So it all started with this dream.[1] In most of my dreams I am "me", i.e., Buzz Dixon. But in a few I'm someone else, a character in a mini-movie.
This was one of those dreams.
I don't want to spoil the story by giving too much away, but in the dream I and a companion were traveling the rural back roads at night, not wanting to run afoul of any authority figures.
We drove through corn fields and saw people wandering through them in the middle of the night, clearly not workers, moving without apparent purpose.
We reached a town brilliantly lit by flood lights, and we realized there was no way we could turn around without attracting attention to ourselves.
My companion told me (i.e., the dream character, who was apparently in late adolescence / early adulthood) to go find out what was going on.
A command post of some kind had been set up in a church. I entered the church, saw a teenage girl going into the restroom, and followed her.
I drew a gun and began asking questions.[2]
I woke up, and unlike most dreams this one stayed vivid in my memory all day.
So of course I had to write it down.
But as I was writing it down, questions began sprouting in my mind. Why did the girl act the way she did? What was I and my companion running from? The uproar in the town was about a missing person; who was that person and why were they important?
And then the Big Reveal hit me; and with the Big Reveal I knew who my character was[3], and I knew why they were on the run, and I knew why the people were wandering aimlessly in the corn.
And the more layers I peeled back, the richer and deeper -- and more mysterious -- the story became.
I'm about 25% of the way into it now. I know where it's going. I know who has to show up, what scenes have to be played out.
And we'll get there.
Even though I'm writing it in five minute chunks every now and then.
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[1] Relax; I am not turning this into a dream blog.
[2] What happened next? Well, suffice it to say it surprised even my character in the dream. I'm not posting more than this 'cuz I want the readers to be surprised, too.
[3] Even if my character didn't know it.