Dec. 19, 2022: Progress Meter: WIP, Title To Be Decided. Been wrestling with the story. Now writing a treatment with some new ideas that FINALLY hit me this weekend. This thing may be a trilogy yet, or at least a couple of novels. That’s what I had in mind when I set out on this journey.
Progress Meter for WIP: The Way to Gethsemane, a new treatment. Diving deeper into the story, a trilogy, perhaps. That’s what I had in mind from the first. Had some new ideas this weekend, going into the Fourth Week of Advent. Still working with it like clay.3121 of 50000 words. 6% done!
July 3, 2022: About that Roman garrison that’s in draft one: Ixnay on atthay, unless this thing morphs into a time travel sci fi novel, because I learned in my research yesterday that (maybe) the garrison wasn’t there until the second century. Dang it.
Progress Meter: The Way to Gethsemane, Draft 2June 1, 2022: Re-write of the novel’s rough draft has officially begun. Current title: The Way to Gethsemane. New cover above. Progress meter below. And below that, links to the original rough draft pages, still up so we can see how far I’ve come (or not) when I finish this version. There are some things that will not be making an appearance in the re-vision. That time thing, for example. It got away from me almost immediately. Seemed like such a good idea at the time. Ha! Oh, well.
I’m trying something different, and have changed the title, too. I never did like the original ending, too much took place off-camera, as it were. So this re-write really is a re-write, a new story altogether. And no one has jumped on a horse or camel or any other animal to run back to the place from which they ran away in the previous scene for no apparent reason yet, you’ll be glad to know. I certainly was.
A Journey TOC Complete. (This is the original rough draft. I’m completely re-writing it now from the ground up. See the above notes on the new draft.)
New chapters were written and posted on Mondays and Thursdays.
- Part 1, A young man remembers an encounter with someone from his past who could change his future.
- Part 2, Our young man is seeking God and hopes to find Him in the desert.
- Part 3, A new friend joins our young man on a journey into the desert.
- Part 4, The desert visit is cut short, news arrives that certain parties are plotting against a rabbi.
- Part 5, A summons from the Council creates fear.
- Part 6, An invitation from a tentmaker.
- Part 7, Dinner with the tentmaker.
- Part 8, Dinner with a friend and unexpected guests.
- Part 9, Conversation with the rabbi.
- Part 10, Hatching a plan to help the rabbi escape.
- Part 11, It’s all arranged, now to talk the rabbi into making a run for it.
- Part 12, Meeting with the rabbi’s mother.
- Part 13, One last attempt to make him understand.
- Part 14, After the arrest.
- Part 15, Over at Pilate’s place.
- Part 16, Carrying the cross.
- Part 17. Evening and morning, the Seventh Day. Shabbat.
- Part 18. Saturday. Shabbat.
- Part 19. Sunday, First Day, Again. Resurrected or stolen?
- Part 20. Monday, Second Day a Second Time. Madness.
- Part 21. Tuesday, Third Day a Second Time. Questioning.
- Part 22. Wednesday, Fourth Day a Second Time. Searching.
- Part 23. Thursday, Fifth Day a Second Time. On the Road.
- Part 24. Friday, Sixth Day, and Saturday, Seventh Day, Second Time. Shabbat.
- Part 25. Sunday, First Day, Third Time. Searching for the fugitives.
- Part 26. Monday and Tuesday, Second Day and Third Day, Third Time. Recalled by the Council and an encounter.
- Part 27. Wednesday, Fourth Day, Third Time. Arriving at the Beautiful Gate.
- Part 28. Thursday, Fifth Day, Third Time. Riding to the rescue.
- Part 29. Friday, Sixth Day, and Saturday, Seventh Day, Third Time. Shabbat.
- Part 30. Sunday, First Day, Fourth Time. Held in the garrison.
- Part 31. Monday, Second Day, Fourth Time. On the run.
- Part 32. Tuesday, Third Day, Fourth Time. Heading back to Capernaum.
- Part 33. Wednesday, Fourth Day, Fourth Time. All roads lead to Capernaum.
- Part 34. Thursday – Saturday, Fifth – Seventh Days, Fourth Time, Shabbat, and Sunday, First Day, Fifth Time. Catching up. All kinds of catching up.
- Part 35. Tuesday, Third Day, Fifth Time. Darkest before the dawn.
- Part 36. END. Wednesday, Fourth Day, and Thursday, Fifth Day, Fifth Time, and then Sunday, First Day, Seventh Time. Ascent and Shavuot.
About the Project
New Introduction, July 8, 2021
I began this project with the idea of writing it during Holy Week for Holy Week. But life happened and the writing didn’t. Or, rather, the writing did happen but not the way I’d planned. For one thing, I did not plan to write in First Person narrative. I don’t usually like to read First Person narrative and I am not used to writing it. But that’s the way I began hearing the character speak so I went with it. After all, I have been trying to write this story for a number of years, so when things finally began to move, however unexpectedly, I happily tossed aside my plan and grabbed my trusty laptop and held on for the ride.
The story has so far taken me where I had never expected to go. For years I did not know my character’s name. Now I know his name, that he has a sister, her name, that he has some well-known friends, and that he has conflicting emotions and ideas about a certain rabbi and his teachings and his followers and about what it means to be faithful to the Lord.
He’s there to witness the early Church forming, though he has no way of knowing that in the beginning of the story, or even now in Part 20. All he knows is that a group of apostates, sectarians and heretics are causing trouble in Jerusalem and they have somehow tricked his foolish and headstrong sister into joining them. Her stubbornness may cost him his prestigious status in the Sanhedrin or cost him his wealth and standing in the city, or even in the land, or worse.
But what could possibly be worse than that?
Earlier Introduction
As an experiment and to jumpstart a project I’ve wanted to write for several years, I began a sort of improv here on the blog: I’m writing a rough draft and posting it right after I write it. At least, that’s the way it’s been working out. I always intend to work on it before the day it’s due, but somehow it never happens. So I end up writing like the wind by the seat of my pants with a vague notion of where I want to go with it and a few notes. And then I run over here to the blog and paste it in and format it.
Right now the story is in the form of a Biblical character writing down his account of a journey he is taking. He is a Biblical character but his details and story are my own fictional creations. I have tried for years to find out more about him and there is not much out there and even less consensus. It’s in first person right now, but the re-write may see it morph into a third-person format, a format with which I’m admittedly comfortable. Sometimes it’s a literal journey, sometimes metaphorical, and it’s taking me on a journey of my own. I hope you’ll travel with me as we discover together where this road will lead us. I’ve been posting it on Mondays and Thursdays during May. I think I’ll keep posting it on Mondays, while getting back to the regular posts on Thursdays, at least until I finish the Story of Salvation series.
Image in the cover and the featured image: From the east, Nazareth, Holy Land, from Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
Catholic Heart and Mind 