Another of the “lost” posts that vanished when SU moved a while back. This one was originally published, as will be apparent, in December for Christmas. But maybe the dog days of summer could use a little blast of winter.
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In this season of holidays, it’s easy to remember that everything has a story. Traditions from every culture layer the days with meaning. Myths and folklore fill our houses, flow from every medium. For many Americans, Halloween was the time to tell each other stories about darkness that were scary, and funny. At Thanksgiving, folks visited family and friends, entertained, and told stories about themselves, each other, those absent and missing. For Christmas, gifts are wrapped up in tales of what we know about loved ones and what they know about us. And, of course, we’re bombarded by 12 months worth of big, important stories in the week before New Year’s Eve.
But what about the rest of the year?
Back in the day, of course, we were connected to nature, land, plants, animals, the world through the stories our families, tribe, culture created to give people a place and a meaning in their environment. Everything and everyone had a story, handed down from one generation to the next, perhaps changing over the decades or centuries as the information was warped by plague or war or natural disaster, or someone with an imagination.
These days, through the media hubs of our towns, cities, our living rooms, “man caves,” computers and smartphones, our world has greatly expanded. Everyone and everything still has a story, usually more than one, and our electronic environment tells us which we should believe at what moment with ads, news, reviews, blogs, email, twitter, and so on.
As writers, however, we’re more than passive consumers of gossip, media reality, hastily formed snark opinions masking as critical thinking, and commercials. Hopefully, we’re more than creators of media bull, too.
When I think about everyone and everything having a story, I see connecting readers to the world, and as a writer working to find those connections. Being a dark soul, I often see the world in shadows, and so try to make those shadows more meaningful to readers.
This is only one reason I don’t make a living writing.
For writers, that’s just more to notice.
Respect the story. Learn from it. Use it.
Sometimes it’s a place. While revising a story set in Africa, I researched the west coast countries to find a specific location that would satisfy a set of parameters necessary for the story. Initially, I’d been a bit vague about the exact setting, taking out a kind of fairy tale license to be somewhat generic in order to focus on the characters and the fantastic series of events. But an editor waved money and publication in front of me if I’d be more specific (this is after all one of Heinlein’s principles – revise for money). I narrowed it down to Ghana, and then a specific area in the north east.
But the really interesting thing I discovered doing this research was the country itself. It had a phenomenal history, with multiple empires and cultures and languages and religions, highly differentiated geographical areas, fantastic color and legends and people. You could set a fantasy trilogy in it. Or use the place as a template to anchor one’s own set of religious and poltiical interests, geographical preferences, etc.
The place is waiting. I can see the journey character would take from the coast, through the highlands, to the savanah.
Sometimes it’s a person.
Sometimes it’s an object.
A feeling.
I’m a fan of jazz, blues, r&b, etc. Not a big fan where I know all the performers in a given session, and which take was released. Not a Peter Straub fan writing liner notes for album. I like to listen to the stuff. I like to find outt where it came from, sometimes track back the history of recordings.
I’ve had someone tell me they did not realize people other than Africans had been enslaved before the Atlantic slave trade (much less know about the slave trade going East, )
I like seeing the inspiration for American movies basedon Japanese films.
I don’t know most stories. But I’ll sit and get snagged into a History or Discovery channel show about xxx just because the story hooks me.
I’ll watch freaking Olympic ice curling because the stakes are high and there’s a story. (Not for long, but I’ll watch it.)
My point is leave yourself open to the story. Research. Let it be told. Or imagine it being told.
Strip the stories being told to you 9to buy, to believe0 make up your own – use the stimluation, the great amount of things to be noticed – mix and match
You learn different ways of telling a story, structuring it. And you learn all kinds of interesting things to put into a story to make it go off in unexpected directions.