How to Develop

by Jerry Dunne

  With Ron in hospital, Ben’s lover’s house is burgled. The burglar has her computer and all her and Ben’s correspondence to one another. Will the burglar notice their correspondence on the computer, twig what’s going on between them and cash in on it? This is the twist and the end of the story.

  This early draft plan offers opportunity for conflict, rising tension and suspense, strong character development (Ron in the story can take on aspects of the King’s strong arrogant personality) and even different plot twists. The structure can be tightened by starting the story where Ben is telling his lover what Ron’s been doing. Ben’s wife never need actively appear in the story. The active actors are Ben, his lover and Ron, who between them may destroy each other. The story can be a dead serious crime story where the motive for murder is deepened and the attack is described graphically. Ben’s lover will play a forceful role in pushing Ben to attempt the attack. Or it can be a story with an undercurrent of light humour where the attack is made in an almost funny way by a bungling man out of his depth.

  Look how far but how smoothly and quickly we have come from our historical essay, just by passing the King’s strongest plot-driven character flaw(s) out of the essay’s general plot and into an old style fable, and then using the old style fable as inspiration for the development of this new idea.

  A COLLECTION OF STORIES

  If you are fascinated by a certain historical period and have developed some expertise in it, you may consider writing a collection of short stories from that time. For example, if you were thinking of the English Civil War, your stories may all involve the same character, Cromwell, for instance, but may revolve around completely different events. One story may be set in a peaceful family environment, another on the battlefield. Or you may choose to develop a fresh character, such as an ordinary soldier, a soldier’s wife, a manufacturer of weapons or military clothing. The possibilities of using a combination of character, plot, POV, theme and setting are indeed numerous.

  THE FLEXIBILITY OF THE MINING TECHNIQUE

  We used our mining technique to help us write the essay that in turn offered us a framework for inspiration and story plan development. In the Signature, we demonstrated the power of the physical anchor to influence dynamically the story’s structure. Now let’s place greater emphasis on the physical anchor rather than the plot-driven universal character flaw(s) as a means of helping us focus in on strong short story ideas from the historical narrative.

  So we will go from our basic mining technique which is this:

  Theme (plot-driven universal human flaw(s) of single character arising out of character attitude) + action (off the theme (flaw)) + conflict (off the action) + irony (off the conflict).

  To this adaption:

  Physical anchor + theme (plot-driven universal human flaw(s) of single character arising out of character attitude) + action (off the theme (flaw)) + conflict (off the action) + irony (off the conflict).

  This change of emphasis might not seem like much but it can greatly determine the type of story we end up writing because now the most important thing we are searching for is a physical anchor to weave the story around. This will certainly enable us to write quite different stories in comparison to the first use of the technique. Let’s see how this works in some examples.

  THE FIDDLE

  This story is situated in a well-known part of Irish history, the Great Famine period, but with unknown historical characters, as we want to express the tragedy of the ordinary person at a personal level. This doesn’t mean that we cannot trace a pattern of plot-driven universal character flaw(s) from the historical sources and transfer them onto these characters, but that because we want a physical anchor to be of primary importance in helping us pinpoint a short story idea from the historical narrative, character is of lesser importance at this stage. Later, of course, we must develop specific character and develop it well.

  Even with this early draft plan, it is clear that our physical anchor controls the story’s structure and time period, creates an emotional tone and a focus all of its own and will certainly help focus theme and plot.

  1847. The potato blight has swept over large parts of Ireland for the third year in a row, further devastating people’s lives.

  A family’s potato crop (their main food supply) is blighted for the third year in a row. They have managed to survive the last two years by half-starving and by selling whatever they can afford to lose. But they needed this third crop as without it they have nothing left to sell of any worth, except one thing.

  The blighted field could be an anchor for the story, or even a single blighted potato. It is already a strong symbol of Irish historical suffering, so a little clichéd in itself. Anyway, is it a poignant enough symbol on which to anchor a story about an individual family? Would a blighted potato create the right emotional pitch? It is better to anchor the story around another symbol, one embedded with strong emotional domestic connections. What has the family left that they haven’t yet sold but must be worth a lot to them to hold on to until the end?

  It is a fiddle. The son is a musician and has used it to earn money or food but of late no one has anything left to offer him for his playing. The country can no longer afford even to pay for the simple pleasure of music. This instrument has been one of the family’s few lifelines; now it is the last lifeline, and now they must make a decision.

  Do they sell it, knowing they’ll get little, anyway, as everyone is selling what they have left now that the blight has returned? Or do they keep it and hope that the son will somehow yet manage to earn something off it? Do they make their way to the overcrowded and disease-ridden local poorhouse? Do they attempt to make their way across country to a port and go to another country in order to survive?

  The power of a story can often be delivered by its structure. This story will be structured around the fiddle, a symbol of better days, of happiness, of survival, a symbol of hope. The story opens with the son picking up the fiddle and playing a few plaintive notes. Then we discover the circumstances and condition of the family. The son moves on to another song. After each song a member of the family explains what the song means to them; they can recount events from their past, and so on.

  The atmosphere is charged. A decision will have to be made. The two oldest, the grandparents, are too weak to walk and too old to travel on the sea. Anyway, they will not go near the newly opened, overcrowded and diseased-ridden poorhouse of which they hear no news except that of death and misery. They would rather die in their own home.

  The fiddle plays on. But instead of the songs growing sadder, the more they discuss their limited options and reflect on their past happiness, the more the fiddle plays lighter. The old folks talk of their children being born, their children of their own children being born, they talk of weddings and deaths, of good times and so on. It can almost be as though they are looking through an album of family photographs. But it is the music of the fiddle that paints the pictures for them, stirring up feeling and memory.

  By the end, those who can are on their feet dancing along to the last tune, a lively upbeat one. There is even laughter. This last song is like the last picture in the photo album. If those who survive ever hear it again, it will recall for them this moment, this last moment of the whole family together. This story could be titled with the name of the last song played.

  Externally, this story is pushed by circumstances beyond the family’s control. However, the story’s conflict and tension must revolve around the family’s decision regarding their desperate circumstances, and to really bring these factors to life we must bring character to life, too. The characters must not be two-dimensional and sentimental. Readers don’t really sympathize with the stereotypes on chocolate box covers. Personality differences should show up in arguments regarding proposed decisions, for example. The characters must show their flaws; their jealousies, stubbornness, recriminations against each other; as well as their love and affections. This will raise the confli
ct and tension and give us our story’s deeper and personal theme. For example, ambition thwarted. Maybe the husband had ambitions of buying land and becoming a farmer and is now finding it hard to reconcile his dreams with reality; maybe he thinks there is still something they can do to set things right. He doesn’t want to sell the fiddle because it is the only lifeline left connecting him to his dreams. We must see his stubbornness and self-delusions and by the end possibly his newly found wisdom, too; and so, also, with the others; some of whom will struggle to make him see the stark reality of their situation. We must see a normal family. This way they become more like us and as a consequence their situation becomes more heartbreaking and their courage in the face of their adversity, the way they get livelier with each song, becomes more poignant. As it is a short story, the plot must revolve in particular around one or two of the strongest characters who must then resolve the internal conflict. For instance, this is the point where the husband understands that his dreams and hopes of owning land and supporting all his family off it have been completely and comprehensively crushed by external circumstances. He knows that the older folk are not going to move, but will stay here and die, and his, his wife’s and children’s future are unclear. It is the most heartbreaking moment of the story. His emotional realization is more important than the reader knowing the decision the family will take in the face of the externally driven story of the Famine and the wider social poverty. In fact, we don’t even need to know the decision because our story’s inner conflict has just been resolved and we can guess from that what will happen next.

  Be careful with handling too many characters in a short story. Possibly only one grandparent, the father and mother and one or two grown-up children remain. The setting can be inside their home with maybe a scene or two outside in the yard. A story length of up to 10,000 words may be appropriate here.

  GALILEO AND THE TELESCOPE

  Galileo Galilei, 1564 – 1642, mathematician, scientist and philosopher, played an important role in the Scientific Revolution. In 1609, he developed a powerful astronomical telescope through which he could observe the universe. With this instrument he discovered that the moon’s shadows were created by mountains and valleys; that Venus displayed phases, suggesting it was orbiting not the earth but the sun; that spots moved across the sun’s surface as the sun rotated about on its own axis; and that Jupiter had four large satellites. These observations offered compelling evidence in support of the Copernican theory which placed the sun, rather than the earth, at the centre of the universe. In this systematic way of observing the heavens, Galileo made the telescope famous; though, in actual fact, the instrument was invented by craftsmen.

  Galileo’s discoveries set him on a collision with the Church, as at that time the geocentrism belief prevailed in the Church (everything revolves around the earth which is the centre of the Universe as Scripture states); and he remained in trouble with the Church for the rest of his life. There are stories of representatives of the Church refusing to look through his telescope, believing that Satan lay behind the invention, though not everyone in the Church took this point of view.

  Galileo’s discoveries were practical, not theoretical. The telescope had literally opened his eyes to new phenomena. The instrument fuelled the controversy between the geocentric supporters and the heliocentric ones (earth revolves around the sun). It became a powerful eye through which anyone could widen and deepen his awareness of the natural world; and despite the strict teachings of the Church anybody could now see contrary evidence to its teachings on the universe. The spread of this instrument not only supported reason and investigation against dogma and superstition, but made men understand the importance of such instruments in the development of their scientific endeavours.

  Here we have the prospect of writing a short story or a set of short stories around Galileo, and in one of the stories at least we can use the telescope as a physical anchor. Or, we have the prospect of writing a set of short stories around our physical anchor, the telescope. Galileo didn’t invent the instrument; he developed one model of it and would have had craftsmen working on this development. The telescope rose out of craftsmen’s work on lenses. It might be interesting to write a collection of stories about its early developments, passing through a story or two on Galileo and even another astronomer or two at other periods who made important and possibly controversial discoveries. Character is of primary importance in the story and the writer must never neglect human character for the sake of inanimate character. In other words, though the telescope is fascinating in and of itself, we are writing overall about why and how people react to it. So we must be very careful of the amount of technical language we feel is appropriate for the story.

  The point in writing a series of short stories like this is that you are able to build up a picture of the huge influence of such an instrument on the wider society over time. Social, cultural, religious and political changes as well as scientific ones can be explored using our physical anchor.

  This is certainly a good way for a writer to explore the many possibilities offered by a single anchor and the many ways in which it can structure a story. Just don’t forget that each individual story much be a complete story.

  Similar instruments the writer can explore as potential anchors are the microscope and the stethoscope. When researching anything historically technical, scientific or medical, look for books from the ‘history of science, technology and medicine’ side of the discipline.

  ADD SOME POIGNANT QUESTIONS

  Another flexible edge to the mining technique that may help us pinpoint a short story idea from the historical narrative is first to ask ourselves some simple but poignant questions about our topic. For example, why did an individual in any capacity decide to take a supporting role or take an actual part in the Civil War? While we’re focusing in on the historical narrative trying to discover a character who we believe will answer this question, we might also want to consider the following journalistic questions: Who are they? What were they doing? Where were they doing it? When did they do it? How did they do it? These are information gathering questions. A journalist will also search for irony in a story, for the same reasons we do.

  Let’s say we’ve answered the big question above as well as the other smaller questions. It will bring us right back to the very start of the English Civil War. The character we choose can be a real character or one derived from a compendium of historical character. The story would involve the personal as well as the broader changes to a society bordering on a civil war. Friendships end, brothers fall out with each other, love turns to hate.

  Let’s think of a woman who has a bitter falling out with her lover based on any of the religious or political splits that were occurring just before the war. So we have this ideal short story set-up. We can also use a physical anchor to help structure the story and deepen emotional tone and focus. A ring offers a powerful image in a story; the abstract words of a political argument offer no image. To lose a political argument is one thing, to have your lover return the symbol of your love for each other is quite another. The story can be told after a great and decisive argument between the two lovers. She can be alone here, reliving in her mind the argument she had with him, thinking of their recent past together and their now broken plans for the future. His character comes to life, of course, in her memory with dialogue and other forms of action. Ironically, only a short time ago, they were pledging undying love for one another, believing nothing could come between them. While she is turning things over in her head, she is constantly touching the ring, slowly pulling it from her finger. She is torn apart with grief because she cannot reconcile her beliefs to his; she does not know him as she thought she did. The ring slips from her finger. It is returned to him without a note. Not a shot yet fired, but what a poignant symbol for the start of the bloody conflict.

  SUMMING UP

  We discovered how easily aspects of the historical narrative adapt to the short story med
ium with the correct application of technique. Our mining technique led with a search for plot-driven universal character flaw(s), which we found very useful in working with well-known historical character backed up with plentiful source material. We put together an essay from our research, and, though the essay had several themes, one at least was based on a main character’s plot-driven universal flaw(s). The essay worked well as a guide for our short story the Signature. We also used a physical anchor to help structure the story, narrow down our range of character, scene and time period, and help expand the focus on the story’s theme.

  From our essay’s theme based on plot-driven character flaws, we lifted the message or moral out of its historical context and placed it in a saying and both in an old style and a modern style fable. Using the old style fable in particular as inspiration, we quite easily created an early draft plan for a short story.

  We adapted the mining technique to make the physical anchor the most important lead in the search for a short story idea, and discovered this shift in emphasis will be very useful in helping to pinpoint short story ideas in the historical narrative where we are working with unknown historical character. In the Galileo section, we also noted that a single physical anchor working with both famous and non-famous historical characters could lead on a series of interesting short stories.

  The reader is astute enough to realize that a search for short story ideas in the historical narrative might involve a combination of approaches: a search where the biggest emphasis is on a plot-driven set of universal character flaws; one where the emphasis is on the importance of finding the physical anchor first; or even one where some answers to a poignant question or two within the narrative are desired first. It is just necessary to be aware that the type of story we end up with may well depend not only on what the research material is actually offering and how well we swot up on it, but also on what emphasis we place on any particular part of the mining technique.