Early on in the story idea phase (which lasted all of 20 minute I think), I had an idea to structure the book sort of like Dante’s Inferno, but in reverse. I had some crazy ideas about the world in which Myranda lives and the story takes place and that got me to start thinking about a lot of parallels and themes running through the book and the story.
As I continue to write (55 pages in the new notebook already – 9 earlier today) I find more and more ideas and themes that are presenting themselves in the story. A complex story can follow one track and have only one level of story in it, but it’s generally uncommon. As a story progresses is generally changes the other characters that it touches in some way.
In this story I have levels of conflict from macro to microcosm. There is a global level of conflict that isn’t readily apparent, there’s a good vs. bad level – Myranda and her friends against Guggenheim and his allies, and then there’s another level of conflict in the main character group (Myranda, Sam and Daniel). There might even be internal struggles within each of them that I wil lfind out as I continue. In fact I’m pretty sure there are already and I just haven’t openly written about them.
This is shaping up to be, by far, my most complex and layered story ever. With multiple levels of conflict comes multiple side stories that tie into the main story but can’t detract from it. Plus I already have several plot twists planned that will alter the current levels of conflict in the story.
Additionally I’ve been noticing that certain events and locations have specific representations of places both real and imaginary, historic and contemporary. As I slowly progress through the story it too has layers.
I decided early on that I would number the chapters and call them “Levels” for a reason that will become apparent when you read the book. Each Level also has a subtitle to assist with the progression of the story. So the very beginning was level Zero, like Ground Zero where it all begins. Then there was Level 1 which was The Journey Begins and now Level 2 Lost & Found.
The more I think about this story and this book the more I refer to it as my Swan Song. I think I recently said “people might one day know me for the second book, but they’ll remember because of this third one.”
So stick around as I peel back the layers and we all see what’s inside what I think may be a gem of a story. Perhaps there’s a diamond in the rough working to present itself to the world.
“Layers, Donkey, like an onion…” -Shrek