The afternoon and early evening before running my first marathon in Honolulu, I stayed shut in my hotel room jotting down notes expanding on a new story idea I had. Doing so meant abandoning the novel I had been writing, but I was at best treading water with it.
I had had some thoughts about this idea for a couple of weeks at this point, but nothing too concrete. My time had been devoted mostly to the marathon training, which was a major contributor to why the novel I’d been working on wasn’t progressing much. I just didn’t have the time to hone the story in an efficient yet impactful manner, which had caused me to meander and drag out part one of the story, which had been meant to be one of the shorter parts.
This story was going to avoid that pitfall because I wasn’t planning on turning it into a novel – at least, not at first. It was going to be a screenplay, which meant it had to be crisp and lean. I was going to apply the feedback I’d gotten from my second script consultation for Dig Down. Scenes were going to be quick, make their point, advance the story, and then move on to the next one.
It was the main antagonist I had the strongest sense about. I was captivated by them, someone who never turned violent, never even made overt threats – but what they said would veil those threats that would be very much present. They would almost be like a puppeteer, pulling the strings, getting the rest of the characters to bend to their will, even if the other characters didn’t realize they were doing so, or couldn’t even understand how their actions were being forced by the villain.
I’d had ideas for three of the main characters, but had started brainstorming the concept of a fourth, who I was just referring to as The Brute, someone who would be the blunt force of violence, and who the other characters all thought they were reacting to and working against.
The main character started coming into shape for me. They wouldn’t be heroic, far from it. Life was something they were only in for themselves, until they saw, through exposure to the two antagonists, how that could end up. I had an arc for their growth, with a question of whether their change would be enough.
I was excited to delve into this story more once I got done with the race.
I always believed my writing was strong. I believed that Dig Down would be good enough to be optioned after it had placed as a finalist in two screenwriting contests. I had been humble and honest enough to understand where my screenwriting could be improved, and accepted that I would need to start over if I wanted to move forward.
As I sat in my hotel room taking down notes for this new idea, I felt the hope that comes with a new story idea, and felt strongly that this would lead me to a breakthrough.