As
an aspiring writer, I’m beginning to find inspiration in the oddest
places. I was under the impression I would need to go to the right
places, hang out with the right people or be in the right environment to
become inspired, but I’ve found that none of those things really
matter. I’ve come to the conclusion that inspiration is something that
is deep inside of us, trapped in the cages of our souls like starving,
wild animals who will jump at the first chance at freedom. The only way
that animal can be pardoned is for you to do it yourself; you’re the judge and jury, you hold the key to the dark cell within you and it is your responsibility, your duty,
to let it roam free. The creature inside of me has been laying dormant
for a long time but it is not fueled by food or its own will to survive,
it’s bolstered by insanity.
I can see you rolling
your eyes at this statement, but allow me to explain. For as long as I
can remember, I’ve always been drawn to characters who begin as normal,
functioning human beings living ordinary or socially acceptable lives
until something happens that changes them. It could be a traumatic
experience, such as Harvey Dent, a.k.a. Two Face in The Dark Night, isolation and frustration like Jack Torrance in The Shining, or just being fed up with the world like The Narrator in Fight Club,
I loved watching these characters evolve from respectable people to the
psychotic and sometimes senseless individuals who wreak havoc on their
families or the world at large. These type of characters have dimension
and depth that can’t be compared to your average “sane” character, and
add so much to a story that would average without them. So, when I
started to write my own manuscript, my goal was to have my main
character slowly lose his mind and walk the reader down his path to
insanity.
The story begins with a seemingly normal
college student, who after leaving school for a year, thrusts himself
back into a world that isn’t quite the way he remembered. He feels a
tremendous amount of pressure to right the wrongs he had created but is
plagued by nightmares and a rouge deer who seems to be stalking him,
forcing him to witness its body slowly decaying at every meeting. There
is also a cute, redhead girl named Chloe who berates him and every
opportunity for reasons Eric is unsure of, but his best friend Justin is
trying to make sure they wind up together. All of the fear and pressure
is weighing down on him and causes him to slowly lose touch with
reality as he begins his decent into insanity, while his friends and
girlfriend, Birdie, are doing all they can to steer him on they path
they think is best for him. It culminates into a maze of uncertainty for
Eric, when he finally snaps and has to make a choice that will effect
him and those around him for his remaining days.
Morphing
this character into a psycho had been a lot of fun, and is the
foundation for the writing I want to produce; horror without all the
gore. To me, the human psyche is one of the most terrifying attributes
of people, as it can make us unpredictable and unaware of our actions.
And that’s a lot scarier than a vampire or a zombie because it’s real.
Or maybe I’m just crazy…
