hell’s light, heaven’s fire
Note: This entry is the assignment I’ve been working on for the creative writing class I’m enrolled in. I’ve mentioned it before, I believe. The first assignment is the Idea. I’m just going to post the idea I’m most excited about in this entry, because…frankly, the other ideas I have are rather dull compared to this one, and they’re not as interesting to me as this novel idea is. I would really appreciate detailed critical feedback given in the comment section, if you read this. Thank you in advance!
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Assignment #1: Idea
There’s one subject in particular, one idea, that I have felt very strongly about for quite some time, and am absolutely giddy to develop and start working on.
Hell’s Light, Heaven’s Fire
This story will be set in an afterlife-type setting, where Heaven and Hell are one and the same. (Not sure of what exactly I’d call this place; but for the moment, we’ll settle on Purgatory, from Dante.) In this purgatory, when a human being and/or creature dies in the mortal planet (more than likely Earth), their souls will progress to this purgatory.
From here, the souls are processed in an assembly line type fashion– first, the physical form of the souls will be all transformed to an identical form depending on a certain classification. Then, also depending on their classification, the souls will have their spiritual and mental capabilities altered. The society in this purgatory is run, first and foremost, by a Dark Angel, who will be the main character of the story. There will then be a certain form of social classes: there will be the “grunt” workers, who will all be identical solely to one another and will have no mental capabilities. There will be those of a certain ‘higher’ rank to supervise these grunt workers and who will oversee the processing and the evaluation of each soul that passes through. These workers will, also, be identical solely to each other in their class, and will have the mental capabilities of seeing what each soul accomplished in their lifetime and will then make the judgements on what ‘class’ each new soul will come into. Then there is the final, upper class. This class oversees each set of workers in their division, and are the only ones to glimpse and speak to the Dark Angel herself.
However, the higher the class the soul is in, the shorter their time in this purgatory. The Dark Angel is forever, granted. Those that report to her have a set shelf life of one month, then they will evaporate and reincarnate in some unknown form on the mortal planet. Those in the middle ‘class’ will have a set shelf life of three months. Those in the lowest class have a set shelf life of six months. (This way, I can explore the training and thought that goes into the ranking of each soul as it is processed.)
I expect the vast majority of the story to encompass the background of the main character (the Dark Angel), the purgatory itself, and the social classes. However, underneath it all, I plan on incorporating a love story between the Dark Angel and…someone. I’m not sure as to what class he/she will be in, but it will be really exciting (for me) to explore the idea of sacrifice in a land where souls are processed and [shouldn't] have feelings.
Essentially, I really want to incorporate the basic principles of several religions and belief systems in this. Obviously, there is the Heaven/Hell Christianity aspect. But there is also (I hope) going to be the following elements:
* Buddhism (reincarnation)
* Witchcraft (I expect to somehow implement a curse/spell casting in here)
* Wicca (a respect of nature and the three-fold belief system)
* Santeria (the ancient Santeria ritual of human sacrifice)
* Hinduism (enlightment measured by karma; in this, it will be the classification system)
* Judaism (one creator as a universal ruler)
* Shinto (the ‘Matsuri’ practice, a festival honoring spirits)
* Paganism (everything has a supreme spirit) [Note: I'm refraining from the 'Godly' spirit in this, given the nature of the story]
* Mormonism (Humans are individually responsible for their own sins.)
* Kama Sutra (Celebration of love)
* Catholicism (anointment of the dying)
* Sikhism (cycles of births and deaths before reaching the ‘human’ form)
Note: I am aware of the fact that many of these elements that I’ve pulled from the individual religions share a common theme, but there is a reason I have pulled them from their respective religions– when I begin developing each aspect a bit deeper, it will tie into that individual religion. For example, Wicca and the respect of nature. Respecting nature ties in with may religions, but the meaning and reasoning behind the Wiccan belief of respecting nature is the reason I have pulled it from that belief system.
I do have a few other stories I could play on for a novel, mostly young adult, but I have yet to develop an idea that I feel as interested in as this. Some of you may know the short story that this is based on. (As a matter of fact, several of you are responsible for me fleshing this out in greater detail. *eyeroll* *LOL* ) This novel in and of itself, this idea…it just holds everything I am interested in: different religions of the world, an exploration of basic morality, an exploration of karma, whether or not something can live as a *real* robotic form, and the depths of love and passion and just how far someone can go in the name of love, as well as an aspect of self-sacrifice.
And…this is incredibly long-winded, so I’ll wrap it up now! I do want to say that the title of the novel itself is pretty set; but I have yet to develop names for each of the ‘classes’ in the as-of-yet-unnamed-land (I will not label it as ‘purgatory’ in the novel, but haven’t gotten a name for it yet). I also haven’t decided on the four varying forms of what the souls will look like– I need to develop one for the main character, and each of the three classes. Which I am a bit stuck on: what do you make a processed soul look like? So I have a bit of a way to go in fleshing out specifics of the idea, but I’m looking forward to it.
Jeez. Okay, NOW I’m done.
