I’m giving it a try. In the previous post I was working through some thoughts on serial fiction, and I guess I talked myself into it.
I’m calling it “til you make it.” Expect short scenes, character sketches and other random character and world-building work. It’s less like a finished piece of fiction and more like a chance to watch my form of fiction development happen in real time. I will try to make each episode at least somewhat entertaining, though.
At least for now the character is named Jake. I’m vaguely imagining someone in his late 20s or early 30s who is passionate about art, is great at listening and giving advice to others, and also is a prolific liar. I’m trying not to prescribe too many strict character details at the moment because I want things to emerge through writing these episodes.
In the first episode, he is entertaining Chloe in his living room and tries to impress her by telling a story about how his great aunt was the inspiration for the song My Little Red Book by Love, but then is forced to quickly change the subject when Chloe knows more about the song than he expected. The most intriguing moment for me as the writer was when Jake got physically excited when Chloe mentioned that each of the charms on the bracelet she got from her great aunt has a story. He desperately wants to hear these stories, and it’s crushing when she says she doesn’t know them. This is a person who is drawn to stories to an almost irrational degree. I have hope that this dynamic will evolve into moments that could be funny, beautiful, or tragic.
I am a little worried about writing about a liar. I briefly considered writing in first person, but I didn’t love the idea of constantly toying with the unreliable narrator thing where readers don’t know if they are being lied to at any point. I may try a first person episode at some point if I get a good idea, but I feel like there’s more potential to see the beauty behind the flaws in a lying character with a close third person. It felt good in episode 1.
There’s also the problem that people do not generally like liars. However, I accept this challenge. I am fascinated by regular people who are compelled to fabricate stories. I hesitate to use the term “pathological liar” because I don’t want to phychoanalyze my character in that way (at least not at this time), but I have known a couple people who constantly lied, often about mundane things. They hurt people and had trouble maintaining relationships, but could also be wonderful. I will probably need to write more about them in a future post.