In honor of my 13th workshop post, and the most haunting number, 13, I’m devoting this post to ghosts and voices, and why you should pay attention to them as a writer.
If you’re like me (Lord help us), you have a lot of voices clamoring in your brain–people who want their stories to be told, who have pain that needs mending, or who have made such a mess of their lives that it seems they are doomed to cry and gnash their teeth and plea to be redeemed. For me, many of these undead beings are phases of my life. They exist within me because I lived on the edge for a time, went through periods of horrific sadness, and made some absolutely mind-numbingly stupid decisions that cause ripples of anguish to this day. And some of them are the people I could have become–for better or for worse.
Why am I talking about this? Because it can fuel your writing.
I think there are many reasons to write stories. Some writers are fantastical thinkers and they dream up fantastical tales. Others know how to take the mundane and turn it into beautiful, unforgettable prose. Still others read prolifically and are so inspired by the magnificence and magic of the written word, and how a story can evoke feelings of love and sadness, soul-gripping terror, or heart-pounding suspense, that they want to be able to do that–to create that art and cause those feelings in others.
But what if you’re not like that? What if you just have these shady characters kicking around in your noggin, picking at their old scabs and griping at you? What if you feel like you were meant to write stories, but all you’ve got in your kit bag is your own baggage and the ghosts of your other selves?
I think you can put those teeth-gnashing beasts to work.
If this is resonating at all with you, here’s my assignment. Write them. Turn them into characters in their own stories. Let them come out and say what they need to say, and be heard. You may even release them into the wild by doing so, and be free of their nonsense. Or you may ceremonially kill them off, if you choose to. Whatever you wish.
Here are some ideas for how to do it:
- Write the story of the time something really sucky happened to you, in dramatic detail, but change the specifics so that you take reality and morph it into art. Give the character some wildly different name from yours, for example. Change the sex of the character and mix up the details. And tell it all with action, interesting scene details, and dialog. That way you’re not tempted to document your experience. (I’m really sorry, but we don’t actually want to read that. It’s far too maudlin.)
- Tell the story of your most challenging relationship. If you’re afraid of causing another person pain, or unleashing their wrath, just make the character that represents them completely (and I mean completely) unrecognizable as that person. Give them a different sex, age, hair color, location in the world, and relationship with the main character. Make them terribly unattractive. Under those circumstances, no one wants to say, “Hey, that’s me. How dare you?”
- Tell the story of a particular period of your life, but go into the what-ifs. By that, I mean, let your imagination run wild on what would have happened if you made different choices. Let’s say, for example, that one of those voices in your head is that petulant bitch who says you should have married that guy you loved back in sophomore year of college. Well, maybe you should play out the scenario. Give the “you” character the opportunity to go back and make the other choice, but have the whole thing get blown to smithereens. Maybe he turns out to be an abusive jerk, has a closet full of blow-up dolls, or makes money as a computer hacker. Or maybe he does whatever his mama says and his messed up loyalties destroy everything, starting with the wedding.
Remember, in all cases, you must include all the dramatic elements that make a good story. It must include character development, a conflict, a resolution, and a satisfying ending. The story can’t just be about a bad thing. There has to be a reason for the story to be told, and a reason for us readers to care. We want to see movement, and read about how the character navigates through the conflict and changes as a person.
In other words, there’s gold in your most difficult memories, and in the rattlings of old ghosts that won’t seem to move on long after the experiences that created them have passed.
That’s my post for the day. Thanks so much for reading!
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