I had a very enlightening conversation at work last week. My very helpful coworker (you know who you are) and I started hashing out where the story might be headed. Probably the most critical discovery was that Jake Barlow, our hero (such as he is), is not alone in this world. Somehow, some other person has managed to evade the Evil that resides in this world. And they are still in possession of a nice tasty soul. And ol' Jake just might get an opportunity to regain his own soul.
Also, somewhere between Monday and Tuesday, I had the realization that Jake had been a soldier in WWI. With that thought came several others, namely, that this was the circumstance of his first kill. So, not murder in the strictest sense, but the violent killing of a dude right in front of you is bound to mess you up a bit. So, after months of shooting from the trenches in the vague direction of the enemy, he finds himself in very close proximity to a guy bent on killing him, and Jake has no choice but to stab him in the throat. These things happen. While technically being self-defense in the midst of a war, it still changes a man, puts a crack in his soul.
Other men could have walked away from this and come home with their sense of morality intact. Not so for Jake Barlow. He only went downhill. He made it home, tried to reintegrate into civilian life. But he never quite fit. And then the murdering began.
Now, all this information is probably only going to be vaguely alluded to come story time. It's not the kind of thing I spell out for the reader but I know it in the back of my mind. It informs who the character has become when we first meet him on that train. He has a past, even if we don't see it.
Honestly, I think I probably have enough to start writing. There are still some unanswered questions, but we can fill in the answers along the way. I'm not sure at this point if the next post in the series will be next Tuesday or Friday. It depends on whether I have something else for Tuesday. I'm considering continuing this series on Fridays, with one-off posts on Tuesdays.
As always, comment, subscribe, do what you will.
It is very amazing how your mind works to where you have all of these elaborate ideas and articulate words to travel in these horrific ideas and crazy places that are from this place known as MAD imagination. In MAD imagination land is their any idea where Jake Needs to go or why Jake needs to get their is his goal to obtain his soul back and why does he want it. I love random bunny trails better than anyone hell my life and mind consist of this hence I am responding to a blog in the middle of the day on a Monday. Like I said see random bunny trail in conversation. With a great story they all have a great purpose something leads to something else we may not know why or even if this happens in the first book of the Barlow series but You the author I am sure you have an idea about what you want to see Jake do the question is just how he goes about it and the obstacles in the way of achieving his goal as I am talking to an accomplished writer such as yourself I ask How do you decide what is going to happen next you start with characters then you have an objective what those characters are doing correct? next it is just the obstacles or challenges on how they achieve those goals the events preventing them from happening or the reason they have come with a new goal based on the characters they interact with Yes?
ReplyDeleteIt sound like a lot to do to be an amazing writer such as yourself I am glad you are sharing the process with me. I am learning a lot and cant wait to eventually read this amazing story.