Planning Stages

I've been thinking of a story series idea for the past week. It's a format that I'm not used to (even after reading what other people did in the same genre), so I just thought of this test run idea of a mini series on this blog. I'm not sure how long it will be since I just thought of it aside from thinking of the first few parts. That's why it's only a mini series. It is not related to the writing project though. Not even related to the same genre.

I don't want to say anything too much without concrete information in case I want to take it back later on. The project is still in the planning stages. I did think of the characters (that I will talk about a bit later in this post), the setting, the opening arc, etc. I'll say what I feel comfortable with. I hope to have the project ready to with the first chapter sometime later this year... (I really hope not at the end of the year).

The idea originated from a collaboration that I was going to do with a good friend. We decided to do a detective mystery story in the same vein as Detective Conan (+5 points if you know the manga/anime). We each created a main character, for me it was Yamagata Sena, the amateur aspiring detective nerd. For my friend, it was Nakajima Tooru, the assistant with special psychic powers. We had a huge scope for the story spanning 3 different countries (Japan, United States and France), and a worldwide terrorist organization as the main plot line with a personal connection to the two main leads. Aside from the mystery cases that are related to the main plot, just like in Detective Conan, we would have side cases as sort of filler but also to flesh out the characters and such. After saying that, we started working for like half a year or it felt like that, and then my friend decided to ditch me. (No hard feelings were thrown). I was left with an intriguing main idea that I couldn't put down. When my friend wrote Tooru, it was in a style that I would probably not write in and so it was a bit difficult to continue. I wasn't sure what to do, but Tooru and Sena's dynamic was too good to replace her. I know I will change a little of Tooru's character when I do write her and I hope my friend doesn't hate it for possibly a change in her personality, but I'll try!

So...

I decided to work on it a little later after my plate full of WIPs and short stories were finishing up in the years to come, but in the mean time, I was planning on doing a series of short stories that took place before the main story with Sena in high school. That was the plan and wanted to write it whenever I had time.

Then sometime in June, a friend re-acquainted the idea of Cell Phone Novels to me. She had shown me a site hosting them like 4 years ago, and I found them interesting but forgot all about them until just now. Just by saying Cell Phone Novels, the genre of the project is now known. Haha.

But anyway, the idea of really short chapters (~100 words) and the amount of cliffhangers, it would make for a good mystery story is what I thought. Then I had Sena and Tooru's story on hiatus, and thought this may be a good idea to try out. I changed it up a bit... I will still do the prequel idea with Sena in high school. Tooru will be in it, but haven't decided on how to introduce her. Sato Erina, one of his classmates, is his assistant and main POV for the time being. Aside from Tooru, there will be a 4th member added to the group as the technology guy. I have most of the opening arc planned out, and still figuring out the exact details since foreshadowing is important in mystery stories! Need to lay out the foundation and hints for future plot points for each case. The idea will be the same with many side plots (cases), and every now and then there will be cases that move the plot along. I believe it makes the serial daily aspect more interesting, and the readers connect to the story better than just releasing one big novel at the end. That's why I'm doing a trial run with something on my blog, instead of hosting it on the site, or should I put it on the site too? Hmm... Anyway that's what I've been up to (aside from work).

I'm hoping to release my next short story that I am currently editing and revising by the end of summer. Editing is a slow progress and I'm not sure anymore... after reading so many times. I don't want to scrap the whole thing, but yeah. The title is "First Love".

Well I think this blog post is long enough... I'm sure I missed out on some details that I was planning on including in this post but I can't recall at the moment. What do you all think of the premise of the Cell Phone Novel project? I'm really excited. I never wrote a mystery story before, but I am a fan of a few TV shows, comics, and stories of them. I hope it goes well...