Life is Everywhere

The point is, stories are all around us. Plots are all around us. Motivations for our characters' lives surround us daily. All we need to do is open our eyes and see the stories coming to life. One of my favorite short story writers, Jeffrey Archer, found many of his short stories in the newspaper! He would read an article and find inspiration for a short story.

Our own lives, of course, are great fodder for stories. Our feelings are not as unique as we would like to think! Our feelings of elation, confusion, grief, pride, discouragement, have all been felt by others, and by extrapolation, our characters will have similar feelings.

I mentioned in my last post that death is everywhere. But life is everywhere, too! My sons were working in my backyard digging a shallow, rectangular hole for a back patio (God bless them!). As they were digging, my oldest son noticed a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis. He watched as the butterfly ate away a piece of the chrysalis and emerged. The Monarch butterfly stayed close-by on the fence. After a few hours, it spread its wings. But by the end of the day it was still there--new life, or life in a new form.

 

The analogy of a caterpillar becoming a butterfly is often used in writing, the transforming experience of changing from one form of being to another; the necessity of withdrawal from the world to instigate change; a symbol of resurrection and hope.

Indeed, just as death is all around us, so is life. When our stories face the ubiquity of death and life, they will live.