Lesson in Lesson
Look closely, friend, or you may miss the opportunity to learn from the second time.
Hello! I just thought I’d drop by as it has been a while, and I have something I discovered this morning.
I hope you’ve been enjoying (fingers crossed) my little experiments with the 100-word story format that had me hooked. I don’t have anything yet for this week, so maybe you won’t get one in your mailbox to enjoy or rip apart this week. Coming back to my discovery, it is far more interesting, of course, because it has not originated from my brain.
I was going through some lessons in a writing program cum community. This is my second year with them, and I made little progress last year, clocking in 45,000+ words, far from a draft because I went around in circles. I lost faith in their process, and thought, I am just too bright for it! You know when that happens, you are at your least bright, to say the least.
Anyway, having renewed the membership (it’s a fat lot), I decided to give it a fair shot this year. But my novel didn’t move, I never reviewed the lessons they have for prep again, and basically, I was again being too bright for the world and myself.
However, come September, there is a 90-day marathon that begins, and I signed up. Then something shifted as I had several realisations (trust me, you may have had them as well, but like me, you may not have noticed):
I had overplanned the first novel structure - very fast - while going through the lessons they provided in a hurry. (Zero absorption, and again, assumptions that the material was only for beginners.)
I wrote too fast at times, busy life and fear of not being able to finish the first draft in 90 days, interspersed by a ton of life events and other distractions.
Then, I was lost in the backstory and then again I went to the framing story, again no dipping into the process they outlined.
In my first time round last year, I think I didn’t read any of the lessons properly, did not make thoughtful notes or jot down my observations in general, certainly not think enough or do enough with them, as my story idea for Novel 1 (last year) was so well-written in my head that I thought the Lessons were merely to skim through for those who don’t know how to write at all.
So, this time round, a few things happened.
I got a new idea of a contemporary gothic novel in July, which started off as a short story and then…boom! When this September, I signed up for the marathon rewrite, the Novel 2 ideas hidden in the short story reared its terrifying head, and told me to write it as a novel!
THIS TIME…I became so smart.
No more brightness!
Only obedience. So, I started off with the marathon, decided to write the whole new Novel 2, and shelved Novel 1 for a better time and space (the historical gothic one). The process this time is still 90 days to the first draft, completion of all lessons, and basically follow through.
As I began on September 7, I had an A-HA-I-Screwed-Up moment!
I realised I had actually discovered my own writing process through the last 1.5 years, which I refused to acknowledge because I wasn’t thinking about it deeply enough - with all faults and nicks and cuts. And now, I am doing things in the “new” way, turned into a new leaf and all!
Revisiting lessons for the second time changed my view of them, just like re-reading a book makes you smarter, right?
The New Leaf, Me!
As a new leaf today, in one of the Lessons (on empathy - exploring the essence of compassion is imagination), I found an Eureka moment in a sly little exercise hidden in there. I have obviously missed or ignored it previously.
I found three sentences that are perfectly aligned with my new story (the words in the Lesson - shockingly coincidental!), and although I haven't written the full outline, synopsis, or anything else yet of my new Novel 2, I could see it jumping out at me from the screen.
A big lesson from the Lesson - that sly little exercise, which I started playing around with, imagining people’s lives (as directed) - gave me two ideas for the backstories of my protagonist! How about that? The exercise encouraged us to look around us at people we don’t know and then imagine what their lives could possibly be like. I never did this the last time, but this time, when I did (and even drew the head that we are asked to draw…LOL!…), I realised that this is the PLAY, the fun, the excitement that I completely lost out on the first time.
There is also a mad sequence of unfolding in that little exercise, which I think could very well help turn the cues into a short story structure. Lately, I have been writing a lot of short stories and reading some, and hearing a lot of pulpit declarations about the form. So when I discovered this sequence resonating with me, I was like, “I could use this as a structure for backstories and see where that takes me!” Play!!!
Backstories are always very hard for me - keeping them intact and following a structure - nightmare! Wanting them to be perfect? Of course. So a basic structure is gold, in my bright view. (I love that word - bright - a favourite of my late British teacher from way back in the early 1970’s, a brilliant old Mrs. B Wells from Upper Kinder Garten (UKG), Pratt Memorial School, Calcutta).
The Sly Exercise Structure for Your Backstory
My discovery of the backstory structure (rubbing my hands in glee!) which I am naming The Sly Exercise from henceforth, is here for you to use and experiment with (slightly improvised with words):
Focus on one person that you don’t know, and consider them.
Imagine what they’re dealing with and where their life might lead them after the present moment.
Consider one truly stupendous and brilliant thing that person might do in his lifetime, OR one terrible mistake he or she might make.
What they will lose, OR gain.
How their regrets will unfold - irrevocable - telling, cutting, larger-than-life, blasphemous…go for it!
One act of daring (in your mind) that could make the person come out as a hero or villain or both - win hearts or break bones.
Finally, a moment of rare intimacy, love, and being forgiven by someone who loves them. Despite everything!
Is there a point to this?
Yes!
This is not a craft lesson (I’m not on that pulpit yet, and much too afraid to claim it is), but it is a path to let your writing grow with some signposts instead of wandering about like a nomad with no home for your main character of the story, especially for the nomad’s backstory.
Consider this as you like, but give it a try. If the sly exercise can give me two backstories - while toying with two characters from my apartment building whom I disliked (it’s true, but not now, for the sake of writing and revving the imagination, I have to see them with compassion!) - for a Novel 2, which has no bearing to them and never will, it could awaken something in your backstory, or yourself as well? Exercises are not overrated, I guess. The key is to read between the lines (subtext!), play, think, enjoy, and apply liberally like a high-priced body lotion that smells of roses.
Moral of this post: The lesson in Lesson always comes around a second time to make everything better, so do the damn lesson. 😃