A Conversation with my Story

WRITING PROCESS
Story: I’ve got it.

Me: Got what?

Story: Martha’s mother. Her name isn’t Helen. It’s Delia.

Me: Um… excuse me?

Story: Yeah yeah yeah… it’s Delia. Helen is her mother. Her and Toby’s.

Me: But the story is almost done and it’s Helen throughout two whole stories. It’s not just a matter of replacing the name, you know. Helen and Delia are two completely different kinds of people.

Story: I know. Isn’t it great?

Me: Great? No, it isn’t great. I’ve worked so hard on this.

Story: Yes and all that hard work is paying off.

Me: For you maybe.

Story: Well. Yeah. That’s all that matters, isn’t it? It’s all about the story that wants to be told not the story you want to tell.

Me: I suppose. But this is huge. You’re suddenly not what I thought what you were about.

Story: Exactly. And that’s when it gets exciting, for both of us.

Me: (Sigh) Where do I start?

Story: Well, start with the find and replace option. That’s a place to start. Just see her real name implanted there in the text in black and white and see what happens. Then do some freewriting in Delia’s voice, maybe on events that you’ve already written about as Helen. Play with it. This is fun.

Me: Yeah, fun. Whooppee…

Story: Trust me.

Me: Do I have a choice?

Story: Sure, you can ignore me, not write, get crabby, not write some more, get crankier, until you finally try it my way and wonder what you were waiting for all that time.

Me: (sigh again) Fine. You win.

Story: It’s not a contest. It’s win win.

Me: Whatever...