Private Writing Planning

 Chapter 1 Implicit promise .  One emotional, one intellectual.  Emotional=read this and you'll be thrilled or scared or entertained or saddened or whatever, but it will act upon your emotions.  Intellectual= one of three types.  1. Read this and you'll see this world from a different perspective.  2. Read this and you'll have confirmed what you already want to believe about this world.  3. Read this and you'll learn of a different, more interesting world than this.  Note: 3 can be on its own OR coexist with either 1 or 2.  Examples: A romance promises to entertain and titillate (emotional promise), to confirm our belief that love conquers all (intellectual 2), and to transport us to a more glamorous world (intellectual 3). A mystery novel promises an entertaining intellectual challenge (emotional), confirmations that the human mind can understand events, the satisfaction of justice, and insights into human nature (2, 3). A literary novel (i....

 I managed to track down a copy of Freakwave, this subversive British comic from the '80s about a post-apocalyptic world where the ice caps have melted and dry land is few and far between. It follows the exploits of a lone windsurfer known as The Drifter as he searches the treacherous seas for the villainous Captain Roaring, who he blames for the death of his lost love. It's pretty good. I'm really trying to take inspiration from the freewheeling way it seems to almost disregard plot-- it's a Joycean comic in that way. The first couple issues are pretty standard, but it quickly takes on more of a postmodern tone with frequent seemingly unrelated storylines, fragments of stories about which nothing else is told, and changes in style and register.  In any event, I don't think it really found much of an audience 40 years ago, but it definitely has built a small but vocal internet following now. Is that what I want: a small but vocal internet following? Hell, I'd se...

 I find myself at work, yet again. It is Monday- a detail I glean from the kitschy kitten calendar that hangs on the corkboard hanging above my desk. I have no memory of purchasing the calendar, just like I have no memory of being hired at this office. It is, I presume, an office, based on the uniform beige carpet, the rows of cheap particle board cubicles which line it stretching into the middle distance. I inhabit one of these box-like cubicles, and it occurs to me that, like Schrödinger's Cat, I am unable to conclusively determine whether I am alive or dead without the intervention of an outside observer.  This life-changing revelation quickly fades into the background of my mind as I turn my attention to the only other occupant of my cubicle/prison: a blocky tan Commodore Amiga 3000 computer, complete with CRT monitor and corded mouse. My gaze is drawn to the flickering image that takes up the majority of the screen: it displays an iconographic representation of a tree....

 Thread One: Young woman (nun?) has visions proclaiming to her that she is the reincarnated Christ, the second coming of Jesus that has been long prophesied in major Abrahamic faiths. The woman is hesitant to accept this, but comes to believe that it is true. Propped up by a longtime Mother Superior with somewhat impure motives (i.e. power, revenge on the male hierarchy which has excluded women from positions of equal power for thousands of years), she gains a small but vocal following to her new Church of the Fulfillment of the Word of God (Fulfillment Church, C of F, etc.). The Church comes to believe that, in order for the Final Judgement to come about, the New Christ must follow Her spiritual revelations (i.e. visions from God) to the completion of the Divine Plan. What this actually entails remains shrouded in mystery, including to the New Christ. Unlike the Gospel accounts of Jesus, Her mission remains somewhat unclear to her and her divine nature does not fully reveal itself...