Oly Writer

Made very good progress yesterday. Have nearly 5,400 word of the first draft down. And it looks pretty good too. . .for a first draft.

Everything seems to be working. The circles of Hell give me a nice framework to initially hang the story on. The unfolding backstory of a failed real estate project ties all the characters together. The community theater, a place I know well, allows me to paint the setting with interesting colors. And so far, odd characters have been poping up. Basing every scene on a circle of Hell defines the “sin” or characteristics of each character, which helps create the conflict in the scene.

Also something I realized yesterday. Price’s goal is to find Alice. Cindy’s goal is to stop him. Ironically, Cindy’s goal is also to keep Price from going downtown, symbolically his descent into Hell.

I’m having fun with Cindy, but I’m not sure how I’m going to sustain and upward escalation of her humorous attempts to keep Price from finding Alice.

Hmm. Perhaps at the end of Act I she realizes she needs help. Perhaps in Act II she begins to gather her army of little devils to start escalating the action. Flatten his tires? Planning a kidnapping. An accident?

A thought. Act III is essentially Dante’s 9^th Circle of Hell, the Traitors. Cindy must head for the Center to prepare for Alice’s opening night performance title (what else), “Inferno.” She gets Mel to tag along with Price to keep him from finding Alice. Mel acts like Price’s friend, but she’s a traitor.

Downtown is plastered with posters for Alice’s performance. On the eve of opening night (that night) Cindy sends her army out to rip-down Alice’s posters in an attempt to keep Price from seeing them. In a sense, she’s betraying Alice by tearing down her posters for her own personal reasons. Cindy lusts for Alice and sees Price as a rival.

Alice’s friends sitting in Batdorf’s see a mob racing around pulling down Alice’s posters. They become outraged and go chasing after them, attacking, and re-hanging the posters. Price and Mel have stopped at Darby’s when he sees a big commotion taking place across the street in front of the Capital Theater. He recognizes the people being attacked as the people he’s been to that day.

Curiously he wanders over to see what’s going on and runs into two of his oldest and dearest friends. (This is the Well of Giants scene already in the outline). They tell where to find Alice. Mel rushes off to warn Cindy Price is coming.

This turns out to be perfect set-up for the final scene before the beginning of the story’s climax, Price finds Alice at the Washington Center dancing. He’s been led to believe by Mel it’s a dress rehearsal. In the dark theater, in the wings, he can’t tell there’s an audience. Cindy’s final desperate act of betrayal, risks ruining Alice show when she gives Price a costume and sends him out on the stage in one final attempt to humiliate him and drive a wedge between him and Alice.

Sounds good. I like it.

Well, time to get writing.