Okay, give me a second here. Because my wife and I are both
exhausted at the end of a normal work day, laundry normally gets done
on weekends. In this little chore, my beloved shamelessly exploits
my machismo, and I end up being the one to load the washer and the
dryer. Just now, as I was putting a load of colors in, the alarm on
the car, about a foot away, goes off. I had the keychain and alarm
remote in my pocket, and one of the keys probably hit the panic
button. Our garage is not a large one, and so the sound bounced
around and I jumped about three feet in the air. I'm still hearing
the horn, somewhere in the background noise of my head.
Big deal? No. Just one of those odd moments that prove how chaotic
the real world is. But think how something like that could be used
in a story. While driving to lunch this afternoon, I saw a man
riding his bicycle on the sidewalk. He was wearing a black suit,
black sneakers, and a black straw cowboy hat. The black sunglasses
added just the right touch. Now he could have been on his way home
from church, on his way to church, or maybe he just didn't have a car
to drive at that time and felt like dressing up anyway when he went
out to lunch. Whatever the reason, I can say with 99% percent
certainty that it's nothing alarming, and probably not even
interesting.
But what could it have been, if we ignored the laws of probability?
If we were characters in books we like to read or in movies that we
like to watch, what might have happened? Would he have noticed us
staring, cranked a bit on his handlebar brakes to slow down, and
then turned around to come tap on the passenger-side window? Might
we have seen him get a flat tire, and then come ask us for a ride
because he's on his way to an exorcism, and can't be late? Maybe we
would have forgotten about him completely, until we came home and saw
him waiting on our front porch, smiling at us.
A little while back when I was explaining how that 'dumb' heroine
might not be so dumb, I asked you to take note of all the little
details of life around you that might mean something. Now think about all
those odd, random moments you've had when life took a turn without
signaling. Have you ever seen someone streak across the room while
you and your friends were playing bingo? Encountered some idiot
driving the wrong way on the street? Been talking to someone in a
darkened room during the middle of the night, you turn around to see
what they're suddenly looking at over your shoulder, and you see a
single balloon drifting down the hall toward you?
Pick one of those moments, and pull it in the direction of your
preferred genre. What's the story behind what you saw? If you're a
romantic, is that person driving the wrong way trying to get to their
true love's house before they go off with someone else? It's too
easy to pigeonhole the streakers into comedy, so let's make them
players in a drama about a bunch of guys on a Navy ship sitting
around for weeks as they wait for the day when they go in the take
the beaches of Kuwait. That's a teeny bit of humor in a long, slow
story about young men wondering whether or not they're going to
survive.
Get your mind used to doing that, to taking those odd moments, and
even those normal moments, and then say 'What if -?”
Congratulations. That's the first step to writing.
That's what I'm doing.
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