Story Interactions

I've stressed on multiple occasions that my writing process is more art than science.  It's as if the story tells itself and I'm just keeping a chronicle of what happens. Thus, in a way, I'm often just as surprised as anyone else at developments in the plot.

For me, it's fun to write this way. Unfortunately, it usually results in some stuff ending up on the cutting room floor, so to speak – mostly everyday, slice-of-life type moments.  For example, when you’re walking in a crowd and someone bumps you. Or you’re in the grocery store and an elderly grandmother ask you to get something from the top shelf that she can’t reach. Or you run into someone in college that you haven’t seen since they moved away after third grade.  They aren’t essential to the story, but they add a degree of realism that we can all relate to.

The problem in storytelling is that audiences often expect almost everything to relate to the plot, so those everyday interactions tend to get sliced out. Otherwise, it might send the signal that any such interplay is important…and when it turns out not to be, people sometimes ask, “What was the point of that?” But the truth is that there isn’t a point per se…just that these are things we all experience in our daily lives and they can enhance the story.

By way of example, there’s a scene in the first Superman movie with Christopher Reeve where he changes into his Superman costume and a guy on the street says, “Say Jim, Wooo!  That’s a bad outfit!” It wasn’t essential to the plot but it was something an observer might say, and I’ve always felt it enriched the film.

Bearing that in mind, I’ve been trying to incorporate more of those slice-of-life moments into my writing. Like I said, I think they enhance the overall story, but in a subtle way that generally escapes notice. In fact, if they’ve gone unnoticed by readers that’s great, because that’s partially the intent.