The Promethean Author Commentary continues! This week is a look at the rocky start to the lead relationship in the series! SPOILER WARNING is in effect.
Ben and Morgan
It was clear when I was outlining the first season Ben and Morgan were the main leads for the series. DSA was shaped around them primarily, and everything flowed from their arcs throughout the narrative.
So, Promethean became the testing ground for their relationship. How would this work? Who would be in charge? How would they play off each other? What would irritate the living hell out of them?
This last question was what struck me as vital to writing their relationship. I found it fascinating to explore what would rub each of them the wrong way, and how that would impact their work. There are so many examples of partnerships formed out of circumstance, forced on one or both players. Most roll with that punch. Some don’t even bat an eye and the pair are totally in sync the whole time.
That never made sense to me. I wanted to play with the dysfunction of it all. But more than anything I wanted there to be a reason behind the distance between Ben and Morgan.
A Rocky Start
Morgan is at the epicenter of this. She pushes back on every advance in Ben’s arsenal. For every topic he tries to discuss with her, she puts up a defensive barrier rather than engage Ben on a personal level.
Sure, Ben is pretty irritating. I found it fun to make him so uncomfortable with silences that he becomes overly verbose, well past the point of annoyance.
To Ben, though, the mystery of Morgan’s resistance is almost as captivating as the main thread of the novel with Henry Reed. He’s new. He doesn’t understand the world of the DSA or any of the players behind the scenes. Being dropped into the thick of things has been overwhelming, but rather than throw him a lifeline, Morgan continues to play the “you’ll get used to it” card.
Having that level of tension in Promethean was crucial to making the story work for me. These two are complete strangers. Why on earth wouldn’t they butt heads over anything and everything?
Morgan’s Arc
Part of the reason I went back and showed Grissom’s “death” in The Clearing was to plant the seed for Morgan’s arc in Promethean. Losing Grissom was a huge blow to Morgan and one she has almost no time to consider before the team is sent to Bellbrook, where she then loses Ruth Heller.
Each loss staggers Morgan to the point of being absolutely unable to accept Ben into the fold. Not because he’s an outsider, not because he’s an idiot (though she certainly thinks he is), but because she is terrified to lose someone else.
Trauma is one of the themes of the series. Morgan’s here was one of the plot points I agonized over for weeks. Every draft, I went back to the moment outside the hospital where the pair have it out, wondering if I’ve earned that moment. That’s the thing about building an arc around someone. There has to be enough evidence throughout to actually earn the payoff at the end.
I think Morgan’s freak-out is one of the strongest moments in the novel, personally. It cemented their relationship in my mind and created the foundation for everything to follow. Without this moment, I don’t see why anyone would care what happened next.
Cover Tidbit
I don’t know if you pay attention to these things, but I always try to have MiblArt add some relevance with the background characters on the covers. For Promethean, I wanted to spotlight the rift between Ben and Morgan as they tackle this case, which is why they are turned away from each other on the cover.
Pretty cool, right?
What do you think about the rocky start for Ben and Morgan? I’d love to hear your comments.
