Control: Creating a Goth Persona…

I, Dalton Lewis, want to create a universe of characters that will try to survive a slasher killer. I don’t want someone who is basically like myself — quiet, shy, geek, loves writing and strategy games. Things need to be switched up. Someone new has to show up and take charge and make themselves never be forgotten. We need EWP and BCT. They are my new leads, and they should lead to a better quality of story. I want this book to incorporate gothic elements — suspense, ghosts, the supernatural, and a dark, artistic feel to the story.

What is the goth culture? It is a subculture of unhappy geeks with good taste in music. The movement means something to me — I enjoy Concrete Blonde and Leonard Cohen and The Cure and they all represent something to me: a feeling, a feeling of art, of feeling dark, feeling passion, feeling art, feeling something more than I can possibly feel, and then giving everything into my art and culture.

Why? Why didn’t I wear all black when I was in high school and college? It feels a little late to do it now. On the other hand…starting something new and different might feel good, might give me a new sense of purpose, might find me a new voice. I would love a new voice to say something that people will listen to.

I certainly have dark thoughts and enjoy weird and obscure art. I don’t find very many things funny. I feel a lot. I’m mentally ill, with paranoid schizophrenia. I don’t believe in a Christian God but think that art helps us transcend a mundane physical existence. I don’t know what religion I believe or don’t believe in — I believe in art and its ability to make us feel something more than work or sex or death makes us feel.

The Sandman is one of my favorite comics with its goth lead Dream and his equally goth sister Death. They are an example of a cultural landmark, with the stories that elevate beyond good guys versus bad guys and instead tell an interesting story with dramatic conflict — instead of melodramatic conflict.

What characters do we need for this story? I want someone incredibly unhappy who hates himself more than anything because so many young men feel that way during high school. I have had lonely outsiders but never someone who feels this way about himself. I want him to have a shell and slowly peek out of it. I want him to learn confidence. EWP.

I want a paired best friend for him, and that is a talkative geek who cares about everyone around him and is incessantly and overwhelmingly nice to everyone around him — except when they have done something wrong. At that point he loses it and freaks out and screams at them or stops them or attacks them physically should the need arise. BCT.

I need a girl goth, an outsider who looks interesting but not like a model — someone skinny and a freak and a reader and a girlfriend to someone a little creepy. That would definitely make it an interesting story, with her trying to stand up for herself and make her voice heard above the inevitable swarm of teenage girls. TQT.

And the cheerleaders and football players? Sorry, but this story is full up on characters. Try the next book.

Thanks, and take care, friends.