The last few weeks I have
been trying to portray what I thought would be a simple scene: a woman makes
lunch for her long-lost childhood sweetheart, his wife and their daughter.
The problem is that as I
write the scene and let it unravel, there is so much resentment in the room it
is almost stifling!
Having lived through similar situations (not in the details
but in the aggregate), it is painful to write. You relive the horror and find
yourself trying to put distance between your soul and the written page…
There is a push/pull thing
going with the mother and daughter, trust issues with the husband and wife, old
wounds between the man and his old friend, and the natural nervousness of
entering a new situation (meeting new people and meeting your past).
The struggle is in how to
write the scene so that I show the
different dynamics, and how I let the narrator express what is happening without
copping an attitude and taking sides. But then, the idea of an unreliable narrator
that has an agenda is so much more fun!
I keep writing and have a mélange
of color on the page as each version reveals itself and awaits cohesion. I don’t mind the chaos. In fact, I
find it refreshing to deal with a narrator that has more gossip than journalist
running through her.
As a writer, you do not
want to detract from the story itself. At the same time, you want your reader
to enjoy the story. I think this narrator can add color commentary that the
characters cannot make themselves, and point out some ridiculous moments that happen in life but,
unless you have an active inner voice, they never get called out properly.
Because a story may be
worth reading if it includes the words, “And
girl, you will never guess what she got caught doing in that bathroom—well, it was only cause
they heard the crash and her cussin’ and taking the Lord’s name in vain!” It will always be much better than telling it with clinical detachment.
Just as one starts to play up with the narrator, you realize the story could be funny in the telling if not in its own reality. That changes the telling and makes the process a little nuanced; and the writing that had gotten wooden and convoluted, suddenly is fresh and full of possibilities... Nothing is written in stone: changing the tone of your story does not change the events. When stuck, maybe letting the narrator set the pace might help advance the story in unexpected (and delightful) ways.
