April 11, 2015

you can't win | an undefined list


I've been hesitant to talk about this because it's so young and kind of dumb, but as I said previously I have a new work in progress. It's eight terrifying pages in; I write slowly because I don't have the time (and also no concrete plot). I guess this is an introduction to You Can't Win, which I will hopefully talk about more in the future.

I. THE BOY | His name is Ivar Volkov. He's seventeen in the opening scene but most of the book will describe his life as he is nineteen years old. Ivar is the Anglicized version of the Russian name "Yvor". He's a fighter: little quiet, a little sad. He's calculating and perceptive; he cares profoundly for people.

My vision was black with swimming stars when he hit me again. My fault; my head wasn’t tucked to my shoulder and I wasn’t paying attention. It’s very bad, my attention span. It’s very bad for a boxer. It’s sad, really. The boxer with ADHD. I’m half Russian. Russians are supposed to be good at this. I swung a hook and missed, but I brought my gloves to my face and the ends of my elbows back to my torso in time, this time, to absorb his retaliation: a jab to the body. I was happy. But I was still losing, with twenty seconds. You can’t really win in twenty seconds, unless you’re very good and not tired. I was not good yet. Eight years, almost nine, and I was not good in the ring yet. It’s one thing to stab at a heavy bag, and it’s another to stab at a man who stabs back.


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II. THE CREW | Ivar's crew: a little street gang of young, unabashed New York City club boxers who consist mostly of his childhood friends, I guess. The cast has tended to be a bit fluid so far, so these boys that I'm going to tell you about might not be in existence in a week. Or they might have a different name, a different face, or [heck.] even a different gender, because I'm perpetually changing my mind. 


i. Aleks is Ivar's little brother. Passively angry most of the time. Likes Radiohead and dogs. Changes his mind a lot. Doesn't know what to do with himself. He admires his brother deeply and thoughtfully, but wouldn't admit it for the world.

ii. Andy is Ivar's best friend. He probably has some sort of very deep and tragic back story that I haven't figured out yet. But anyway, he's quiet and solid and he plays guitar. He's a bit of a steamroller in the ring; he's the middleweight of their crew. I love him.

iii. Jess is the glue of the pack, and a lightweight: quick, with very good footwork. He's optimistic and extremely alive. He laughs, a lot, talks a lot, and lives and believes with passion. He thinks he's a Bollywood star. He also has an older sister with whom Ivar is a little bit in love.

iv. Kieran is a welterweight, like Ivar. He's erratic. He's unpredictable; he wins his fights with ingenuity. He's a bit of a genius, I guess, but it comes with a price. He has a very important role to play in the novel which I cannot tell you about.


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III. JIST | I have many, many ideas for this novel, but unfortunately I am still without a story. This is usually my problem... I can create a sphere of flavours, people, sounds, emotions, aesthetics and pains, but I cannot easily construct a working series of events. I don't know very much about what will happen in the story, but I know what it is about.

It is about boxing: the pain and the calculation and the insecurity and the sweat and the lights and the shaking lungs. It is about New York City: the people, the yellow lights, the steel castles, the aura of ordered chaos and the streets that shine and glow silver in the rain. It is about physical and mental pain. It's about depression. It's about growing up. It's about everything that is hard and cold, and everything that hurts, and everything that reminds you that you are human. It's a little bit about nice, happy stuff too. And it is about Jesus Christ, somehow.

18 comments:

  1. i think you'll figure it out, you always do. i would rather you err on having no plot than no real characters and point. you have such unique characters: all passionate about different things, yet at the same time the same things. such strong characters, real characters. and thats what i love. hurry up dear, i'm itching to read it.

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  2. This sounds incredible...I can't wait to read it! Good luck on finding a plot, I'm sure inspiration will come to you somehow. THIS IS SO EXCITING. :)

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    1. THANK YOU. :)
      i'm glad you find it exciting!
      yes hopefully i will be able to construct some sort of sequence of events. dear me.

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  3. Oooh, this story sounds epic. Those characters sound awesome, and that's kind of how I am too. I've started my WIP a couple months now, and it's going pretty good, except I have no idea where anything is going. Only a vague idea, and that constantly keeps changing. That last sentence though :)

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  4. That sounds fascinating - definitely something I'd love to read. Your characters are awesome.

    Keep going, girl!

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  5. I love your characters! They already have dimension and life even if they're still in the works! Good luck to you and your book!

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    1. thank you so much! reality in characters is the lifeblood of stories, for me.

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  6. This sounds amazing and basically I just adore it already. And those characters. I can see the intensity and depth and gorgeousness dripping from their descriptions alone.

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  7. *makes terribly enthusiastic flailing hand gestures and the scrunchy chin thing that some people do as a result of my inability to articulate what i am feeling for this story & these boys & boxers in new york which is only made worse by the fact that i accidentally listened to the boxer about 25 times today*
    gosh son. i love this.

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    1. *does the same thing reading this*
      thank you, father.

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  8. *sputtering* *flailing* *sobbing*
    PLS. MORE. I'M HOOKED. FEELINGS. AHH. hELp./

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    1. wOAH IM SO HAPPY YOU LIKE IT AAAAH
      i'll maybe do a post with quotes and stuff sometime

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  9. Wow, that sounds interesting. New follower here. I don't think I've ever read a story about boxing before but the way you wrote about yours makes me want to read it.

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    1. good! that's one of the reasons why i am writing about boxing; it's a subject that i love that isn't exactly popular in my demographic and i would like to change that.

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