Movement and starting small

I have discovered that most of my rambling little bits of story that I just dump into the middle of are so often about people moving from one place to another. It almost always involves a few people walking and talking.

Starting here, ending here. And always in the middle of a conversation too. I just drop the reader into a scenario and into a conversation. No context given.

I don't know when I started doing this or why, but it's pretty consistent. I've only just noticed this recently. I wonder if it started in an effort to kickstart a story. Starting with a "Once upon a time" or a description of people, events, or a setting would get me hung up. So I would start in the middle. Maybe originally with a goal to go back and write the beginning, maybe not.

But now it's a pattern. I like to just jump in at the deep end. When I'm writing snippets as exercises I think it's probably fine. Maybe it's fine anyway, but it's funny to notice this pattern.

Sometimes it's hard to write anything at all. Right now that is my life. I didn't want to write the above. It didn't flow. Maybe if I had written it in story form it would have flowed better. 

"Why do you always start stories in the middle?" Hydrangea asked as we walked from point A to point B.

"Good question. I guess I haven't thought about it much," I responded, thinking back over the things I had written.

We walked on.

"Maybe it was an effort to kickstart my silly brain," I laughed. "I just enjoy jumping in, throwing the reader into a setting instead of gently guiding them to it." I thought for a moment. "It's like zooming out instead of in. I start close up, right on the characters and what they're saying, pan out to what they're doing, and then paint with bigger and bigger strokes until I have showed you my world. Some authors start with the broader strokes, creating a world and a setting and then introduce you to the characters and their motivations."

I looked up at Hydrangea to see if she had followed my train of thought.

She was thinking about it. "I think that's accurate," she responded. "I haven't read all of your work, but I can see how that's a theme in your writing.  Do you know why you always start close in and then slowly pan out? Do you think one style is better than the other?"

I thought about it as we walked under the something sky in some kind of weather.

"I think it is because whatever story I'm telling, it's for the characters. Everything is character driven. Not so much plot driven. I know where the characters end up, their friendships.... I mostly know their goals and motivations. But the world they're in matters less to me. I just want to know how and why they care about each other. What they're doing to make each others lives better. I don't care where they are. I just want them to be happy. Sometimes I let them be unhappy for a bit. Sometimes things don't work out amazingly, but I'm afraid that what I care about most is weaving friendships. Saving the world is secondary. My characters care about saving the world... because they care about each other."

Hydrangea smiled at me. "I think that makes sense. And it makes sense that you would begin by having two characters talking. Or a handful of characters. Why do you think that they are traveling? So often your characters are going from one place to another. Have you ever thought about that one?"

I had. But I thought again.

"I don't rightly know," I admitted. "But maybe two people sitting in a living room feels too empty. Maybe it's because I know that for myself I talk best when I am in action myself. Words fall more easily from my mind to my tongue when I am walking. It's all well and good to sit across the table from someone or on a couch, but when I need to process my thoughts it's useful to be walking or driving somewhere. It frees my tongue. And in my writing, I guess it's the same way. Something about the momentum of moving forward makes it feel like the story is going somewhere."

Hydrangea nodded. "Are you happy with that?"

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well, if you start in the middle, if your characters are in motion... does that bother you? Or are you fine with beginning your stories like that? I guess what I'm getting at is do you think there's something wrong with this habit you have formed? Or are you fine with it?"

I thought about what she was saying. Was there something wrong with this form I had chosen?

"What do you think, Hydrangea?" I asked.

"Do I get a say?"

"Yes, I need to know if someone else is okay with it. I know what I think, but what I think isn't enough. I want to know what others think. It has to be okay with someone else. Someone outside my mind!"

Hydrangea just looked at me, a smile creeping over her face. "Silly," she said. "I'm not outside of your mind."

I raised an eyebrow. We had arrived where we were headed. This journey was complete. Another journey would start again. Another pathway in my mind would need to be explored. But this pathway was tread. I had arrived at the stopping point.

Approval outside my mind was waiting on the other side of another journey. But for now, I had walked this pathway with myself. Unwinding an idea in my mind that needed to be talked through.

And that is why I write. To talk things through. To figure out what is in my mind. To get it out on to paper... or a screen. So that I can see it out there. Outside of myself and evaluate it for what it is.