Doing a Work Shop.

 I have a Zoom call scheduled tomorrow with Joe Mynhardt, of Crystal Lake Entertainment. He's heading a novella workshop running through June and July and we will be discussing a story I'd like to write. I want/need to have certain ideas and notes written out prior to the call. Characters, setting, theme, whatever will help.

Working Title: Gone – might change, but now it fits, since I like calling it something that works with the story. This is a Butterfly Effect type tale. Done many times, so the importance is in the telling.

What I Know: There are six characters. I know that one will be given the chance to return to the moment in his past that “changed everything”. He has reasons for following multiple paths, and he must decide.

It is possible that other characters will be offered the chance to do this as well.

Rules: There are two rules for those who return to their past. First, they will remember most of the life they left, but not everything. Second, each time they repeat returning to the past they will remember less from the life they lived.

Characters:

Eli Thorne: Protagonist – Following 17 years in an unhappy marriage, and the death of his daughter, during attempting suicide he is offered the ability to return to that moment where he can change his outcome.

Ashley Thorne: Married to Eli, she’ll begin the story presented with flaws, but much will be discovered and explained.

Evelyn (Evie) Thorne – At the moment, I am beginning the story on her seventeenth birthday. This is also the day she will die, in a gruesome auto accident.

Kimberly and Bianca Bower – Listed together, because they are identical twins and best friends of Evie. Although they will be killed in the opening scene, I believe they can play an important role in the story. A challenge for me will be to develop different personalities for each.

Ana Chen – we meet her in the first chapter as the emergency room doctor, who speaks to Eli following his daughter’s death. The name could change because this character could be a bit of a changeling. She is also the one who controls the gift of returning to past lives. This is my antagonist, not considered evil or “the bad guy”, but more so the one who controls the rules/setting for those who decide to return to their past.

Can I Share More: If you made it this far, I could give you a little more info. Eli and Ashley meet while in high school, after graduation they marry and move from Atlanta to Nashville, where they attend college at Vanderbilt University. During their senior year, Ashley becomes pregnant, and Evie is born. Weeks after bringing their daughter home, Ashley reveals that she isn’t happy with the marriage. She explains reasons for not wanting to divorce, adding that her father’s lawyer could destroy him.

Eli agrees to stay with Ashley, only to be near Evie. They move back to Atlanta, where he begins working for his father-in-law and this continues until the night of Evie’s accident, and she is killed.  Shortly after the funeral, Eli plans his own death, which is halted when he can return to his youth and alter his future.