In fact, I'll just post the full 1st chapter of my story here. The story isn't nearly finished, but I find it kind of cool. It's a Total Drama Island Fanfiction story. If you have never seen Total Drama Island, don't worry, my story introduces the contestants.
Here's chapter one.
~~~~
It was an unusually hot spring day in Northern Ontario when Chris McLean glanced down at his watch with anxiety as his taxi driver wove in and out through the mid-morning traffic.
“Listen, sir, I have to be at the Fresh Inc. headquarters at 11 o’clock.” Chris grunted.
“Yes, yes, very good, we’re going!” The taxi driver replied in a slight accent.
Chris glanced out the taxi window in agony. Whenever he thought about his past experiences in the TV and film industry, his heart broke all over again. He could remember it like it was yesterday, the day that he decided to seriously procure his dream to become an actor that is.
A 14 year old Chris had barely just graduated from the 8th grade when he received a letter in the mail from a yet to be determined source.
“Dear Christian McLean, we are pleased to inform you that we have received your application to the Eastern Ontario School for Performing Arts.”
Chris felt his heart jump. Was this an acceptance letter? Maybe he would reach the fame that he had always aspired to.
“However, your application has been declined. We wish you luck in reaching your dreams to become an actor.”
Chris suddenly felt like crying. Although he didn’t have his heart completely set on going to the fancy performing arts school, there was something in him that hoped, and prayed that he would get in. By not getting into the school, he had now taken 2 steps back. He was risking failure, just like his father had before him. Chris refused to follow in his father’s footsteps.
“What kind of man,” Chris thought, “Leaves his own family because his dreams didn’t work out?”
Chris ripped the letter into shreds, and threw it into the garbage.
“Failure is not an option.” Chris imitated Eugene Kranz in his bedroom mirror.
Chris would try to forget this day, but would fail as many times as he tried.
Now Chris tried to push the taunting thoughts out of his already frazzled head. He had nothing to show for all the hours he had put into his dream. All the school seminars, acting classes, interning jobs had led to nothing but two television flops. “Keep it Plain with Chris McLean” was canceled after 2 episodes on a cable channel, and his “Many Adventure of Mr. Whiskers”, was on the “FieldMaster’s Top 100 Television Flops Guide”. So far, Chris’s dream wasn’t going as planned.
“We are here.” The taxi driver announced. Chris paid the gentleman, and went on his way into the large industrial building that was Fresh Inc.
“Excuse me mam’, would you be so kind as to direct me to Mr. Spellman’s office?” Chris swooned. The middle aged, gum chewing secretary looked up at Chris and grinned a wide toothed smile.
“Sure sweetie. Take the elevator right over there,” She motioned to the left, “and go to the right. You’ll see his name on the door.”
Chris smiled, and did as he was instructed, reaching Mr. Spellman’s office only after he dodged a television gopher, a producer’s assistant, who was running down the hall. Chris thought for a moment.
Screaming Gophers, Chris mused, that would be a great name for a football team.
Chris took a deep breath and knocked on the ornate oak door.
“Come in.” Boomed a voice from inside.
Chris opened the door, and slowly walked through the long room that served as the “Boss’s” office.
“Please Mr. McLean, take a seat.” The older, bald man snapped.
“He-hello Mr. Spellman sir, I was looking to ask you for, well, I was wondering if you maybe had a job opening, or an idea for a show. I know it’s a lot to ask, but I know I can do it. I just need someone to give me a chance.” Chris pleaded.
The Boss rubbed his chin in thought. The silence tortured Chris. His legs felt like they were on fire. He wanted to run, to hide, to find a new dream, a new hobby, but something held him in his chair.
“Christian, I believe you really have talent. You’re dedicated, and a real schemer. That’s important in this business. I think what people do wrong is give you a plan. You would work better given free rein over a show. So, I am prepared to offer you something. I will give you a spot. A half hour spot to start with, from 2 to 2:30 on Wednesdays. It’s not primetime, but I know quite a few people who would kill to get a place on that time spot. I only have one requirement. I want drama. Complete and total drama! That is what gets viewers. Now go talk to O’Halloran.” The Boss replied
“O’Halloran sir?” Chris asked.
“Yes, Ms. Mildred O’Halloran. However if I were you, I would call her Blaineley. It’ll get you on her good side.”
“Okay sir. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this!” Chris beamed.
“It’s no problem Christian, now get outta here and talk to Mildred about the show. Leave me to my work.”
Chris stumble over his chair and rushed out of the room. He bumped into a young woman, blond hair pulled into a bun, eyeglasses falling off her nose.
“Oops I’m sorry miss. Could you tell me where Ms. Blaineley O’Halloran is?”
The young woman cocked her head to the side and replied with a soft smile, “I’m Blaineley. You must be Christian.”
“Please, call me Chris, and how did you know who I am?”
“The Boss notified me via text message. Things travel fast in this business.” Blaineley replied.
“So I’ve heard. What exactly are we supposed to plan out today?” Chris asked as they made their way to Blaineley’s own office.
The two took a seat at a table that held a few notepads and pens.
“Well for the moment, we will plan out the name of the show, the major plotline. We’ll cover mostly the basics. We leave budget, props, and other things to the lower level office workers and interns. “
“Sounds good to me.” Chris smiled, although the thought of his interning days made him frown internally.
“Now Chris, I’m going to give you some advice. You see, The Boss likes reality TV, and truthfully, so do viewers.” Blaineley reasoned.
“Yes, Mr. Spellman told me that he wanted complete and total drama.”
“Okay, so we know it has to be dramatic, hopefully in reality TV format.” Blaineley said, as she jotted these notes on a small yellow notepad.
“Well, most shows aim towards adults. Kids watch them because they want to be like adults. They also like seeing other kids on TV, but that can get boring after a while for them. So what if we combined the two?”
“I’m not sure having little kids on a reality TV show would be so great, I mean, the liability, and there’s no drama to someone stealing your crayons!” Blaineley testified.
“Then we use teens! I mean come one, it’ll get the kids to watch it, because they all want to be teens, it’ll get teen viewers, because they like to watch other teens go nuts, and it’ll get the adult view too. They’ll watch it just for laughs!” Chris retorted.
“That’s a great idea Chris; we’re off to a great start! So, we have teens, reality TV format, but we need a name. Something catchy, something that’ll tell them exactly what the show is.” Blaineley reasoned.
“Well how about ‘Complete Drama’? Short, catchy, and The Boss will like it too.”
“That’s a good start. Now where will this show take place? Any locations?” Blaineley questioned.
“It has to be somewhere remote, somewhere where they feel secluded and away from the outside world. It’ll make them feel like no cameras are watching, like an Island, or a resort. It’ll be perfect.” Chris schemed.
Blaineley interrupted, “It’s ‘The Complete Drama Island’!”
Then Chris got a thought, “Complete sounds too adult. No teen says complete. It’s ‘The Total Drama Island’. And we need to drop the ‘The’. It makes is cleaner. Total Drama Island, it’s catchy, and tells you exactly what the show is.”
“That sounds good to me. Now I must ask you to leave Christian, as I have to flesh out more details, and call some people. I’ll take care of The Boss and the interns too. You go do whatever it is Chris’s do. We need to start this show ASAP if we want to air it when the Summer Programming Block comes out.”
“Okay Ms. O’Halloran, I will talk to you soon I hope?” Chris said, this time with utmost sincerity.
“Please Chris, call me Mildred.”
~~~~
I hope you guys enjoyed it. I think I posted an excerpt from this earlier, but this is the full version of chapter one.
Let me know if you want me to post more, and sorry the post was so long.