Bright Freedom Update 2020 September 27

I started to work on this project as a script in August 2009. Since then I wrote 9 drafts as a script and 26 drafts as a novella. I dropped it several times and now I think I might take it up again.

Recently I listened to a few Perry Mason audiobooks that I found on YouTube. They are very different from the impression I had from what I remember from the old Raymond Burr TV show. My character, Bright Freedom, is also a lawyer with an unconventional approach, so that prompted me to revisit the story.

Story Threads

As it stands now my story has three main threads, which, while separate stories, are linked in a way that I can’t remove one without undermining the others.

The main thread, from my point of view, is the personal issue that Bright Freedom struggles with. I added the other threads as a way to externalize her internal issues.

The second thread is the conflict with corporation that threatens to destroy a community. The community hires Bright to help them fight back. While Bright is a hired gun in this thread, her personal issues drive her to take it on.

The third thread is Bright’s dedication to helping abused women. She takes this on as a personal goal. It leads her to take great personal risks.

Issues I’ve Run Into

• One issue that I struggle with is that the main character is a woman with a different background and life experience than I have. I have some trepidation about being able to create a realistic character. I also worry about how some people might feel about me writing such a character. It is usually this issue that causes me to drop the project.

I told myself that I should just write the story and then ask some people who would identify with Bright to tell me what they think. I assume that I could then manage to fix any problems with out having to make major changes to the story. That is something I am not confident of.  

I have tried to reassure myself by seeing examples, like Ripley in “Alien”, where filmmakers change a character written as a male character into a female. That gives me a bit more confidence about what I want to do.

•  A second issue is just what exactly the corporation is up to. I’ve felt that what exactly they are up to doesn’t matter, so I never make it clear in my previous drafts. I still feel this way, but I have come around to the view that if I had a clear reason for the conflict, that it would be easier to write and develop the story.

Ideally, the reason would connect more clearly to Bright’s internal conflict. I do sort of hint at that now, but it would help if I could make it more explicit. The main reason I have started to think about this is that I feel that it would allow me to add some more twists and turns to the story.  

The first 3 or 4 scenes of the story have a lot of action, but the later parts of the story are much less intense. I think the conflict with the corporation could supply more intensity.

• A third issue is that I wanted to write the story as a straight forward action adventure story. However, the issues that Bright deals with, battered wives and honor killing, are serious issues and I worry that my approach might trivialize them.

In the past I took the view that the story is a wish fulfilment fantasy, where the intrepid heroine defeats these problems. I think of the old cowboy movies where the good guy can kill off hundreds of bad guys with out reloading his six-shot revolver. I still think of the story in that way, but I still worry how people will react to that approach.

Why Do I Keep Trying?

Despite all the problems with the story, I go back to it again and again. There is something about it that I feel I need to express. I think it is the character of Bright Freedom that holds my attention. It is as if she has taken on a life of her own and demands that I write about her.

I had a similar experience with my movie “Line of Taxis”. It too took on a life of its own and demanded that I make it. In that case, it was the support of my collaborators on the film that helped me press ahead. I’ve wondered from time to time if I should try to find someone to collaborate on this story. I can’t think of anyone I know who I feel would be right for the story. I don’t know how I can find someone either.

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog

Team Non-violence versus Team Violence

In my on-going effort to accomplish little by starting too many projects, I've started work on an action adventure book. Over the last few weeks I think I've come up with a reasonable premise for the book.

My Inspiration

I've wanted to write a novella or a short novel for quite a while, but haven't gotten far with my attempts. A while back I read an article on Cracked.com, "6 Ways to Keep Terrorists From Ruining the World", that gave me an idea I could build on. (see: http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-ways-to-keep-terrorists-from-ruining-world/)

The author calls terrorists "Team Violence" because they try to reach their objectives with violence. If we react to terrorists with violence, all we've done is join Team Violence. The terrorists have won.

As I mulled over this Team Violence concept, an idea for a story, or maybe a series of stories started to form. The story would be about Team Non-violence, who used non-violent methods to divert terrorists from the use of violence. Their goal would not be to prevent the terrorist from achieving their objective, but to convert them to Team Non-violence and pursue their objective in a more constructive manner.

My working title is "The Disruptors", but that could change.

Team Non-violence

I see Team Non-violence as a secret international organization that infiltrates and disrupts Team Violence.

The agents would not be naive enough to think that if they are just nice to the terrorists, that they'll turn into peaceniks. At the same time, they would want to avoid the use of violence because to do so would undermine their long term goal. I can see that as the core of the internal conflicts that the agents must deal with.

The agents would be in constant danger, since the terrorists would kill them if they are exposed. In fact the terrorists might be kill them even if the don't learn who they really are.

Team Non-violence would be made up of two types of agents. The first type would be permanent agents, who run and support the operations. The second type would not be permanent and would infiltrate the terrorist groups. The infiltrators would only be involved in a single operation because it would be too dangerous for them, and the organization, to risk multiple operations.

The basic method they'd use would be to "trick" the terrorists into reconsidering their use of violence. The agents couldn't just come out and try to talk them into a change of heart. That wouldn't work. The terrorists would need to feel that they'd come to their realization on their own.

Now, I think the biggest challenge I would have is to come up with plausible techniques they could use. Maybe some of the agents are former advertizing people, who know how to manipulate people subtly.

Team Violence

I'm reluctant to base my Team Violence groups on any particular terrorists group, but they would need to seem like a real group. The ideals of Team Violence should come across as not necessarily that bad. The malevolence would come from their desire to use violence to impose those ideals on other people.

It might make it easier to come up with a plausible story if the ideals of Team Violence are really in conflict with the methods they espouse. In the story Team Non-violence would work to force Team Violence to become aware of the contradiction.

One possibility is for there to be two Team Violence groups who are in conflict with each other. Team Non-violence would try to disrupt them both. I'd like to portray the groups in conflict as really having the same ideals. The only difference is over who gets to impose them on the rest.

Maybe in the background of my story, there would be a secret Team Violence who support or encourage terrorist groups of all stripes. I doubt this would happen in the real world, but it would be a useful element of a fictional story. I would need to give them a motive to do so that made sense. It is also a bit too much like some of the secret world government conspiracy theories. That isn't an idea I would like to promote.

Parallels and Other Inspirations

I see parallels between this idea and some books and TV shows I used to enjoy.

The Doc Savage books are the type of adventure stories I had in mind. In this series, a group of adventurers with high ideals travel the world to help people who need it. While they often resort to violence, they try not to kill their enemies. Instead Doc Savage sends criminals to an institution that uses medical procedures and training to turn them into law abiding citizens.

I haven't seen the later "Mission: Impossible". movies, but in the original TV series, the team rarely relied on violence. Like my idea, they used various kinds of deception and trickery to manipulate their adversaries.

In the "Man from U.N.C.L.E.", the back story is that U.N.C.L.E. is a secret international police organization that tries to stop an international criminal organization called THRUSH. U.N.C.L.E., unlike my Team Non-violence organization, was not a non-violent group, but there is a parallel between THRUSH and Team Violence.

Where to Next?

This idea needs a fair bit of work before I can start to write. As I noted above, I need to have some plausible techniques that Team Non-violence. I need to develop some background for Team Non-violence: history, tools, organization and so on. I need to develop characters, their personalities, and skills. I could have several Team Violence groups and I need to do the same for them. Then I can move on to sketch out some plot ideas.

I'm enthusiastic about this project right now, but I have so many other half done projects that maybe I should get some of them out of the way first. 

This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog