Fan Fiction Prewrite

My fan fiction has gone through a bit of a tumultuous start. I had the conception that I could produce a ten page graphic novel of a professional quality in about a week. As I did some tests I found out that this was not going to be feasible, I am neither proficient enough, nor fast enough of an artist to achieve that goal. This was quite a bit of a disappointment to me, not only because I have a certain level of craftsmanship I expect out of myself, but also because my experimentation cost me a lot of the little time I had to complete the project. This is quite unfortunate, but alas, the show must go on, and I am left to fall back on good old prose writing.

The story itself is a bit more interesting. At one point I had the fleeting idea of putting Lady Macbeth on trial for baby killing, which would mirror the Casey Anthony case that currently has so much fervor in the news, but I don't follow the news closely enough, so I scratched that idea (though I still think it is a good idea). My second idea is just as interesting though. I had always found the witches to be one of the most interesting parts of Macbeth, and they serve a very powerful role as a plot device in the play, yet as characters, they were essentially shallow secondary characters. Except for Act I, Scene 3, when the witches talk about cursing the sailor, we don't get much about their personalities or back story. I wanted to expand on this void. 

One of the interesting things about the witches is not even the witches themselves, but that they seem to answer directly to Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft. This gave me an interesting idea: what if Hecate was like Emperor Palpatine, and the witches were Darth Vader. Each witch could have been a good and powerful character who is twisted by Hecate into becoming evil. This could be made even more interesting if the three witches were lead female characters in other Shakespearean plays, and each one is in Macbeth because each one is repaying their "deal with the devil". Which female leads would work best for this purpose?

Ophelia went mad and drowned herself. Perhaps during her drowning, Hecate appeared to her and offered her revenge on Hamlet, in return for the soul she was about to forfeit anyway. Desdemona was a loyal and loving wife to Othello, but Iago's manipulations blinded Othello into an unstoppable spiral of death. What if Hecate appeared to Desdemona right before Othello came in to smother her, and promised to restore her husbands faith......though she may not live to see it. Regan was the middle daughter of Lear, and always felt misplaced because of it. She loved her sister, but she also knew that Goneril will stop at nothing to steal her beloved Edmond. Perhaps before she went to see Goneril for the last time, she was approached by Hecate, who promised that no woman would be able to steal Edmond's affections, not even her sister, but Hecate may require the favor of the princess in return.

Hecate never lies to any of these women, all of her promises and predictions come true. But she manipulates them all in much the same way that they must manipulate Macbeth. Even if all of the women do not agree with Hecate, they are bound by her magic to obey her rules. Each woman is tempted in their darkest hour and played against their own emotions. Each woman starts out beautiful, but they are inevitably twisted by Hecate's magic, first emotionally, and then physically, until they become as they appear in Macbeth. And there I present the origin of the "Witches of Dunsinane Hill".