I’m in the preliminary stages of breaking a story for the first time in months.

It was the booze that did me in; but that’s neither hear nor there…

As an exercise I decided to write the steps I’ve gone through so far.

Let’s start.

Currently I’m smitten over a broad that is, quite possibly, as close to perfect as it gets. Problem is that I don’t have a shot, so I asked myself a question, “How far would you go for someone because you think you love them?”

Okay, I got a theme; now I’m rolling. It may be an age old theme, but remember: it’s not the clay but what you make with it.

Anyway, a working title pops into my head. “Hell and Back.” It’s been used before but fuck it - it’s just a working title.

So we got a guy and he’s just taken by a woman, but he hasn’t had a chance to do anything before she’s stolen from him.

They must know each other, right? If he didn’t, he would give fuck-all. Okay, so they’re sort of friends. They have a good time but mostly in work and social settings. Sound familiar? Yup, I’m drawing from my life.

So what happens to her? I think of my working title. She gets sent to Hell. Okay, but how? She can’t die and go; that would make her an evil cunt. Besides, then you gotta figure out how he gets there and how they get back (I really don’t feel like going too mystic on this one).

Kidnapped? Hmmm. Taken? Like it. Taken how?

That’s a problem. And for that matter, how the fuck do they know each other? It has to be some work thing.

Like I said, don’t feel mystic on this one so let’s go science. The obvious answer is a gate has been open. Military? Nah, too Stargate. Besides, our guy can be one of three things in that scenario; scientist/paper-pusher type, soldier or grunt (cafeteria, cleaning guy, etc).

I’m not even getting into her yet, by the way.

I wasn’t feeling it for some reason.

The basic premise is fine, but something was off. So I sat back and built Hell. Building worlds was always easy for me.

This won’t be your typical Hell. I was thinking something along the lines of a different, more brutal world than our own. That got me moving towards dimensional travel; which works because then I can fuck with space and time.

Perhaps the Divine Comedy was based on a real place that can be reached?

That’s when it hit me. Don’t make it contemporary, set it in France around 1920-30. That way we could have him be an assistant to a scientist and not be too educated; I can relate better to that guy than the super nerd, the badass soldier or some faceless schmo. Besides, I feel like it’s a more romantic time period.

Works for me.

Okay, now I’m left with fleshing out the main characters, the rest of the story, the end, supporting characters and an antagonist.

But I’m moving nicely with a VERY powerful theme. Our hero will leap through the horrifying jaws of Hell into a place that will most certainly destroy him simply to see her face one more time.

This is where it gets fun…