New Project: The Undeclared

I’ve been bouncing back and forth between projects for the past few months. Mostly I’ve been editing my manuscript for Mythos Ascending, while also writing a film-length prequel script called The Fall of Pandrox. I’ve also written about eight chapters for Fallen From Grace, but that’s taken a back seat until I get some more content for it.

In the fashion of a true writer, I’ve decided to start up yet another project despite having many other already on the go. I’ve been chewing on an idea for about a year now. I wanted to write a script that wouldn’t be too challenging to produce; something set in reality that wouldn’t require expensive CGI, greenscreen, or anything like that.

I combined this with my underlying admiration for Dan Harmon’s work, especially Community (which I’m currently rewatching for probably the fifth time). I wanted to try my hand at a similar premise - a group of eclectic individuals going through postsecondary education together.

My work draws a lot of inspiration from Community, specifically the structure that Dan Harmon uses every episode to create a complete internal narrative arc, what he calls the ‘Story Circle.’ It is a derivation of Campbell’s ‘Hero’s Journey,’ which has a character enter an unfamiliar environment, battle their demons, then return to their comfort zone having changed.

I’ve had a lot of fun concocting characters for the story. Some of them are grounded more in personalities I’ve met in person during my time at TMU, such as a stoner Marxist real-estate agent. Other characters are more like parodies of archetypes that emerged from a fever dream of internet memes, like the Sigma male stock character.

I’ve finished the pilot episode so far. If you’d like to read a teaser for it, I’ve made it available here. With some luck this could end up being my first piece of work to be lifted from the page.