Part II – Story Richness (& More)
I have been faced
with synchronicity lately—when coincidental
occurrence of events happen with seemingly unrelated occurrences that become
related, or are related in some way. This post is another incidence of synchronicity.
(as was last week’s story)
Back story
Several writer friends agreed to all
post on the same theme on Friday of last week. I was late getting word of it and had already
posted Part 1 on story richness.
Then I got the word and put the additional themed of post, our favorite art, up on Saturday.
This week’s
theme is: a book that we can read again
and again and still enjoy. Normally I would wait on Part 2 of my former
post, but I already had it written and it ties directly into this week’s theme
so I decided to combine them.
Coincidence
or synchronicity? Keep reading.
Part II on story richness
The synchronistic part of today’s story
starts back when I planned and began writing the original post two weeks ago. I
took a break half way through writing the post and set it aside to read an
article by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
in the March/April issue of Writer’s Digest.
Her article gave
me deeper insight into the issue of going deeper
for more richness—by bringing in details that tantalize the reader’s
imagination. She said, “…a single
protagonist alone could not express all the reactions one could have to this
world within-a-world, filled with traditions and secrets.”
Her quote popped
off the page for me because it directly applies to the story I am currently writing
about ancient Japan during a very specific time in history that existed like a
jewel in a box, all set off by itself; the Heian era of 980 A.D. Japan with its
many ‘traditions and secrets’. (Out of this era came the ‘pillow books’ written
by the high ranking court women about the sexual liaisons, the gossip and
intrigues of the wealthy members of court. )
The other thing
Chitra said was to get inside of your
antagonist’s skin and understand the motivations. It is too easy to create
stick figures for our characters and then slap on motivations. We may think we
know them, but do we really have it down
on the written page? Do our motivations (as we step inside their skin) seem
logical and acceptable (just as a serial killer’s logic and reasons makes
perfect sense to him, as crazy as it may be to others)?
The most
important writing information came toward the end of Chitra’s article when she
said we need to ‘use . . . our secret
expertise.’ We all have our specialties,
those things that we ‘know,’ that are natural and easy for us. I don’t think we
need to force a novel out. It should flow out through the vehicle of what we know. That doesn’t mean we know
everything, only that we have a certain
feel for it. With the current book I’m writing that meant the love of past
cultures, indigenous people, the ‘feel’ of ancient Japan and of past-life
possibilities.
Sometimes our
writing needs to breathe, like opening a bottle of wine. You have to let it become
what it fully wants to become. A tiny seed of inspiration from the original
novel I was writing exploded into a whole other story that took over and had to
be written first:
Example:
My
writing plan was for past life information to be included in the novel I was
writing as the past-life love story; the back story for my two characters, but
it got too big.
So,
then I had to cut it out and write it separately as a novella. But then it became
a small novel, and is now quickly moving into a bigger, fuller novel. It will
be greater in scope than I originally planned.
It
started as a small detail and if I hadn’t been flexible, I might have simply
dumped the idea when it got too big and unwieldy. I would not have thought to
expand on it, except my critique partners kept asking me questions about it,
forcing me to go deeper, until one of them finally said, “I like this story
better than the main story.”
Here’s where the synchronicity begins:
I started this
post before I read Chitra’s article
cited above. I expanded my post to reflect what she had to say. Then I finished
reading her article and found out what novel she had written (before my writer friends decided on the theme for today's post).
Years ago I read
The Mistress of Spices, an
atmospheric, enchanting story that so impressed me by the exotic richness of it
that I never forgot it—one of the few I have reread and listened to on tape as
well—although I had forgotten the author’s name (not one easily remembered for the
Western ear) until I read her article and saw the name of her first novel.
The writer who inspired
this original post (that the themed post interrupted) is the writer of the book
I put forward to you today as the book I
have read again and again.
The author of
that beloved story is Chitra Banerjee
Divakaruni whose first novel was The
Mistress of Spices.
Remember I had started this post two weeks ago, then learned of the book she had written, before my writer friends picked this blog theme of a favorite book that I have re-read and enjoyed each time.
Chalk that up to
synchronicity.
P.S. While looking for the cover picture, I found that there is also a movie (2005) about it.
Have you had synchronistic experiences?
Read what other writers who are joining the Friday fun have written about a book they can read again and again without getting bored:
Linda Adams
