Updated through Chapter 19, Family Feud Book II
I have started to keep notes of important people, places, things, and Easter eggs in my Family Feud stories. This is helpful to me, so that I do not have to hunt for these things and I may not forget them while I am writing.
I thought it may be
fun and appreciated if I shared my notes and insights with you. This
could contain spoilers, especially if you have not read the
stories yet.
Family Feud to me is a really fun story to write.
Stories like this usually have “Bad Guys”, but I tried
really hard to give motivations to the characters that not only help
the reader see that things aren’t always black and white, good
and bad, but that over the course of the story, people will
change.
I think for me part of the joy of writing about them
is to simply create the characters, create the situation and then
play out what happens, without too much of an outline. Things just
seem to organically go from there. At times, I’ve had to
rewrite when I wasn’t satisfied with where things had gone, but
in general this method has served my purposes in writing the
characters. They seem to naturally evolve.
I don’t like
stories that are over just as soon as I get to know the characters. I
enjoy the concept of a serial of stories about these people. I think
that helps me connect to them, gives me an emotional response when
they face a challenge, overcome an obstacle, get beaten up, beaten
down and ultimately triumph (or fail) by what is thrown at them in
the course of the story.
SECTIONS:
1. MAIN
CHARACTERS
2. MINOR CHARACTERS
3. MISCELLANEOUS
4. EASTER
EGGS
MAIN CHARACTERS
Bill
the husband a former high school athlete in his early 40s. He hasn’t
been employed for a while, let himself go a little, and had a strong
porn/internet addiction. He drives a beat up 2003 Black Ford Ranger
Pickup.
Author’s Note
: I wanted Bill to be
the typical “every guy”. A flawed but relatable kind of
guy. His glory days behind him, he starts off the story very
irresponsible and blaming everything else but himself for his
problems. I hope it becomes obvious that he is changing in often
subtle but observable ways as the story progresses.
Wendy
his wife blossomed after she attended college, built a dynamic career
as an executive, has an interest in Pilates and aerobics, chicken
soup for the soul books. She considers herself the glue that holds
the family together. She drove a sporty convertible Dodge Camry. It
is wrecked at the end of FF1.
Author’s Note
:
I would say of all the characters, I identify with Wendy the most.
You will find that even though I narrated the story from a neutral
observer’s viewpoint (Except in some rare cases where I
intentionally shift to someone else’s view), that I am often
really seeing through Wendy’s eyes. If I had it to do over, I
might have written the story entirely from her viewpoint, but then I
couldn’t have explored the motivations of other people.
Chris
the eldest son, is a slacker’s slacker. Lazy, out of shape,
geeky, loves to sleep in, and half-asses just about everything he
can, shirking responsibility whenever it is offered him. His ‘five
year’ plan in high school is to stretch it out to the 6th
year.
Chris had a goldfish named “Milton” that
he seldom took care of.
Author’s Note
:
When I created Chris, my inspiration was Chris from the show “Family
Guy” and when I hear his dialogue in my head, that is the voice
I hear. Chris comes across as sometimes reckless, short-attention
span, and not very bright. However, I think everyone knows someone
like Chris or IS like Chris themselves in that if he finds something
that interests him, he will apply himself to it. He is often the
only one laughing at his jokes, but that doesn’t stop him from
laughing.
Jamie
is more like her mother, a high school honor student, captain on the
cheerleading team, strawberry blonde long hair, with a very positive
although perhaps naïve outlook on life.
Jamie's High
School Schedule:
1st Period: Home Room with Mr.
Love
2nd Period Math, female teacher unamed.
-Checkpoint with Chris.
3rd Period English with Mr
Young
Lunch
4th Period Health and Social
Studies
5th Period Physical Education Studies, Coach
Andretti
6th Period Art
Author’s
Note
: Jamie represents a lot of different things to me,
youthful exuberance, positive attitude, someone who is an
over-achiever. She is someone who has been brought up to believe in
following the rules/doing what is right who is starting to learn more
about reality and how some times you have to break a few rules. One
of my inspirations for her was Taylor Swift, saddled with a kind of
goody-two-shoes persona, she is everything everyone wants her to be.
MINOR
CHARACTERS
I would consider a minor character to have at
least a speaking part, and can possibly occur in more than one
chapter. There are some people so trivial as to be pointless. I will
group some as a collection to make the list easier to manage.
Cherry
Lawn Cheerleaders: The cheerleaders represent some minor
characters that are very tall, attractive girls from the Cherry Lawn
high school. Their team is the Trojans and their colors are red and
white. The most important character from this group is Cathy Griffin,
who is mentioned in the section for her family.
There is also
a “Janet” who is a co-captain (with Jamie) of the cheer
squad we meet in ch. 6 of FF1
In Chapter 5 of FF1, we learn
that Bill apparently really enjoyed photographing “Veronica”,
one of Jamie’s bests when he thought she was modeling for him
(although it was because she was one of Cathy Griffin’s
puppets). We meet her in ch. 1, when she is mocking Chris. She has a
car.. She has known Veronica since 3rd grade.
In
FF2, we hear of “Latisha” an attractive black girl, who
is also the Principal’s daughter, although she is de-enrolled
following her father’s sudden resignation from the school. She
is only briefly mentioned.
The Rival high school is called the
Union County Rams.
Cherry Lawn Football Players: In
Ch.14 of FF3 we meet three of the star players of the Trojans; Dave
Stravosky, Noah and Thad who take a picture with Jamie in the
medieval stocks.
Duncan: A
precocious boy who likes to grab tits, or butts when he can get away
with it. Acts innocent. He was introduced in FF3 at the Spongeboob
event, and then later at the pillory (sticking Ice Cream in Jamie’s
face).
Cherry Lawn Teachers:
Coach
Andretti is a the male PE teacher in Jamie's Gym class.
Mr
Dragovich was the lunch monitor. He caught Jamie red-handed
masturbating with a banana in the boy's bathroom putting on a show.
The issue was quietly dropped. He is a tall brick of a man, with a
stern demeanor.
Mr, Love is Jamie's homeroom teacher. He is a
middle aged educator with a beard and glasses.
Mr,
Young is a handsome math teacher, who bears a resemblance to Jon Hamm
and Mr Schuster from Glee.
Chris's Nerdy
Friends:
Some like Gerald
Jenkins have their own entry with their family. There are others that
are notable.
Tsoong
:
This is one of Chris’s
nerdy Asian friends from school, he gets to date Jamie one night as
part of the new arrangement she has with her family.
Sheldon
Cooper: A friend of Chris introduced in Ch. 16 of FF3, very nerdy.
Griffins: Cathy, Jarrod, Nick and Heath: Cathy Griffin
is a cheerleader who could be something of a sadistic mastermind. She
could also just be a confused teenager who uses her sexuality like a
credit card to get what she wants, and when she can’t charge it
to that, she uses manipulation, blackmail and her brothers to help
her get her way. Her brothers appear in FF1, and the reader is left
with the impression that there is an entire sub-story to the
cat-and-mouse game they play with one another for control.
Author’s
Note
: Intentionally chose the name “Cathy Griffin”,
because I like the idea of when someone finds out your name is
similar to a famous celebrity they assume you must like that
celebrity. “Oh, like Kathy Griffin the comedienne?” and
then she can roll her eyes and be “no, not like her at all!”.
I especially thought it would be funny to give her red hair
and make her look a little like the comedienne, to further the joke.
In the movie Office Space, one character’s name was “Michael
Bolton” and even though he was clearly named long before the
singer ever performed, people would ask if he liked Michael Bolton’s
music. It only served to irritate him, and he had to either politely
say he did or give them the truth. It was cute, so that is why I
picked that name when creating this character.
Hard Times Cast:
Ellen, Savannah, Conner, Lloyd, Aunt Crystal: Ellen is the main
character in another story called “Hard Times”. She once
lived in the same neighborhood as the Taylors, but has moved a good
distance away to the “Buckman” a trailer park in a much
more rural area. The closest “Town” to them is the poor
side of Town where the Taylor’s live.
Author’s
Note
: Life is full of silly coincidences. I think it is fun
to have characters bump into each other. It is also fun to take a
minor character from one story and then write this really epic saga
concerning their own life.
Fair Boys: There are a few
boy’s at the fair who are mentioned in ch.8-9 of FF3, Clint,
Chuck and Millhouse are about Gerald’s age. They are running
with Clint’s older brother “Bobby Glenn” who knows
Jamie from High School.
Author’s note:
I
kind of based the boy’s on three characters from the movie
“Stand By Me”. Obviously, Millhouse was nicknamed after
the cartoon character on the Simpson’s because he is geeky an
fragile like his namesake. Bobby Glenn is probably influenced in
equal parts by sarcastic jackasses I knew growing up, and the bully
“Nelson” also from the Simpsons.
Fair Guy:
(Ted) One of the more notable characters who kisses Wendy in
ch.8-9 of FF3 is not named. He is very skeptical of what they are
doing, and assumes it may be some sort of scam. He also thinks Wendy
may be his friend Bill’s wife (and he is right), but he assumes
there is absolutely no way his friends wife would be basically naked
selling kisses at the county fair, so he buys one of her kisses.
In
Ch. 14 of FF3 he runs into them again and spanks the girls hard in
the renne faire pillory.
Hector: He also briefly
appears in Hard Times, he is a heavy set tattoo artist who works at
“Chicos” on the poor side of town.
Jenkins: Brad Sr,
Brad Jr, Janet, Gerald, Gloria: This is a family that lives in
the same neighborhood as the Taylors. We first meet Gerald in FF2 (he
has a small part in FF1, but is never ‘seen’ by the
reader). He is a much younger but very bright geeky friend to Chris.
Brad Sr and Janet are typical yuppie suburbanites, upwardly
mobile, judgmental, not particularly proud of Gerald, extremely proud
of their other two kids.
Brad Jr is based loosely on Paul
Rudd, Brad Cooper, John Krasinski and all those young leading men
romantic heartthrobs. He attends Dartmouth and seems to have an
attraction to Jamie, that he feels bad about, since he believes his
brother is apparently dating her. Brad jr doesn’t prefer it,
but he is sometimes known as “Bradley” when his father is
present.
Gloria is mentioned briefly in FF3, she is apparently
a very attractive girl who is NOT on the cheerleading team.
Madam Chang and the Twins, Short Round: The work at “Madam Chang's Discount Novelty Emporium” in the county fair, and are introduced around Chapter 6 of FF3. In the beginning, the twins are known as Yuki and Kiko, but we later learn that is an alias and they are Robert and Neil. The reader never really knows where these people come from, as they seem to speak a smattering of Chinese, but some of the references they make are Korean, Japanese are just completely made up.
Medieval Steve: In Ch. 14 of FF3, he is introduced running a medieval side-show/tomato throwing booth. He is a businessman trying to make a profit, selling over-ripe produce to gullible fair-goers in need of some old fashioned fun. The kind that the puritans and medieval villagers probably took for granted when someone was locked in the stocks for real.
Author’s Note:
I’ve actually seen booths like these, and people happily walk
up and pay to have their pictures taken inside them. I’ve seen
people smush their ice-cream on someone’s nose, or tease each
other. The pillory isn’t locked, but sometimes it’s heavy
enough that you can’t get out without someone’s help.
I’ve also seen ‘escape artist’ shows where the guy
escapes from a straight jacket. Medieval Steve is sort of my hybrid
of all these showmen. I wanted someone who dressed the part, but by
looking at his face, he just didn’t look like he came from that
time period.
Mikey: A tattoo artist who works at the
county fair, he is introduced early in FF3. He is a funny and affable
guy. Quick to laugh, his personal motto is “I’ll do
anything but Nazi stuff”.
Pooper Snoopers: There
are some kids who come to the fence when the girls sunbathe in FF2,
who do not identify themselves. They do not want to climb over the
fence, just peep at the girls. The girls have nicknamed them the
“Pooper Snoopers”
Principal Banks: We never
learn the first Principal of CherryLawn’s name. He retires in
FF2, but he is described as a black man with a deep voice in his late
fifties immediately reminded Bill of “Phillip Banks” the
Dad on Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
Old Man Arcade: Early
in FF3, I introduce an elderly veteran who runs an arcade of old
games that are relics like he is. He has a novelty electric chair the
girls use. He is never named.
Rahjid: He is a motel
owner on the bad-side of town. He has a brother-in-law who is far
more successful than him, and a wife who has no speaking part in the
story. The family owes him a great deal of money to get Bill’s
stuff at the motel out of “Hock” when he was locked out
for non-payment.
Reggie and Reggie’s Dad: Reggie
is a black high school student who lives on the poor side of town and
works at a Wendy’s restaurant. We meet him in FF2, and in FF3
we meet him and his Dad who confront the family at a goldfish booth.
Reggie’s dad believes he is defending the girls.
Rosco:
Poor Rosco, the Taylor family’s lonely dog. He is almost always
chained out in the Taylor’s backyard.
Steve (AKA Work
Steve): a young executive, who works with Wendy. He was placed
in charge of Wendy (by Bill) to supervise her at the office. He has
been picking her up and dropping her off at work (since Wendy’s
car was wrecked in FF1). He sends regular status reports to Bill,
believing Wendy to be a ‘nymphomaniac’ who is learning
aversion therapy. He may actually not care why Wendy is willing to
let him boss her around, give her his work, use her office and
piggyback on her career, since he is regularly fucking her.
Taylor
Family (Distant relatives): Early in FF2, the girl’s must make
“Affirmation movies” that are going to be used if they
don’t follow through on the agreement. They are going to be
sent to ‘distant relatives’. This is where we learn that
Wendy has family out in Indiana who would probably very much
disapprove of how Wendy is living. We learn that Wendy was raised on
a farm when she was much younger.
“Bill’s Mom”
is mentioned in FF1, leading the reader to conclude his dad probably
isn’t in the picture with her any more. She apparently lives
close enough that he could go to her house by truck, but further away
than his own house from Rahjid’s motel.
Author’s Note: The real scoop is Bill’s mom babied him, her perception is Wendy has ‘taken him away from her’, and that he may have been a star athlete had he not started working early to support raising a family. Bill did work for his dad’s business, but we are never told anything about his father. Could there be some reason Bill feels he has has insecurities about his manhood that are related to him? Probably.
Uncle Creepy:
This is one of my favorite characters; he is very endearing to
me. Spooky and quiet, he seems to have glommed on to the family like
a puppy in FF3. He claims to be a security guard, although if he is,
no one could tell. He always seems to be lurking around quietly, and
he is so innocuous you often don’t notice he is there (or that
he has gone). He has not given his name in the story, so he is only
known as “Uncle Creepy”.
Vicky: “Icky
with a V”, we have yet to meet Vicky, only hear about her. She
is apparently a peer and rival to Wendy at her place of work. She
would delight in Wendy’s downfall and destruction.
Author’s
Note
: I wrote Vicky based on the concept that whenever a
woman works in an office, she often finds herself with a bitter
rival, who she must work closely with. “Oh she is trying to
destroy me!!”. This is often a little dramatic
hyperbole.
Waxerman, Victoria: Neighborhood gossip and
busybody where the Taylor’s live. She is often seen walking her
dog “Mr Snips”. She has disapproved of Wendy for many
years, but most likely this is due to a certain amount of jealousy
that Wendy seemed to have a great career and an active lifestyle.
Victoria was raised in the mountains but speaks like a walking
thesaurus.
She thinks the world of Bill Taylor, who she
considers to be a simple man trying to do what is right for his
family. She thinks Chris is a simpleton, but she seems to like him.
She thinks Jamie is salvageable but has fallen under her mother’s
“Jezebel” influence.
The family discovered that
it was kind of amusing to push her buttons, tell her things to see
how she reacts. She generally reacts with disgust, but she continues
to stay seated, demanding to hear more, leading one to believe she
secretly enjoys hearing all the sordid details. She introduced the
family to what has become known as the “patented Waxerman
Tabasco Colonic”.
Author’s Note
: I
based this character in part on a few influences. I describe her as
half “Granny” and half “Mrs. Jane” from the
Beverly hillbillies. She has equal parts “Mountain justice/old
fashioned/fundamentalist” and the snooty intellectualism of
Mrs. Jane. I would also say she makes me think about “Tammy
Faye Bakker”.
MISCELLANEOUS
This
is a section for me to stick some notes about some of the rules and
things that I think may be worth noting, that are not people.
The
Taylor Women’s Bill of Rights (AKA Declaration of
Independence) is introduced in ch. 1 of FF1. It contains nine
articles that outline in broad terms the rules of the house. It never
specifies anything kinky or sexual in nature. The intention was to
use this to illustrate how structured and detailed Wendy could be,
how organized in her thinking.
I find that sometimes people
really enjoy it when I put specific rules or bullet point things in
my stories to make them stand out.
“Bill’s
Bill” In ch.9 of FF2, we read about “Bill’s
Bill,” it is Bill’s attempt at being organized for his
wife’s benefit. He hasn’t had a lot of time when he puts
it together to change his nature as more of a ‘play it by ear’
kind of guy. He does a good job of trying to cover all his bases and
outline the rules for the girls, but by contrast to the Taylor
Women’s Bill of Rights, his work is a sloppy, disorganized
mess, with coffee rings and cross-outs on the papers he was working
on.
It was my intention that it not be iron-clad and complete.
Their journey is about realizing some of the loopholes and open for
interpretation clauses. The family has had a discussion about
amending the bill, to clarify some things that they needed to
do.
The “Red Flag” is a clause where the family
has a ‘safety valve’, it works kind of like a ‘safe
word’ but is geared more towards discussion and resolving a
conflict of rules.
One of the other aspects of Bill’s
Bill is the three tiered punishment system.
1. Infraction: There
are 10 kinds of infraction punishments that can be administered, they
are light punishments intended for day to day corrections. They have
almost no oversight, and can be doled out at will. The best analogy I
have for these, is they are like the spurs, riding crop and reins on
a horse, intended not to be abused, but for use to get things done.
2. Correction: There
are cards in a fishbowl that represent much more difficult
punishments (although a tiny few are actually treats, so that the
girls can hold out hope). The correction is for more serious rule
breaking and follows a more formal process. At this point in the
story, the girls have been such good girls, they haven’t had
many corrections.
3. Judgment: This is the highest level
punishment. It is for the biggest issues there can be, sort of Bill’s
idea of a “Supreme Court” except only he gets to decide.
(Which is interesting, because he told Chris they were equal in all
things). So far, this has not come up in the story.
POSITIONS:
There are a few
regular positions that come up every now and then.
Attention:
This is a type of parade rest that was used in FF1, and is based on
something Wendy had posed for in college. It involves standing
straight up, eyes straight ahead, legs apart, hands behind you,
resting on your ass cheeks.
The rest were introduced in FF2
or later:
Inspection position one/ “First Position”: Stand up with legs shoulders width apart, chest out, head straight. Hands placed on ass cheeks pulling them both apart, and knees slightly bent.
Inspection position two/”second position”: Bent at the waist, knees more bent, and holding ass apart,
Squat: Spread knees apart squatting, cup her tits with her hands, and look straight ahead. Ass should be parallel to the ground.
Curtsy: This is a
formal curtsy, involving dropping the head (submissively), bending at
the knee, and pulling one’s skirt out (or imaginary skirt if
naked).
CATCH PHRASES
Just a few of the more
commonly used ‘catch phrases’, that people often find
themselves using.
"pulled a Jamie!" – If you really like something, fudge ice cream, then Chris intends to say “Pulled a Jamie”, he is looking forward to running into someone who really likes something so he can use the expression. This a reference to Jamie's uncontrollable mega-orgasm in FF3 due to over-stimulation on many levels. The scene was the equivalent to the diner in when Harry Met Sally, except picture Meg rolling around on the floor mewling and writhing for real for about 10 minutes.
“bros before
ho's” The Taylor men like to fist bump and say this. The girls
have adopted a cute “ho’s after bro’s” fist
bump in ironic solidarity with one another.
“Taylor men
come first” intended as a double entendre, for cumming first in
sex, this is one of the new household mantras from ff2
“boys rule, girls drool” this is based on a t-shirt that Jamie used to wear (which had the opposite sentiment) as a little girl. Apparently, it bothered Chris enough to remember it, and the guy’s adopted it as their official house motto in FF2.
“You think your shit don't stink” – A common accusation of the girls, so much so it deserves mention. It is speaking to the fact that the girls really aren’t as critical of themselves as they are the men.
“Give it the
old college try” – A saying that Bill thinks is intended
as an insult towards him, since he did not go to college. In FF3 we
learn it’s real meaning has been lost over time, and that Wendy
originally told herself that when struggling to get through college,
overcome difficult odds and be a good wife. Say something long enough
and it’s original context gets forgotten.
EASTER
EGGS
Easter eggs are a way of hiding little inside
jokes, homages, “thank yous”, and inspirations in a
story. They are not supposed to be ‘obvious’, hence the
reason you would have to hunt for them. I may have actually buried
some other Easter eggs and simply forgot I did that. You will also
find quotes (and famous misquotes), jokes and pop culture references
throughout the story. I am not sure if those would really qualify as
“Easter Eggs”. I did try to cuss in several different
languages (German, Chinese). I’ll keep at that.
I have
enjoyed slipping in actual information into the story, the history of
enemas for instance. Some things.
Here is a list of some of
the Easter Eggs that I can remember including by story:
Family
Feud One:
The Griffin brothers are named for the
brothers in "Big Valley"; Jarrod, Nick and Heath. I am not
a fan of the show or anything. It just seemed humorous to me.
Family
Feud Two:
In Chico’s tattoo parlor, the kids in the waiting room are from another story I wrote called “Hard Times”.
Family Feud
Three:
At Mikey’s tattoo gazebo, the woman who
is finishing her tattoo is from another story I wrote called “Hard
Times”, she is “Aunt Crystal”. She is also
apparently an ex-girlfriend of Mikey.
The Chang Twins, Robert
and Neil are a play on words, for “Bob and Kneel”.
Some
of the people who talk to (or avoid) the girls when they are dancing
in front of Chang’s are based on people who have written to me
about the story. At least, their alter-egos are what I think they may
be like.
In Ch. 7 of FF3, I refer to something that happened
verbatim in Ch. 7 of FF2.
In Ch. 12 I mention
a fight breaks out between two girls. I plan to have this to appear
in a future story from the perspective of the girls fighting.
In
Ch. 14 I quote a lot of Shakespeare in context of the story. The
title is actually a famous misquote of Shakespeare. I find that
ironic, but considering it is a kind of mini-Renne Faire, and Renne
Faire is more about fun than historical accuracy, the misquote is
apropos. It also sums up the chapter nicely.
When thinking of a
rival high school for Cherry Lawn, I picked the name Union County
Rams because;
Union County High is an actual high school where the
students tried to film porn between classes. Who knows if their
reasons were an aspiring blackmailer like Cathy Griffin, or just
young, dumb and full of cum girls were willing to be filmed and
people can buy video cameras on the cheap. I named their mascot the
“Rams”, since the Cherrylawn Trojans are also a brand of
condom.
In both Wendy and Jamie's journals I reference some of
the same events from two different perspectives. I also have them
express the exact same sentiments about each other helping “Be
their rock”. I assume they talked about this at some point, and
came away with the shared opinion.
I also have Wendy describe
her dream in detail, while I have Jamie talk about having a dream and
saying only a truly wicked bitch would write down the sordid details
of a dirty dream. It is funny to me, since neither are privy to each
other's journals (or know about each other's dreams).