Facing a problem

A few thoughts based on my own experience.

In one of my recent articles I've mentioned the use of flashbacks as a useful tool, which I used in turning a short story into a novel. I'm not a very experienced writer myself, and I'm not the well known author or a tutor; I wish simply to share the solution of a certain problem that I was faced with, that can be food for thought for solving  entirely different problems too that any writer might encounter.

The idea isn't complicated at all. We get stuck facing a problem that seems to us as a very difficult one, or even impossible to solve at first thought; but with some mental effort and resolution, we may reach the solution that would give our creation a unique and significant value.

As I've already mentioned I've written a short story, which was to my humble opinion my best one; during that time I was employed as a freelance translator in one of our main publishing houses in Tel Aviv. The truth is I've became a translator just to get in a closer touch with the right personalities in the literary world of our country. I did well and was in very good relations with the owner, a very wise woman she is. I've showed her that short story of mine, with the hope to publish a collection of my short stories, or have it added to a collection of short stories by several authors. She read it and recommended me to turn it into a book. But a short story is a summary of the whole plot, and thus I had a problem how to continue it.

In my example the plot describes a meeting, in which a young man is forced to carry out a mission. Whether he'll carry it out or not is unknown yet, but all his mission's details are told already, and the main idea is quite clear. At the end of the story the young man though shocked and hesitant outside decides  to carry it out.

All I wanted was to highlight in that short story a brainwash technique, in which an unexperienced young man is persuaded by a pro to commit a crime. The meeting atmosphere, the pro's changes of attitude, the scorn and demands, the accusations, the hidden threats and the successful result " are the story's heart, there was no need to add the details of the mission itself.

But if it's going to be a book and that short story is its first chapter, should I change the first chapter, or at least part of it?

I didn't want to change it, I liked it as it is. I decided to find another solution.

As his mission had to be carried out on the next day, the second chapter described his inner struggle on his way home, the dear price, whether he would succeed or fail, how it would influence his mom, his relatives and friends; who might be arrested and interrogated, while he will be free in some other country.

The solution was reached in the third chapter on his way to carry out his mission, and it's done in flashbacks in which he recalls what he was told to do and how step by step (the flashback, his thoughts, written in italics),are dispersed along his itinerary. From the moment he wakes up remembering he'd forgotten to adjust his alarm clock. He has to deceive his mom, for he she'll never see him again. He reaches the central bus station and recalls how he has to behave, where to get off, where to ambush his prey and how to commit the crime " the flashbacks are intertwined along his advancement toward the site of the crime.

After I've reached that satisfactory solution, I didn't have any problem to carry out my own mission " to finish the book.

The short story is the first chapter of my book 'The death sciences' on sale with Amazon Kindle, or to read it free of charge through their library.

 

 Haim Kadmn January 2012 " all rights resrved.