Cliche Manifest

Chapter 2: The Manifest of No's

Ouch: I'm going to miss the third and final presidential debate because of my work schedule! I already missed the previous debates, and I'm forced to read what little still has some reliability. However, it's around this point in a campaign that deepfakes get released seemingly endlessly by nearly all field actors in electoral campaigns, Anna thinks, upon getting out of bed, while her mood just isn't that great. At the breakfast table that Thursday...

"I tried what I could to keep up with the campaign trail..." Anna laments with Election Day fast approaching. "But I missed all other presidential debates because of my job"

"But normally, the final presidential debate marks the point where no new promises can be made" Yulia attempts to comfort her.

"I know, there's just so many items to vote for, the White House, ballot measures, both chambers of Congress..."

"At least you're trying to get informed. I'll show you one segment of the last one if you want"

The two then watch an online clip of the healthcare and public health segment of the last presidential debate from a tablet. Oh boy, even I could have done better as far back as high school! From a purely logical standpoint, anyhow, Anna struggles to contain her emotions while watching the debate segment. But then it gives her an idea for NaNo.

"Maybe we are unlucky this cycle; even four years ago, it was much better than that. However, this gave me an idea for a book I could write" Anna tells Yulia while Yulia could read Anna's disappointment on her face.

"These past few days, I started reading that stuff on Wattpad you read last week and that's what the last presidential debate reminded me of. A lack of substance. What's that idea about?" Yulia asks Anna, believing that Anna could do better.

"Two kids on exchange start a PR firm, start and run the host school's Young Democrats and Republicans clubs, and play extemp. All this takes place during the school year of the presidential primaries and maybe state ones"

What's for sure is that, if I want state primaries to be held simultaneously with the presidential ones, then the story must not be set in Maryland, Anna ponders about the implications of having the kids run their would-be disinformation mill during both levels of elections at the same time.

"Make sure that you portray these clubs as being tightly knit because of how few kids would actually join"

"Don't worry about that, Yulia. Most high school fiction writers tended to portray smart kids as being one-dimensional intellectually and with few friends. If you could excuse me, I have some research to do"

"Wait a minute, extemp? What the hell is extemp?" Yulia rolls her eyes.

"You could basically think of extemp rounds as a three-step process: draw a topic the audience will be clueless about, usually a sociopolitical topic, make a very intense mental effort for thirty minutes to cobble together a coherent seven-minute speech and then you deliver said speech"

Chantal described extemp in these terms, and for how smarter people tended to be portrayed in indie literature, extemp seemed to fit some of them, in that they will keep yakking about their area of expertise, Anna gets another memory of her past self flashing in her mind.

"Please forgive me, I never heard about extemp before. It never seemed to be in any YA fics I ever came across" Yulia tries to picture an extemp round in her mind. "Why is that?"

"Long story short, it's because of how people might have preferred to write about protesting, debating or volunteering on the campaign trail over extemp if they want to portray someone as politically involved. To the uninitiated, extemp feels like lecturing. Yet people often portrayed smart characters in indie YA as using big words, yakking about their areas of expertise, having vast knowledge bases"