Having not a single plot-driven bone in my body, I will come up with ideas here.
General setting: The car ride to drop kittens into the river.
Possible character/scenarios:
1. Two characters: A younger child whose mother fell down the stairs and died and is now being raised by an older detached sibling and living in the same house as where the parent died. Older sibling is married, but the marriage is strained by finances and the fact that the couple cannot conceive.
---- Ultimately, older sibling wants to kill the kittens (silent understood subtext: how come that cat can have babies and I cain't?) and younger sibling is too naive to understand that his/her caretaker wants to kill the animals and goes along for the ride.
2. Two characters: Younger child and mother. Mother is single and destitute.
---- Mother wants to kill the kittens (silent understood subtext: I can't feed another mouth! I'm poor! Who would bring another life into this godforsaken world!) and has no choice but to bring the child with her.
3. One character: Poor woman who can't have no babies. Probably most like older sibling in scenario 1, but without the tension of having someone to look after.
---- Wants to kill the kittens (silent understood subtext: I can't have no babies, so why can the cat?) and has a silent car ride with kittens in a sack next to her.
I mostly like the younger main character (possibly narrator) for the image of seeing the brick in the sack and having a moment of realization. I think the first idea might be too complex for short fiction (when I think up stories I tend to think of too much back story). I think the mother/child relationship is much simpler though, so better for a short story. However, I also enjoy a good story where a person is interacting with not much other than his or herself. BUT, I do like the familial tension in the first scenario.
And this is why my short stories never make it out of my brain.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
dead kittens?...i think i hear rebecca weeping in the distance
ReplyDeletei like it.. will all depend on the subtlety and treatment of the characters....it should , i think, be as quiet and simple and frank/upfront as possible...with lots ofdead mammals
no fair...your blog looks like a real blog...
ReplyDeleteyeah, i really hated that blogger template. and i don't have a job and i know how to do this so i said, fuck it, let's make it look nice.
ReplyDeletehey kate thanks for the add! i'll promptly repeat the linkage. i personally like the first scenario, and think you can mention the mother backstory in passing within subtle context/dialogue, or even just let it be, cause even if ya don't mention it, it's kinda already in there.
ReplyDelete...and dead kittens.
i already am weeping, but that's because i know how heart wrenching all of your stuff can be. i think the ideas are great, mainly because they sound like something you would write. and i agree with brian make it simple and frank like you do and the tears will flow freely.
ReplyDeletep.s. your blog is P-I-M-P!
scenerio 1 works best, and I agree with Brian - subtlety is key here. Be careful with younger narrators - they can observe but tend to not be able to reason or be reliable. I can't wait to read more. are you in dc, btw?
ReplyDelete