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My WIP project has the (awful) working title of Twosoe. I’ll change it eventually, but it works to keep me focused. The story came from the idea that it’s basically impossible to write a story of any substance with only one character. Even Defoe gave up and introduced Friday halfway through Robinson Crusoe. So why not just start out with two characters?

It’s an action/adventure set in the present day. I started it around 3 years ago and I’m very happy with what I’ve written so far. In Act 1, two friends go SCUBA diving. One is an experienced diver, and the other is on his first ever dive. When they surface, the boat is gone. They’re stranded and must swim to the nearest island. Act 2 deals with basic survival. The experienced diver is also a trained survivalist. The friend is not. This causes friction, because in the normal dynamics of their friendship, the friend is the alpha and the diver/survivalist is the sidekick. Act 2 concludes with the friendship dissolving. The sidekick is insecure and resents the role reversal while the survivalist feels unappreciated for the effort he’s put into keeping them alive. Act 3 is open warfare between the two while simultaneously attempting to get rescued.

I’m about 10,000 words in and I’m in the middle of Act 2. It’s a story that started as a short story and started to evolve into a novel before I reigned it in and it will likely be a novella if I complete it. The story is autobigrapical in some ways, but only very loosely. I do dive, and I am a trained survivalist. I successfully completed one of the most rigorous survival training programs in the country – the course was far more challenging than nearly anything I ever did in the Army, for example. Setting something like that in the Caribbean as opposed to a temperate woodland forest intrigues me.

The problem is the story idea came at a time when I had a falling out with a friend of over 20 years. The character is not based on him (he’d never go diving in the first place, for example) but the anger I had at him fueled the story. Yet by the time I got to the falling out in the story, I’d processed all the anger in my personal life and moved on. Some people write to exorcise personal demons, but that’s not me. I’m just trying to tell good stories. Going back and revisiting that time in my life isn’t something I care to do – I’m just not interested in that kind of negativity. I’ve largely created a life free of drama, and I’m not interested in manufacturing any.

The first draft has been marked private but I’ll ease the restrictions in case anyone cares to read an incomplete first draft. "Twosoe"  As for how the group can help, I'm open to suggestions. Is it worth continuing? If so, how do I recapture the motivation? I'm not opposed to a diving trip!

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