The Story Behind the Story: In the Deep

Two years ago, I found out about NYC Midnight and its contests from a member of my then-writing-group. At the time, I was struggling to sit down and write, struggling to generate new story ideas. The idea of contest with a deadline and provided prompts sounded like the perfect solution. I'd always done well with externally-imposed deadlines. Far better than I ever did with self-imposed ones. So, I signed up for the next Short Story Challenge.

For the first challenge, contestants had a week to write a 2,500 word story based on their given prompt. Mine was to write a fantasy about an astronaut on a fishing trip. As usual, the main character came to me first: a former astronaut now working as a deep sea explorer.

I sat down and the words poured out. I was almost a thousand words in when I realized I was writing science fiction, not fantasy. Oops. I liked my story, though, and didn't want to through out everything I'd written. I needed a way to turn what I had from sci-fi to fantasy.

The glitch? I wasn't sure what makes a story a "fantasy." It's not a genre I read. Sure, I've read my share of the classic epic fantasies: Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia, etc. But most of my reading is history or historical fiction. I needed to find out what defined a non-epic fantasy.

God bless, Google. I found lists of comment fantasy tropes and characters. I found one that fit my sci-fi story, and voila! my sci-fi became fantasy.

I felt good about the story when I submitted it, but I wasn't sure it was "fantasy" enough for the judges. Turned out, it was. I didn't make it past the first round of that competition, but I was encouraged by the judges' feedback. And thanks to the help of my writing groups, I was able to fix some of the issues identified by the judges.

Click here to read part 1 of "In the Deep."

The Story Behind the Story: The Hydrant

I'm the first to admit that "The Hydrant" isn't a story. It's really a character sketch. But writing it was one of my most favorite writing experiences ever.

I was working as an editor at A Major Publishing Company. During a Lunch and Learn workshop, we did a writing exercise. We were presented with an excerpt from the work of comic artist Will Eisner: a series of panels depicting an immigrant woman who lived in a broken-down building collecting water from a hydrant, carrying it back to her room, and feeding her baby.  Almost instantly the words of the "story" came to me. I couldn't write fast enough. At no time since have words flowed from my fingers the way they did during that exercise.

Some day, I'd like to acquire a copy or a print of that page. so I can post the text with the images that inspired it. I can't even find the image online to link to. (Seriously, my image search led to some rather interesting and scary results.) But if you'd like to see the panels, they're on page 65 of Eisner's  graphic novel, New York: The Big City.

Click here to read "The Hydrant."

The Story Behind the Story: A World Turned Upside Down

On May 19, 1780, during America's War for Independence, New England experienced what has become known as the Dark Day. The sky turned dark by noon and stayed that way until the stars returned around midnight. What had caused the darkness? Theories ran rampant. Some said it was divine punishment. Others said it was an eclipse. No one knew for sure.  Finally, in 2008, the mystery was solved. Historians and scientists determined that the darkness had been caused by smoke from a massive wildfire in southern Ontario, Canada.

I ran across the story of the Dark Day in 2008, when I saw an article about the mystery being solved. I knew then I wanted to write a story set on that day.

Six years later, I got around to writing it. I found the surname Fayreweather on a list of Mayflower passengers. (Could a name be more perfect for a story?) Through further research, I learned what a butter churn sounds like, how farm animals behave at night, that the nicknames "Ma" and "Pa" didn't come into common use until the 1800s, and how the sky changed color as it grew darker on that Dark Day. I remembered the story of Korach from the Torah portion I read at my Bat Mitzvah. The New Testament references I had to look up.

Prudence came to life quickly: a young girl whose nature was at odds with her family's and society's expectations of her. While she never told me what happened to her after this Dark Day, I'm fairly certain she grew up and joined the women's rights movement. It wouldn't surprise me if she signed the Seneca Falls Declaration. The seeds of that future are, I hope, clearly planted in this day-in-the-life story.

The title of the story comes from an account of the British surrender after the Battle of Yorktown. The surrender marked the end of the fighting in the War for Independence. During the surrender ceremony, the British military band played a song called "The World Turned Upside Down." To the British, the American Revolution had turned the world upside down. Years earlier, on May 19, 1780, the Dark Day did the same thing for the people of New England.

Click here to read "A World Turned Upside Down."

The Story Behind the Story: The Dinner

This is going to be a short "story behind the story." See, about a month ago I realized I didn't have a story stockpiled for my April Fiction First and, between working 50 hours a week and focusing my writing time on my new novel, I had no ideas for a new story.

Cue the panic.

Enter Twitter.

As if by Fate, a series of writing prompts appeared in my Twitter feed. One of them was about dinner and a divorce. I don't remember the exact words, just the premise that immediately popped into my head: a couple meet for dinner to finalize their divorce, one of them hoping for a last-minute reconciliation. By the end of the dinner, though, that one changes his or her mind. It didn't take me long to decide the hopeful half of the couple would be the husband.

After that, the story came quickly. The agony came during revisions, when I had to cut two of my "darlings," two of my most favorite descriptions I've ever written. (I do have them on sticky notes, though, so I can use them when I find the right time and story.) Without them, though, the story became stronger--much like the main character.

Click here to read "The Dinner."

Sweet 16

It's someone's birthday today. According to the calendar, he's 16. In dog years, he's 80.

Yes, Benji, you can have an extra treat. Happy Birthday, old man!