Writing

Save the Cat

 In screenwriter Blake Snyder’s book Save the Cat, he advises writers to make the protagonist do something early in the story to make readers relate to and like the protagonist. In my work in progress, I used a flashback to show history between Max, the protagonist, and Colonel Addison, the antagonist. Within that flashback I had Max risk his own life to save an Afghani woman and her young son from getting blown up in a minefield. Gotta like a guy that would do that.

 Furious Fiction Contest

I was pleasantly surprised to make the long list in a writing contest called Furious Fiction. Hosted at the beginning of each month by the Australian Writers’ Centre, the contest provides a prompt and 55 hours to write a (maximum) 500-word story. The winner receives $500.

February’s prompt called for the story to take place in a school, start with the word three, and include the words magnetic, suspicious, uncouth and flowery. This is my entry:

Stay in School

“Three treble hooks on a single lure—the angler means business. Todd, are you listening?”

“What? Yeah. Angling is a mean business.”

“Stop staring at the plankton and pay attention.” 

“Yes, teacher.”

“Who remembers what kind of angler we must be most suspicious of?”

“Fly fishers,” said Scott.

“And why is that?”

“Cause they make their own flies that look like real bugs.”

“And…?”

“They make them move in the water like real bugs.”

“And what do we do to stay safe?”

All the yellow perch recited the mantra: Stay in the school, and don’t get hooked.

“Our next class will be synchronized swimming. We need to be able to move quickly as a school without crashing into one another. Jim, Elsa, Vicki, Scott, and Keith will be the lead fish.” 

“They always get to be the lead fish,” Todd said.

“Okay, Todd. If you think it’s so easy, you take Jim’s place. The rest of you get in groups of five and join in when I tell your group to go.” 

The lead fish started swimming and the others joined at two-second intervals. Then the lead fish turned right, except for Todd who kept going straight. Eight of the ten groups followed the four lead fish, but two were confused and followed Todd.

Teacher called everyone back. She faced the school and sighed. The resulting bubble fog temporarily obscured her view of her students.

“Todd. Just where were you going?”

“I didn’t realize we were turning.”

“As a lead fish you must be aware of what the others are doing. Now let’s try again.” 

This time when all the groups had joined in, the lead fish went left and Todd went right. He crashed into Elsa. Teacher shook her head. “We’ll pick this up again later.”

Elsa threw Todd a dirty look and swam next to teacher.

“Our next class is physical education. We’re going to do a strength exercise. Everyone, find a partner.” 

Elsa didn’t move fast enough and wound up as Todd’s partner.

“Face your partner and press your pectoral fins together like they’re magnetic. Now wave your tail as hard and as fast as you can. Try to push your partner backwards.”

Grunting and groaning ensued as each fish worked its tail as hard as it could. Todd strained so hard that bubbles came out his anal vent.  

“Eww!” Elsa said, dropping her pectoral fins. “That was uncouth. And stinky.”

“Like your farts smell as flowery as water lilies.”

“That’s enough, you two. Get back to the exercise,” teacher said.

Todd and Elsa were evenly matched. They remained in the same position until teacher said to stop.

“Very good, Elsa. Todd.”

Todd looked up and saw a shadow looming. “Northern Pike,” he yelled. “Come this way.” He propelled himself toward the nearest weed bed, but the other fish wouldn’t follow him. He wound up on his own, and the pike ate him. Teacher shrugged. “Jim, take back your place as a lead fish.” 

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Me? Write a Novel?

I never would have thought I’d attempt to write a novel. I have always written non-fiction for myself or for clients. But there’d been an idea for a story rattling around in my head for years, and I finally decided to write it down and build scenes around it.

     The idea was prompted when my truck was broken into and my jacket and some fly fishing equipment was stolen. The policeman who took my report said the thieves knew what they were doing and were probably connected to a drug gang.

     The nugget that fueled the story idea was the supply and demand nature of the drug business. Since law enforcement has had little success stemming the supply of drugs, what would happen if we tried to stop the demand for drugs? What if we created a generation of people who would refuse to take drugs? It would take severe measures—basically brainwashing kids against drug use—but what if we tried it? That’s the basis of the novel I’m writing. 

     My own experience as a theft victim informed my first chapter about a family’s home being broken into. But what I really needed to do with the first few pages was emphasize the drug crisis and the need to do something drastic to combat it. The break-in chapter didn’t cut it. I had to ask myself, “Where does my story really begin?” I’ve read about how writers “slowly lead up to it” or “clear their throats” before getting to the inciting incident. That’s what I was doing. I know other writers who have scrapped entire chapters to get to the true beginning of their stories. 

     I set aside the break-in chapter and decided to do a drug bust gone bad scene where there were police casualties. The problem with it, as pointed out by writer-in residence, Susie Moloney, was that I was simply narrating the scene. She suggested I focus on a character’s perspective when I wrote the scene. It reads much better now. My first chapter sets up the problem and introduces the protagonist who needs to help solve the problem. That’s where the story really begins.