I chose to do exercise 54 mainly because the others called for stories I had on file and I just simply don't have any stories tucked away right now. I began the skeleton exercise and worked a little with an idea of a man needing a drink, but decided to flip over to From Situation to Plot and settled in nicely there.
I decided to work with the policeman with ten cats and was surprised at how quickly my policeman "Wayne" began to develop.
Wayne's mother died six months ago. She had a heart attack and lay with her face in a bowl of Rice Krispies for 4 days before the mail lady became suspicious enough to make a call. The officers on the scene not only found Wayne's mother Vera, but Vera's hoard of newspapers, piles of rotten food decaying in the kitchen and living room and enough cat shit that as Captain Matthers remarked "could pave a highway from here to Greenville."
Wayne got the call from the Fulton P.D. which was about 20 west of Wayne's town of Wemptuckaa Alabama. He knew one of the sergeants from the late season bowling league he was on 3 years before. He quit the leagues after one of the guys made smart remarks about his then girlfriend JoAnn. "Geez Wayne, your lady there sure can shine those balls up real nice can't she? Would she show me her rack if I asked here?" Wayne would sit quietly hoping the conversation would turn to something else and before long it usually would.
Wayne had met her there. JoAnne worked at the Fine Time Bowling Alley serving watered down drinks and making change for the cigarette machine. It had gotten serious enough Wayne to ask JoAnne to move out of her mother's trailer and into Wayne's ranch on the east side of town.
He knew that she was not the kind of girl his mother would approve of, but JoAnne filled the house will laughter and he welcomed the sex. JoAnne was uninhibited, and though he felt guilty about it, Wayne couldn't help but tell the guys at work about what a wildcat she was in the sack. After being alone for 13 years after his divorce for his wife Janet it was a guilty pleasure he had found hard to resist.
It was after those sessions that JoAnne would invariably ask Wayne the same question. "When are we going to settle down and get married Wayne?" She had a whine in her voice when she posed this question that Wayne found irritating.
I can see how with tension and conflict my story could continue to move forward and develop.
Character/Situation
A single mother who lost her job.
A doctor realizing he has Alzheimer's
A child witnessing abuse.
A traveler lost.
A couple looking for a new home.
A drunk pilot.
A woman who's only sibling died of a drug overdose.
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Nice! There are, I think, the beginnings of many possible stories here -- though none of the threads are yet woven together into a single image. The mother's tragi-comic death is a powerful opening image - though JoAnne quickly takes over the story (interesting how his mother's death is juxtaposed with this woman who wasn't the kind you'd take home to mom). Given his own bragging about their sex lives, the strength of Wayne's reaction to his bowling partner's comments might bear some thinking -- it need not be seen as a contradiction; rather, it might show Wayne's on conflicted feelings about his relationship with her. You wrap up with another possible conflict -- her desire to settle down. It seems like that might fit Wayne's vision of this relationship....
ReplyDeleteI'd be curious to see how these threads weave together -- though it might be that some would need to be trimmed out as the story finds its focus....