It's always about the people, isn't it?
We're going to need some characters if we really want to accomplish this Toybox idea. Along with them goes a setting, because people are shaped so much by where they are and what their life there is like.
As to setting, the original was set in San Francisco, and I think the current one is as well. Not in 1906 though, that was a terrible thread, but present day or near future. We could even--and I realize this is pretty damn pompous--put it in the same universe as the Folds, if the Folds had never shown up but the Box did. That's all right. I know that world pretty well, I've spent three years in it by jove.
HENeeway, now we need some people to live in Lucy's SF. She lived in the South end, I think this is closer to West end, more neighborhoody but still a haven for people who work out of the home. The family--more on that--lives in one of those easter egg cubes, I picture it bright pink and wedged shoulder to shoulder with its neighbors. Their street isn't that busy, but busy enough to pull blackout curtains so the car lights don't bother at night. They are used to the street noise.
The house has three stories, plus what's laughably called "the attic," but what is more like a crawlspace just tall enough for a small child to stand.
About these people, whoever they are. We know of FG the father, and CG the kid (fine, it's a son. Are you happy now? He's a boy. An actual Y chromosome polluting your work. UGGGGGGH), I'm thinking a momlike figure who is not actually related, maybe the neighbor next door, or the other half of the duplex. I want her to be the voice of what the FG needs to be, accepting of things we can't change and loving of people, not hating of circumstances. She should treat this kid like her own, both before and after his run in with the box. Partly nurturing, but honestly? more like a friend.
She's younger than FG but older than the kid, I'd say barely into her twenties. She should speak to the millenial crowd, who are let's face it our target audience. I want her to fit the image; so she has interesting colored hair, a mountain of student debt, and none of the social statues that hold FG back. Ok, I feel better now.
She probably doesn't show up strongly until later in the story, though we can jump around POVs and have some input from her as to what that little family looks like from the outside. I'm going to put the FG as the primary custody holder in a divorced relationship, where Mom gets the kid over summers and lives all over the place, maybe she's a travel writer, idk. SHe's not really a character, but it would be interesting for her to show up after the box and get into a huge fight with FG but also hit it off really well with Neighbor Girl, NG.
Ok you know what, her name is now Ng.
I have just looked it up and Ng is a boy's name, but ther's plenty of Pacific Islander names for girls that start with that as a prefix, so we have now passed Bechdel and Mako just in outline. Awesome.
So late's narrow this a little. We have our mains, and the next thing to do is talk about them as people.
David Wolfe (FG):
As to setting, the original was set in San Francisco, and I think the current one is as well. Not in 1906 though, that was a terrible thread, but present day or near future. We could even--and I realize this is pretty damn pompous--put it in the same universe as the Folds, if the Folds had never shown up but the Box did. That's all right. I know that world pretty well, I've spent three years in it by jove.
HENeeway, now we need some people to live in Lucy's SF. She lived in the South end, I think this is closer to West end, more neighborhoody but still a haven for people who work out of the home. The family--more on that--lives in one of those easter egg cubes, I picture it bright pink and wedged shoulder to shoulder with its neighbors. Their street isn't that busy, but busy enough to pull blackout curtains so the car lights don't bother at night. They are used to the street noise.
The house has three stories, plus what's laughably called "the attic," but what is more like a crawlspace just tall enough for a small child to stand.
About these people, whoever they are. We know of FG the father, and CG the kid (fine, it's a son. Are you happy now? He's a boy. An actual Y chromosome polluting your work. UGGGGGGH), I'm thinking a momlike figure who is not actually related, maybe the neighbor next door, or the other half of the duplex. I want her to be the voice of what the FG needs to be, accepting of things we can't change and loving of people, not hating of circumstances. She should treat this kid like her own, both before and after his run in with the box. Partly nurturing, but honestly? more like a friend.
She's younger than FG but older than the kid, I'd say barely into her twenties. She should speak to the millenial crowd, who are let's face it our target audience. I want her to fit the image; so she has interesting colored hair, a mountain of student debt, and none of the social statues that hold FG back. Ok, I feel better now.
She probably doesn't show up strongly until later in the story, though we can jump around POVs and have some input from her as to what that little family looks like from the outside. I'm going to put the FG as the primary custody holder in a divorced relationship, where Mom gets the kid over summers and lives all over the place, maybe she's a travel writer, idk. SHe's not really a character, but it would be interesting for her to show up after the box and get into a huge fight with FG but also hit it off really well with Neighbor Girl, NG.
Ok you know what, her name is now Ng.
I have just looked it up and Ng is a boy's name, but ther's plenty of Pacific Islander names for girls that start with that as a prefix, so we have now passed Bechdel and Mako just in outline. Awesome.
So late's narrow this a little. We have our mains, and the next thing to do is talk about them as people.
David Wolfe (FG):