Darkness Falls

General Things

Theme:

1. Theme: Proverbs 16:18, KJV, "Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall." Pride is often the result of fear of failure. Fear of not being the best when one actually is the best as Rally Witts is as a painter takes the fear to a whole new level. The theme of Darkness Falls will no doubt have some emotional cross-overs with the movie, Henry, starring Harrison Ford. Being a control freak can make those, who are nearest you to be terribly afraid. When giftedness has been destroyed and rebuilt from scratch, then a greater giftedness with a loving personality can make the hero much greater and better than he originally was.

Unlike Harrison Ford's character, Rally does not start out mean and controlling, he is simply a world-class painter, who actually is better than everybody else, but he is unaware of how much better he is, and with his mind, that remains somewhat concrete even into adulthood, he doesn't understand why everyone can't paint like he does. "It's so simple!" he says, "Just do it!" Rally is truly a natural. He doesn't realize how natural he was as a painter, until his sight is taken away, and he has to learn how to paint without sight from scratch.

2. Resolution: Proverbs 18:24, KJV, “A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.” Many things are found in this theme. Physical blindness can lead to spiritual sight. Not needing others gives way to great improvement through needing others. The sin of premarital sex can be redeemed through Salvation and marriage to the one you love. The one, who knows how topain greatly with his sight can become a grace-filled people, who improves his own skills through teaching his wife many of these skills, while allowing her to give to him through her sight and guidance of his skills. Pride and fear die in the loss of the original skill of painting, while an entirely new skill of painting is learned by Rally & Jessie, both separately and corporately.


Freestyle Brainstorm or Research:


Remember these points from the 1st exercise of "What Ifs."

4. What if this unseen world becomes more real to Rally Witts than his previously sighted world?

5. What if Rally Witts' whole identity is wrapped up in him being able to see? What if blindness causes a deep depression, that causes him to fight for hope to live, hope to create, and joy at the new possibilities in life?

6. What if Rally Witts starts this journey as a self-sufficient atheist, who is transformed into a God-reliant believer, but only after everything else he tries,...fails?

7. What if Jessie Fide, his live-in girlfriend, who is not artistic at all, becomes Rally's hands and eyes to guide him to the canvas, where he teaches her the nuance of paint colors, but every painting is created by his own hands as she tells him where he is on the canvas, since he sees the finished piece of art in his mind?

--------------------------------------------------------------

What if we start the novel with Rally Witts going around the graphics firm asking questions about the "problems with the lighting"? Rally could ask if maintenance has started using bulbs with a lower number of lumens. "Has someone put a sunblock screen on the windows?" "Did someone put a thick UV filter on the computer screens when I wasn't looking?"

How do I establish Rally's skills as an artist with nearly photographic paintings?

How do I show the difference between Rally's amazing skills and his approaching blindness?

How do I begin this story? Do I start when Rally is young and move forward? Or do I start with his amazing career, showing flashbacks of his early years?

Established: Rally Witts is an extraordinary painter for a quarter of a century.
Conflict Incident: When Rally is 25 years old, he loses his sight.
Possible Crutches: Jessie Fide still has her sight. Could she use the skills she does have, like sight and the ability to hand him things, to help Rally develop a career as a blind painter? Use paints with 3D texture and Jessie's sight to help hone the senses he still has, like touch, hearing, and smell to feel his way into excellent art?

How do I build to the conflict incident when the real transformation begins?

How do I describe Rally's nearly photographic painting skills to make him appear world-class compared to other artists with similar skills?

Reopen my Pinterest Account to study realistic paintings to get ideas for Rally Witts' art.


Freestyle Brainstorm, Round 2:


1. What if Rally has to go through this process of reeducating himself as a painter, but completely alone? What if Jessie has "had enough" and doesn't want a handicapped boyfriend? "It was nice while it lasted, but see ya. 'Bye!"

2. What if blindness comes more slowly to Rally? Instead of weeks, the downturn is years long? He starts to lose his edge as a graphic artist, and ultimately loses his career, before he loses his sight. Could this lead to #1 and/or #3?

3. What if it's not really possible to learn to paint as a blind man? What if there are way too many obstacles to the process?

4. What if collaborative painting is discredited from being his own work? "Jessie was your 'eyes.' Ergo, you didn't actually paint the canvas by yourself."

5. It is so hard for me to believe that a gifted person has to sit in a chair and slowly rot until death. I recently saw a video of a young mother with no arms, taking care of her baby and even driving a car with her bare feet.

6. What if a person can lose one sense and compensate for it with all the others to show amazing skill to the world?

7. What if Rally changes disciplines from painting to pottery? This skill seems to lend itself more easily to tactile, rather than visual pursuits.


Market Definition & Narrative Voice Synopsis:


(1) My story type should be considered Therapeutic Fiction or A Hero's Journey Applied.

(2) My target audience is the creative mind, HSP (Highly-Sensitive Person), AD/HD and Autistic, and Young Adult (20 - 35 years old). Rally's defining moment (Losing Sight) comes at age 25yo. This should appeal to individuals just starting out in life to realize, that a devastating event need not destroy one's good life, but simply translate skills into a "new language." Marketing can be best expressed in word of mouth, and word of social media terms. Who knows to go buy a great book, who has not already heard about the book on Friend Sites, (aka Meta, X, Pinterest, etc.)

My 1st major publishing goal is to write a book that my wife likes so much she can't put it down. If my wife likes a book, then it's a Slam Dunk to sell. If my wife likes a book, it's a winner. If my wife doesn't like a book, then it's time to start over.

(3) The synopsis of my novel: "Have you ever had a life that just couldn't get any better? There is nothing wrong with this picture,... until there is. What happens when a child, who is so gifted he has never lost an art contest, grows up to be a partner in a graphic design firm with his name on the marquee on Day 1, but by age 25, he is totally blind? Is there any hope he can succeed in life? Let's find out!"

Literary Devices:


Breaking the Fourth Wall could be used most effectively in this novel. The reader could become symbolic of Rally Witts out-loud processing with his own mind.

Rally's dad, Karl, will become his greatest resource during Rally's pre-Christian days. Karl will continue to be a great support for Rally when he is a Christian. Conversations between Rally and Karl will be most therapeutic for me personally because I still have some things I would like to ask Dad, and he has been with the Lord these 23 years already.

Rally is such a gifted character with an intense ego and pride, clearly, but he is still a broken human being who needs love and respect. Time, processing by himself and with his Dad will be an invaluable source of growth, and future success in his life, and for this story.

Premise Revision:


(1) Settings: Where does your story take place? North Texas near Fort Worth & Dallas. A small parenthesis is in Savannah, Georgia, during his college years. (from #15 - Settings List)

(2) Protagonist: Who is your main character? Rally Witts.
(2b) Flaw: What is the protagonist's major flaw? Pride. Living for self,
apart from the Lord.
(2c) Goal: What does the protagonist want to do? Rally wants to live his
whole life as the world's greatest artist, living in a mansion,
doing whatever he wants to do all day long because of his art.

(3) Conflict: What's keeping him from his goal? His blindness. Will blindness be his undoing or his greatest blessing?

(4) Antagonists: Who and what is creating the conflicts? The personality of Rally's 2nd grade teacher, Mrs. Karen Tumech, turned him into a driven perfectionist. He was never satisfied with even his greatest level of success as a graphic artist. Blindness destroyed him every day, until he was met by Jesus Christ, the Lord. Becoming a Christian gave a better and greater level of sight than he had ever known before. His art was totally transformed, and he fell asleep in the Arms of Jesus as an artist forever.

(5) Resolution: How does it all turn out in the end? Rally & Jessie are transformed into Christians. They get married. They live the rest of their lives as artists, though what kind of artists, and how they make art will be discovered as I write the story.

(6) Theme: What is the theme and moral of the story? Living for Self starts well, but ends badly. Living for the Lord often starts badly, but it always ends well.

(7) Outline: The order of the outline/timeline points can be adjusted, but the main point is that Rally Witts started out life as a proud artist with amazing skills, who needed no one, but himself while sighted, but once he lost his sight, he came to the end of himself, realizing that Only the Lord can make any life truly valuable with giftings, that no human can see without the Vision of the Lord Himself.

Timeline:

1. Begin with the height of his career.
2. Show the disaster incident.
3. Flashback to beginning greatness & Destructive 2nd Grade.
4. Zoom forward to present day, highlighting Rally's rise to greatness.
5. Present Day: Depression and recovery
6. Reassessment of Life: What skills remain & what resources are available to Rally.
7. Transformation: Salvation & New Art in Sanctification
8. Aging & Foundation for Future Generations