It’s been almost two months since I began legitimate progress on my Janus project. The fictitious city is rapidly becoming a fully flushed out and developed locale for my characters to roam. I am pleased with how far along I am however there has been about a week of inactivity on the project, and this morning I began to understand why.
In case you didn’t get the picture from that first paragraph, this entry is more insights to the writing process so if that isn’t your thing you can skip this entry. I will eventually get to that procrastination one someday ;).
Janus presently is a story that has focused primarily through a man named Seth Ambrose. He’s been charged with a job from his shady employer to locate a missing person. The job would bring him to the Newfoundlands capital. When told that the global corporate powerhouse Rossi Industries may be involved he wanted nothing to do with it.
This job isn’t about money though, Ambrose ends up on a plane to Newfoundland when he finds out the true prize. This missing person could be the key to finding a treatment for a deadly condition that has afflicted his sister. Teamed up with an old friend from his past, he discovers there is a lot more going on in Janus than he could ever have predicted…
Janus, the city of two-faces. Named for its economic growth, political stability giving it a very family friendly atmosphere… yet it still has one of the highest crime rates in the country and home to very shady business practices.
…
Alright so here’s my problem. I know what’s going to happen to Seth, I know the revelations he’s coming to uncover and the epiphany(s) he may or may not end up having as a result of these events. I know who’s the “bad” guy and the details of the hidden agendas or everyone in the entire city. There’s already been some supernatural events happening, either that or Seth is losing his mind…
But trying not to be to disconnected in this entry but it’s in trying to describe this sensation that I realized that I’ve Shyamalan’d myself.
Allow me to explain.
I was a huge fan of the Sixth Sense. You remember that one right? Back in 1999 when M. Night Shyamalan was a very exciting up and comer in the business coming strong out the gate with this film. The twist at the end was just so out there and fresh that I can’t think of any of my peers that were able to figure it out beforehand… (that is a feat in and of itself)
To watch the Sixth Sense now I would imagine that it still holds up okay (I’ll have to get back to you guys on this one).. but unfortunately that was the beginning and the end of Night’s credibility. There was always something about his films that didn’t sit right with me. The Village was a little eerie as well with a pretty good twist (albeit much more credible than Sixth Sense).. but from that there was no looking back.
Watching Unbreakable, Signs, Lady in the Water, The Happening… It seems to me that Shyamalan puts more effort into his plot twists; effort that should be concentrated on the plot itself. It wasn’t so obvious in Sense or Unbreakable but I truly believe that Shyamalan created the characters, followed by the plot twists, concluded by expanding on the twists to make a cohesive plot.
If this is in fact true then I give him kudos to him because it gave us with a very good film (Sixth Sense) but the difficulty in making a compelling story when you’re basically just expanding on your twists can’t be easy….
This of course brings me to right now. I just concluded a portion of the Janus project that is satisfactory (until a re-edit) and the characters are now safe, out of danger… they need to soak in the recent events and knowledge and plan what the next step is… um, but unfortunately they don’t know what it is right now.. nor do I.
I know the emotion and sentiment I want to expose in these characters, I know what’s going to happen to challenge them mentally and physically.. I don’t know what to do to get them out of the damn house to keep this story going…
Hummm, maybe I should make something come to them instead.. maybe it’s time to introduce a little more antagonist to this stor…..
Alright, sorry I got to go. I think I may have actually just solved my own problem. Thank you again World Is Broken, you saved me again.
…. now if only I can get MS Word to work.
The World Is Broken 