Rantings of an Arranged Mind

"The Surprising Life and Death of Diggory Franklin" is very different from my first completed work, "No Man an Island." NMAI was a decade of work, utilizing symbolism from literature, ideas from philosophy, tropes from television and movies, with the root of it all based in religious beliefs. It's a very complicated, planned out story. With Diggory, I've been flying by the seat of my pants. I've blogged before that I didn't even have a chapter 2 when everyone voted for Diggory to be my next story, last summer. I'm making this up as I go.

I wanted to concentrate on character, when I started this. I wanted to be very deliberate in showing what motivated Diggory to be interested in Calla, despite her seemingly erratic behaviour. I wanted it to be natural and believable. To do that, it had to seem like a minor occurrence in his daily life, something that might have been missed, if she wasn't something special. She had to grow on him. That's why his regular life seems important at first, and keeps falling by the wayside as the story progresses.

But the story started in his everyday life. I had to know Diggory Franklin inside out. What motivated him? What did he care about? What did Calla bring to his life? What was the "story" in this story?

It started simply enough. Diggory was this spoiled rich kid, caught up in a very busy life, and Calla was going to make him appreciate the things he was missing. Like love and honesty, simplicity and friendship. It was going to be a very simple story, kind of like "Sweet November" staring Keanu Reeves and Charlize Theron "Cars" with Lightning McQueen and Sally, with time travel instead of cancertalking cars. (That's the only comparison that came to mind, sorry. I guarantee I'll think of more when it's too late.) The busy businessman finding love and it makes him less self-absorbed.

Well, honestly, who wants to read something that they've seen before? I certainly don't want to write something so dull. I guess my subconscious knew that, because I was writing this little love story, and suddenly (in my head) Diggory was getting out of a taxi and his father's building exploded. I didn't see it coming. No one did, and the entire story changed from there.

The explosion led us to Zebediah, of course. An enigmatic figure, manipulating events across history. In all honesty, Zebediah has taken over the story. I wanted to call book 3 "The Extraordinary Romance," because Diggory was going to get things back on track with Calla once he returned to the present. Win her heart, sweep her off her feet, and go on his merry way. But then, I started wondering, what happens for the entire weekend he's in the present, but not in his own life? Does he just sit around? Will the other people involved in his life just let him be so passive? Of course not. You don't get targeted by time-travellers and then get left alone, it's never that easy.

Which is how Book 3 got hijacked by "An Unexpected Tangent." I didn't expect Zebediah to show up. I didn't expect him to start telling our protagonist about his plans for the world. Not so soon, anyway. Zebediah's targeting Diggory because of his wealth and power, and even perhaps because young Mr. Franklin doesn't want either. Because of this twist in the plot, suddenly I'm pulling from my studies of history, politics, sociology and current news. We are experiencing an important historical moment. It seems like the world has been hovering in crisis since about the start of the new millennium -- and wouldn't a time traveller come to this era to affect the future? I have no idea what the implications are for the rest of the story, and Diggory's life. Things are going to change. In really big ways, from what I can see so far.

And that's kind of what's exciting about writing, for me. These characters have come alive on their own in my head, and are making their own choices based on those personalities. This lack of control has happened before -- when Donovan Reza first reared his evil head in the NMAI plot. He was a character out of nowhere that forced his way into my imagination and took over as the antagonist of the story. And feedback tells me the chapters concerning him are some of my best writing to date.

That gives me high hopes for Zebediah in this story. I hope you all stick around to enjoy the ride. It's been fun for me so far! I have only a dim glimpse of what's around the corner, but from all appearances, it's going to be even more Surprising than anything I had planned originally.