R.H. Walker, Author

(Cover image by Prabash Livera on Unsplash)

Welcome back to Demo Sundays!

Last week we dove into our main character Elliott, and explored his motivations. This week, we’ll be coming up with additional backstory to use as “grist for the mill”, so to speak.

To get started, we’ll find three points in Elliott’s life that will deepen his misbelief that we pinpointed last time; that is, his fear that he can’t “hack it”, particularly as a writer.

Like the scene we wrote last time, I want these scenes to be before Elliott even meets the farmer for the first time. He will be struggling to complete his novel, struggling to make friends in Pelican Town, struggling to remember why he wanted to chase this dream in the first place. Because of the nature of fanfiction we are, essentially, determining what makes the Elliott we first meet in the game, himself. Half the work has been done for us, we’re just inventing specific points to draw upon later in the drafting process.

As an extra treat, we’re also going to do three small scenes within Elliott’s marriage to the farmer. Even though Elliott won’t remember these (at least not at first? I’m not sure yet if he will regain his memories at any point or if he will simply have to piece the mystery together), it’s important that we know even a little bit about that time. Like any mystery, it’s best to work backwards.

PART 5: PLOT STIRRINGS

Question 1: Find the turning points. What points in their life cause the protagonist’s misbelief to deepen? Choose 3 scenes to act as these pivot points, the most potent grist for your story mill.

Let’s start by listing every idea we have for a potential scene here.

• Immediately I am again thinking about Elliott’s impulsive and romantic nature. Perhaps he thinks inspiration will strike if he experiences some of Stardew Valley’s great scenery? He could encounter a bear in the woods, or row a boat far beyond the breakers, forcing him to let either Leah or Willy save him and establish their in-game friendship. In either scenario he definitely has his typewriter with him and it’s definitely getting in his way. (It’s not symbolizing that his writing is holding him down, it’s symbolizing that his devotion to aesthetic is holding him back from reaching his full potential.)
• How will Elliott deal with his writer’s block in Stardew Valley? I like the idea of Elliott going to town and finding that one specific note in-game that lists all the older bachelors, it could turn him on to the fact that there’s a real conspiracy going on and that it’s not just in his head. Ultimately I think that works better as a post memory-erasure scene, so perhaps we’ll save that for later.
• I do like the idea of Elliott becoming attached to the library in general, however. As he begins to associate life in Stardew with failure, his attachment to the library can be a comfort.
• We could also revisit and/or reinforce the devotion to aesthetic thing. Like, Elliott wakes in a cold sweat one night with inspiration for a character or scene, but as he scribbles it down he is increasingly aware of how bad he actually is at this, and gets so discouraged that he discounts the idea and completely purges it from his mind. Rookie mistake, Ell!

Okay, I’ve thought about what I want, and I’ve made my selections. Let’s move on to writing them!

Question 2: Write the scenes. How are they enhancing your protagonist’s misbelief? How/why are they digging themselves deeper into the hole?

Considering we want the finished product to be a short story, not a novel, I think these can be flashes– I’m shooting for a maximum of 300 words per scene. And like last time, these will be written in first-person to help us get a feel for Elliott’s voice. Let’s get started!

#

For Scene 1, I actually really like our last point: A few nights after settling into his shack, Elliott wakes in a cold sweat with inspiration, only to second-guess himself into hating the scene and tossing the idea entirely. (Poor man hasn’t learned that he won’t get it right in one go. Someone get him that Ira Glass quote, stat!)

SCENE 1

No, no no! It was sounding all wrong again! I ripped the page out of my typewriter and let it flutter pathetically to the floor. I risked a glimpse outside; the first light of dawn had already started lightening the beach. I had been at this for hours with nothing to show for it, save a brand new pair of bags beneath my eyes.

“A waste of a good idea,” I muttered at the floor.

I could see it even still, bright as a pearl in my mind’s eye, taunting me from the realm of dreams. Not a single one of the words I had written had done it justice. One attempt was far too flower, another far not nearly flowery enough. Everything I came up with sounded downright amateurish. I couldn’t publish with that.

It wouldn’t do. I gathered up all of the ruined pages and had an early morning bonfire. As the smoke of my failure wafted to the lightening sky, I tucked the memory of the scene safely into the back of my mind. Once I was better at this, then I could give it another try.

I walked inside, and upon seeing the typewriter again something angry flared in me. No, actually, I wouldn’t try the scene again. Perhaps it hadn’t been that good in the first place. What do dreams know, after all?

As I drifted back to sleep, however, I began to fear. Perhaps I would never have a good idea again. What if my short story had been just a flash in the pan? Where would I go? Back to Zuzu City, to my mind-numbing corporate job, to the friends who had so roundly mocked me? I didn’t think I could stand it.

I needed an edge.

#

For Scene 2 we can use the first idea we came up with, when Elliott attempts to write his manuscript but inconveniences himself by insisting on doing it in a way that will “inspire” him. He lugs his typewriter out to the forest and begins working, only to find that a bear becomes a little too interested in his work. Leah saves him, and Elliott makes his first friend in Stardew. (An interesting detail here: I was fully convinced Elliott had a typewriter in-game. He absolutely does not, as far as the player can tell Elliott’s work is all done in long-hand. I think this will be a fun detail to mix in– Elliott can use the story of how he lost the typewriter as a funny anecdote when speaking to other townsfolk. Perhaps the typewriter is still out there in those woods, waiting to be recovered).

SCENE 2

“Don’t. Move.”

I froze, unsure if I’d even heard the words properly over the clack of my keyboard. Nothing for a moment– perhaps I’d just imagined the voice?

“Good. Now look to your left. Slowly.”

I glanced left, and noticed to what the voice referred. A brown bear had poked its head out of the bushes, and was staring right at me.

The terror hit me like a freight train, but before I could start scrambling away, the voice hissed again.

“Stop! No sudden movements. I’m to your right. Start crawling towards me, slowly.”

Slowly and gingerly, oh so gingerly, I shifted backwards, letting my arms pull me slowly into the brush. After a moment I hit upon a pair of legs. I looked up, and to my astonishment the woman was glaring down the bear, wielding enormous branches in either hand, waving them slowly.

“Go on, get,” she said, as calm and flat as a windless sea.

The bear paid no mind. In fact it drew closer, curiously snuffling at the typewriter.

“We need to leave,” she muttered to me.

“But my typewriter!” I hissed.

“I think it’s the bear’s now,” she said. The creature raised an enormous paw and batted at the carriage, jumping when it returned with a shuddering ding, and we retreated.

Later, at the saloon, Leah at least introduced herself before mercilessly mocking me. I tried to explain my reasoning to her, that I had hoped that the beauty of Cindersap would inspire me.

“Yeah, but a typewriter? In the woods?”

“What else was I supposed to use?”

“A laptop? Pen and paper? Or you could have just gone on a walk and tried again when you got home.”

Yoba, she was right. I let my head thunk onto the table, once again cursing my ridiculous, asinine choices.

#

For Scene 3, let’s go a bit lighter and establish Elliott’s safe place. Instead of the library, actually I’m thinking it will be the saloon (the one location beside his house he can regularly be found in). As Elliott’s writing becomes an increasing stressor on him, he’ll start turning away from it.

SCENE 3

After the bear incident I started meeting up with Leah more often. It was nice, having a fellow artist to chat with. She’d also moved here from Zuzu recently, fleeing a bad breakup and her own stifled creativity. Thanks to the time and the fresh air she’d finally found her lost inspiration, and was preparing a gallery show.

I began to find I preferred the saloon to my little shack. Not just because it didn’t creak in the wind and didn’t have sand wedged between its floorboards. Not just because I could get a drink, either. I suppose it was because it reminded me of the comforts of home. I missed the restaurants and bars of Zuzu, going out with my friends, feeling that all was right in the world as long as I had food, drink, and company.

The food, drink, and company at the Stardrop left something to be desired, certainly, but I grew fond of it. And the more fond I grew, the more I started to avoid my desk. I berated myself for this at first, but I gave up the fight quickly. I still wanted to write, of course, but I didn’t know what to write about. I had begun to realize I had little life experience to draw upon. They always say to write what you know, and all I had learned in coming to Pelican Town was that I knew nothing.

So I went to the saloon. I stared out at the ocean. I learned how to fish from Willy, my landlord. I went to the town festivals, learned to dance, read every book the library’s pitiful collection had to offer, and hoped that someday it would be enough.

It would have to be. Rent was cheap but my savings wouldn’t last forever. The clock was ticking down.

#

Okay, now that we’re done with those scenes, let’s work on the three scenes about his and the Farmer’s relationship!

These are going to be even shorter (150 words-ish), and I’m switching perspectives, from past-tense first-person to current-tense third-person objective. Considering how detached Elliott will be from this version of himself for the majority of the fic, I think this will be a good fit for these– perhaps we’ll be able to recycle these short scenes within the short story as Elliott uncovers the truth?

Like before, let’s make a list of potential scenes:

• Their first meeting. I think this is a given, I want this moment to be one where Elliott knows immediately that his life is about to change forever.
• A moment where Elliott meets his daughter? I’ve already started thinking ahead to our plot and I know that the children are going to be important, so this would be a good scene to have.
• I think the last one will be Elliott learning of the divorce, a taste of the state he’s in just before his memory is wiped. How does he feel having this all taken away from him?

Okay, now let’s write these bad boys!

#

SCENE 1

He meets her on a blustery spring day. He’s watching the cherry blossoms coat the river; the wind carries them down, deposits them gently, then follows the bank for a while, brushing through his hair with a cool touch. He smiles, breathes it in. Perhaps today he will try his hand at writing romance.

The sound of jingling behind him. He presses into the bridge wall to let the person pass, but turns surprised when he feels a hand on his shoulder.

He feels a spark in that hand. Even before he turns he can feel her presence. She is magnetic, polar, a planet to his mere satellite.

She will ruin his life.

She smiles, blushes prettily. She’s sorry to bother him, she’s new in town and trying to meet everyone. He’s happy to meet her, and he goes on his way lighter.

Perhaps he will write a romance today.

#

SCENE 2

After a year and a half of blissful marriage, the farmer bears a daughter. It’s not a difficult birth, but no birth is easy, and Elliott paces the length of the cornfields as the doctor attends his wife.

His life has changed so much, and he owes it all to her. She encouraged him to finally finish his book, kept him company as he spent sleepless nights on the edits, waited patiently for him to return from tour.

Now as the doctor calls him in, Elliott feels the beckoning of a new ambition. As he holds his daughter, minutes old, he stands in the doorway, on the precipice of a great cliff, unsure if he will fly or fall.

They call her Cordelia. Elliott proposes this name, thinking of the noble princess. He vows that he will be a better father than Lear. He hopes to prove himself right.

#

SCENE 3

Life is perfect for a long while. Elliott is surprised at how well takes to both farming and fatherhood. He wakes early to work the land and tend the animals, and when he is done he plays with the children. Cordelia and Aramis both are old enough to accompany him on errands now, and the townsfolk adore them.

The worries of his youth lay far behind him. Gone are the days of inadequacy and self-delusion. He knows himself entire, love has made him whole.

So when the mayor knocks on his door with a thick yellow envelope in hand, Elliott feels the shift immediately, as though tectonic plates finally giving as the tension overwhelms them.

He feels, all at once, like sand. He is not whole any longer, he is a thousand molecules all buzzing in chaos and confusion.

Unto sand he shall return. He moves into the shack again.

#

That’s it for this week! Come back next week as we work out where the story will actually start, and learn about Cron’s primary story building block: scene cards!