Friend Back from the Dead

 

 

A while back I wrote a blog, entitled A Friend Coming Back From the Dead.  Such an occurrence actually happened to me:  my friend Craig from undergrad was a motorcycle enthusiast who wound up in a coma; the last time I saw him—twenty years ago—I thought he was a goner.  Then, lo and behold, I saw him again.  Talk about a double take!

backWell, you can imagine how this sent me into a tizzy—turbulent emotions overwhelmed me; memories of a time long forgotten flooded my consciousness:  nostalgia, horror, pain—these emotions mixed in whirls and swirls.  This can either be good or bad, depending upon the situation.  For me, it was good:  cathartic and bracing and optimistic.  I was ecstatic Craig managed to come out on the other end alive.  But I can see how the return of a friend from the past can also really suck:  dark and ugly and terrifying.  In either case, this is exactly the kind of situation that will make a narrative take off.  It’s a major plot-maker.

A Friend Back From the Dead scenario also is a great characterization exercise.  This point was made by Margot Kinberg who, like me, writes detective fiction. Responding to my blog, Margot pointed out that a friend back from the dead “can give such interesting backstory on a protagonist and can add a layer of interest in and of themselves.”  So, if you’re stuck, if you don’t know what you really want out of a character, if you just feel like you don’t have a hold of motivations, than this is the exercise for you: write out a short scene in which a friend comes back from the dead.

If you do this, you might consider some of these factors:

1)    What does that friend want?

2)    What secret does he know?

3)    How can he wreck your character?

4)    How can he save your character?

5)    What kind of revenge can he exact?

6)    Who loses and who wins when this wildcard emerges?

7)    What kind of monkey wrench can he throw into the works?

8)    How will this destroy friendship?

9)    How will this strengthen love?

10) How will this incite justice?

There are many great novels—classics–that use this as the starting point for their narratives. The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy is one such example; when Susan, the long-lost wife of a successful man, reappears, her arrival throws his entire world into upheaval—including his marriage plans.  But even more recently, Kill Bill by Quentin Tarantino told the story of a young lady who awakes from a coma and goes on a revenge-seeking bloody rampage.

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As an exercise, then, this will give you not only a character but, also, a plot.  If you’re weak on plots, this will furnish you with a plot that should write itself.  Additionally, it will throw the contours of your character’s world into wild relief.  You could do well, though, to write this as something beyond a simple exercise.   If you’re having trouble thinking about which friend to bring back to life, ask yourself this:  Who is the last person you want to see?  Who would give you the willies if they turned up at your door?  Who would tap you on the shoulder and make you leap out of your skin?

2 thoughts on “Friend Back from the Dead

  1. Khanh – Thanks very much for the mention. That’s kind of you. And I really like this ‘friend back from the dead’ exercise. What a way to get a perspective on that character and on the protagonist. You’re right too that there is a lot of fiction in which that very thing happens. When it does, it can take the narrative in a number of directions.

    • Margot–I’m about to put up a review of a James Lee Burke novel that uses this element, though the friend exists in that nebulous realm as a real thing or perhaps a voodoo specter…and the friend is really a nemesis…so this technique can become really embroidered and turned into an advanced writing exercise on a master level.

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