She Walked On Water
Structure
Task One, Part One. To Be Followed Loosely
ACT 1: THE SETUP
Stage 1: The Hidden Monster - Nicola on the Lake
Stage 2: Introducing the Characters - The Emersons
Stage 3: The Journey Begins - The Service and the Vigil, Something Goes Awry
Stage 4: Meeting the Monster - Nicola in Her Crown
ACT 2: A CHANGING REALITY
Stage 5: The Turning Point - The Creatures Appear
Stage 6: Pursuit - Stacie Needs Answers
Stage 7: The First Confrontation - Nicola Strikes
Stage 8: Desperation - Stacie has Gone Mad
ACT 3: THE PAYOFF
Stage 9: Breakthrough - The Oath is Made, the Truth is Realized
Stage 10: Preparing for the Final Confrontation - The Creatures are Summoned
Stage 11: The Price of Victory - Stacie is Gone
Stage 12: The Fallout - Cherry Grove has ChangedFurther Resources1. Psychological Horror
2. Creating Suspense
3. Unreliable Narration
She Walked On Water
Proposed Schedule
Task Three. To Be Followed As Rigidly As Possible
Due to the fluid nature of the Author's daily schedule, they propose a varied approach to their writing as their time allows, with goals varying by day of the week as per their expected free time.
Sunday: 2250 words
Monday: 2000 words
Tuesday: 1750 words
Wednesday: 750 words
Thursday: 750 words
Friday: 2250 words
Saturday: 2250 words
Weekly Total: 12500 words
She Walked On Water
Synopsis - Task One, Part Two
two hundred fifty wordsCherry Grove was where the power grid ended, where the nearest real town was an hour away and if you didn't have four wheel drive you couldn't do much of anything 'cept sit on your porch and pray for it. Cherry Grove was where everyone knew everyone and everyone knew God and nobody had to ask any questions because nobody knew to. Cherry Grove was where everyone 'sposed to be wise was stupid and everyone 'sposed to be stupid had wised up. And Stacie was stuck in the middle of it all.
Nicola Emerson was an enigma of a woman. She was also dead. But Stacie's mind didn't seem to think so. Stacie saw her mother, every year, on the anniversary of her death, right before the vigil. Every year, she tells herself it is grief. Pastor Jepson tells her it's grief. It can only be grief. Grief driving her crazy as she sees Nicola beckon from the lake where she drowned, with a crown of antlers atop her head and a voice like river rocks scraping together telling her of things she never knew. Grief driving her mad as she sees the Creatures, driving her absolutely insane as she begins to see Pastor Jepson's own phantom.
It's only grief.
“Nicola Emerson ran from God straight into the arms of the devil, Stacie, and now he wants you, too. That's why you see things that aren't there. That's why you see your mother among the demons instead of the angels.”
She Walked On Water
World Building - Task Two, Part One
four hundred sixty-six wordsCherry Grove, perhaps the most rural Appalachian town one would ever lay eyes on. One school for kindergarten through the twelfth grade, one church, one police station with one cell, one gas station just a mile or so out of town. Cherry Grove, which had a disappointing lack of cherries to be named the way it was, though perhaps cherries may have been the first intention. The town held a large population of farmers, effectively self-sufficient.
The year is 1987. Cherry Grove got electricity, reliable electricity at least, about fifteen years ago, around the time Stacie was born. The older folks still don't use it, and the church never got any lights. Music filters its way up the mountain slowly, with the guestimation and tomfoolery you have to engage in to get the radio to work proper. Every so often someone will get a new cassette from the next town over, or a vacation, or something, and it's all the rage for weeks among the teenagers. Stacie likes her Dad's Beach Boys cassettes the best.
There aren't many young people in Cherry Grove. Inhabitants from the ages of nine to sixteen are severely lacking, then on upwards till twenty-five. And slowly but surely, as more leave and never come back, the even younger population steadily declines too. The only stable population is the one Anna says is supposed to decline, according to the sociology books she's always got her nose stuck in. That population is the old folks. The mountain is cruel to them, but still they hold on, like stubborn lichens and mosses. Like weeds, sucking the very life out of the mountain.
It's not uncommon talk among the town that the Emerson house would be better suited for a farmer with a family of five, rather than a sheriff and a family of three. They always seem to forget it used to be six, both of Robbie's parents and Nicola. Now it was three unless you counted the bodies in the family cemetery. The house was faded white, a simple and quaint farmhouse, two stories, meant for a family much larger, a family the Emersons hadn't been for generations. They did not farm the land themselves, but "leased" it out to those who needed it by the acre.
The house itself is nice, Stacie reckons, though she doesn't know much else. What was really great, to her, was the back porch, where Anna and Michael and Jerry and she would spend their summer evenings with the beer Michael swiped from his dad's fridge, sharing it between them sip for sip as they played philosopher and dreamed about trivial things. But now it was only Jerry and Stacie, and they didn't have any beer, and they didn't know if dying or freedom would come first.
She Walked On Water
Characters - Task Two, Part Two
537 wordsStacie Emerson is fifteen. With fifteen comes a lot of baggage for her. With fifteen comes the sixth anniversary of her mother's death, her permit test, her sophomore year. With fifteen comes Anna leaving and Michael missing for a whole year. Stacie tries not to think about those things though. It's easy to ignore them when she's busy. So she makes sure she always is. She wiles away the days at the river with Dalia or Jerry, she goes to Darold Regan's parties as much as she hates the boy, she throws herself into her studies so she can one day get out of Hellhole Grove and become a doctor. As brave as Stacie seems, daredevil and risk taker in the name of fun and experience, she is running away.
Dalia is her sister, only a year younger than her. Dalia and Stacie used to be very similar, when they were younger, but something changed when their mother died. While Stacie strove to run away, Dalia was stuck. She was afraid. She is a timid and quiet young girl, afraid of just about everything but cats and books and her sketching pencils. She used to go in the woods to draw and read, but now even that is an object of terror for her.
Robbie is her father, a great many years older than her (or at least it seems). He is a police officer, formerly the sheriff. Before Nicola passed and temporary suspension became permanent and he was strongly encouraged to abstain from running again, he was well loved in the role, maintaining the sense of order and peace in Cherry Grove. Robbie continues to be a keeper of the peace without his title, still a friendly face in the station and on patrol. Stacie and Dalia idolize him, but sadness and stress eat away at the strong and kind man where his daughters cannot see. He knows too much yet nothing at all.
Jerome Jepson is her best friend. He is sixteen, and has his license, which Stacie jokes is the only reason she keeps him around. Where Stacie is bright and flamboyant, Jerry prefers to fly under the radar. It isn't easy, being the son of the most influential man in town, but he does his best. Jerry is the water to Stacie's fire. She is brash, he is reasonable. She is reckless, he has at least a little sense. Jerry worries, probably too much for a sixteen year old boy, his near bitten off nails showing his stress as clear as anything. Like Stacie, he hungers for independence, but unlike Stacie he can't seem to shake his loyalty to Cherry Grove, not with his father's legacy caging him in even as he reaches for the key.
Pastor Emmanuel Jepson is the judge, jury, and executioner. Metaphorically, of course. The man of God is second only to God in the eyes of the humble citizens of Cherry Grove. Pastor Jepson, sent to preach the word of the divine, beloved by all, respected by most. Pastor Jepson's words are ever true, as they are from the mouth of God himself. Or, really, so he says.
Nicola Emerson is her mother. Nicola Emerson is dead.