Maine Story line: A boy who is has a limited time to live in a dieing world what else will he be able to do but try his best to make the best of what he has. As his family dies around him except his brother who will leave years past him he decides he cannot waste anymore time. He meets one man that changes his life but doesn’t realize what the man is truly after.
Maine Character: Mason is a young ambitious boy who’s parents were also born with a limited amount of life and he followed. He spends most of his time learning from his parents while going to school, to make the best of his short life because he won’t know when he’ll die. The average for a short life is about 50 but death could happen at any point before. He is smart but his childhood was rushed and would act like he was retired with his parents who knew that their life would come to an end very soon. His younger brother was the center of his and his parent’s jealousy because he would life a full life and never had to worry about dieing until after 50. They ignored him most of the time while they were too focused on living. At this time he was so absorbed by the worry of not living the life he wanted in such a short time. When he wasn’t in school he was doing something exciting, trying to make everything worth while.
Life changing event: His parents aged faster then most because of their short lives and they both died suddenly while away on a trip at the age of 43 and 45. Once they died him and his brother were alone but at that point Mason wanted nothing to do with his younger brother so he “died” as well. He found a way to stay alive for longer but it came at a price and that changed him. He had what he wanted, a longer life, but what else was there for him so he ended up taking the closest opportunity, which was to lead a group in an attempt to save the world and that doesn’t exactly work out too well. He became obsessed with this new live and that ended up destroying him. Of course saving the world wasn’t his goal nor was it the goal of anyone in this group, it was founded on that but people joined mainly because they wanted to live longer. That longer life where so much could be done ended up turning into wasted time and unfulfilled dreams. He wanted to help out by maybe finding out what was causing others to live longer lives then him and so many others, yet all he found was lies and his dream never became reality, he couldn’t do what he wanted to do with his life because of this man and his cult.
The Challenge: The realization of his deeds his him hard but there’s wasn’t much he could do to escape what had already happened, he was stuck in this group under the watchful eye of Samael, the old man who started everything. Mason must overcome this in some way, he just can’t do it alone.
The Format:
Does Mason return to help his brother? Are both transformed or challenged in ways that bring them back together?
This seems like a long, complex story. I wonder if you want to outline the whole thing, but pick one section to work on in class.
I am most interested in the brothers’ relationship somehow, and less in the saving the world scheme. Maybe a more modest goal–like finding out how to live longer only to see that that attempt wasted his life when he could have been living a short, good life instead? Maybe some ironic commentary?
What character values emerge and are challenged? How does your main character change? What flaw gets revealed and how do the challenges and opponents he face help him face his flaw and overcome it?
Good material. What format will you use to create the story?