100 Things Challenge #6: Stories I Plan on Writing Eventually Part 1 "Jamie Loves Elliot"
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Story ideas come up all the time, obviously, but I don't always have time to write them. Sometimes I do a backcover blurb and that's as far as it needs to go, but sometimes I really do want to write the story, but I'm focusing on another project or just don't have the time to devote to something new. So, the idea gets written down to be returned to at a later date.
At work today I glanced at the title of a book called "There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom" (by Louis Sachar, who is amazing). My funky little brain took that, wandered off with it, and came back with a new story idea about transvestites, which I would now like to share with you.
"Jamie Loves Elliot" (Or "Elliot Loves Jamie" haven't decided). Sometimes authors envision a particular actor when writing a character (Rowling always pictured Rickman as Snape, for instance). I usually don't, but this time Elliot is played by Emma Stone and Jamie is a younger James Franco (in the movie in my head, Jason Mewes also has a cameo, but I haven't figured out what his part is, yet). Elliot is a filmgeek who works at a (slowly going out of business) movie store and Jamie is a glam-rocker who is semi-permanently between dayjobs and they've been dating since high school.
Jamie likes to wear pretty things and Elliot bitches that he looks better in her dresses than she does and that he keeps ruining her make up because he steals it and then doesn't clean the brushes properly before giving it back. Despite wearing women's clothing and make up, Jamie is completely straight, and despite how young they were when they started dating, they are completely in love and committed to each other (they got kicked out of their prom because Jamie was wearing a dress and Elliot was wearing a tuxedo).
The story itself will follow the two of them and their motley group of friends through a typical day to day. I haven't figured it yet, but I think I might want to keep the action confined to one 24-hour period (with flashbacks and exposition as needed). Like the View Askew movies (I've got Kevin Smith on the brain), and this amazing book I love called "What We Do is Secret." Also, it's set in the same "universe" as Icarus and Calamity, so maybe some cameos from those characters as well.
I wanna play with gender roles and cliches, as well as the idea that someone can be "too young" to fall in love (based VERY loosely off a friend of mine from high school, who has been with her boyfriend since they were fourteen).
I'm kind of excited, because if Elliot continues to develop she'll be one of, like, five female main characters of mine (I have a decided bias toward male protagonists, which I intend to explore and examine at a later date, so stay tuned.)