The Social Science Icons & Grace series, at least the first trilogy, is a set of multiple redemption stories. And, when focusing on redemption stories, you should always start off with…a maturation plot?
Yes, at least that’s how I’m doing it. In SYNCHRONICITY, the main character Travis is frankly not in a position to be redeemed from anything. First he has to be deemed before he can be redeemed. But don’t despair. At least two other key characters are in need of redemption. There will be plenty of redemption to go around.
The Draw of Redemption
Why redemption? Because it is one of the central narratives of our lives. We all make mistakes, have troubles, find ourselves behind the 8-ball and out of favor. We break promises, act immaturely, damage relationships (both intentionally and unintentionally), join the wrong social groups or isolate ourselves. In short, we’re human. And being human, we regularly seek to rise up from our mistakes and grow. That’s redemption.
What makes redemption interesting in books, TV shows and movies is the contrast of falling far and rising high. You may have enjoyed a small redemption yesterday when you completed a project early despite having a reputation for missing deadlines. It felt good. You might now enjoy a slight improvement in your reputation with peers and superiors at work. However, it likely wasn’t fodder for a story that others want to read or watch over and over again.
But if your redemption is a feast of drama, if you rise from the ashes of shame to save a child from imminent and gruesome death – well, that’s worth sharing. Today’s news media is beholden to the dramatic, making it little different than entertainment, and features the regular redemption story. Of course, the fall is ever so slightly more newsworthy than the rise. That explains the imbalance on the evening news, the concentration of damage!, death!, and destruction! It’s something we live with, like it or not. Watch C-SPAN if you’d prefer a different experience.
Redemption in SYNCHRONICITY
SYNCHRONICITY – coming next month! – capitalizes on our innate desire to consume redemption stories. A healthy chunk of the primary characters in the book are distasteful and some of them are due for redemption. Some aren’t. Those characters just suck as people and we’ll let them flounder in failure. The question is, which are which? (Sales pitch: read it and find out.)
My editor just returned the SYNCHRONICITY manuscript and we had a bit of a dialogue about redemption. The character in the book most ripe for redemption didn’t quite get it. And I didn’t mean it that way! He was supposed to receive the full treatment and I blew it. So, apart from a little prose tightening, the end of the novel will be subjected to minor surgery to repair this little wound. And then it will be ready.