28 day lockdown writing challenge
As we (in England) had another lockdown to contend with in November, I decided to set myself a little writing challenge. [nb: The date of this blogpost is misleading. I posted the first part of the project here on 6 November, but it has been added to and rewritten significantly on 7 December]
Everyday for four weeks, I wrote a new instalment of an evolving, unfolding short story. I did this in Twitter, so each daily addition was as long as I could fit in a tweet.
I didn’t plot or plan this beforehand, as I wanted to see where my inspiration takes me each day. There’s no guarantee the final, 28 tweet piece will work as a cohesive whole, but it was fun to do.
You can see the full project at Twitter.com/jonathansbean, where the thread is pinned to the top of my profile - at least until the end of December. I also added screenshots to my Instagram account (jonathansbean) - which I may delete at the end of the year.
For ease of reading, and to collate the full text in one piece for posterity, here is the full story, below.
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Chapter one
We arrived in Yegen before dawn this morning. The 48hr journey was tense, but went to plan. Fishing boat to France, Laszlo's car to the Pyrenees, hike over the mountains. Once in the country, we were able to use the Spanish identities to hire a car and appear above board. Our cover legends are Marc and Ana, two hiking enthusiasts from Cantabria writing a guidebook. It should work well, giving us a plausible reason for exploring the surrounding area and asking questions of the locals without arousing suspicions as to our true intentions. We're both excited, as it feels like we might finally be close to completing this mission. It's been seven years, but at last the pieces of the plan are coming together. Just a few more days - if everything goes as it should - and we'll have her. Patience, patience, patience.
I remember when the call came through. I was in the pub. I had been for months.
"We have a job for you" said Nunez. I said I could be at the Factory in a couple of hours. "No. This one is off the books. We can't meet. You'll receive your instructions tonight."
A Chinese takeaway I hadn't ordered arrived at my flat that night. Also in the bag was an envelope with a passport, euros and a ticket to Rome. A driver picked me up at Fiumicino and took me to a villa outside the city where Nunez and 'Ana' were waiting to brief me.
The target had been one of ours. Or still was, depending on how you looked at it. She had gone missing after a job in strange circumstances. Officially she was dead, but Nunez had his doubts. No-one could know we were looking for her, so Ana and I would have to go dark. The theory was that she went to ground after the job was botched and was hiding from the other side. With no back-up and limited resources, we'd have to get her to make a mistake and reveal herself. The only risk was that the other side would get to her before we could.
Chapter two
31/10/2013
The Range Rover sped along the Corniche towards the hospital. In the back was William Aldwych, head of the Aldwych Group of legal and illegal businesses. Moments earlier, he had been pulled from the wreckage of his own car by his security guards. Aldwych's would-be-assassin revealed who had paid him to place the bomb. The chase was on, but the prey had a head start. Having seen the attempt fail, 'Salma F' was on a motorbike heading towards the marina. A quick change in a public toilet and she was Lucia Stone again.
Stone climbed into the tender and headed out to a motoryacht waiting offshore. She motored to the other side of the peninsula and waited until dark. Then she set the charges and swam ashore. She heard the thud of the explosion below the waterline and the yacht slowly sank. With Aldwych alive, Stone had to assume he would be after her. That wouldn't have been difficult to resolve with the Factory's help. It was a well-rehearsed drill: Safe house, change appearance, new documents, cross the border, company jet to Europe, train to London, home. But something didn't feel right. That should have been the end of Aldwych, yet he survived. Had there been a tip-off? Had the asset been compromised beforehand? Was she being set-up to fail by persons unknown? Or had it just been bad luck and she was being paranoid?
Whatever the reason for the failed mission, it was at that point she made the decision to retire. She had given them a decade of her life and owed them nothing. It would be difficult to lie low and start a new life without the Factory's support, but not impossible. There was something else playing on Stone's mind. She'd put off thinking about it while she had work to do, but it was getting increasingly hard to ignore. She knew at some point soon she'd have to make a decision. Moving her hands to her stomach, Stone sighed, and smiled.
Chapter three
For seven years, Marc and Ana had pursued Stone. With few resources of their own, they fed Aldwych's organisation with information and acted on the reactions. It was a subtle, dangerous game, as they edged closer to Stone. They had to get there first. Above all, they wanted Stone to be safe, so the first step was to buy her some time to get away from Dubai. Gambling on her initially running as far as possible, they operated closer to home, constructing red herrings suggesting that Stone was heading to Europe to lie low.
Ana, disguised as Stone, took a trip on a container ship.
Marc, made a statement to Police in Naples, claiming to have been attacked by a women matching Stone's description.
They staged a break-in at a Swiss banker's house.
Then, they watched and waited. Sure enough, Aldwych took the bait. One of his men followed the trail they had set. They couldn't bug him, as they knew Aldwych regularly swept his staff, but they could bug the hotel room and hire car. The recordings confirmed their suspicions: Aldwych was after Stone. They played the long game, cautiously observing Aldwych, while working on any weak links. If they could lean on people within the organisation, without them realising they were being leant on, then they could get unwitting agents on the inside feeding them information. With a network in place, and able to monitor Aldwych's activities, they started making real information available. The cycle became established: Monitor, act, feed, monitor, act, feed. All the while getting closer to Stone, but trying to stay one step ahead of Aldwych.
What Marc and Ana didn't realise is that they were being played, just as they were playing Aldwych. The clues they'd found, and passed to Aldwych, had been fed to them by Stone. It was all part of her high stakes plan to be rid of the Factory, and her old life, for good.
Chapter four
And so, dear reader, the denouement approaches. All roads have led to Yegen, and the players are assembled: Marc and Ana, sent by Nunez who has joined them. Aldwych and his cronies, led there by Marc and Ana. And, as for Stone herself; is she present?
The showdown occurred in the main square, just after dawn. Marc and Ana had positively identified Stone on their second week in the town, then observed her movements to learn her routine. They knew she wouldn't voluntarily come to them, so they'd have to force the issue. Exposing Stone and offering her an opportunity to escape with them, was the approach Marc and Ana opted for. They had tipped off Aldwych and seen his men arrive the day. before. Now, the result of seven years work was just minutes away. Everything was falling into place.
Stone crossed the square. Three men got out of a black car and approached her. Marc and Ana got out of theirs, hands on holsters, ready to intervene. Before either side could reach her, Stone stopped walking, held up her hand, turned, and smiled at each of her pursuers.
At that moment, there was a firm knock on Nunez's front door. He got up to answer it, interrupted from remotely watching the events in Yegen. Across London, Aldwych, stepped out of the sauna to find his home was full of men and women in dark suits, pointing guns at him.
Suddenly, the Fuentos de los Leones was flooded with police who streamed in from all directions, sweeping up Marc, Ana and Aldwych's men before disappearing as quickly as they appeared. All was calm again. Stone kept walking, took a phone out of her bag, and dialled. A young girl answered the phone.
"Hi Mum."
"Hi. Did I wake you?"
"Yes, but it's OK. I don't mind. Are you coming home today?"
"Yes, I am. I can't wait to see you."
"That's it? You've finished your job? No more work trips?"
"Yes. It's finished. No more work trips."
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Did it work?
The idea of this project was to get into the swing of writing creatively, at least once a day, for an extended period. In that sense, the project was a success.
I knew it was unlikely to result in a complete story that worked perfectly, and my expectations were met in that regard! Writing in tweets is difficult as they’re too short to develop any ideas fully while still moving the plot on enough to finish a story within the 28 day window. I think the lack of planning showed, or perhaps, as the writer, I’m aware of the bits where I didn’t know what was happening in the story.
However, I do think there are some nuggets in the text that could be teased out into something better:
I didn’t go into Marc’s backstory, but I think there is scope there.
Ditto, Stone’s complexity was hinted at, but never explored. That could be fun to do.
I like the idea of The Factory as some kind of secret agency using takeaway delivery drivers to pass on messages.
Big issues with the story are, in my opinion:
Ana was essentially a pointless character. I could have developed that more.
In my head, Aldwych is a bit of a stereotype dodgy businessman/gangster. That seems lazy to me, but I felt I needed to use an instantly familiar archetype to save time.
Most of the action during the seven years Stone is on the run is just hinted at, as I felt I didn’t have the space to develop it. It might have been better to include at least some of it.
On balance, I enjoyed this project, and I have come out of it with a rough sketch that might even be worth working up into some kind of more detailed story. As a brainstorming method, forcing yourself to write each day and add to a story works well. Just don’t expect a perfect, polished diamond.