Tuesday, August 27, 2013

FINDING THE ESSENCE OF YOUR STORY

Often the hardest task we face as writers is knowing what our stories are about.  I'd like to think my writing has an emotion that you the reader can connect with.  

Some time back our mentor, Elnora, assigned us the job of writing a short piece to demonstrate our struggle of knowing what our story is about.  This is my attempt.

Exercise On Finding the Essence of the Story (January 2005).

The skillful surgeon placed the scalpel blade under the patient's friable skin peeling it back in search of the his essence.  It wasn't that close to the surface.  He examined the fat pads that once filled him and gave way to dimples.  But that wasn't the essence.  Then the Doctor sawed down to the bones, still solid in the middle and moveable at the joints.  That wasn't where this man was defined.  He pushed on muscles, cut a nerve or two and pulled on a heartstring ... all important to the life of the patient but not his life essence.  The veins pumped red and blue with life and still didn't tell the story.  Then the Surgeon saw the tear in the man's eye and knew that is where the true story hid.  The Doctor pulled down his mask and cried in understanding.

We are the surgeons of our stories.  Take you time to give it life ... but find the essence that we all can connect to.