Backstory
Had some good ideas yesterday I think will help focus the story. Here what I wrote in the outline:
BACKSTORY:
Price was a key figure in an arts center development project. He got all his theater friends to invest. But one of the partners is an ex-lover who still carries a torch for Price. Her husband gets jealous and begins maneuvering behind Price’s back to take control. By the time Price realizes what’s going on, it’s too late. Feeling betrayed, Price loses his temper, and the project begins to spin out of control without his leadership. The original investors fight among themselves, taking sides. It becomes very personal, and Price is forced out.
Alice is furious with Price for letting his emotions interfere with project business. Price becomes furious with her for what appears to be her taking sides against him. They break-up over it.
Then Doria, Price’s hated sister, butts in. Out of guilt for hating Doria, Price has been trying too hard over the years to maintain a relationship. He mentions the problem to Doria in reply to an email. Typical of her, she uses his problem to "bring Price to Jesus."
Price explodes. He’s literally told Doria a thousand times not to preach to him. For decades he’s patiently explained the reasons why he’d never, ever consider return to his evangelical roots. He rages at her in an exchange of rapid-fire emails. Late in the night, in state of drunken stupidity, despondent over Alice and the Project, Price really wants to hurt Doria for the lifetime of emotional misery he’s endured simply because everyone tells him “you can’t hate your sister.” He just can’t bring himself to tell Doria he hates her, and never what’s to speak to her again. Instead, he stupidly, inexplicably, makes a not so veiled threat against Alice.
Doria immediately calls Alice. Alice tells a friend. The friend calls the police when Alice won’t. The police go to Doria. Angry with Price for insulting her (and the Bible by implication)-and wanting to teach him a lesson-Doria tells the police Price threatened to kill Alice. The police want proof. So Doria doctors Price’s email turning it into an explicit threat. Too late, Doria realizes that she’s given them evidence they use to charge Price with a felony. Price is arrested.
The art center project spins completely out of control without Price. Many of the investors ended up selling short and lose money. However, Alice and a few others hang in and hold it together. The project eventually recovers and becomes a success. But the original investors blame Price are among the people that Price meets in his search for Alice.
As Price searches for Alice, the people he meets, combined with his guilty memories, begin to build a picture of what a bad man Price is. But this picture is Price’s picture of himself. Price’s actions paint an entirely different picture.
In the climatic scene, Alice finally appears. I want the story to lead the reader to wince with anticipation that Alice will nail the coffin shut on Price’s self-esteem. She appears to deliberately humiliate him on stage when he’s cruelly tricked into joining a live dance performance to get close to her. When she emerges from the mob, I want the expectation to be that she’s about to deliver the final kick in the head that will provoke Price to pull out that gun Price he’s been carrying around in his knapsack all day, and shoot her.
Of course, the story is a comedy so it has it’s last big twist in the end.
