Working in the Past

A Hard Day's Night

So, after a painful few sessions trying to work out that elusive backstory, let's get it all down on paper and look at what it is.

The chronology:

• Twenty years ago, Friedrich Recker is rescued from the sea and brought to Glasgow
• As he gains strength, he gains popularity and influence
• Billy Fraser and his wife Nancy fall under his influence
• Recker embarks on a reign of terror in the community
• Nancy has an affair with Recker and falls pregnant
• She kills Billy in a struggle and lets Jake think it was him
• The community fear for her sanity and lock her in the shed
• Young William distraught at his father's death, sets fire to it, not knowing it's his mother
• She survives in secret and goes into hiding
• Nancy poisons Recker, and locks him in the church
• Nancy has her child, a daughter, but gives her up for adoption
• Nancy feeds Fiend over the next twenty years

Then cut to the opening of the present day story.  Jake is still suffering from the memory of his father's death, still believing he is responsible.  His brother William thinks he killed his own mother by accident.  Nancy is actually still alive and still keeping Fiend alive but in a semi-comatose state due to lack of light.  Her daughter, who she gave up, is now Elaine and is living with Jake, unaware they are half-siblings. 

Obviously the idea that Nancy being alive and of Elaine being his half-sister changes the modern day story, it has to. We can get to that. 


A Prequel

Although we will not be telling this story directly, we should treat it as if it was a prequel novel to the current story.  This means we should treat it as if it was a novel in its own right.  We have to take this rough outline for the past story and apply the same ideas of Theme on the four levels.

First of all, we need to choose a main character for the old timeline, and I think this has to be Nancy, she's the one who drives all the main action.

Now the main theme of the old story is one of things going off the rails leading to disaster.  Nancy seems to be happy in the beginning, two kids, husband. But when Fiend comes along, she loses her head and things rapidly go south.  That's the Personal Thread.  If we take this as the theme of the novel, we need to bounce this up through the other remaining three threads to make sure it resonates.

So for the Interpersonal thread, I think this needs to be with Recker.  It starts off with friendship, but moves into something more immersive and destructive.  In order to resonate the theme, this relationship must deteriorate - the more she wants him, the less he wants her, culminating in the death of Billy and her trapping him in the church in order to keep him.

The Ensemble thread is all about the collective of Nancy, Billy, Recker and presumably a cohort of unknown friends, including the ones who brought Recker back from sea, and the ones who locked her in the shed.  As Nancy gets caught up, the dynamics of the group change, to the point of complete breakdown - as they imprison Nancy for murdering Billy.

The Historical thread is what happened in the community during that time.  In an echo of the current day story, Fiend unleashes chaos and terror, until it is abruptly cut short by a murder.

So the bounce of the theme up through the threads has worked again, and the story seems to work on multiple levels.


Impact on the modern story

It's been a while but how does this impact on the chronology of the modern story?  Let's look at it again.

• Jake discovers an old man is living in a church
• By accident (fire?) the old man escapes and Jake takes him in
• Living with Jake and Elaine, he gets stronger by the day
• The man gets involved with the gang activity
• The world descends into chaos as Fiend takes charge
• Jake hits a breaking point but cannot challenge Fiend
• William, Jake's brother, gets killed
• Jake has to let go of his mental block in order to defeat Fiend
• Fiend is defeated

So this time, after William gets killed, Nancy reappears and tells Jake that he didn't kill his father, and how she trapped Fiend the last time.  Seeking redemption, she aids him in the capture and defeat of Fiend a second time.  Obviously there are sub-threads involving Elaine and all the other characters, but I think we've got a pretty good double-story going on.


Something new

It's time to move onto the next concept



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