Storytellers know ALL the best pieces of a story are usually built around conflict. Sometimes it is hard to find or figure out what the conflict is.
Where does your story start?
Where does it end?
Both are difficult questions.
The easiest way to decide where your story should start is to assume you only have two minutes to tell the story. Two minutes is being generous, because EVERYONE at the table has a story they are dying to tell too, and they want to cut in and interrupt your exciting tale, so they can start on their own story. It’s a competitive world out there, so how do you compete?
The best place to practice this is during a night out with all your writer friends, who hardly ever escape from their houses. Most of these people are introverts. You get them out of their house, away from their family and into a public setting and they suddenly become those people your mother warns you about. Crazy. Loud. Excited. They are sitting on the back patio (reserved for the noisy folks) at the new Mudtown Station in Owen Sound. These writers want to drink special beer. They want to eat amazing cauliflower steak covered in almonds and raisins and special sauce. (Extremely delicious by the way). These people want to tell stories. Their stories.
They are writers that don’t have lots of time before they have to rush home, so they are anxious to talk. What they don’t want to do is listen to your boring story about when you visited Colombia over 30 years ago… unless, you start out with a killer line full of action and conflict that holds their attention and they want to hear more. They become quiet. They listen. Between bouts of laughter, of course.
If you were eavesdropping on these loud and happy writers on Thursday night, you would’ve heard a few first lines of stories that were intriguing and they made you want to hear more of the story, almost as if you wished you could pull up a chair and join them:
“Well, the first time I tried Cocaine, it wasn’t good, I mean it was goooood, but…”
“We put in-floor heating in our butcher room.”
“There’s a giant black skull in the crosshairs of a rifle scope with the words Punishment Is Due…”
“It’s not that easy for a woman learning how to ride a crotch rocket at the age of 52.”
“I made this new friend in Colombia, and I didn’t know he was a drug lord at the time, but he invited us in…”
“So, we stop at a quiet place in Detroit to eat our sandwiches, which later we realize is a motorcycle clubhouse with a steel front door, a peep hole and surveillance cameras pointed right at us…”
“An active night of passionate sex is great for sleeping like the dead.”
“So my husband walks into the busy record store and asks for something off my Christmas grocery list, Always with Wings, thinking the item is a record…”
“Honestly, I don’t want to be a stay-at-home mom…”
“Is there alcohol in that?”
“My wife has a conversation with a guy named Rocky every single morning.”
“My daughter just kept smashing a huge rock into my brand new shower surround…”
“Psychiatrists are really good people to know.”
“My wife removed my island without asking me first!”
“We are having the robot open house soon…”
“I might commit murder before I retire.”
“I hate wearing pants.”
“Seriously, my mother is losing it.”
“I threatened my kids daily while they were growing up, I should probably be in jail right now.”
Writers say the funniest things. They feed off of each other. These first lines became amazing snippets of colourful stories full of conflict, that had the rest of us laughing until we cried.
They say introverts are not that fun at parties. We say it’s all in the company you keep. Thursday night at Mudtown Station was definitely a perfect end to another year of writing buddies getting together to share our knowledge, experiences and stories with each other. We should almost gather once a month through the year just to eat, drink and share stories, instead of partaking in meetings. Maybe we need to take a vote? Ha!
Being a creative person, I tend to gravitate toward these weird and wonderful people who write and create art in some way. They get me (somewhat). Writing groups are great, if you keep in mind why you are hanging out with them. If they can help you stay positive during your bouts of doubts, if they support you and don’t throw negative toxic comments out about you or your writing (that would send you running for a spoon on the way to the freezer where all the ice cream tubs are waiting for you), then they are keepers.
These people I hang out with have crazy obsessions, strange thoughts and fantastic storytelling abilities, but they match my own and that makes me smile. Laughter is contagious and sooooo damn comforting. I think I’m where I want to be… surrounded by conflict and amazing writer friends.
Cheers to next year, with new stories full of conflict from everyone around the table. Enjoy your summer!
