Today I Witnessed A Story © Cheryl Wright – All rights reserved
Friends and acquaintances often ask where I get my ideas. Mostly, larger-than-life characters walk through my brain, playing out the scenes they want me to relay. When they don’t, with all those years and life experiences behind (and ahead of) me, there is an absolute multitude of ideas available.
So... what to write? Most of my ideas come from without - if it happens to me, or someone I know, I write about it. It makes me a better writer to think about what goes on around me and fictionalise it. That, for me, is more challenging than writing from scratch.
Like the time I almost got knocked of my feet by one of those @#%@ couriers that ride around the central business district on a pushbike. So what did I write about? - a feisty young girl (so I bent the truth a bit!) being knocked over by one of those dastardly upstarts with his bike.
A friend who lives alone on the corner of a dark lonely laneway, thought the aliens had landed when she woke up to flashing red lights in the middle of the night. She sat up in bed terrified for about fifteen minutes, cautiously got up, and finally peered out the window. What did she see? Not aliens, that’s for sure! The house opposite was engulfed in flames, and the road was jotted with emergency vehicles.
So what did I do? I made it into a short story. In my version the heroine almost squashed her cat to death in her terror, fantasised about the boyfriend she’d thrown out - wanting him to protect her - then bit the bullet and set about searching the house for the little green men.
Finally, she climbed up on a chair to look out a high window, and lo and behold, saw flashing lights. (She didn’t need a man after all!) But it didn’t end there; at this stage the reader still doesn’t know what’s going on. The heroine can’t believe her eyes, has a second peek, then mesmerised walks out the front door to join the neighbours. The reader is still kept in the dark, and the last sentence finally reveals the true situation.
On another occasion, a very hunky, very sexy, young soldier began to shed his clothes in front of me in a car park. (Yes, really!) Unfortunately for me, my dear husband arrived in the middle of the strip tease and alerted the hunk, er, soldier, that he had an audience. The end result being he only stripped as far as his bare chest. (Damn!!) Naturally, it quickly became a short story where the soldier peeled off his clothes, item by agonising item, a silent, mesmerised audience of one watching. And yes, her husband interrupted.
Letting my cat out at 3am, I opened the back security door and in my half-asleep stupor thought ‘what if I opened this door and someone came flying through the door at me?’ Okay, I know, most people don’t think well at 3am – I do. It’s a great time for me to write. Try it – you’ll see the world from a whole new perspective. I would love to set up a comfy chair outside the front door, or anywhere for that matter, and watch the world go slowly by. Alas, too dangerous these days. But... what if you could? What would you see, or better yet, what would you imagine?
Ideas are everywhere, just waiting for you to add that little extra ingredient – the writers’ perspective.
Every writer uses different methods.
About the author: Cheryl Wright is an award-winning Australian author, freelance journalist, and editor.
She is widely published, including novels, short stories, non-fiction books, poetry, and features. Her work has also been published in several anthologies and other collections. Visit Cheryl’s author website for more information - http://www.cheryl-wright.com
©Cheryl Wright. Not to be used or reprinted without permission.
So... what to write? Most of my ideas come from without - if it happens to me, or someone I know, I write about it. It makes me a better writer to think about what goes on around me and fictionalise it. That, for me, is more challenging than writing from scratch.
Like the time I almost got knocked of my feet by one of those @#%@ couriers that ride around the central business district on a pushbike. So what did I write about? - a feisty young girl (so I bent the truth a bit!) being knocked over by one of those dastardly upstarts with his bike.
A friend who lives alone on the corner of a dark lonely laneway, thought the aliens had landed when she woke up to flashing red lights in the middle of the night. She sat up in bed terrified for about fifteen minutes, cautiously got up, and finally peered out the window. What did she see? Not aliens, that’s for sure! The house opposite was engulfed in flames, and the road was jotted with emergency vehicles.
So what did I do? I made it into a short story. In my version the heroine almost squashed her cat to death in her terror, fantasised about the boyfriend she’d thrown out - wanting him to protect her - then bit the bullet and set about searching the house for the little green men.
Finally, she climbed up on a chair to look out a high window, and lo and behold, saw flashing lights. (She didn’t need a man after all!) But it didn’t end there; at this stage the reader still doesn’t know what’s going on. The heroine can’t believe her eyes, has a second peek, then mesmerised walks out the front door to join the neighbours. The reader is still kept in the dark, and the last sentence finally reveals the true situation.
On another occasion, a very hunky, very sexy, young soldier began to shed his clothes in front of me in a car park. (Yes, really!) Unfortunately for me, my dear husband arrived in the middle of the strip tease and alerted the hunk, er, soldier, that he had an audience. The end result being he only stripped as far as his bare chest. (Damn!!) Naturally, it quickly became a short story where the soldier peeled off his clothes, item by agonising item, a silent, mesmerised audience of one watching. And yes, her husband interrupted.
Letting my cat out at 3am, I opened the back security door and in my half-asleep stupor thought ‘what if I opened this door and someone came flying through the door at me?’ Okay, I know, most people don’t think well at 3am – I do. It’s a great time for me to write. Try it – you’ll see the world from a whole new perspective. I would love to set up a comfy chair outside the front door, or anywhere for that matter, and watch the world go slowly by. Alas, too dangerous these days. But... what if you could? What would you see, or better yet, what would you imagine?
Ideas are everywhere, just waiting for you to add that little extra ingredient – the writers’ perspective.
Every writer uses different methods.
About the author: Cheryl Wright is an award-winning Australian author, freelance journalist, and editor.
She is widely published, including novels, short stories, non-fiction books, poetry, and features. Her work has also been published in several anthologies and other collections. Visit Cheryl’s author website for more information - http://www.cheryl-wright.com
©Cheryl Wright. Not to be used or reprinted without permission.
