The challenge of writing Dig Down was that the story had to hold up as part of two conflicting perspectives: one in which you empathized with the main character, and one in which you hated him. As a result, a lot of care went into how to write every scene, so that in an initial read through, you could still feel one way about Rob, but in all subsequent readings, you could interpret the same passage in a new way.
The conversations between Rob and Preston were the most challenging scenes to write under these rules. Unlike the chase scenes, I couldn’t rely on suspense to distract the reader from Rob’s true motives. This was a discussion that dove deep into Rob’s history and explained how Rob became ensnared in the predicament he found himself in.
Crafting the fractured relationship was the first step in disguising Rob’s true character. My hope was that the reader would be willing to side with Rob, whose point of view they were seeing the story through, if they could just be given a reason to. Rob’s upbringing would make Preston appear cold and unsympathetic. I was also banking on readers convincing themselves Rob had to do business with Axel because Preston was threatening to fire him, essentially destroying his career.
It wouldn’t be until late in the story that readers would start to have it confirmed over and over again that Preston was not the vicious disciplinarian Rob was making him out to be. Preston only hesitates to help Rob until he knows his son has a plan to escape. He offers to help him out by providing a briefcase. It isn’t until Preston catches him in a lie that Rob realizes he’s seeing Preston glaring at him with anger and disapproval for the first time. When these details come to light, the reader is forced to re-evaluate everything Rob has told them.
I also made sure to include little story beats that might not have seemed important at first, but were crucial to setting up the final showdown between father and son. Throughout the story, in both the scenes in the townhouse and during the chase, Rob gets called from a number identified as The Succubus. He receives one of these calls while talking to Preston, who asks if it’s his wife calling. Rob responds that it is, which is the truth. Who his wife is, and Rob’s relationship with her, are two surprises that I reveal in the later sequences of Dig Down, whose purpose once again is to change the perspective the reader has on Rob.
Lastly, I kept Rob a static character, who has no growth through the story. This was done so that he would appear and remain consistent in both timelines of Dig Down. By remaining unchanged, both before he enters Preston’s townhouse, and once he’s inside, I felt it would be easier for readers to come to terms with the fact that Rob doesn’t do what he did in Preston’s townhouse because he was backed into a corner. He did it because that’s who he is when you dig down and analyze his character. With this now undeniable perspective in mind, your attitude would then have to shift about everything he’s done in reaction to what’s happened to him, and you see him for who he’s always been, because he’s never changed.