I offer these Before and After opening excerpts of a story titled Missing Neighbor that’s based on a personal experience.
Before
You would not believe the adventure I had with my friend Ellie. We were scheduled to take her to the airport at ten. I texted her around nine-thirty, and she didn't reply. I tried calling a few minutes later. She didn't answer, but I assumed she was on the phone with her daughter. Her voice mail was full. Hmm. Shall I go over there now just to check? No ... she's a big girl ... I muted my ESP.
After
Something is dreadfully wrong! This thought roils through my head after I punch the doorbell five more times and pound on the door and get no response. I see no light behind the frosted door glass. She has to be up. Her plane leaves in two hours. What am I going to do?
~ ~ ~
You may not be surprised to learn that the Before version began life as an email, which is a great way to discover and develop a story draft. In fact, it’s just fine to send it as an email. Whether you send it or not, you may want to copy it out and develop it further. I decided to hold onto mine before sending it off and exercise a little creativity.
I realized that the creepy, horrified feeling I had as I crept through her house was the perfect beginning for a compelling mystery novel. Taking all the advice I’ve read from both fiction authors and experts like Lisa Cron in Wired for Story, I cut right to the emotion-filled point where my stomach began churning and let it build from there, looping briefly back to tell who Ellie is.
Are you curious about what I found? Was Ellie hurt or … dead? Mission accomplished.
Writing tip: write a new story or pull out an old one and find the juicy part. Rewrite the story starting with that.
2 comments :
Well, you've piqued my curiosity. What happened?? :)
Amy, sorry to leave you hanging, but telling the rest of the story would violate my ethics about Ellie's personal privacy. Suffice it to say, there was a happy ending.
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