Lane Boy - Notes on Writing - The Theme and Dual Timeline
13th May 2024
Lane Boy - Dual Timeline
On the Lane Boy story, I think the best way to solve this problem of how to bring in the actual Lane boy ghost will be to run the dual or secondary timeline showing his own story. I didn't really have a massive amount of information on that and I'm not quite sure it's going to work, but as they say, do what works or make it so and it does give more body somehow. Similar to the Cabin story I suppose. I want to hold the reader in a state of suspended belief and by bringing it into the story in a way it does add generational interest (shows the pattern, no wait… the lane boys family try to escape poverty and hardship, by making this great journey and I can use that in his own narrative. So you can see why Lane Boy was punished by death for the changes in his life, his fathers ambition for example got them all dead. This ‘aura of danger for doing crazy shit can then be cast over the story with Stan.
For example Dads notion of never wanting to move further out in the suburbs for more room etc. That comes up in a conversation somewhere.
I just need to leave the reader to make the association to the metaphor. But the running of two timelines has to keep a pace going that is relevant. Hmmm… have to work a bit harder at that, but its worth doing. Spend some time on that this morning maybe? Or go studio first. Ill see how I feel after walk.
The biographical story on its own (the memoir aspect) is already strong enough but it does not give me this supernatural thread that spans time, that demonstrates the traps of mental patterns. E.g. Stans Mum and Dad, trapped etc and not allowing him out, then him echoing it in his complexes and fears for his own kids, at the same time as wanting to expose the kids to toughen up but within his control But complexes at play are always contradictory and confusing. People are not easy to read.
His loosening of the reigns was only under certain conditions, the conditions were not for them to explore the world of opportunity but to learn how to survive better in place – it situ.
I don’t want to ditch the ‘Lane Boy ghost’, by removing the Lane Boys 'reality. That was the whole idea – Stan threatened the kids to be sent to live in the lane and to become a Lane Boy, as a consequence of misbehaving. . Basically, Stans threat was a warning of abandonment and homelessness if you boil it down.
So the larger ‘global’ theme of the book is - that the life force or the spirit of the child to overcome the hardship they are born into culturally, or within family generations, can sometimes be overcome by the will of the child to thrive and survive (in the very place they have been taught to shun or fear due to the generational complexes which become bondages. Fundamentally the child keeps paying for the ‘Sins of the Father’. The sins are not crimes, they are generational or cultural logjams or knots of fear never cleared and discarded in favour of a greater or more aspirational life.
So now the Key Point or reason to run the Lane Boy Ghost timeline as well through the story.
The Lane Boy himself, his story, carries a physical manifestation of the hero of the entire story.
He is the actual vital key player as his presence (albeit as a ghost which is perfect as it is not concrete) proposes that there is not just the child's goodwill at play, but also a good spirit actioning in the background. In times of great trouble, we say things like, oh well, its up to the universe now, or it will be Gods Will, or let time heal and so on. Most of us know there is a ever pulsing element to life which we can trust or shy away from. We can allow that energy in, we can let it control us by becoming passive morons, or we can interact with it – and thus hitch a ride on its offerings.
The saying, ‘The universe rearranges to accommodate your picture of reality’, comes to mind. We do not have to be religious or kooky, to know that some sort of mysterious force coming from outside can help us if we are quiet and patient and listen. Some say its without ourselves the entire time. This ‘force’ is the entire point of how a child exits from the cultural and generational traps, which hold his feet down in the dirt as if his shoes are made of concrete.
The realisation only happens if he suddenly realises his shoes have laces and he can undo them and step forward into cool soft grass. A world opens up, which was once only a static photograph on the wall. This ‘force’ might come through in a single parents encouragement or it might come from an outside mentor, a teacher, a friend or another relative. We all know it, and we know who kept us questioning our perceived limits. The force, is the spirit of hope and it is always there. A persons geographic location might not ever change but their inner view might, and it sets them free. That force is always there, even in the darkest back alley of poverty and hopelessness, spurring the child or helping the child. Call the instinct to thrive whatever you will, its not missing from any human beings field of possibilities. Some might say it's the force of natures will to thrive. Its in every living creature, from a fish to a sunflower. All heroes must face the adversary, and the adversary is the loss of hope the surrender to its dark days of fear and entrapment in hopelessness.
The lane boy ghost, carries another notion and it is this force that wants Peter to live, to survive his entrapment. He's actually coming from a supernatural source. This is not silly and it is in keeping with the force of nature. However it will be up to Peter (the real hero character) to use his own will to escape the generational fate. The one Lane Boy was trapped in upon death. Or do I use the notion that the Lane Boy is terrified of the change? Not sure will see.
You don't have to believe in ghosts to take on the idea that we don't really understand all of the forces that help us to thrive. And a really important point about that is that ‘the will to survive’ and help others survive for example Lane boy who was trying to get back to his own brothers and sisters, is a forever aspect of humanity it has and will always been there. The will to survive is in fact a character in the story.
Yes that's it. The drive to survive is present in all things that are born, or grow, and I am creating a character to contain the image of nature and her force. So mother nature is the lane boy – maybe – the protector but his interaction with that ‘hope’ is what is the key to him getting out. Its not just this ‘spiderman’ coming to rescue him. I have to sort that bit out…
So mother nature is ever present trying to help him.
It just gets personal at the end when the ghost can't leave that place because He was physically stuck there.That's in the final scene. He wants to come but he can't, but the other thing that he is kind of revealed at that point is that the Lane Boy is nothing more than a reflection of Peter.
There it is.
So that's when I can sew it all up with the bow. That the entire time the actual ghost - Lane boy was nothing more than a reflection of what was in Peter to do which was to rise up out of his misery.
The key point about making a dual timeline, is that everything has to keep moving, and I need to reread those clues in regards to who you are keeping in the dark (the reader or Peter etc) as you're telling the tale.
This is a different timeline, indeed, and it's a different person, but it's the same person, and that's the tension I've got a hold on. I've got to somehow weave through the similarities or analogies between the two of them without the reader realising it is there and reading in a too obvious way.
I want to really build this character Lane Boy as this symbol of mother nature.
The Use of the Cat – as the physical manifestation.
For example when the cat rocks up he is possibly the physical (you can see him in this dimension) manifestation of the spirit the Lane Boy. The cat carries the hope in the care. I can use that cat more often possibly but careful to not make him corny.
And yet the cat is a cat.
But the cat almost brings you down into the objective raw animal nature of mother nature.
And that's where I need to be careful about all things. So this probably means I have to go through the story again, broadly, and apply this string or method of storytelling with this theme. It might close up the gaps I have been feeling in the plot.
So let me reiterate: the force of nature, however it manifests, is always working to assist in the striving and survival pathway of the child. And what I am doing is linking that force of nature Into a supernatural image of a boy or cat physically who died after he arrived on the Yellow Fever ship in the same location in the 1800s, re the backstory I already have constructed in notes.
So, the key I have to think about here is how to build the Lane Boys character as I go straight to the story. I'm going to have to back up if I want to add this thing to get it moving early. As I said, I know that the story as a biography is enough in itself, but that's not what I'm looking to do at all.
If it turns out like that – I guess it does, but the memories I am using are based on the perspectives of the lived experience, and they should include elements of all of us, including my own (I had the weird psychic shit going on the whole time). It is not a memoir, but its drawing upon memories as the base load or canvas. I'm trying to demonstrate something more, by using creative tropes, themes or ideas to carry the notion of mother nature as a force for good that operates all the time despite the confusion of adults and leaders and governance. It’s the power greater than us that offers us more, and yet it always available.