Yesterday I was talking with a writer/teacher friend of mine, Nancy Sondel, who operates the Pacific Coast Children’s Writers Novel Workshop & Retreat. We were talking shop, workloads, and problems.
One of the things I said during the conversation was “…for every problem you encounter in your life, an opportunity arrives as its shadow. All you have to do is shake hands with the opportunity and the problem gets solved. With characters, the same applies. Sometimes you just have to look a bit harder to find that shadow of opportunity.”
Thinking about those words later, I realized that I was talking about my characters, neglected since my falling ill in June. This past week I took up the writer’s banner once again, dusted it off, and hung it over my computer. But more than that, I’d been away from my stories and their people long enough to gain perspective.
The opportunity—the shadow—had been forced upon me. Now it was possible to take a look at each character, to find the little flaws that had always hidden behind the surface minutiae, and a chance to deepen each one with additional quirks and problems of their own.
I wasn’t ready to tackle my women’s mystery novel just now. Instead, the dust was blown off four pieces of flash fiction that delved into the life of a specific character. They were put together, sifted as 2-3 page units, tweaked, and shifted for counterpoints and time frames. In the end a much longer story emerged, but also one which wasn’t finished.
The first half of it was passed on to my critique group, which found it unlike my usual style, with a depth that was both unusual and alluring. Each found something different in it. With their suggestions in hand, the winnowing process began. Concreteness of detail came into play, forcing more words, more expository, which brought that first half to a place where it can foreshadow the next piece of the puzzle.
Tackling the second half means more broadening, more sensory/visceral immediacy, and the lead up to a grand finale that had never been envisioned. That’s my task for this week.
This was a story that had lain untouched for nearly a year. Seeing it again with new eyes, new anticipations and revelations, took it to a place it was never meant to go. With additional planning, it could easily go to novella length, though that isn’t being planned. A nice 10K short story would be more than adequate.
Would any of this have happened without falling ill? I don’t know. I’m glad it happened. I was forced to think about characters and their lives without other, conflicting, distractions. I needed that for the stories’ sake and mine.
My shadow of opportunity continues to spread. A more focused path lies before me, unseen until now. And I like what I see.
So, what has been a recent shadow of opportunity in your life? Did you shake hands with it, and if so, were there good results. Tell me, if you would. Until then, a bientot,
Claudsy
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- Flash Fiction: Haunted Dreams (ericpatrickclayton.wordpress.com)
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