When I was at my best writing I was developing characters on a daily basis. I want to get back to that level of competency and creative output. I think the best way to start is for me to start creating lives. By that I mean it is time to reopen the idea archive and start to produce characters and story threads. Tonight is character night. His name is Elden Taylor
Elden is a black man born in northern Utah to parents who practiced the Mormon faith. Elden saw what his parents saw growing up. He saw a town, Grouse Creek, that practiced the faith but saw little value in black people. He saw the constant struggle they went through to maintain their business. He saw the further struggle best emphasized by the tragedy of his mother losing the ability to bear children after she had him. Already an outcast amongst the mothers of the faith this fresh failure led her further down a road of depression and, conversely, deeper into her reliance on her faith. It is for these reasons that Elden, a smart boy and solid athlete, opted to turn down his scholarship to BYU. He left behind the few friends that tolerated his difference, climbed into his car, and drove.
He headed east. He took the trail that settlers rode but in the opposite direction. He drove for twenty three hours, stopping only for gas and whatever fast food he could find at the stations. Finally, he found himself in Wildoak, just south of Shreveport, Louisiana. He didn’t have a plan, he didn’t have a job, and he hardly had the money to last a week.
Still, he had something he hadn’t since he was a small boy: Possibility.