Project 30 Challenge day 6
Progress report
Just 10 minutes of writing today, but I did cross 2k, which was nice. I've been going for a walk every day alongside this challenge, and it is simultaneously helping me plan by giving me the mental space to think, but also wearing me out before I can get the writing done once I'm back.
I think I’m getting close to the end of the first chapter, as I’m getting close to a big change in situation. Once that change happens, then we’re off to the ballgame, so to speak. I'm excited to see what that looks like.
Factoid
One thing I’ve been thinking about while planning the foil character Roselia will find, at about the 10% mark, is that he comes from a different universe than Roselia. Not just metaphorically, in that she’s from a religious order that avoids violences and he’s a soldier who has known nothing but violence, but also physically. I’m still working on how I want all this to go, but it feels like there needs to be even more distance between them to really look at the problem from all angles. Because in Roselia’s world/universe, the deity is well known and easily accessible, with less space to take things fully on faith because there are plenty of instances of proof. But if he’s going to push back against her beliefs, then he needs to be a complete stranger to those beliefs, from a place that doesn't have the luxury of proof over faith (more like ours). The kind that would say “you believe in magic trees?” and not understand the deeper, underlying belief system.
Inspiration – Soldier
I had thought I’d written about one of my favorite movies on here before, but looking back at my posts I don’t think I have, it must have been with my writing group. So it’s time to briefly introduce you to the 1998 sci fi action flick starring Kurt Russell, called Soldier. On the surface it is a pretty standard 90s action movie about a soldier trained from birth to be the perfect killing machine, only for a new model to come in and make him obsolete, leading to him being dumped on a trash planet where he finds a group of peaceful people stranded but thriving. Underneath the action, there’s a heart-wrenching story of PTSD, war trauma, and understand. One scene in particular, shortly after Russell's character Todd is exiled by the peaceful people because all they see is his violence when he's doing everything he can to fit in but struggling with PTSD, guts me every time.
The emotional arc of Todd is such a powerful one, and something I would like to emulate in my own writing with the upcoming and currently unnamed foil character opposite Roselia.
Thoughts to share? I have a contact page now!