The Boy and his father (the Spook)

The Spook is a father. Cigar.

He's developed quite a bit from his initial appearance in the script version (2004). Has he mellowed with age (5 years)?

Now I need to re-view the outline with this change (or revelation) in mind.

The work of 20 Mar 2009.

Off the top of my head, here are the issues before I take a look at the outline.

Conflicts, Challenges

• Manage a lot of details --map who knows what when


• I will need to track his compartmentalizations


• Wash DC is not a good place for him--too close to Langley


• La Fuente needs to reveal that she knows his father. Can she?

Benefits

• Tightens the story scope


• Solves the coincidence problem


• Steers the reader in a plausible direction, but off course


• Boy's description of father does double duty

How does the boy's father factor into his narration?

1. What does he know?


2. The compartmentalization throws the reader off course


3. The boy may actually see his father--narration must establish foundation


4. Was there ever a slip made by (the Spook as) father in front of the boy?


5. Needed to divorce wife to maintain cover

Here is the truth. The Spook is not his father, but the father character that the Spook has created is. It is necessary to create a father char and to use him for the boy--until there is overlap. And the gap closes (if that scene will exist) with a thunderclap.

What does the boy's father do? Western Union? I like the idea of something corporate to hide his travel.

Western Union, Lawrence Livermore Lab, Los Alamos, General Electric, Shell, Chevron, ExxonMobil.

Cover job--but he may even work there rather than having to lie. He needs to lie as infrequently as possible so that he doesn't lose track.

Did the Spook take on the ID of a former student at St Parmenides? Someone who died in Panama? Was the helicopter crash a fabrication to create another identity? The boy (still) was in St Parm.

Before and after the Spook joined the CIA? No. The Spook was born that way. He had his wife artificially inseminated to cover his trail. This calls into question, how did he get married in the first place? Shit. Another day, another new timeline.

By making, molding the Spook into the role of the father, he has been pulled in to the most central position in the work. The most--perhaps more central than LSPA, since a familial bond implies much more beyond his actual words.

Beatriz

What does the boy remember of his mother? How did she die? According to the father?

How did she meet the Spook? What's her relationship to LSPA? To LaFuente and el Patroncito, to the Spook as father? To the boy? To the dogs?

At this point, I'll admit it. I know many details and I know nothing about the progression of any of these chars. Beyond the most obvious ones.

I need to take one naive pass at a map of reveral and recognition.

Reversal

The unspoken element is a buildup of expectation both within the char and from the narration to support a concrete direction the reader can believe in. Then when the direction is reversed it is felt by the reader.

Recognition

What does the character learn about his or her context? Whwat awareness does he develop? The narrational question becomes How? How does the reader become aware of the char's recognition?