Did this title get your attention?
Here's the real title: Crazy Eights - Scenarios for Your Stories
I had to laugh as the subject for this “Crazy Eights” blog came to me when I was trying to wedge my left foot into my right boot while daydreaming about ideas for a story conflict. Multi-tasking and wedging feet into an uncomfortable position, reminded me of the day I picked up my five-year-old at nursery school. The teacher asked me if my husband had dressed my son that morning?
“Yes, Why?”
The teacher laughed. “Your son came to school with his shoes on the wrong feet.”
The teacher laughed. “Your son came to school with his shoes on the wrong feet.”
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| What Shoes? |
Why do I point this scenario out?
Now I’m not suggesting that all men have trouble multi-tasking, but many men in my generation have never really had to. It was the era of superwomen, who could have a home and family and a profession all at the same time. And…manage everything perfectly, easily juggling multiple balls with a few boxes and triangles thrown in. Nowadays, most men juggle as much as women. No one has the luxury of only concentrating on one task at a time.
And obviously, I have trouble multi-tasking at times.
Instead, I am pointing out one example of how you can take a minor incident and add depth to your plot, setting, and characterizations. Here are eight crazy and fun examples of real-life scenes I have observed that will spark an idea or add that extra depth of color to a story.
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Eight examples –
little snippets of life that can be the inspiration for a scene or an entire
book – some crazy and some not so crazy.
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1- Kid walking funny with shoes on wrong feet and wondering who dressed the child. The child or the parent? What may have distracted the parent? Why was the small child dressing himself? Did s/he throw a temper tantrum and insist on dressing themselves? Was the child trying to be a grown-up and show the parents s/he could do this?
2- Little girl skating with her dad on the two inches of ice formed on a frigid day on the flooded town green, dressed in a purple puffy coat with pink and white flowered leggings, pink boots and hat, pushing a child-sized wooden chair painted in the exact bright pink as her outfit. Who bought the clothes—gramma, mom, dad? Whose idea was it to paint the chair to match the jacket—grandpa’s, dad’s? And how does this scene of teaching a child to skate with a fun “skating aid” fit into a story?
3- A flamboyant outfit or hat on a person strolling down the street or through the grocery store. One of those outfits you can’t help staring at and wondering what possessed someone to wear the outfit. Did they just come from play practice? Do they have a closet full of similar clothes? Are they homeless and wearing whatever they could find in the church giveaway box?
4- A tug-of-war argument over a melon, or two people reaching for the same ear of corn, in the grocery store? Does it end with the hero and heroine each paying half and sharing the melon? Or a fist-fight? Or a person grabbing the melon and running from the store, chased by the police? Or in an amicable way with one relinquishing the melon to another? Or with a third shopper grabbing the melon and tsking the two as s/he strolls off with their melon?
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| Mixing Together Ideas for Plots and Characters |
6- Walking down a hill on a brick sidewalk, past sweet, little cottages, all with fences. One has a gate open and the garden inside is spectacular. Who lives here and works in this beautiful garden? What do the other gates hide? What would it be like to live on such a quiet, neighborly street? I wrote a book, still in draft form, where the reconciliation scene takes place on such a street; one that I wandered down on Munjoy Hill in Portland, Maine. I need to dig this manuscript out and finish the book.
7- Pacing in an airport waiting for a delayed plane to head to the funeral of your best friend, and striking up a conversation with a man who has been caring for his sick father and anxious to get home to his wife and kids. You can imagine the myriad of stories on who is waiting for a plane and why. Are they happy or sad? Business or pleasure? Afraid of flying or seasoned traveler? Leaving or heading toward home?
8- Looking out the hotel window, as the sun rises, onto a deserted parking lot. A bus is parked way back in the corner. A black car approaches and parks in the middle. A man in black approaches the bus with a big handled black box. The driver emerges and both disappear behind the bus for a long time. Later one emerges and drives away. Who are they? What are they doing? What happened to the bus driver? Was he murdered and stuffed in the box which is now in the luggage compartment under the bus? It turns out the bus was waiting to pick up an airline crew that overnights at the hotel and the man, I assume, was bringing supplies to the driver. But you can imagine the murder and spy mayhem that went through my head for at least a half an hour as I watched and wondered. Crazy, right?
Have fun with this. Open your eyes to the world around you and turn a mundane, observed scene into a short story or an entire novel. Even if you are not a writer, have fun making up scenarios about what goes on around you. Before I started writing, my friends and I would play this game in the airport or as we sat in a coffee shop.
Here’s to a happy and crazy eighth birthday for the
Romancing the Genres Blog. And here’s to many more birthday celebrations!
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| May Flowers |
What true-to-life scenes have caused you to make up stories?
~ cottages to cabins ~ keep the home fires
burning ~
Delsora
Lowe writes small town sweet romances and contemporary westerns from the
mountains of Colorado to the shores of Maine.
A first meet, royalty and the nanny romance
between a self-exiled prince with a royal chip on his shoulders and the local
rancher's daughter who rails against any man who tries to tell her what to do.
When she tries to tell the prince how to raise his son, tempers flare and
sparks fly.
PHOTO CREDITS:
Hearts - 8 - playing card
Crazy Eights
Crazy Lunatic Scientist
https://www.google.com/search?q=free+clip+art+-+crazy+eights&tbm=isch&source=hp&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjcvJzsx_jhAhXjnuAKHTgCC7YQsAR6BAgJEAE&biw=1366&bih=623#imgrc=YI_jq446u1-3QM:
Man in 8 T-shirt
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Flowers
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13 comments:
I've been wanting to try my hand at short stories again, Delsora. What a great way to start one! I'm going to give this a try. Thank you!
Sarah - anytime :-) And holler if you need more help with writing short. I know I have workshop notes somewhere. And when writing long, I realize many times I would not be able to answer the "How did you get this idea?" for a book, but I can answer it about shorter scenes in a book. :-) Delsora
Brings back so many memories of a game a friend of mine played in the late 70's and early '80's. Anywhere we were we'd spy a person and make up a history about them (age, occupation, etc.) If we were at a restaurant we'd often make a wager between us as to who got it right and then approach the hapless victim of our intrigue and just ask what their occupation was. Amazing how often we were spot on. While I don't approach people with the final question, I do find myself creating backgrounds on people who catch my interest when I'm alone and waiting.
Love it, Judith - it is a great way to spark imagination AND keep one occupied while waiting for...you name it.
No wonder you don't have any problem coming up with story ideas, Deb. Now I see how you do it. Interesting.
When I was a kid going to my grandparents' house, we traveled on the highway and I'd imagine where the people in the other cars were headed. I still enjoy crowd-watching and imagining who people are and where they're headed.
Barb- always good to have a handy-dandy notebook nearby. And when you "observe" with a friend, it is like brainstorming :-)
Nina - now we know why you're a writer - great imagination as a kid. Also, trains and busses are another great source. Especially when you are side by side a train in a station that is going the opposite direction. You can see the people and you know where you just came from and wonder, which stop they'll get off at and why. Or someone gets on or off at a bus stop - hmmmm - what were they doing before they got on OR where are they going now? Thanks for stopping by!
I had to chuckle at your first one - my mum likes to tell the story of how I'd throw a tantrum and insist on dressing myself only to put my shoes on the wrong feet. I was a stubborn child, evidently.
I'm always imagining "what if" when I'm out and about. Restaurants are fabulous places to play the game because people are supposed to be on their best behaviour. I'm particularly drawn to couples who get through the entire dinner without saying more than a few words to each other. Have they fallen out of love? Is he worried about his business? Is she longing for her lover?
The fun part about imagining what is going on is that usually it is not what it seems. The couple may both just be tired from a long day's work, opted for eating out rather than taking the time to cook, and so comfortable with each other they may not need to talk :-) OR...yes, we can think of so many scenarios.
Thanks for stopping by Luanna. And I hope you aren't still throwing too many temper tantrums. Who am I to talk - I do it all the time, but usually when I make my characters do it to add a bit of tension or spice to a story. OK - full disclosure - in my head, I throw temper tantrums all the time (standing in a long, slow grocery line, a driver who cuts me off, a news story I don't like, etc.), but then I do try to put a smile on my face to not let others know I am fuming and to get through the day.
Great post, Deb! Interesting way to find story ideas! I like it.
Thanks, Diana - it is funny to see where the brain takes us while observing someone else do something. It always amazes me when I observe one little thing and then the story starts growing in my imagination. It's one of those "where in the world did that come from?" moments.
Delsora , Your attention to detail speaks to your craft along with the story. Even in describing the prompts for story creation you paint an amazing picture full of color and it's impact on the story prompt. I admire that in you.
Like a few people have mentioned, I have been known to people watch and imagine where they came from or where they were going, or if the couple at the next table were friends or falling in love. However, my memory for clothing and colors, or place details is very limited and always has been. When I get home I'll remember the conversation or the action more than the colors or setting.
For example, in meeting someone for the first time when I get home I'll remember everything about our conversation--the feelings, the persons past or family history if we talked about it, their career choice, etc. But I won't remember anything about what they wore and if I were to meet them even a couple hours later I wouldn't recognize their face. But I would recognize their voice.
I've spent my entire writing career trying to overcome this by having physical pictures in front of me of all my characters and the places they visit to help me do description. It's funny what people's minds choose to remember or not.
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