[ [ Summer 2019 ] ]
Carver's first memory is of his sister's funeral.
Her ghost haunts him every night, dragging him back home to a small town named Bethany, where a dark secret hangs over her death.
Can Carver uncover the truth and save Catie's soul—and generations to come—from the horrors sleeping in Bethany?
A Son of Gehenna
5 posts in this topic.
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Characters
Carver Briggs - 29. Investigator of the surreal. Believer in the unreal. Sometimes he talks to ghosts; mostly, they talk to him. He's the first person to leave Bethany for good in the last century -- and something has brought him back.
Catherine Briggs - Catie. 6 but should be 26. Appears in dreams, drawing her brother back to the place that killed her.
Aveline Briggs - Ava. Mom. Mourning the loss of her husband five years ago; mourning the loss of her daughter twenty years ago.
Solomon Young - Pastor Young. Spiritual leader of Bethany. Firm believer in the hand that guides the souls of men.
Melanie Gates - Mel. 28. Carver's ex-sweetheart. She hasn't seen him in ten years and doesn't know what he's become - or what she is.
Arlanda Gates - 58. Mel's mother. Pastor Young's fiercest believer, willing to sacrifice everything to ensure God smiles on Bethany.
Bethany - a town, no one knows how old, somewhere in the low-hanging canopies and packed red clay of the South. Surrounded by farms and hills. At its heart stands the church -- the House of the Lord -- and the deep black river where Catie Briggs drowned so many years ago. Life is not challenging there, but comforting, every day more of the same. No one leaves -- no one has the desire to leave. Even those who move away for college, for work, or for family come back, in the end.
The only way out of Bethany is death. -
[ [ Brief Plot Thing ] ]
The year is 1996.
In ten years, five teenagers will set forth a horde of demons upon the earth.
In twenty years, a young woman will question her purpose -- is she on this earth to live her own life, or merely to erase her own mistakes?
In thirty years, a baby girl will foresee the end of the world.
But this year, Carver Briggs is returning to Bethany. This year, he will be twenty-nine years old, and it will have been two decades since his sister drowned in the great black river running through his hometown. This year, he will come back -- and he will not rest until he finds the truth of Catie's death.
Whether he likes it or not. -
The 12-Week Plan for a summer novella
Week 1 [1 June - 7 June]: Plan Weeks 2 & 3
Questions: How does the story begin? Who are the characters at the beginning of the story? What kinds of people are they, what are their goals, and what are they willing to do to reach their goals? What is your main character's Lie (their flaw, the truth they perceive about the world that will be challenged through this piece)?
Week 2 [8 June - 14 June]: Write Section 1
Word Goal: 2500 [360/day]
Week 3 [15 June - 21 June]: Write Section 2
Word Goal: 3000 [430/day]
Week 4 [22 June - 28 June]: Plan Weeks 5 & 6
Questions: What are the goals for these three characters: protagonist, deuteragonist, antagonist? What stands in the way of them reaching those goals? What conflict confronts your character's Lie? What do your character's interpersonal relationships look like while they're trying to attain their goal?
Week 5 [29 June - 5 July]: Write Section 3
Word Goal: 3000 [430/day]
Week 6 [6 July - 12 July]: Write Section 4
Word Goal: 3500 [500/day]
Week 7 [13 July - 19 July]: Plan Weeks 8 & 9
Questions: What breaks your characters and makes them believe their goals are unattainable? How does your character's Lie overpower them? How do they react to being beat down? How do their goals and methods change as a result of their Lie?
Week 8 [20 July - 26 July]: Write Section 5
Word Goal: 3500 [500/day]
Week 9 [27 July - 2 August]: Write Section 6
Word Goal: 4000 [570/day]
Week 10 [3 August - 9 August]: Plan Weeks 11 & 12
Questions: How does the story end? Who are the characters at the end of the story? What kinds of people are they, what are their goals, and what are they willing to do to reach their goals? What consequences do they face as a result of their actions?
Week 11 [10 August - 16 August]: Write Section 7
Word Goal: 2500 [360/day]
Week 12 [17 August - 23 August]: Write Section 8
Word Goal: 3000 [430/day]
Final Word Goal: 25000
Final Date Goal: 23rd August 2019 -
Week One
( ( something strange is happening in the town of bethany ) )
i. carver, in his motel room, listens to the radio reports of strong flooding in a town ten miles south
ii. carver steps out of his motel room into the dry crackle of summer heat
- goals: set up the conflict between bethany and the world outside it; where the world is in a constant state of turmoil, bethany experiences but one or two turmoils, a constant at each time of year: heat and cold. the timing doesn't fluctuate no matter the conditions on the Outside.
- themes: opposites; home; lies.
iii. carver sees a funeral procession going down main street towards the old church
iv. carver avoids the funeral by going a back road
- goals: set up carver's avoidance of anything that might inconvenience him; set up carver's circumstances leading to him not wanting to be seen in bethany, especially by people who might recognize him; exposit re: carver's job and special talents
- themes: home; lies; secrets that need not be shared with any others.
v. carver finds himself following the old black river, which looks low for this time of year
- goals: uncomfortable reminders of things that were and things that could be; explicit mention of catie's death
vi. carver finds mel skipping stones on a smooth shallow portion of the river
vii. carver talks with her for a bit, reminiscing about childhood
- goals: taking carver back to where he was when catie died, physically and emotionally; reminding carver of things outside of his limited sphere of experience; giving weight to the experience of others in the strange small town in which they will all die
- themes: disturbing the peace, only for it to return to peace; the inevitable stillness of bethany; the inevitable stillness of death
viii. mel can’t get her own stones back out of the river
ix. carver wades into the water to retrieve them; when he looks back, she’s gone
- goals: creating a sense of mystery and suspense about the matter; having the reader ask questions about mel and as a result about the town; having a reader ask questions about carver and how he so easily perceives the dead; having a reader ask questions about bethany and how it so easily traps the dead
- themes: death; disappearance; lingering; a sad and sudden stop
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