Lost Memories

Yesterday while taking the bus back home this story plot suddenly found its way into my head. It isn't a fresh idea, but an old idea which I hadn't developed. Maybe because of the present circumstances, and the maturity of my mindset, I had this thought on further developing the personalities of these characters, and also further developing the story as a whole.

Last night, I went to dig up all my old diaries, jotter books, and all note books and materials on Lost Memories and went through them hoping to get the feel of the plot and also to see if what new ideas popped up in my head that was beyond my imagination those years back. Going though those old diaries in search of all my materials, I realised that I wrote a lot more, thought a lot more, had more ideas when writing stuff down. On my blog, a lot have to be censored, hence a lot is not written down and a lot is forgotten. Quite a pity...

I was quite surprised when I checked the dates of my jotted down notes, the idea of Lost Memories before I came up with the plot of Scarlett Flight. And speaking of Scarlett Flight, I wrote quite a few exerpts but all on paper. I might want to type them up on the blog some other time. Actually, I think I should start digitising quite a bit of those jotted down stuff in my diaries because what if one day I lose them, I'd be losing quite a lot. Of course, I must also be backing up my digitised stuff too la.

The concept of Lost Memories was formulated in Chinese, even when I attempted to write out the full story in a novel form, I wrote in Chinese. Reading what I wrote, I realised that my written Chinese is quite awkward, no thanks to the genre of Chinese books I read. If I were to want to take it back and rewrite the whole lot, I don't think it'd be possible for me to do it well in Chinese. That only leaves me to write that novel in English, just like how I'm going about writing Scarlett Flight. But then again, quite a lot of meanings and connotations will be lost. I'll have to resolve that somehow or another.

Like for one, the Chinese title is 《白衣·天使·心》, how can one translate that title and leave the connotations I want intact? Actually, both the English and Chinese title was thought up along with the plot, so it's not something new.

What was new was the names of the characters. Before I started plotting out a flow chart of the story and the general idea of the plot, I decided to list out the characters I will be using, and looking at the names last night, I decided to rename almost all the characters. Naming characters is the hardest thing to do. It wasn't so bad for Scarlett Flight because those names were apt for the characters. There wasn't a need for me to rename them when I took that idea out to rewrite the story. The only problem I had with the characters was that I was deciding if I should name Adele Adele or Scarlett, and that should Scarlett be Scarlet or Scarlett. In the end, I decided to stick with Adele, but I used the name Scarlett for my other short stories. In fact for most of my short stories, I stuck with the names Ming/Steven and Shan.

These were the names I came up with last night. I suck at Chinese names, so, yea... And trust me, these are the better ones I thought of last night, the original names suck even more. I even gave them English names.

Protagonist
Ling Zi, 25, female.
No English name. I didn't change her name. Okay, I did but the change wasn't done last night. Her original name (don't laugh) was Wang Zi, but the was a mark cancelling that out and changing her surname to Ling instead. I mean, of course, the change had to be made.

A strong yet wilful girl who has absolutely no recollection of any memories before her 18th birthday. She has no parents and lives with only her foster mother who refuses to divulge any information to her about her before she was 18. And (the action cue) at the beginning of the story, we're introduced to her as being ill. Her illness the the whole spine of the plot, so I can reveal that without labelling that as a spoiler, but that's all I can reveal.

Yea, another point to note. This, unlike my other writings, is an attempt to be indulgent. I'm more fond of writing like one-on-one relationships or love triangles and stuff like that. Also, I usually tend to feature more females than male characters, but this time, in a bold move, I tried out this reverse harem style of story. Yup, it's about Ling Zi's relationship with three men, each men by their own virtues is a different kind of lover, and hence each of her relationship is different. Did I say that this story is super indulgent? yea... Get ready the tissues and hankies. I'm quite a bit apprehensive because after writing all the cynical short stories, an indulgent piece will come quite different to deal with. Even Scarlett Flight by its own virtue is not an indulgent piece. erm... Of course it isn't, the protagonist is a male, it's be very weird if it were to be indulgent. wahaha~

Anyway, introducing the men...

Khairul, 25, Cancer, computer programmer.
I'm thinking of the Chinese names Yang Yonghui, Yongqi, Yongyan, or some other Yong-something. He is the kind of high school jock kind of person, he plays sports, I'm deciding between Football and Basketball. Since he's the high school jock, he's very sporty, muscular and attractive, though he's more interested in his sports. He's a simple guy and lives on the simplicity in romance. The kind of guy who'd bring a girl out to the park to play, have dinners together, take that long bus ride home and let her sleep on his shoulder. Generally a kind person.

James, 26, Scorpio, neurosurgeon.
I hadn't wanted to name him James, but the name James just shouted out to me to name him that. In my original manuscripts, I had named him Nicholas, Dr Nicholas Chang. Don't know if I should stick to that or call him James. So far, I'm only satisfied with the name Khairul. The moment I read his bio last night I knew he was a Khairul to the T. Back to James anyway, Chinese names that I thought of was Zhang Mingjie, Kaijie, Zhengjie. He's your high school student council president, the powerful, attractive, charismatic yet mysterious guy. In a relationship, he's intense, steadfast, and posessive. He's the kind of boyfriend whom every girl would be jealous about, but not many would dare take up the challenge of being his girlfriend because it's too pressurising and dangerous. He's born into a family of notable doctors, rich, well-groomed, which all add to the unattainable aura around him. Generally he's a complex and complicated character.

Christopher, 25, Virgo, advertising director.
I really didn't want to name him Christopher because of all the connotations, but he's just the typical Christopher. Was also teetering about naming him Nicholas, before I found out from the manuscripts that I had originally wanted James to be Nicholas. Chinese names, Wang Junwen, Wang Rongwen, Wang Zeming, which is the same name as Ming/Steven from Scarlett Flight, which is also the damn reason why I'm reluctant in using this name. He's your high school playboy. Very good looking, very smooth with treating the girls, has a whole hoard of girlfriends, all smittened with him. Of course, with his looks and his charm and all the girls around him, he doesn't stay true to any one of the girls and flirts around with them freely. He's the guy every girl has a crush on. Generally, just think of the most popular person alive.

At this point, I want to ask, who would you fall in love with?

For the supporting characters...

Foster mother: Mary
Real mother: May Ling
Doctor: Dr Fang, Dr William Millers
Actually in my manuscripts Dr Millers was Dr Christohper Millers, but since I named Christopher, I can't use the name again.
Actor: Steven Filles
The name came up in the manuscript even though I really dread using the name Steven again. Filles is pronounces as "files" like the stuff you put your paper in. He's also a guy who likes Ling Zi but he's an asshole and he's not really that important, other than he's a jerk. hehehe~
Director: Adam Cheng
DJ: DJ Bear Li Weixiong
Teacher: Chen Xinhua

I can't really reveal too much about what role these people will play because that would give out too much about the plot, but the focus is still on the three guys above.

I realised as I described their characters, they've come to fit several stereotypes of certain horoscopes, and I've put them up in their bio-data. But I've yet to think up on the birthday of Ling Zi, I might want to fit that in the story later since something important to the story will happen on her 18th birthday, so I need to see how the events of the story play out. I was at first thinking about her being a Gemini, but if the events play out to her birthday, she might have to be either an Aquarius or a Pisces instead.

Anyway, all my characters are all fictional and derived from my own hyperimagination, any resemblences to any peoples living or death are purely coincidental. Another thing to note, the idea, I last checked my manuscripts dates back to August 2000, wow, 6-7 years ago. So copyright should refer back to that date.