Hailey's Novel Diary – 3/29/17

I have started writing, but it occurred to me that I don't know all of the character's names yet. I was going to name all of the female characters after Shakespearean women, but that will not work. I don't want to use Juliet or Ophelia. That leaves a few good names – Rosalind, Viola, Beatrice, Katherina; a few names that you can't help but think of something else – Regan, Titania, Hermione, Portia; and a lot of names that just don't sound right – Goneril, Volumnia, Hippolyta, Gertrude.

I came up with a system for naming some of the interconnected characters. It's either clever or stupid. We will have to wait and see.

The Taming of the Shrew
Directed by Franco Zeffirelli
© 1967 Columbia Pictures

Hailey's Novel Diary – 3/28/17

The first step in Untitled 2017 Novel is research. This book will require some. Maybe a lot. It takes place in Los Angeles. I have been there, but I don't know the city backward and forward. The easiest way around that is to have a character that does not know the city. The stranger in a strange land trope is common for a reason. But I still have to know what I'm talking about.

Today, I looked up parks. Specifically, Griffith Park, Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area, Malibu Creek State Park, Santa Susana Pass State Historic Park and Stoney Point. I'm amazed by how much green space there is in Los Angeles. I can't say that they will all end up in the book, but at least one of them will play an important role.

Planet of the Apes
Directed by Franklin J. Schaffner
© 1968 20th Century Fox

M*A*S*H
CBS/20th Century Fox

Short Cuts
Directed by Robert Altman
© 1993 Fine Line Features

Hailey's Novel Diary – 3/27/17

Before I even face the blank page, I like to know what the story is about. I'm not Jack Kerouac. I can't just start typing random words and something comes out in the end. I want to know that I'm dealing with a complete story.

A woman walks into a grocery store and something happens.

That's not a story. You could easily get into a chapter or two and then get stuck.

A woman walks into a grocery store and finds a time portal in the wine aisle. She travels back in time, fixes the biggest mistakes of her life and becomes happy and successful. On a visit to her old home town, she stops into the local grocery store where she meets her former self, causing the universe to tear apart.

That could be a story. It does not sound like something I would write, but a science fiction writer could probably work with that.

Before I start typing, I want to know where the story goes and what happens. Does it have an ending and, more importantly, does it have a middle? Why does that thing happen? What were those people thinking? When she says this, does it mean that? I will not start until I can answer a few basic questions. I have written myself into corners before. I find that sort of thing annoying.

Hailey's Novel Diary – 3/26/17

More than a few people have asked me, “How do you write a book?” My standard reply is, “With a computer.”

I'm starting a new book. It's a novel, pure fiction, and I'm trying something new. Since I'm writing this book in a different way, I thought I would jot down a few notes about what I'm doing while I write it. That might sound highly egotistical, as if I think anyone cares about my writing process, but what about blogs, Facebook and Twitter is not egotistical? The whole point of this blog is for me to look back in the future on what I was thinking about in the past. There might come a day when I look back on this book and wonder what I was thinking.

I'm not doing it for posterity. I'm not expecting historians to pour over these words in two hundred years while analyzing one of the great works of world literature. I fully expect to be completely forgotten by then. Books can easily last a few centuries, but most are only remembered for a few years, if that. And no matter what happens with this book, I have no doubt that no one will have the faintest idea what a blog was 200 years from now.

I suppose a few caveats are in order. Since we are talking about a novel that has not yet been written, there is the very real possibility that it will never be completed. I try to finish what I start. That's one of those remnants of my upbringing. But sometimes you do something that maybe you should not have done. Some things were never meant to be finished.

Equally possible is that I will finish it, but it will never be published. There are a few people who can write absolutely anything and it is guaranteed to be published by someone somewhere. Those people have names you recognize. Even if you have never read any of their books, you have probably seen a movie based on one. I'm not one of those people. I'm not contractually guaranteed anything.

I could write a big chunk of the book and then change it. Maybe drastically. When you read the finished product, you never know what happened in between drafts. By documenting this book as it happens, I'm opening myself to a world of embarrassment. Fortunately, most of the world will never know that this blog exists. Anyone who reads both this blog and the novel, should it ever exist, might know how it all started out versus how it ended up. I don't have a problem with that.

The point of this little experiment is not to serialize the novel. I will probably not even talk much about the story. This is supposed to be a diary of sorts about the writing process. I can't say how successful it will be. I might be too busy to update it often enough, or I might just give up entirely. This is an experiment. It might be interesting, mildly amusing or completely pointless.

Let's see what happens.

Blugger

I tried to upload some videos from Disneyland. There seems to be some kind of bug with Blogger. It is definitely not the first time. As soon as Google bought them out, pictures became more difficult. It only makes sense that videos would also be a problem.

Sometimes the videos are up, sometimes they are not. Sometimes they play, sometimes they don't. I have no idea why they all have the Youtube stamp. None of them were uploaded to Youtube, unless Blogger uploads them to Youtube without my permission. I know Google wants everyone to use Google Chrome, but I'm not going to. It's like signing into a website with Facebook. If I have to join them or else, I will simply go somewhere else. It may be a small world, but it is a pretty big internet.

It's a small world after all

That it's time we're aware

There's so much that we share

Cinderella Carousel

Let the Storm Rage On

Six years after walking into the underground cast maze of Disneyland, I walked out for the last time.

I watched the park change a lot during those years. When I first arrived, there was no Toy Story Land, Grizzly Gulch or Mystic Point. With the expansions of Fantasyland and Tomorrowland, the park is bigger than it used to be, but still the smallest Disneyland in the world. In the next few years, Tomorrowland will get even bigger and there will be a Frozen Land.

I was there during the Celebration in the Air 5th anniversary and the Happily Ever After 10th anniversary. I watched four different parades and participated in one and a half. I watched the Disney in the Stars fireworks show become the Nightmare in the Sky for Halloween, as well as other dressing changes for Christmas, Halloween and Chinese New Year.

The biggest change to Tomorrowland was when it was remodeled into a Star Wars Tomorrowland, but oddly enough, the Star Tours ride was changed to an Iron Man ride. They will add more Marvel themes in the future, with an Ant Man ride replacing Buzz Lightyear, and some other Avengers ride in 2023.

Working at Disneyland was never meant to be a lifelong career. Most performers rarely work more than a year or two. Being a face character was always a temporary gig. I got too old to do it pretty fast. Fortunately, there were always plenty of stage shows, which also changed considerably over the years.

I met a lot of people working at Disneyland. Most came and went quickly. Some I already can't remember. A few are hard to forget. One became my roommate and best friend.

When you work at Disneyland, you are not allowed to talk about any behind the scenes details. Facebook and Twitter were specifically mentioned in my contract. They want to keep the illusion alive as much as possible. Talking to people who work at McDonald's can make you sick to your stomach. Talking to people who work at Disneyland can spoil some of the magic. Telling a child that Mickey is really a small Chinese woman in an itchy costume is like telling them that Santa only visits rich kids.

As a former cast member, I am now free to spill as many beans as I want. One friend told me that I should write a book about it. But there are already too many of those. I don't have any axe to grind or unique hook. I have nothing especially bad to say about the place and publishers don't want happy tails about a happy place. My experience was mostly positive and I'm sure I will go back to visit sooner or later.

The downside to quitting is that I lost that sweet free pass. Disneyland is very expensive.