Rusty Banana Forge

I am currently plodding through the 1st draft of my 4 page story for the contest but first I’d like to talk about how I developed my story concept:

1. Just started reading my Bible again for the second time around. And after reading the Book of Job, I’ve been inspired by it, not only about the circumstances that fell upon Job, but also to the reference to the leviathan. I recall posing the question to a Christian speaker that if the theory of evolution is not true and the world we live in relatively younger…. did Noah have dinosaurs in the ark? As I remember that question, I also noted that Noah didn’t need to put fish (and also large sea monsters) into the ark… duh.

2. I like underwater documentaries very much, couple that with my fascination with cryptozoology… these got me started. I went looking up further references to the leviathan and to dinosaurs. The NIV Bible suggests it may possibly be a crocodile. But that’s unlikely because of how other verses in the Bible describe the creature. We may find it unlikely that such creatures still exist today, but are we 100% sure they don’t? Half of the world’s waters go deeper than 3000 meters, much deeper than remotely operated marine vehicles can go.

3. I also did some rough research on Bible versus concerning comfort, justice, trials, waiting on God, God’s sovereignty. Anything to anchor the story into the Word of God. The meat of this process will be discussed in upcoming production notes.

4. Then off to Youtube to seek videos on possible creatures that may trigger further inspiration. I went through the Loch Ness Monster videos, but none of them were convincing. So I looked up other rare sea creatures (these can get pretty scary):

5. In order to make any undersea story unfold, I need an undersea venue to host the characters. I decided on a submarine of sorts, so as not to be too farfetched.

6. The captain of the sub would be a major character, and so I ask myself and walked with God for a story that could revolve around the captain. The research into the leviathan proved to be useful. I found metaphors between the leviathan and to chaos - even to the Devil. This ties in to the story of Job and to stories of how evil circumstances have taken so many good people I know or knew personally. Given my own metaphor for the leviathan, I am able to carry on the captain’s story a little more confidently. It is “Man vs. Nature” and “Man vs Himself”.