Making the plot:

    In my previous post, I outlined some elements I knew I wanted to include. Just to remind you, the plot will be centered around a man's life in an apocalyptic world. I also stated that I wanted to incorporate fungi into the story. Something I personally love doing is cooking. I love cooking and appreciate the work and ingredients that go into professional dishes. Many of these high-end chefs purchase different forms of fungi like wild mushrooms and truffles from mushroom foragers. This train of thinking outlined the profile of the main character for me. I wanted the main character to be a retired chef. The character frequently forages for wild ingredients for his dishes including fungi. I wanted the man to have an intriguing name I'm not too sure why but I settled on Ed Dawson. After making some form of a character profile, I wanted to go to the filming location for some inspiration. You can see some of the pictures below. 

    Honestly, I just walked around for a while and began thinking. I felt like Ed Dawsons past should be a key element in his survival post-apocalypse. I started backtracking at this point and tried to think about how the world got to the state it was. It dawned on me I could connect fungi directly to the end of the world. Fungi in the world of Ed Dawson was an essential part of the global diet. It was as essential to eat fungi in their world as it is to drink water in ours. A specific species of fungi had the elements needed for humans to transport nutrients in their bodies. This is one of the reasons why we drink water in our world. 

    At this point, I began thinking about some research I did in my AICE Global Perspectives course. Current production practices in my industries are flawed. It is common knowledge our practices contribute to global warming. I thought it would be interesting to incorporate this into my plot. The species of fungi began becoming produced at high rates as industrialization occurred. The fungi, that came in the marketable form of a mushroom, was being overproduced. Production practices searched for high rates with little respect to the fungi. At some point, the spoors began to die in factories across the world. This sent the world into a state of mass hysteria. Grocery stores were being raided by people around the world. This was the beginning of the end. By 6 months in, the world was at a full anarchistic state. Only those who were able to adapt could survive, one of those people being Ed Dawson. 

    Now I wanted to add another aspect to the plot. I wanted to add something that would set Ed Dawson on a task. I also wanted there to be pressure on him to complete this task. I thought about what would make a man fight for something in a time like Ed was in, his mother. Ed Dawson's supply of fungi is shared between him and his mother. At first, Dawson expected the supply to last around a year more. But his mother fell ill and needed extra fungi to survive. At the rate the fungi were disappearing, he suspected a few months before its completely out. Dawson being in the foraging community knew about this rare species of fungi. No forager has been able to find it but chemically it was concluded it existed. It was a variant of the species the world used to live off of. This set Dawson out on the task of finding this species of fungi. Not only to save him and his mother but the rest of humanity. 

    I came to the final plot after gathering some opinions from people around me. There were many changes made like originally I wanted Dawson to be living in a cabin. I understood that I couldn't represent this in the opening as I don't have a cabin. Many people liked the mother aspect of the plot. People also said they thought the current world connection was neat, some saying it remedied them of the film "Don't Look Up". In the coming week, I am still going to make small changes but right now I have a good base. I am going to be asking some of my professors for their opinions as well. But so far I am really happy with my status on this project:) 
Characters

Ed Dawson:

• Retired Chef 
• Fungi Forager

Mother(Maryanne Dawson):

• Fell very Ill 
• Put pressure onto Ed 

Plot:

"The story is based around a retired chef who forages for his own food. In his world, fungi are an essential food source that people need to eat in order to live. Specifically, one species of fungi coming in the form of a mushroom contains a specific element in your body in order to transport nutrients, similar to water in our world. Naturally, as industrialization advanced, the species of mushroom began to be mass-produced. Eventually, after improper production techniques, the fungi spores began to become ineffective. The species of mushroom began quickly dying off. As fungi factories around the world began to shut down, the world was put into mass hysteria. After a few months, most people's supplies began to die off, sending the world into anarchy. The world after a year was in a complete dystopian apocalyptic state. The population was minimal with the few surviving being those able to adapt. Retired chef and forager Ed Dawson was one of those people. The story's plot is centered around his search for a rare species of fungi that contain a similar element to the one that went extinct. He knows the forests around his home where his mother and he live. He predicted his supply should last a year but his mother has fallen ill. The supply is quickly depleting and his mother's health is only getting worse. Now he predicts the supply lasting the next 3 months. This sets him on a mission to discover the species of mushroom in order to save him and more importantly to him, his mother's life. "