Have you ever wondered what happens to a character in the story when the story ends? For instance, take the fairytale ending – they lived happily ever after. No one’s life goes entirely smoothly. There had to be problems. There are children. People continue to evolve up to the moment of their death. I’m sure you can come up with a gazillion different things that would happen after the fairytale ends. Writers have an advantage over most people. They could write a follow-up story using the same cast of characters placed later in time. It’s been my experience and other writers I have spoken to that a single character often demands their story be told.
Take the fairytale story of Cinderella. Her sisters are portrayed as cruel and heartless to Cinderella. How did they become that way? Were they following the example of their cruel and heartless mother? If so, wouldn’t Cinderella’s mother have a story to explore? What would make her heartless? Could she have chosen a path that wasn’t so cruel and heartless? There’s a story there just waiting to be told.
You see the problem for any writer is simply to choose any character from any story ever written and tell that character story. The writer’s dilemma with so many choices is “there’s so little time.” I remember interviewing people and coming away with the story of their life that could not be written because it wouldn’t be believed. An example of that would be a couple who lived the life of “drugs, sex, and rock ‘n’ roll.” The man could barely function anymore. But he tried! Oh, how he tried! The woman appeared to be shy as I interviewed her. She told me of trying every drug she could get her hands on. She slept with every man who would have her and her husband approved of all of it. I never knew but I guess he did exactly the same thing. I interviewed her over a period of time and was about to end the interviews when she ended up in a mental institution. I was to learn much later that her lifestyle had and I quote “had completely scrambled her brain.”
There are so many stories to be told, but there’s so little time.
2 Responses
Gosh, you would have had a “gazillion” stories to use from her interviews, she could have ended up a good character/murderest too. I could see many stories with great motives. 🔪😂
Not only her story, about her husband’s story as well would be interesting. I used to see him around town frequently. He disappeared. I asked people who knew him what happened, and no one did know. I found a friend who was going to meet him for coffee, and they had made that arrangement the day before he disappeared. I’ll have to tell his story is I know what in a blog.