A Private Journal Exposed for Everyone

This is used fairly often, but would be done differently here. This is based on my own experiences as well as my paranoia.

A teenage high school boy, who is well-liked but naive, insecure and unable to speak up for himself, is inspired by his antisocial "friend" to create a "logbook", convincing him that it's manlier than a diary, but he has his own intentions in mind. The sociopath, an expert hacker, finds a way to transmit anything the boy enters on a specific password program to his own computer, and sends it to all the full names involved in each entry. Eventually, he makes it to where they are sent automatically.

At first, the boy's peers just get a mild laugh out of this, still liking him but not reveling what's being done. However, as he starts to dwelve more into his emotions about other people, their feelings for him change. His friends, who he sees as Jerk with a Heart of Gold, are more like Jerk with a Heart of Jerk, and they show it when they, using his own emotions, get him to do their bidding; the girl he liked at first is attracted to his deepness, but as he reveals a more creepy tone of love for her (though is too naive to really know), she shuns him; if anyone tries to tell the poor boy that his logbook is being exposed, they get threatened and beat to silence by their peers.

Eventually, without his "friends" still by his side, he falls into a deep depression. His only friends left are his Dogged Nice Girl, an autistic friend (or I may change it to asperger's), and his family, who are even disappointed. He finds out that his diary was posted by the very "friend" who told him to make it, and goes into somewhat of an Angst Coma.

However, even with a bit of insanity, he recovers; while in his depression, he told the sociopath he doesn't care if the logbook is sold, but as it is not in writing, he sues. He becomes a millionaire with a bestseller, figuring he'd make some money from his torment, and shuns everyone except for the two friends still at his side. He starts a relationship with the girl who has been pining for him the entire book, and while he is is mentally and emotionally scarred and terribly altered in personality from this situation, he survives it and moves on. His last entry would be summed up in, "SUCK IT!!!!!"

So, should this be presented in the form of his entries only, or other characters' views too? I'm particularly fond of writing the sociopath's...

edited 16th Jan '11 11:06:18 AM by LightningKnight

I absolutely love the idea, but I don't know which narrative to write it with.

I'd do some with the journal. However, I don't know when the audience should know that his journal is out for everyone to see. I'll either reveal it near the beginning, or let the audience guess for a while. The antisocial "friend", who may or may not be a Complete Monster, will definitely have a part in his POV, but I don't know at what point. Also, I don't know how to present some others.

You could write everything in the form of the hacker guy's posts, like

01-17-11
(hehe these diaries just keep getting better and better, looks like bluh bluh bluh bluh- hackerdude)
—-
Dear diary,...

And in the part of each post before the diary have the guy talking about what's happening to his "friend" at school and stuff. Though it would be putting at least as much focus on the hacker as on the protagonist, and it would be a challenge to show what was happening when he wasn't writing the diary.

edited 17th Jan '11 9:43:45 AM by RLabs

But I don't want to reveal that the "logbook" is out too early. However, I want to show that his friends are jerks. Maybe;

"January 8, 2011,

Zach was making fun of me today, but he doesn't mean it, really..."

Think Flowers For Algernon, with a smarter but only narrowly less naive protagonist.

Later on, the "hacker" will start writing. Maybe A message will be shown when he sends it, or he reveals his intentions:

"The experiment is going well; as expected, peer pressure is keeping the few people who actually still like this guy from telling him. He's confiding in me some; something that used to just amuse or annoy me, depending on my mood, but now it's great insight. Of course, he saves our online chats in his little logbook; so I can basically manipulate everything this guy says. Now, some have asked me, though they wouldn't DARE spoil my fun, 'Why are you doing this? He's never done anything to you.' Well, why not? If the sap can confide in me, he shouldn't mind everything being revealed. I throw him a bone every now again; he's gotten the girl with everything I've told him to say. However, this relationship will soon be destroyed!

His life is my story; I am the writer. And I do not intend on a happy ending. 'Why?' I have nothing else to do; besides, this slow-witted boy will never figure out how it happened. Never."

Wow... that was fun! :D I just gave him a God Complex. Of course, I plan on him being brought down by this "slow-witted" boy.

As for other characters; I already have in mind one childlike friend (still debating on giving him an actual psychological syndrome/disorder) who doesn't care what the protagonistt writes about him, a girl who has feelings for him but to her dismay discovers that he is oblivious, some guys who he thinks are his friends but who basically use him after they have the journal, and a girl that he likes and is manipulated into writing unintentionally creepy things about. I don't know how to portray the guy's family; should they be a regular family with some issues, or borderline abusive?

This is a very, very clever idea. I like!

I would lean toward the family being regular with some issues, if only because outright dysfunction is so commonplace in fiction (and because I think Anna Karenina begins with an outright lie).

Yeah, I say write it in the point of view of the Hacker "friend", and when you need a look into the eyes of the boy's family and friends, post the journal entries. You could add a comedic side to it, by having the Hacker have hilarious footnotes at the bottom of the journal entries.

Comedic footnotes are a good idea, but I envision the protagonist as more of The Woobie than a Butt-Monkey; having those may establish him as more of the latter.

However, having Deadpan Snarker jokes at the bottom of each would help establish the antisocial guy as Evilly Affable.

Okay, I'm thinking of some character names. How about beginning it like this:

December 7th, 2010 (Random earlier date);

My name is Chase Adams. I'm writing in this journal, or, "logbook", because my friend Darren... well. I'll show you the chat:

Chase: Hey, Darren! Darren: Chassee... Haven't seen you, In a while. Chase: Dude, this girl I liked... we actually had a good, long conversation today! Yes! Darren: Chase, you know what you need? A logbook. Chase: Ooh, another Star Trek reference! Darren: Trust me; it's not like a diary, but you can get all your feelings and stuff out. Chase: Thanks! But... my family may open it. Darren: Oh, but you can use a password. If you want it to keep from being hacked, I'll give you a special code to go with it. Chase: I could look back at stuff I forget... and stuff! Darren: Exactly. Chase: Darren, again thanks! (Chase is offline) Darren: >:) No, thank YOU. (Your message can not be sent because Chase is offline) Darren: SHUTTUP! >:( (Okay)

Um, yeah.