There’s a thought in my head I’m trying to exorcise via storytelling. It’s kind of dumb, and in reality, more than just a single thought. More of a conflux of ideas all tangled up into a ball. As a daily exorcise I’m sitting and writing around these ideas using outlines, scenework, poetry… really anything I can think of… in hopes that something shakes loose. Either the ball of ideas starts to make sense, or they untangle into different ideas that can be executed into a simple format, or I just get bored and can move on from this ball to something completely new.

For now, I continue to circle the story. Like a blind lion trying to find its next meal.

So what is this mess? It’s a slasher. Or, well not a slasher really, but it’s about a slasher. A woman named SUZIE WITH THE SCARS. A tragic figure who had a bummer of an origin story, leading her to an endless cycle of murder to try and exorcise that past. This was actually my original thread. A desire to bring an audience as close as possible to championing the actions of a gruesome killer. Something akin to what Nabokov does with Lolita. Charming the pants off the reader with a protagonist who happens to be despicable. That level of confusion was the goal. But then, well… more threads appeared. Mainly, the idea of taking a figure like Suzie and putting her in a situation where she could become a hero based on unique circumstances. Namely, introduce scarier monsters than Suzie, and let her become something akin to humanity’s best chance at survival.

Now, this thread has spawned a number of other smaller sections of that ball. What monsters? Literal ones from the center of the earth? Aliens? Ghosts? What mashup will make the story sing? Also, from what perspective is this story told? I initially imagined a Terrance Malick style VO throughout from Suzie’s point of view, something akin to Badlands. But now I’m tinkering with a more third-person perspective. Allowing this narration to unfold from one of the people Suzie is protecting from the newly introduced monsters.

You can see the ball grow. So I circle and circle. Taking shots at the story. Trying to look from new angles until it magically forms through some new lens.

The good news. This is the work. This is the work of storytelling. This is the work that I love to do. Circles on circles. Circles on circles. Circles on circles.