Wednesday 29 October 2008

Theatre of Curious Acts

theatreofcuriousactsuse Let me introduce you to my NaNoWriMo project: THEATRE OF CURIOUS ACTS.

Oh, and by the way – I’m cheating.  The ‘Theatre of Curious Acts’ is a set of intertwined stories set over a century – three novellas and two short stories – all heading toward the same conclusion.  The basic premise is:

The Grim Reaper is a girl, her name is Olivia and her pale horse is a pirate ship.  When Daniel Cole, a shell-shocked WW1 soldier, is transported to the surreal otherworld where she resides, he ruins her and her sisters plans for the coming apocalypse.

So we have:

Part One: Shrapnel From a Broken Smile

A ghost story. It’s 2008, the once glorious ‘Theatre of Curious Acts’ is derelict and provides the perfect playground for a boy out to impress a girl.

Part Two: Paper Dragons

In 1918 a group of WW1 Soldiers head out to the Theatre of Curious Acts for a fabled ‘Paper Dragon’ show.  They are transported to a surreal otherworld where Daniel Cole and Swan Ecklund are beguiled by two sisters – Olivia and Blanche.

Part Three: (The man with) One Yellow Shoe

It is 1985 and Harvey Cadell (one of our soldiers from ‘Paper Dragons’) has returned to the theatre, which is now a cinema, to catch one last performance before he dies. And in the hope he will find a door back to that otherworld and some of his lost friends. Instead he meets The Collector of Memories and finds himself trapped in a movie.

Part Four: Monstrous Interlude

It’s 1955 and during the showing of a B-movie a monster escapes. It is up to ‘The Collector of Memories’ to put it back.

Part Five: Anticipating Pitchforks

Daniel Cole returns from the otherworld just in time for Armageddon. Oh, and he’s arrived on Olivia’s pirate ship and her sisters are following in their own transport: a zeppelin, a battleship and a train.

12 comments:

Jamie Eyberg said...

Your outline is a lot more in depth than mine is. I am debating about adding more detail to mine- Just to be safe.

K.C. Shaw said...

That is a really amazing and awesome project! And not cheating at all--it all combines into a novel, right? So you've written a novel when you finish it!

Jodi Lee (Morrighan) said...

Excellent idea, Cate - it looks like it's going to be fabulous!

Aaron Polson said...

Very nice. I like the five act structure of course. It looks like your November will be quite fun. ;)

Kimbra Kasch said...

I've thought about it - but I don't know. . . I'm still thinking.

Cate Gardner said...

Jamie - There is also the fear with an indepth outline can make for a boring write - I wouldn't worry.

KC - I still feel like I'm cheating, but I've been emersed in short stories & short MG novels this year that I wasn't certain I could crank out 50,000 of one full story in a month. :( Plus everyone should cheat at least once a month.

Cheers, Jodi :)

Aaron, let's hope so.

Kim - do it. :)

Carrie Harris said...

Wow. That's not cheating. That's fabulous!

Anonymous said...

Sounds very very cool. Your outline is much more thorough that the 6 hand written pages of notes I have for my own endeavor.

Cate Gardner said...

Cheers, Carrie :)

Barry, it's what's written on those 6 pages that matters.

Katey said...

This looks like so much fun. My only complaint is that we won't get to read it right away! Totally something I'd eat up with a spoon.

Cate Gardner said...

Thanks, Katey :)

Wendy Withers said...

That's interesting. My NaNoWriMo novel's title is Olivia, and it's about a young prophet of the same name. You're already ahead of me in wordcount, too. :(