NANO Workshop -
Create a setting. This would be where it takes place, be it a school, a house, a city, an imaginary world, etc. We want you to be detailed in this. It needs to be 1000 words or more (you will thank us for this later).
Schroon Lake, New York.
A small city that you could easily miss if it was not for the fact that there is an exit on the highway that would point wayward travelers in the general direction. The city itself sleeps three seasons out of the year, coming to life when the tourists come to the shores of their eight mile lake. The sandy bottom of these waters contrasts with the shale and stone that line most of the waterways in the upstate region. one marina with a few rickety docks, one grocery store, a few places to buy trinkets and souvenirs and a couple of places for camping supplies. The fact that they had a one screen theater and somehow had enough residents year-round to bother with a school suggested that there might have been more residents there than it would seem.
Most of the residents in this city make their living off the 'summer folk', both the bane of their existence as well as their bread and butter. Their children, in their glory these few months while their parents worked because they finally had something to do when the tourists came. Friendships were of course fleeting, weekend trips or a week-long stay and then they were gone for a year if they ever came back. It would seem sad if it was not just a fact of life for these kids, they just did not know any different.
In the winter, the snow would come. It was heavy and it was cold. For days at a time, the roads were near impassable down some of the dirt roads if they failed to wrap chains around their tires. The mountainous terrain caused the elevation to be such that winters here were particularly harsh. Thankfully, being a small town there was always someone willing to plow a road for a small fee or a bottle of firewater, whichever was readily on hand really.
Schroon Lake was picturesque but lonesome. The dense canopy of evergreen trees, the bottom twenty feet of branches cut away, obscured the heavens and the expanse of snow and trunks was for the most part all that anybody was going to see except for maybe a deer or a bear. If you happened to find a clear stretch or a high point to perch, in the distance you could see the ridge of the Adirondack mountain range. Blue in the distance, sharp pointed elevations to the horizon.
Little has changed over the past few decades. Some of the shops changed hands, but for the most part it was the same old thing with a new brand name. Older couples thinking they would retire in peace and newlyweds thinking that they could rake in a fortune off of tourists if they dressed up their plot of land alongside a little creek and let the city-folk spend their days 'near nature.' They never made a fortune, places like this were either a money-pit or you broke even. The three months of business was enough to float the smarter folk for the year but for those that though the funds would trickle in just the same during the off months were in for a nasty shock.
A damn terrible shame, but it was a dream for the seasonals - to live where they once vacationed. Life was seen with rose-tinted glasses of course. A cozy, small town, a large body of water and a surplus of free time to enjoy both away from the hustle of city life. Life was not as kind there, it was hard. Not just to make a living or to brave the elements, but it was also isolating when travel got hard and there was no way to leave your house for sometimes days at a time. While the day-to-day necessities were a short drive away, it took longer to get to other necessities like a hospital or a police station. I never really thought about that, never had a need for either when on vacation.
I never really liked the place. At least I tell that to myself now. My memories were of the summer months, the 'best' part of the year. I would spend hours on the play ground with the other kids on vacation as well as a few token locals. I always got to know the locals better than the others because they were always around when I came back subsequent weeks or years. My family was the weekender types. A couple of hour drive that felt like an eternity of punishment in a hot car with my little sister taking up more space than she needed and my parents listening to the oldies channel. I would have preferred to stay home with my friends and my video games, the concept of unplugging was simply torture and time when me and my sister were there seemed to move at a snail's pace.
It was not all bad of course. The ground was always covered in orange pine-needles and smelled heavily of campfire smoke and tree sap. "The air was cleaner here" my father used to say as he spent the first few hours unloading the car and making camp. I would run off to the same meeting place where I would meet my friends every week. Well, my camp friends at least. I actually talked more to them than my local friends, we had nothing else to do unlike back home were a screen and a controller often separated us. We spent a lot of time by the swings. The swings were always far from the water, the camp owner was a shrewd enough businessman to know that they should save those prime spaces for campers. We would play until sunset, my parents never went looking for me because they knew I would be home before dark. There was no lights out there less the fireflies and the camp fires and I was always afraid of getting lost even if I could have certainly found my way back to camp with my eyes closed if I had to.
It was a nice place to visit. I can't even remember why I 'never really liked it.' It must have been that 'slowness' I experienced then that I hated but I yearn for now. Yet there is something in the pit of my gut that tells me it might have been something different.
Memories can be funny like that can't they?
Just a trick of the lighting they said...
NANO Workshop -
Create a main character. This would be your main protagonist. Tell us about them - what do they look like, where did they come from, what are their strengths and weaknesses and what are their flaws. Why are they in this story and what do you want them to gain from their adventure. Be as detailed as you can regarding this. It needs to be 1000 words or more (you will thank us for this later).
This story will be a bit different because my main character won't be defined in terms of name(using first person narration top accomplish this), gender or even appearance. What I wish to gain from this character is a sense of reader self-immersion by placing themselves in the position of the main character in this horror story.
History:
It had been 10 years since I have been back to Schroon Lake, New York. It was not as if anything went wrong, there was no reason that I never stopped by. In fact I always told myself that I would. I just never seemed to be able to find the time.
After High School, it was simply one thing after another. I left home for college in Boston, Massachusetts. The plan was to get a degree in communications, I had these dreams of being a newscaster. It did not work out for me, not really. I got a degree in business administration instead. It did not do me much good, I got better money working in the same restaurant I had been tending bar in after class than I did using my degree. It was not all bad, despite the student loans that still chip away at my bank account, I keep telling myself that someday I will go back to school and finish my intended degree. I just have not gotten to it yet. Maybe next semester.
I moved away from home. Unlike many millennials that are on their third decade or more and still living with mom and dad, when I left for college, I never returned home. It was a pride thing, I really should have returned home. Save some money and got enough saved up to afford a down-payment on a small starter home for me and my long-term partner, Riley Jackson. Instead I moved far enough away from my parents that I would not have to worry about them visiting unannounced. Riley was pretty close to their folks so I had to endure Riley's mother on a bi-weekly basis, but it was work it. Everything was worth it as long as I was with Riley.
I was doing everything right. I finished school. Found my person. Was affording, even if only barely, a decent apartment in Boston. The next step was starting a family. Both of our parents had been clamoring since I graduated that we needed to get married. That we needed to start having babies right away. Riley was just not ready. I was starting to wonder if Riley was ever going to be ready. God I hoped that Riley was going to be ready someday.
About me and Riley. We met in high school. Back when we first met, my sophomore year, Rikey was dating a local boy in School Lake. Oh yeah, we met at camp... I always had a thing for Riley, but Jordan was my best friend. Well, my best camp friend. I always found a reason to sit next to Riley during camp events and while I hate to admit it I did not do Jordan too many favors keeping the relationship together. I did not sabotage them, I just let things go wrong and made no effort to stop them. I never reminded Jordan of anniversaries, but I always had a fun event planned to take Riley for a trip to the swimming hole or to have smores with my folks. I forgot to keep a few secrets that perhaps I should have, but there was no way I was going to lie to Riley.
They broke up during my senior year, almost the very end of the summer. Riley had found out that Jordan was shooting rabbits in the woods. Riley hated guns and loved small furry creatures. I might have omitted the fact that I was there, but Riley did not need to know that. Riley only needed to know about Jordan. It was not the first time they argued about his 'murdering', Riley was a strict vegan and I tried to live on cucumbers in Rilkey's presence but it was pretty hard. This fight was on the heels of another, one where Jordan had forgotten Riley's birthday. I didn't of course, I gave Riley a six-string acoustic just like mine. Riley said that they always wanted to play and it gave me an excuse to spend more time with Riley teaching them how to play.
After the break-up, I asked Riley out the same night. Our relationship was 'our secret' until the end of summer. We snuck off into the woods to 'catch frogs' almost every day. None of the other campers were the wiser. Well, nobody except Jordan. Jordan figured it out pretty quick. Less than a week really. Astonishingly Jordan took it pretty well, I expected a harsher reaction. Jordan always had a bit of an anger problem, nothing bad or violent but Jordan got pretty loud when mad. It was a simple -- "good to know. I hope we can still be friends."
Odd, but Jordan's hope remained true. While we had not seen each other in over a decade, we called each other weekly on the phone. On the weekends sometimes we would play the same MMO as long as Jordan's internet connection was holding up in in-climate weather. Despite the passage of years, me and Jordan remained great friends. So when things went wrong, of course Jordan was the one I would turn to.
Presently, I work in a bar in downtown Boston. A nice Irish pub, the sort of place where real Irish people go, not the people with 1/18th Irish heritage in the family tree that makes them feel that they can claim to be Irish. It is pretty quiet most nights but comes to life on the weekends and Friday night. I have to admit, I prefer the more chaotic shifts, the tips are better. I live in a small two-bedroom apartment a few blocks away. I am able to walk there from my job and I usually do, I often cap my work-shifts with a few drinks on the house. I have been doing it for years, nobody ever seemed to notice or care. I have also been looking into going back to school, not sure in exactly what yet. My dream of being a news anchor still remains but I have been thinking that I might be able to do something more, maybe teach.
Just a trick of the lighting they said...
NANO Workshop -
Create a main plot. This is where you talk about the main story itself. What are they doing? Is this a journey, a coming of age experience, a battle against a terrifying nemesis, etc. Consider doing this in an outline format to make things more organized. It needs to be 1000 words or more (you will thank us for this later).
The plot is simple. After a break-up, the main protagonist decides to go back to a simpler time and try to heal. Years separated from their long-term friend that they used to spend summers with, the main character returns to School Lake during the fall. It would be one of those couch-surfing experiences where they are staying there for a few weeks to get back on their feet. The friend, Jordan seems obsessed with writing everything down, taking pictures and making notes. Weirdo.
A few weeks turns into a few months, it is hard to get off one's ass when they are up half the night playing games and drinking beer. A lifetime of gaming and beer might not be a terrible fate, but possibly a wasted life. But from the beginning there was something wrong. It was indiscernible at first, bad wiring, poor internet connections, the wild shadows playing with the main character's head. However, there would be noises, lapses in memory... Waking moments where hours would pass in the blink of an eye.
It is then that the main character would start to notice that there is something or someone else with them. By now it is winter, the roads are bad and according to the forecast there would be snow for the next week. Traps are set but nothing is sprung. As sleeplessness and paranoia mount, the main protagonist starts to blame their gracious host.
Jealousy.
Revenge.
The main character had dated their ex, ultimately almost made a life with them until the recent break-up. There is a fight. The host is no longer a problem any longer (will term in ways that are site rating appropriate). Now alone in the house in the middle of the woods in the middle of nowhere, peace should have been found but it never was.
The strange happenstances continue. In fact, they seem to be escalating still. Noises outside the window but no prints in the freshly-fallen snow. The memory lapses become more and more severe. But finally, something happens. Going through the house, rummaging more really for old pictures to burn the protagonist would see pictures of them - not just of themselves and their friend but of them and the person they both wanted to be with. The face was wrong. The hair was wrong. It was a stranger. There was also a note written in bold letters: "you forgot to remember to forget." Immediately after reading there was yet another memory lapse.
The main character reaches out to their former paramour, they call and they call and nobody picks up. Dedicated to trying, the phone calls continue until the late evening. Eventually someone picks up. The person on the other end sounds agitated. Whoever you are, stop calling this number.... there is nobody with that name here."
The voice is unknown. The main character feels that they must have forgotten the number. The number was the same as they always remembered it.
Shortly thereafter, the friend. Yes, the one that was "no longer a problem" walks in and hangs up their jacket. Acting as if nothing has even happened small talk is made, talk about the fall leaves changing and how grateful they are that the summer season has finally come to an end.
In a panic, they look again at the photo album they saw earlier. Was the note still there? was there any consistency to the memory. It was there. Clutching the photo album the main character runs and hides on a bedroom with the book and a bag of cheetos with some mountain dew.
There was something of significance, people that they did not remember in those pictures. People that were recognized somehow but looked nothing like they should. A strange shadow in the background. How the back of the pictures had names and dates of people that seemed to be forgotten that were only remembered right now. How certain incidents and memories involved other people. How the kids turned teens turned adults in the pictures seemed to be less and less. How the names that they went by were also different. How Karen was labeled Karen but also Michelle after Michelle stopped showing up in pictures. How the only thing that seemed the same was the shadow in the background of almost every picture. Thin and spindly, looming over them but completely and totally unnoticed.
There was a picture of the main character and Jordan. It was recent, the shirt in the picture was only bought a few months ago. But the face, the face was wrong once again. It belonged to someone else, Jordan was in the other room. Jordan was also calling the main character's name. Calling the wrong name. Searching through the album you see the face from the other room, a younger version at least. On the back of the picture is a name, well several. They add "Jordan".
It finally clicks, the inaccurate narration. The reason things look wrong. The distortion was the fact that the brain was trying to reconcile who was who but couldn't, it was resigning itself to what it was told. That something was more wrong than previously thought.
They call out "Jordan" but the person on the other side of the door only repeats the name. "Jordan" and asks the character is "OK." They aren't. A mad rant about nothing being OK. About Jordan being dead. A debate about the fact that Jordan is not dead, that this is all crazy talk. They keep calling the main character Jordan. They look in the mirror, their own face is wrong. They look like Jordan. The memories are just wrong. The perspective is wrong. The time is wrong. The people are wrong. The pictures are consistent.
The main character takes out a camera. Starts snapping pictures, writing notes. Trying to bridge the gaps in their memories. Mad theories shared. This ends up not being a found footage adventure but rather a making footage adventure to make sense of what is missing. They ultimately discover that they are not crazy but their memories are wrong, scrambled and confused. That there is something there but they keep forgetting. That there is not many people left. That almost everyone else is dead. That... they had a hand on those deaths. They try to find if there is anyone else left from the summer group, almost everyone is dead, including Riley. The only one left is another local, cut off contact years ago and became a crazy hermit.
The paranoia continues to set in, they notice it on both sides. They find their hermit friend and explain what is happening. This will ultimately conclude the adventure as this final person explains what is going on, what has happened and what will happen.
Just a trick of the lighting they said...