Craft of Writing

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Craft of Writing

Donna Sundblad

Excavating The Fossil
Creating a Story from a Simple Writing Exercise

Recently, a writing exercise prompted me to set the timer for twenty minutes. The only other guideline—use the word petrify or a form therein within the first paragraph.

My imagination painted the picture of a petrified young woman. I watched her duck into a dead-end alley. One word at a time, my fingers translated the vision from the imaginary realm to a concrete skeleton. The dim streetlight highlighted steady rain as my drenched character pressed her back against a wet brick wall. The silhouettes of three men appeared at the mouth of the alley.

My first paragraph offered fragments of the young woman’s predicament. Trapped in the dead-end, the woman slipped into the shadows of a darkened doorway, slumped onto the cold concrete and curled into a fetal position. Matted hair clung to her forehead until she used her gloved hand to swipe it from her eyes. One of the three men entered the alley and called her name. The developing details offered a quick peek at the man’s expensive shoes as he straddled puddles lining the floor of the alley. The man called her name again, begged her to show herself and promised everything would be okay.

The timer beeped—twenty minutes gone. I considered the undeveloped characters birthed within the scene.

Identifying the Fossils
In Stephen King’s book, On Writing, King expresses a similar experience. "…knowing the story wasn’t necessary for me to begin work. I had located the fossil. The rest, I knew, would consist of careful excavation."

Even though I had no plot or outline, I recognized the fragments of possibilities that filled the four paragraphs. These treasures, like fossils buried beneath a matrix of digressions, tangents, and other irrelevancies, lie in wait to be discovered among the sediment of words poured from the chimerical domain of my mind.

The word "petrify" and the twenty-minute time limit served as instruments to help me locate the faint imprint I considered a starting point. No outline or plot points—just one short scene. Now I needed to begin the excavating process.

Collecting the Fragments
Paleontologists use a variety of techniques to make fossils easier to see. It is no different for the writer. I sifted through my draft and made note of interesting details and characters.

How do characters relate to one another?

The man wearing the expensive shoes knew the woman in hiding.

She feared him.

What do the details tell me?

The woman wore a red dress and matching gloves. She cowered in the alley to hide from three men.

The man wearing the expensive shoes knew the woman’s name and that she might be hiding in the alley.

The garbage strewn alley alerts me to a city setting.

These traces pointed to interesting and complex lives. But, how does such a fossil become more than another unfinished story stuffed into a file collecting dust?

Reconstruct the Evidence
The answers to the above questions help identify the fossil, but it is this last question that frees it from the rocky milieu of unfinished manuscripts. Each detail fragment holds promise as part of the skeleton. The next step is to dig deeper. You need more information.

What doesn’t it explain?

Why is the woman hiding?

How does the man know her?

Is he really looking out for her best interest or wishing her harm?

Why is she wearing gloves?

The vivid picture of a frightened young woman led me to wonder what made her run. I allowed the scene to set. My mind toyed with different scenarios. I considered the reasons she would dress the way she did, why she would hide and the relationship between the two characters.

To avoid the layer of bedrock known as writer’s block, I sometimes apply another writing prompt, exercise, or challenge to already written work. During the early phase of the alley scene, I learned of a writing contest that required a crime to occur in a bathroom. It sent my thought processes in a new direction. The new information led to a second scene. The same young woman witnessed a double murder while hiding in a closet. Would I use both of these scenes or did the first serve as a springboard to the second?

I pieced together bits of evidence from both scenes. The common thread—the young woman concealed her presence. I asked myself why she would be in the closet and what kind of relationship existed between her and the victims.

Creating a Life Form
Often, one fossil represents a segment of the puzzle. Paleontologists use their creativity to link these pieces together into a possible life form.

Creativity can become stifled when we attempt to produce characters based on preset parameters. Personalities that grow naturally tend to be more unpredictable and less contrived and such an entity makes interesting reading. Characters develop, take form and come alive as the individuals act and react to their circumstances. It makes writing as much fun as reading a book. I placed my character in the closet where she witnessed a murder. I couldn’t wait to turn the page of my imagination to learn what happened next. Is this why she hid in the alley? Is the man wearing the expensive shoes the murderer?

I read through unfinished stories before bed and place myself in the character’s head. My mind brushes aside the dust of preconceived ideas. Through this process, I learned the woman in hiding found solace in the closet. In the morning, I sat at the computer with a fresh perspective and another fragment. A new piece of the skeleton fit into place.

Fragmentation to Continuity
The two scenes offered new insight. Like the paleontologist linking dinosaur bones, I followed the thread of continuity. The woman found comfort in the darkened doorway in the alley and in the shadows of the closet. Her background began to surface. As an abused child, she hid in the closet to avoid her father. In her twisted thinking, she compared such situations to childhood memories. It added depth to her character, a psychotic bent that offered more possible plot twists.

Using this approach produces believable characters, fresh plots and unpredictable twists that hold the reader’s interest. In my original scene, I witnessed details that led me to believe the helpless girl was hunted by a self-confident thug, but the young woman carried the plot in another direction. The writing contest became the catalyst used to free the fossil. In this case it turned out to be a blonde, petite woman more cunning than anyone suspected—even me. The key is to write. If you don’t, there’s no fossil to locate.

Craft of Writing

Excavating The Fossil Creating a Story from a Simple Writing Exercise

Excavating The Fossil
Creating a Story from a Simple Writing Exercise