In Episode 1 of The Masterwork Experiment, Shawn Coyne and I discussed the parameters of the experiment. I’m supposed to break Annie Proulx’s 10,500 word long-short story into its component scenes, and later into its beats.
Beats are the sub-parts of scenes. I don’t understand them yet, but Shawn has described them as “units of change.” So a story the length of Brokeback Mountain could have well over 100 beats. Some beats contain change, and some are transitional: passages of exposition or description.
Then I’m supposed to write my own story, set in Regency England, using exactly all the same beats–presumably in exactly the same order.
Naturally, I talked to Shawn about the project well before our first recording session. Not all the parameters of the experiment were clear at that time, and I started writing down the wrong path. The characters I chose were of the upper classes, and Thing One about Brokeback is that both characters are poor. The stakes for keeping their rough jobs are high.
So I started again, digging into Restraint to find minor, working-class characters that I could expand on.
This isn’t unlike writing fanfic of my own book! I found Matthew Barber and Josiah Wilton mentioned in the newspaper article that Marchbanks reads in Chapter 6, about the execution of Robbie Neighbour for sodomy, and thought: I wonder what they were like.
Sadly, Matthew Barber and Josiah Wilton were the guys who turned King’s evidence against the accused in exchange for leniency…so I’ll probably need to rename and re-cast them.
But it was a starting point.
As to Danebury Hill, it’s a human-made, or at least human-enhanced neolithic hill fort in the county of Hampshire, not far from Winchester. Since there are no mountains to speak of in England, I thought I’d select a notable hill–and one that plays an important role in Restraint.
Here are my character thoughts so far:
In Brokeback Mountain
In Danebury Hill
Ennis is a 9th-grade educated ranch hand in small-town Wyoming in 1963.
The name Ennis is Gaelic for “island,” and Del Mar means “of the sea” in Spanish. And though no man is an island, Ennis Del Mar tries his best to be utterly self-contained.
This is Heath Ledger as Ennis in the glorious film adaptation written by Dianna Osana and Larry McMurtry and directed by the master of emotional restraint, Ang Lee.
Matty’s an introverted young footman in an English stately home in 1810.
I’m a little limited in symbolic names for my historical English characters: that world was filled with Charleses, Johns, Jameses and Georges. I’m kind of hooked on “Matty” already, and changing a character’s name is really hard! But I’m thinking about it.
Matty in my mind is pale, squarely-built and of medium height. Still hunting for an image. Open to suggestions!
Jack is a cowboy from a small town on the other side of Wyoming. He aspires to rodeo stardom, but works odd jobs in order to eat.
“Twist” is a real surname, “possibly a metonymic occupational name for someone in the cotton-spinning industry, whose responsibility was to combine threads into a strong cord, a sense of twist recorded from the 16th century.”
Jack puts a decided twist into Ennis’s life, and does his best to bind himself and Ennis together.
This is Jake Gyllenhaal as Jack Twist in the movie.
Josey is something of a drifter who loves horses and manages to become a stable-hand at Lady TK’s estate.
Josiah is a Hebrew name meaning “Fire of the Lord.” I have no idea (yet) how that’s going to play out.
This is Scottish actor Jack Lowden. I think I’ll be picturing him as I write, though I might make his hair redder.