Quantum Storytelling

“He knew that Sarah would never go for a trip to Tuscon. In all his time spent with her, Matthew had never once heard her say something good about the town. In thinking about the situation, he decided to try and avoid the topic altogether because her ex-boyfriend Larry lived there. He knew he was better off not mentioning Tuscon or Larry, at risk of starting a fight with her.

It all happened five years ago, when Sarah lived with Larry in Tuscon. At first things had been great. Larry and Sarah had the trappings of the happy kind of ideal life everyone dreams about. White picket fence, two cars and a baby on the way.

That was until Larry came home covered in blood one night. He’d been moonlighting as a criminal, and while on the job his partner got shot. What Sarah didn’t know is that Matthew was the partner. It was his blood on Larry that night. It was his blood that had dragged Sarah across time and space, and gotten her involved in the criminal underworld. She couldn’t have known it at that time, but it was all Matthew’s fault.”

He knew or she knew is a sure sign of rambling off into character headspace. It is telling, not showing. I don’t want to know why Matthew knows not to bring up a certain topic with Sarah. I want to witness him having a conversation with Sarah, and dancing around the subject Pinteresque style.

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Do you mark progress in finished work, or in your process? I know I’ve brought it up before, but what do you use to measure your improvement?

A few days ago I was waiting for sockets to heal where my wisdom teeth used to be, so I went back to a pile of index cards representing a plot I crafted in in 2006. After surveying the ’story’ (shameful to call it that) I re-plotted it using Jeff Kitchen’s Sequence, Proposition, Plot technique, and made it exponentially better. Direct contrast, old plotting method vs. new plotting method. Light years difference.

“But the story isn’t done, so how does that help? Come on, we want to read something! Publish or die!”

When I started this blog in 2005, I didn’t even really know how to tell stories. 2004 - 2007 were a three year crash course in storytelling for me. Soldiers have to go through boot camp before they get sent out on the battlefield. There is a minimum ramp up period for any skill set or endeavor.

At this point, it would be stupid to measure my progress by the number of pages written. I consider it good fortune and fortitude that I survived churning out an embarassing draft and a half via the good old fashioned method. I consider it a minor bullet point next to the improvements in my process — the things I’ve learned about how to put a story together. I’ve never needed to know how to write. It seems to come quite naturally to me, as I hope this blog is partial evidence.

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Give the character an unending, aggravating tooth ache. It’ll work magic towards making the character a cranky antagonist. I’m speaking from experience the last few days. Story development will commence again after my wisdom teeth are removed.