Ten Shun!
So it seemed like a brilliant idea at the time, but my concept of everyone collectively writing a story together, see didn’t quite pan out, although some subscribers enjoyed it, while others were annoyed at my stringent gatekeeping. Which, I’m afraid, I will continue to insist on.
However having thought about it extensively we are going to start again ( although if if feel inclined to keep posting on the unedited Wyndham Pascoe story, be my guest! Although I won’t be dropping in.)
For this new story, which I have called Meet The Fortescues, I am starting with a plot.
It’s a very old plot I suppose, a variation on the Rags to Riches story.
This is all about Riches to Rags, and is meant to chime with the strange phenomena of the super rich that we are seeing satirised in films like ‘Parasite’, ‘Triangle of Sadness’ and ‘The Menu’.
The plot is simply this: The Fortescues, Anselm ( the father ), Cressida ( the mother) Coriander, the 16 year old daughter, and Theo the six year old son.
They have several houses in England and on the continent. They have servants, and the children attend expensive private schools. Anselm is a bond trader. Cressida is minor aristocracy, well bred and a bit snooty. Coriander is an annoying priveliged teenager. Theo is still quite sweet and has yet to be ruined by the obscene luxury that surrounds him.
The plot at this stage is quite simple. They lose all their money at single stroke ( I havent yet worked out how) and have to go and live in social housing somewhere in a rough estate in South London.
It will be a while before we get to that point. Perhaps by the end of the first chapter at the earliest. But we have to do a lot of character work first. We have to set up the Fortescue’s and their world, and the nature of their relationships to one another and the world in general, without being too obvious or cliched ( no champagne baths or caviare for supper please). These are real people ( although fictional) and in order to be invested in them we have to get to know them.
The world of the super rich is mysterious to most of us, so unless we want to spend time researching ( it will have to be done sooner or later), lets start with something simple.
Let’s say they are all having breakfast. It is 8am. Anselm is getting ready to leave for work, Coriander and Theo for school. Cressida works part time in a little craft shop that Anselm bought for her, that is actully run by someone who knows that they are doing - Zarin, a working class Asian woman - but Cressida likes to think she is the brains behind the whole project, and will usually turn up at the shop as and when she feels like it and start directing matters, to the frustration of Zarin, who thinks, not unfairly that Cressida is simply a wealthy hobbyist rather than someone who really cares about the shop.
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