OOC Thread for "Mr. Rodgers Held Hostage..."

So, so far we have Sally and DeliciousMaiden both on GMT, and myself and Powerdog being 6 hours behind them on CST.

I am sporadically on and off pretty much all day and fairly steadily during the evening most days, (being unemployed gives me the advantage of having alot of time on my hands when not going on job interviews, taking care of kids, or cleaning house... ).

If not able to be on, I'll do my best to let you know in advance.

Speaking of which, as an FYI, DeliciousMaiden informed me earlier she probably would not be able to be on here tomorrow, as she has some sort of work function she has to attend, and won't be home. The OOC thread wasn't up before she logged, so I took the liberty of posting this for her.


~Wyld

Hmm... I'm Eastern time zone. One hour ahead of wyld and powerdog. I can't get a post up tonight. Ut tomorrow morning is just. Fine. I have classes from 7 am to around 2-3 pm. The best times for me us around 5 pm on most days. And if you post at night, I'll have a response in the morning

Thanks for letting us know, Sfaigon...appreciate that. *smiles*

So, guess I'll ask this, seeings we had a good start going before we had this OOC....anyone have any concerns about the story at all yet?

Hope everyone is enjoying themselves thus far.


~Wyld

I added this part in there about Evan hitting Billy and trying to get Brianna and himself to safety. I hope I did not overimpose on this, but it felt like the right thing at the right time.

I don't have a problem with it, if Sfaigon doesn't...i realize that sometimes a little creative license can occur. Just do what ya did here and allow us to discuss if it to see if it is contrary to what we think our characters would have done and needs to be edited, and we should be fine. *smiles*



~Wyld

Im on and off sporadically from around 8 GMT til about midnight or so, but usually on my iphone (sneaking) while at work, so punctuation / spelling / etc can be a little hairy, but I'll edit it retrospectivly when i get to my laptop!

Incidently, I look like Im on all the time, Im not, its just that its painful to try to log on again on my phone, so I tend to stay logged in!

Im much more hit and miss at the weekend, due to family stuff and bringing my kids here there and everywhere! Ill do my best not to stall the story!

sallythescorpian said:

Im on and off sporadically from around 8 GMT til about midnight or so, but usually on my iphone (sneaking) while at work, so punctuation / spelling / etc can be a little hairy, but I'll edit it retrospectivly when i get to my laptop!

Incidently, I look like Im on all the time, Im not, its just that its painful to try to log on again on my phone, so I tend to stay logged in!

Im much more hit and miss at the weekend, due to family stuff and bringing my kids here there and everywhere! Ill do my best not to stall the story!

Click to expand...

No problem, Sally...thanks for letting us know. *smiles*


~Wyld

Haha, yeah, this simplifies matters exponentially, knowing when we should expect replies. Well... I'm off to reply.

agreed! This OOC thing is a good idea. Let's keep going with it. mwa ha ha ha ha

Well, makes it easier on me, as far as writing goes now, for a bit.

I won't actually be interacting with any of the other characters, being bound, gagged, and in the trunk...means I can still post and still not effect the action between the rest of you, so I wouldn't have to wait.

However, I think I will wait on an Evan reply, because I have a bad headache tonite, and I want to get Darla and Cassie up to speed before we move on.

*chuckles*

However, I am going to add an indirect character to the fray...cutting and pasting from the previous incarnation of this thread. Just figure it'll make it seem more real, hearing about what's going on outside the little bubble our characters are in...and who knows? May later on see about either making him a more important character...right now, however, just basically storytelling , as kind of a bit of real time events so show that the hunt is on for our criminals...

I'm guessing it has been a couple hours or so since the hijack...plenty of time for the police to be called, hijack to be reported, and authorities to realize there is a hostage situation going on...


~Wyld

Just a quick reminder...do try to make sure ya'll are writing your own actions as much as possible, and not anyone else's.

Like I said above, realize some creative license happens occasionally, but figure its best if we can avoid editting as much as possible, to keep the story consistant.


~Wyld

Writing "in character" -

Hi all,

Trying to join in an established thread is difficult, especially when having to concoct a back story which fits why Cassie would be quiet for sooo long.

I know that Cassie has been rather a NPC so far, but as Wyld has requested, I'll be trying to create her as a character who might have a calming influence on the action and act as a link between the 2 groups.

Therefore, I'd appreciate it if you can give me time to really establish her character by leaving her words/actions to me to write.
At the moment, we have no idea how she will react to the situations she finds herself in or why she's even there in the first place.

I'll do my best to fit in where you guys have gotten to so far. Please let me know via this thread if there are any issues with the way Cassie develops.

Thank you
DM

I agree with wyld. I have thought many times that powerdog might be controlling the characters a little too much. And I hope you don't mind me doing a little something wyld did. U'm going to put a post up for sarah and justin at home. That is if you thik it will add a tad more realism.

Not a problem at all, Sfaigon....glad to see you doing that actually *smiles*


~Wyld

Haha, yeah... But it's going to have to be another few hours before I can get that post in. I'm making preparations for the Chinese/Vietnamese New Year.

Not a problem...take your time. We have all day. *chuckles*


~Wyld

Frustrated!

Someone give me some help getting Cassie involved as a REAL character!?!?

Again we have assumed that Cassie catches, does as directed .....

We've moved to a meeting point without any chance for Cassie to interact with Billy.

All Cassie's words and input have been ignored!

If this is to be the case then there is no point in anyone actually writing Cassie and you can keep her as an NCP!

DM

Sorry to have offended you. I'll delete my last post. I had read wyld's comments before that, and I honestly didn't think i was treading on anyone's toes. It is going to be very difficult to advance the story at all, if you cant interact with the other characters!

I agree. I didn't want you to delete the post ... My previous post was a plea for help ... I'm not sure how to "get Cassie going" effectively?

Maybe she should be a character that you all write, or that Wyld has control of?

I don't have answers ... I've just been trying to help out to help get the thread moving on ... if my contribution has the reverse effect, I'm happy for Cassie to be written in a different way ..>!?!?

Ideas!?!?

Just a suggestion

Hi, I have deleted my last post. I referenced throwing the car keys to Cassie only intending to draw Cassie into the story. i understnad of course, that its difficult to develop a character into the story, and I was only trying to be helpful.

Maybe if you outline here in broad terms how you want to develop Cassie over the next few post - ie her interaction with each of the characters, then when we post, we can make reference to intereaction with Cassie, that is in keeping with how you want to develop her.

For example, if you want to develop and deepen her interaction with billy, maybe Darla can undertake to either a) dump the van, leaving Billy and Cassie with the hostages, or she could go with Billy to dump the van, and Darla can take off with the hostages? and later on perhaps, she could be alone with Darla, to develop the dynamics between the characters??

Look, these are just a few suggestions that come to mind. If you let us know how you want to develop her probably scene by scens until the character's more fully developed, then we can all sing off the same hymn sheet!

Sally

Thanks Sally ... that really helps!

*smiles*

Give me a while and I'll post her background ... that they'd all know about ... then it will help make everything logic.

I just want to help out letting the story flow.

I think your suggestions are great!

I'll do as you suggest!

*huggs*

DM aka Marianne!

I do agree we need to develop Cassie as more than just a "landscape" character, and get her more involved....we gave a hard job to Maiden, having to try to develop a character this far into the story, when before, she had just been silent, so we had no idea what her personality would be like.

I think it'd be a good idea to have Cassie interact on a one on one basis with Billy or Darla, just to flesh out relationships...after all, they had a previous group dynamic before the story began.

From what we know from what has already been written, Cassie and Billy were an item somewhat before they met Darla...when Darla came along, Billy changed and had sexual relations with Darla. We need to figure out why Cassie stayed after that, how she still feels about Billy and if they still are in a sexual relationship, how she feels about Darla, and how she feels about what's going on now. To do that, Cassie needs more face time, so it's more important right now that we give her time to develop into a more primary role like the rest of us...to do that, she's going to have to be allowed for a time here to contol herself on her own just to catch up to speed.

Conversely, neither Billy or Darla have really made mention to any of those things or mentioned their feelings about Cassie either, so one on one interaction would maybe answer some of those questions and cement Cassie here as just as prominent as the other two people she travels with. After all, if she was a hindrance, why would they keep her around? Billy might, if they were still having sex, but why would Darla tolerate it, if she didn't like Cassie for some reason, or thought they woulddn't be able to use her for something?

Anyway, just my thoughts...


~Wyld

I am kind of glad we made this OOC now, so we could discuss all this...would have been hard to try to discuss all this via PMs to each other.

Earlier I said I don't mind some liberties being taken...suppose I should actually clarify what i meant, so there is no confusion. I'll use an example...


"Evan grabbed Darla by the arm hard, causing her to cry out in pain..."

or

"Evan pulled Cassie to him, kissing her deeply and causing her body to stiffen in surprise..."


If I was to put something like this in a story, as my character...I figure that isn't that far of a stretch of the imagination....not unbelievable, not out of character, would be a natural reaction to being hurt or surprised, and still lets the other character react accordingly afterwards.

However, if I do something like this...


"Evan swung a fist clumsily at Billy, who effortlessly dodged it, before leaping upward and delivering a roundhouse kick to Evan's chest..."


Probably not acceptable...I am fairly leinient on this kind of stuff if it is realistic, advances the story, and only happens occasionally, but others may not be.

By me describing Billy's reaction to what my character did in the example above, i just turned someone else's character into...well, a virtual marionette, I guess you could equate it to...to advance the story the direction i wanted without discussing it with the other character, (Powerdog in this example) first.

Who knows...maybe he would have handled it differently, and just clubbed Evan with the gun...but by saying what i did above, I'd be taking away that option from him, unless we go back and edit afterwards...and if we end up doing that multiple times, we'll end up confusing the hell out of our readers, who read one day that Billy kicked him, and then the next time they looked, see that he hadn't and just clubbed him over the head.

*laughs*

Anyway, not trying to beat a dead horse or anything, just wanted to share my views.

Know there was alot of confusion earlier today, but it sounds like we're all willing to discuss and work things out, and if there are mistakes made, we're willing to fix em...unlike the last incarnation of this story where we had someone who was unwilling. It makes things alot easier when you have a good core group of intelligent folks at are willing to take the time to discuss and compromise for the benefit of the story, so i thank you all for that.

Let's have fun writing! *smiles*


~Wyld