TGOF Vol One: Wingless Flight
This is a blueprint. Not saying it’s exact or perfect or anything but, ‘mine’.
Opening scene:
· Story is written in reverse order
· Main character, ‘Flash Bastion’ is at the holy mountain of God
· This is his second time ascending this holy hillock
· This is the single most sacred spot on earth
· This is the place where God himself touched the earth
· This is the place where God sketched out words and wrote them with his finger in stone
· This man, former and now deposed Pastor of a large mega-church was “The Chosen One”
· This man, through the machinations of evil and the ill-temperament of overly zealous and ill-informed religious people lost his way
· Decides to head back to the holy mountain of God and answer the riddle
· The riddle: if a person, presses their faith presumptions to their illegal limits will God act in like manner
· The question that has gnawed and tugged at his soul: “Will God Catch the Faith Leapers?”
· Flash Bastion decides that he will take, “The Leap of Faith!”
· He launches himself into the darkness backwards off of the tippy top of the holy mountain of God to find his answer
That’s the opening scene. The scene took me months to write and recast and rethink and then complete.
Some Lessons to Learn By for Opening Scenes:
· Dramatic effect vs. ticking and tugging questions
· Clear and defined boundaries: think through and carefully craft the imagery
· Standard bearer vs. icon clashed
· Tension and disturbance of some force or some Uber or mighty power
· Devalued and/or dismissed characters deciding that life simply must change…and that they in some small or large way will be (at least one of) a change agent
· Intrigue and mystery: these have to whet the appetite of the reader, the viewer or the hearer
· Think of: “The Pull of Moon on Tides” and how to bring that kind of organic squeeze that shifts oceans into the discussion
· Tempo: either quick or very S L O W or moderate or insufferable
The opening scene. You are a boxer. You are a pugilist. You are an MMA Fighter. You are a songstress on a stage staring down your moment of destiny. How will you begin?
Travel Far.
Steve Bonenberger