I have been bouncing backwards and forwards between writing new things and returning to a story I wrote in the week we did Place and Setting, about a girl who becomes haunted by an apparition of her own mind due to her mental decline. I have since researched schizophrenia, and delved into the type of treatments it require after presenting this idea to my seminar group. I thought I would jot down some elements of the story to see where I can get with it.
I do however keep changing my mind about various things; is she haunted or is it schizophrenia? Do I tell a reader it is schizophrenia? Do the parents divorce? Die? Does it matter?
Below are some brief notes–
FINAL STORY IDEA:
STORYLINE:
Abigail’s parent’s separation results in her being haunted by an apparition of her own mind. The apparition is a future version of herself, bedraggled and frightening looking? She thinks she is haunted, but she is haunted by herself; by her own mental trauma. Is she diagnosed with (Paranoid?) Schizophrenia at the end? Does she have to live with it? Cf. “Digging Deeper” for why she sees the apparition.
TRANSFORMATION-
Slow, unknowing transformation from a mentally stable person to one who is not, physically and mentally portrayed.
PLACE & SETTING:
Her house, her university?
Her room is safe, everywhere else is not. Does the haunting infiltrate her room, the only place she feels safe? This could add to the horror!
CHARACTER:
THE FIRST THING WE GAGE: –
Physical appearance – blonde, young, like Sharon Tate (how I imagine her. She is buttery and innocent and golden in the beginning, but becomes bedraggled and worn. Maybe her hair can become a more light browny-grey; she is more scary).
Clothes – flouncy, pale colours (innocence), becoming mere blacks and whites to convey her mental decline.
Props – house??
Mannerisms – hand through hair? After her decline, she can run her hand through her hair and it gets caught in tangles, to convey her mental abandonment of her physical self.
Voice gait – buttery and warm, becomes strained and thirsty.
THE SECOND THING WE GAGE FROM CHARACTERS WHEN WE MEET THEM: –
Name, where they live, studies, works
Profession
Hobbies/interests/tastes – Music; she could play music and is not haunted when she does, but when she stops she is haunted again.
Passions
Habits
Politics and beliefs
Family and social background – parents getting divorced and completely oblivious to her needs
Love life status – she could kiss someone and the apparition she sees is behind him when she opens her eyes!
Gender/sexuality
Accent/voice
Friendship groups
Philosophy of life – half full, half empty? Passionate and bold and kind, half full – becomes frightened, despairing, sad
UNDERLYING PRIVACIES/hidden depths: –
Traumatising experiences
Insecurities – and why they are there
Memories
Past experiences
Desires
Fears
What holds them back?
Hidden shame, guilt, passions
Weaknesses
How do they appear vs how they actually are?
Secrets
POINT OF VIEW-
All in her point of view until the very end; we are locked in her perspective, so we do not realise the apparition is only real to her.
OBJECT AND EMOTION-
House is the object that evokes her emotions; the house mirrors her own body and mental decline. Perhaps her room can deteriorate like the rest of the house as her mental state does?
STRUCTURE:
Does it start in the house, when she is happy?
Finishing Touch – Claire Louise Bennet = the character has no name nor gender but we can absolutely understand what defines them by their relationship with objects (Ottoman is a container; she contains the story within it)
- I love this idea, but my story must be in third person with a heterogenic narrator because the readers are locked in Abigail’s perspective until the very end, when I, as a writer, need to easily be able to switch to an external perspective, in a non-obvious manner. However, I want to use objects and Abigail’s interaction with them to move the story along, and potentially make it more haunting. Eg. the house as expressed during the ‘digging deeper’ week.
Strange Little Stories 