THE
JOY OF STORY
John
M. Daniel’s Blog
May
7, 2017
§§§
Greetings, friends and celebrators
of the joy to be found in stories—writing them, reading them, telling them, or
hearing them. If you enjoy a good story, this weekly blog is for you.
§§§
THE
JOY OF STORY
Brief
Essays on
Writing Fiction
Essays on
Writing Fiction
§
Chapter 3
Where Do Stories Come From?
So you want to write a story? About what? Any ideas? Pardon my impertinence, but get used to the question: “Where do you get your ideas?” Every novelist, story writer, playwright, songwriter, or screenwriter has to answer that question at some point.
I have three sources to suggest.
First let me suggest a premise: all good fiction
is, at least in part, autobiographical. And by the way, that goes for
historical novels, westerns, science fiction, and gritty police professionals.
What may seem like flights of fancy usually have some source within our own
experience, or our own dreams of glory and nightmares of disaster.
Well, perhaps this is a conversation for another
time. Meanwhile, let’s just accept that your own life is a rich source of
fictional stories. Flannery O’Connor is said to have said, “Any writer who
survived childhood has enough material to last his whole career.” She may not
really have said that, because I’ve never seen a primary source for the
quotation, and it’s been quoted so differently by different secondary sources
that it may be apocryphal. But that doesn’t make the statement any less true.
I would add that the rich mine of materials isn’t
limited to memories of childhood. Life is full of turning points, changes,
choices, and consequences, and they’re all waiting to be exploited.
Where do we find them?
The Junk Drawer of Your Memory.
Every home has at least one junk drawer. Opening
memory’s junk drawer is like opening a jar of insects, some beautiful, some
with stingers or teeth. Where did this
key come from? Who do I know who drives a Porsche? Why did I save this snapshot
of my ex-husband trying to politely carve the birthday cake I made from
scratch, when we both knew he didn’t want to be reminded he was turning forty?
One joker card from the MGM Grand? As I remember, the joke was on me. My first
report card. All A’s except for citizenship. Ticket stubs from My Fair Lady. I still have a Gene McCarthy button? I
still have my draft card?
Every one of these keepsakes has a story, and the
drawer is bottomless.
Historical novelists may want to explore that
trunk in the attic. Horror writers will find Steve King lurking in the
basement, sorting his bone collection and tasting Amon-tillado.
Rites of Passage.
Rites of passage are life-changing events common
to many within any culture. Some of them are experienced in childhood: toilet
training, learning to ride a bicycle, losing teeth, first day of school, being
disabused of the myth of Santa Claus. Some come in puberty and adolescence: the
driver’s license, the first kiss, the first heartbreak, the first drink. Some
are the business of young adulthood: moving out and moving on, military
service, college, first job, marriage, parenthood, traffic tickets, debts, and
finding a career. Then come later life and what comes later than later life:
grandchildren, arthritis, a crummy gold watch, funerals, and the chance to
write your memories down for future generations. Some rites of passage are
reserved for boys becoming men: learning to shave. Some for girls becoming
women: buying a bra. Some rites of passage happen mainly to rich people, some
to poor people; some to religious people, others to skeptics. So we don’t all
experience all the same rites, but chances are that within any culture, we know
people who have gone through experiences like these.
How to make a story out of a rite of passage you’ve
passed through? First, it’s important to describe the passage in such a way
that all readers (who share your culture) will relate to the experience.
Second, and more important, it’s the goal of the story to show how your own
experience of this rite was special, your own to claim, and how it changed you
and made you a different person from the one you were before you went through
that creaking door, that stretch of whitewater rapids, that midterm exam.
Archetypes
In any culture, there are stories we all know.
Not only do we know them well because we learned them as children, but we’ve
heard them over and over in varied and different retellings.
In the American/WASP/Judeo-Christian culture, to
pick only one segment of our multicultural society (but the one I know best),
most of us know a few common religious myths, such as the Garden of Eden, Cain
and Abel, and the Prodigal Son. A lot of us know the same Greek myths, like the
Myth of Sisyphus, the Complex of Oedipus, the Midas Touch, or Pandora’s Box.
Then there are the fairy tales we grew up on: Cinderella, The Ugly Duckling,
Little Red Riding Hood.
These stories get shamefully recycled, to great
effect. East of Eden is a retelling
of Cain and Abel. Pretty Woman is a
combination of Pygmalion and Cinderella. The Ugly Duckling? It’s the basis of Dumbo, “Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer,”
and dozens of other heartwarming stories.
And you’ll no doubt find your own personal
versions of archetypical stories that you can exploit for fiction, taking these
stories we all know and making them into stories you alone could write.
§§§
Call for
submissions:
Your 99-Word
Stories
The
deadline for June’s 99-word story submissions is June 1, 2017. The stories will
appear on my blog post for June 10, and will stay posted for a week.
note: this 99-word story feature
is a game, not a contest. Obey the rules and I’ll include your story. I may
edit the story to make it stronger, and it’s understood that you will submit to
my editing willingly. That’s an unwritten rule.
Rules for the 99-word
story feature are as follows:
1. Your story must be 99
words long, exactly.
2. One story per writer,
per month.
3. The story must be a
story. That means it needs plot (something or somebody has to change),
characters, and conflict.
4. The story must be
inspired by the prompt I assign.
5. The deadline: the
first of the month. Stories will appear on this blog the second Saturday of the
month.
6. I will copy edit the
story. The author of the story retains all rights.
7.
Email me your story (in the body of your email, or as a Word attachment) to: jmd@danielpublishing.com
THIS
MONTH’S PROMPT FOR NEXT MONTH’S 99-WORD STORY: What was the
most important life-changing decision you ever made? Tell it in a story 99
words long.
§§§
Calling
all published authors—
I try to feature a guest
author the third Saturday (and week following) of each month. If you’re
interested in posting an essay on my blog—it’s also a chance to promote a
published book—email me directly at jmd@danielpublishing.com.
§§§
Thank you for visiting.
Please drop by next week!
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