I posted this "question" on NaNoWriMo and pretty much answered myself in the process

[capri0mni]

But I'm leaving it up, anyway, because maybe someone else will notice a snag or nifty detail I never would, if left to my own devices...
---

The magical premise of my story, by which toys are alive, is that the objects around us absorb our mental and emotional energy. It happens strongest with children's toys, because children are emotionally attatched to them, and use them to deliberately act out their thoughts and feelings. But it's not limited to children's toys -- it happens with grown-ups' things, too -- such as our cars and computers (and the machines that make the toys in the factory).

What I'm wondering is: should I include this whole range of "living objects" in my story, or just stick to world as seen by toys?.

My Main Toy Character is a freak, "monster," teddy bear that the other toys look down on, assume to be mad or non-sentient because he wasn't created as "normally" as they were.

(Aside to my DW/LJ audiences: You can see why the "Monster Teddy Bear as metaphor for living with the oppression of Ableism" is setting off alarm bells in my brain. ... I mean, from where I sit, it's about as subtle as a concrete bat painted saftey-orange. And "walking through" the story behind this character's eyes is likely to bring up a lot of angst for me -- and in November to boot. That month is already up there on the Angst-o-meter, thanks to SAD and culturally-mandated sentimentally. Brace yourselves, friends!)

If I stick to the Toy's-eye-view, the entire story would be how the teddy bear tries to find a home, and get accepted by the normal "pretty" toys, and the climax would be where he defends the other toys from the Night Shadows, and becomes their hero.

If I expand my plot to include the Toy's-and-tool's-eye-view, then the family car and computers would become secondary characters (cars are to toys what human adults are to human kids, and could give advice and warnings, etc), and I could show the full ramification of my magic premise in a "haunted house" -- where an entire old house is sentient, having absorbed the thoughts and feelings of several generations of an old family. If I go this route, then the battle with the Night Shadows, and subsequent friendship between the toys would come early on in my novel, so they'd all be ready to band together to befriend or tame the House... or something along those lines.

Option #1 is more traditional, Option #2 may be too weird and confusing to pull off...

Help me decide?

(Aside #2: Yeah... As I was typing this up, became pretty clear to me that #2 is the right answer...)

Comments

[thblackflame]

I like two the most. The interesting thing is I can seen where you can take this on a while religious route like C.S. Lewis did with the Narnia series. I almost want to say that you can take a gnostic route with it as the house being the imperfect "God" who thinks that he is the only god, but blind to the fact that he is in fact created by a supreme god who is the perfect, loving creating power of the universe. *shrugs* Sorry, random idea that I had in reading your ideas. XD

[capri0mni]

Random ideas generated by stuff we read are good... that's where we get new literature from old, after all.

I'll stay away from religious themes, though, for this one, since I'm trying to make it about dealing with oppression and bigotry. Rather than searching for [echo voice] Ultimate Truth! [/echo voice] I want to introduce the idea of the Ultimate Maybe!

;-)

[thblackflame]

lol. That works for me. I totally going to write that premise. I just need characters to tell the story. I generally only write fantasy--specifically urban fantasy--so this would take me in a totally different direction. I'm just not sure what kind of characters I want to write or where I want to place this.

[capri0mni]

Well, why would you have to pick a different setting from ususal? If you're just going for the "Living house" premise, urband settings are full of old buildings, with lots of history of surpressed feelings...

[thblackflame]

Well, I think it would be a good idea to create a universe for this one. I'm not very good at writing children's stories since I make my themes entirely too adult. And I've always wanted to create a universe.

[capri0mni]

Well, the premise that "Objects absorb the thoughts and feelings of the humans that use them" cannot be copyrighted -- general premises can be freely shared, used and played with.

But a specific storyline of "Toys solve the mystery of a 'haunted house'" is copyrightable, so I hope you would create your own universe.

(*wink*, *smile*)

I woke up this morning (barely "this morning") and realized why I didn't think the god-ideas you suggested for this story wouldn't work, here:

This storyline grew out of a realization that came to me, this past spring (before we "met"), that the relationships we have with our "Stuff" isn't really about the stuff, but the other people that stuff connects us to (keeping books on the shelves we may never read again, but belonged to our mother, or the old tea mug that's cracked, but everytime we see it, we remember how grandmother used to drink from it, etc.) And a house that's confused its identity with a god is outward focused, rather than focused inward, on the lives it's sheltering between its walls.

But in a different universe, with a different goal for the telling, your idea could be fabulous.

[thblackflame]

lol. well it worked out. My sister studied gnosticism in college so I talked to her about it last night. We decided that placing the storyline during the apocalypse and in stead of make it take place just after, the apocalypse has been going on for many years now. Kinda dragging it out into a grueling war as suggested by the book of revelations. I still have a lot more research to do though. ^^;;;

[capri0mni]

Heh. Yeah... You and I are looking at the same premise from very different perspectives.

I'm standing on the hilltop of secular agnosticism (God/s may or may not exist, but in any case, we still have to deal with life among our fellow mortals, and be moral about it).

You're standing on the hilltop of learned theology, with (it reads like) the Abrahamic God as the starting point.

No wonder the premise is looking very different to each of us -- one is seeing the elephant in profile, the other, head-on (but I don't know which is which).

This is why premises cannot be copyrighted...

[thblackflame]

Heheh. That's what makes writing so fun. People can have completely different outlooks on a single idea and get two completely different stories. I don't typically write things re religion most because as big a role as it plays in my life, it doesn't in my characters. This would be like the second. And that would just be part of the them. I'd also being demons and vampires and angels and all kind of things into it. ^_^;;;

[capri0mni]

because as big a role as it plays in my life, it doesn't in my characters.'

This is why I think fiction (and, to some extent, non-fiction) writing is one of the more character-building and morals-enhancing activities in a culture: it encourages you to see the world from standing in other people's shoes.

(of course, as a fiction-writer, I may be just a bit biased. ;-))