from Fiona Apple's "The Idler Wheel ..." album.

Igbo Words

Since Valentine Okoro and her father Samuel "Yangi" Okoro are Igbo, I sprinkled some Igbo words throughout:

• ahu - body
• afo - stomach
• obi - heart
• imi - nose
• ọnụ - mouth
• aka - hand
• hu - see
• mba - no
• eeyi - yes
• nna - father
• nwa - child
• nwata nwanyi - young girl
• biko - please
• Chi - God

The word "lah" that Valentine uses often is not igbo. It comes from Singlish (Singapore English) and Manglish (Malaysian English) and is difficult to translate. It's a word that by itself doesn't have any meaning, but is used almost as a verbal exclamation point to add emphasis to whatever was said. It's another example of the Asian influences in this Los Angeles 2079 world. 

STORY TITLE

This one was easy — the title just had to be the same as the song that inspired it: "Valentine" 

WRITING THE STORY

I used my favorite all-purpose note-taking and composing app, Obsidian.

Since this was the Pantser method, I only had the names of characters, my notes on the worldbuilding,  the lines from the song lyrics that I wanted to work in, and a vague idea of the plot twist. With that I started writing, and the story took shape in the true Pantser way, growing organically, discovering the story as I wrote it.

Resources

Here are some other resources that will be helpful as you write your stories.

MY FAVORITE ALL-PURPOSE RESOURCE

The Writer's Treasure Chest - everything in one place, curated, organized, this is a great reference for all things writing craft, with tons of prompts, plot/character generators and other tools to inspire you to write great stories.

RELATED ARTICLES

Here are some articles that will be helpful as you work on all the aspects of the writing craft and your writing process: 

• Write Fiction Faster! — How to Speed Up Your Story Writing 
  
  
• Need a Great Idea for Your Next Story? Try the Story IDEA Formula
  
  
• From Idea to Story: 3 Methods to Develop Your Story Idea 
  
  
• How to Write Characters Who Stick in the Reader's Mind 
  
  
• What Makes a Good Story? — Great Scenes! Here's How to Write Them
  
  
• Make Your Story Sing — Write Great Dialogue!
  
  
• Flash Fiction: How To Use It To Supercharge Your Writing 
  
  
• Blast Through Writer's Block: How to Get Unstuck 

FREE COURSE, GUIDE AND WORKBOOK

Do you want to write fiction faster, while practicing your craft and your writing process to consistently get better? Check out this link to the "Write Fiction Faster ... and better" guide and workbook, which comes with a companion course with 23 bite-sized video lessons and 4 worksheets.