Characters

“My Hero!”

Since deciding last week to switch pulp concepts, I’ve been struggling to come up with replacements for the main character, his friends and associates, his archnemesis…hell, even the plot. That last part was particularly tricky, since my one big advantage heading into NaNoWriMo this year was that I had a clear vision for an entire story arc. Changing the main character–not to mention the style of the narrative–forced me me bag that concept entirely.

Or so I thought.

Today, I came up with a character that would allow me to retain a great deal of the plot and setting, despite the major changes to characters and characterization. My concept, you ask? Well, it’s a pretty simple. It needs to be honed a bit, obviously, since it’s a little cheesy/gimmicky as it exists now, but I think it’s got potential.

My protagonist is by all appearances a slightly daffy fellow, working as a research professor at a somewhat mediocre private college in Hoboken, New Jersey. He has a decent reputation as an academic, however, due to his research often contributing to major studies and journal articles for colleagues at larger, better respected universities; he is often listed as a secondary or tertiary author on important works by important men. The catch, though, is that he isn’t actually an academic at all. He’s more of a private dick, who works as a bit of a “cleaner” for these august institutions and men, protecting them from scandal, academic sabotage, and the like. His payment often includes authorship credits on upcoming works by the individuals employing him. Because it’s obviously in the best interest of both the universities and researchers in question, only a select few academic elites are even aware that this “mystery professor” doesn’t collaborate on these projects…at least not in the respect most folks assume he does.

When one of the more eminent of these recent “collaborators” disappears, along with an important document he is studying (and virtually all his research notes), the protagonist is brought in to investigate. The story revolves around this investigation. Got it?

Like I said, I think this is a decent–though obviously rough–concept, which shows some promise once I buff it a bit.

Still haven’t named the son of a bitch, though.