(Originally Posted Friday 6-16-17)
There’s two different directions we could go with this pic. The first is the classic/traditional approach of the ‘retired’ soldier/operator who’s moved out to his cabin in say Montana or Colorado. Some place snowy and remote. He lives alone except for his dog, shown here. ?
He’s pretty self-sufficient. Maybe he goes into town once a month for supplies, maybe that’s just an excuse so he can get something else secretly.
He’s not mean per say but he doesn’t enjoy the company of people. Maybe he was a Sergeant or team leader and lost his men overseas in an attack or maybe something happened to his family and now he’s all alone. Except for his dog of course. They spend their days outside together hunting and hiking.
The other direction we could go with is a little different. We’ll keep some of the same elements like he still lives alone but he’s always been single and he trains dogs at his place/ranch. Maybe they’re tracking dogs or bomb sniffing dogs. Maybe he trains both kinds and rotates them out. The most he takes in at one time is 3 to 6 plus maybe his own dog he’s had since he was a puppy, still pictured here ?
He goes into town once a week for supplies for himself or the dogs. Sometimes he goes alone or with a few of the dogs. He has friends that are locals but he generally keeps to himself and rarely invites people back to his place.
Of course, both of these approaches could be used. With a few more tweaks we could have two different characters here. They’d need some additional thoughts to make them stand apart better. Maybe make the character in the 1st approach female to put a different spin on that ‘classic’ take of the lone soldier and their dog living in their cabin away from everyone else.
#FridayNightWriting #TheMercSeries #Ideas #ThinkingOutLoud
