Once Upon A Time

So I finally finished writing a short story that I started nearly a year ago and I guess I should introduce it first before just putting it out there. It is a story about the afterlife, or at least one possibility concerning what happens after we die. I should make it clear that the afterlife I came up is not one that I actually believe in (I do not believe in any afterlife at all) but I thought it be an interesting jumping off point for a story.

I got my initial inspiration from a movie called The Lovely Bones which is based on a book of the same name (I have not read the book). In the movie a teenage girl is murdered, and from an ethereal heavenly place, observes her family as they try to comes to grips with her death and search for her killer. Not the happiest of movies, but it was written and directed by Peter Jackson, who happens to be one of my favorite filmmakers. Anyway, an idea popped into my head concerning the afterlife: a man in a room whose job was to deal with the deceased. No pearly gates, no old man with a big white beard, no judgment. Just a man in a room.

Although initially conceived as an interaction between a taunting, malicious gate keeper and an innocent, recently-deceased person, when it came time to actually writing the story the character of the man behind the door changed to a much kinder, helpful man. The change from malevolent antagonist to caring protagonist came about because I was interested more in exploring the philosophical questions such a scenario would raise and less in having a fun villain.

As I mentioned earlier, it has taken me almost a year to finish. A lot of that has to do with because I am lazy, but also because it evolved quite a lot from the initial story I worked out after watching The Lovely Bones. The first draft did not have much philosophical banter. Instead, it was a lot of Q-and-A between the two characters. While I found this personally interesting because I was having fun with determining (my own) rules that made up the story's universe, I realized this did not make a very good story.

As I was editing and rewriting, I found that I had not actually given much thought to many of the philosophical issues the two characters discuss, and I had to discover for myself what views and opinions I had about existence. Though that was challenging, the hardest part was actually coming up with a name for the story. For a while I went with "The Man in the Room" but I decided to change it because ultimately the story is about more than just the man in the room. I ended up going with "The Next Door" though I still am not completely satisfied. But so far it is the best name I could come up with.

Because the story is rather long for a single blog post, I will be dividing it into three entries. The first part will be post later tonight, the second on Friday and the third on Saturday. I would love to get some feedback, so feel free to comment/critique. And yes, there will inevitably be grammar, punctuation and spelling errors, so I would prefer a bit more constructive criticism beyond that.

Until next time, Orange Hat Guy