Once in a great while, a story idea comes to me in its entirely. Good, right? No, it feels like I have 1) read it already 2) is too pat 3) is too boring to have to write.
Where are the magical moments when you know its start, middle and finish right off? Where is the alchemy that you discover by taking the journey.
Apparently this was Hitchcock's dilemma and some say it makes his movies seem cold or perfunctory.
Does this happen to you, Writer? Do you relish these stories or dread them?
17 comments:
The only time I've ever tried to write a 'full' story, it hasn't worked. So, I'll just stick to writing in 'bits.'Suits my limited attention span. anyway!
It has never happened. I'd like to try it sometime. For every completed story I have numerous false starts cluttering up My Documents.
My best ones start with a character in a situation and they just stumble into the conclusion like a fat man with ice cream cones in both hands, walking down slippery steps in a rainstorm.
Of the few stories I've published that I like best, they've mostly come to me entire, and I've written them pretty much that way (tending to write vignettes helps thus). Hitchcock didn't write Too many original scripts, so I suspect his alienation from humanity (which tends to show in his various choices) might have more to do with the coldness there. As for the Whole Story Idea being pat...well, every story has that potential, and many pat stories are praised and sell like hell...there are only (you decide which bromide has the right number of) plots, and the best thing Ezra Pound ever commanded probably remains "Make it new." Think about it, turn it inside out, make it real.
It's happened to me with flash pieces a few times. One popped into my head driving home from the supermarket one day. I went home, typed it up, let it sit overnight, polished it, and send it in. Mysterical-E published it. Bing. Bang. Boom.
For longer works, I've had scenes pop into my head that I more or less just transcribed, but nothing longer than that.
It's about 50/50 for me, I guess. I don't worry too much about originality, because I don't know if I've ever had an original idea in my head (or read one elsewhere, for that matter). When it comes time to edit, then I try and make it mine with my voice and stuff, which is about the best I can do. Success varies.
My husband is always pointing out stories in the newspaper, which he says would make a good story, but I often can't write my way into them. Similarly, the one longer story that came to me in one piece was not a typical story for me at all--it seemed like someone else had written it. Someone I hope not to run into again. Like Dana flash pieces do tend to show up fully dressed and ready to be taken out for dinner.
Yeah, flash pieces ideally come to me in a flash. Then again, often I'll think I have complete story that came to me in one piece, but I don't, and I end up hacking it apart and putting it back together again, hacking it apart and putting it back together again, until it drives me crazy enough that I send it to someone else.
Yep, I am always skeptical of stories that appear unbidden.
One should take the gift...unless it's an unconscious bit of plagiarism.
That's always the worry-especially when you have read so many stories.
Phil is reading the Kate Wilhelm story and has Davy in wait.
Proto-doctors might or might not like the driving plot factor of the book...that a plague will kill (iirc the proportions) about 95% of the people who get it...and leave the other 5% immortal...also, as with much of Wilhelm, she slipped in both elements and parody of crime, romance and science fiction..."The Winter Beach" version being one of the last good pieces of fiction (or any pieces of fiction, I think) in REDBOOK...
No good fiction in magazines now and I include THE NEW YORKER.
Enjoyed McGuane's story in last week's NEW YORKER. Laughed big time and then got to hear him read it again when I was in Missoula. Sheer fun.
About writing fiction (which you haven't seen much of yet), I don't write unless there's a clear end in mind. That usually doesn't come until after days of cogitation.
Have to look at that one. Their usual story now is so arid, earnest, predictable, long.
I've rarely had the full story in mind when I write anything. Once I write, I do know when the story is complete, usually when I've got the title or the ending.
In 2005, I wrote a short story called "Stuck In An Elevator With Mandy Patinkin." Patinkin starred in a short-lived Showtime series back then called "Dead Like Me" in which he played a grim reaper. I got just so far into the story before I was stuck for an ending. So I stopped writing and began scouring the web for a picture of Patinkin. Sometimes finding a picture for my story helps me to focus better. I found one of him. He was dressed in a suit but in bare feet and was squatting down on his heels in a corner. When I saw that picture, the whole story just about wrote itself. I posted the story on my blog of short stories along with that tiny picture.
There were ten stories on that blog, and yet that one story began generating LOTS of attention from an MSN group called Older Barefoot Gents all because of that one, tiny picture. I've got a new blog now with a post called MANDY PATINKIN, OLDER BAREFOOT GENTS & ME. It's the only post which gets any attention from people looking for older barefoot gents.
I like his performance on the new Showtimes series a lot.
Good story!
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