Friday, March 9, 2012

Short Story-Developing part two: The Visitor Returns, Unchanged

Nederlands: Het Short Story bushokje op transf...
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Alec Powers

The process underway is my first short story, about a main character who is a woman. I am working to get her "voice" just right. She is the one who entertains the visitor in the first installment of this effort to create a mystery of sorts...no murder, no thefts, no kidnappings or ... threats?

The Visitor's main character had an older friend years ago whose granddaughter suddenly shows up at her front door. The woman opens the protective glass storm-door and invites the visitor inside her home. Before long the visitor becomes vehement and somewhat scary. At the least, she seems very strange as she insists that the woman's oldest child, a daughter, is NOT her daughter. The title for part one is now The Visitor: Atheism or Mystery. Original title was The Visitor: Atheism and its Effects. Working title for part two, underway now, is The Visitor Returns, Unchanged. 

Is the visitor mad (or, at least mentally unsettled)? Is the visitor correct? Is the woman a bit unsettled in her mind? Is the daughter imaginary? That last question the reader knows the answer for: the daughter (or not?) is a real person, a highly respected surgeon at a leading hospital and well-known as a teacher/public speaker as well.

How did this story begin to develop? Its opening scene just showed up. Might it be introduced into another story underway now but not yet posted anywhere? Might it fit into Lillie/Lyly's story? No idea...yet.

First challenge then is to learn how to write a short story as I go along, knowing the basics of fiction writing, having written a true story as true, yet in fiction style. That one was in first-person narrative. This one is also, and other characters will speak through her as she hears them and relates to them. Especially her oldest child of five, a daughter (?).

Copyright 2012 by Author Support blog for Alec Powers 
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