The Constant Swirling Thoughts that Create the Story

James A. Michener once said,

I love writing. I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle with human emotions.

That is what we create or try to create when we write – a deep swirl of words that will bring the reader deeper into the story to the point that we feel a part of it.

When you’ve read a really good story, don’t you hate it when it ends because you have to say good-bye to the people you've met? You will never know what future fates might await those made up inhabitants that feel like friends. Unless of course the writer decides to do a sequel, then you can move on with the characters and share in their triumphs and sorrows. I do love book series like Robert Ludlum’s Jason Bourne, Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot, and Jan Karon and her folks in Mitford.

It’s great when a book wraps up the story and gives you the epilogue so you have a future story that you can let swirl in your own brain. Then there are the continuing written stories on TV that get to be acted out. Actors who play those roles get "hellos" on the street by their character's names from people who feel they know them. TV is a swirling of smoke and mirrors getting you to believe the people are real.

My problem with TV stories is when a series that I have become involved with is suddenly canceled. One show in particular that I liked (but not enough Nielsen families did) was Flashforward. This show began as everyone in the world blacks out for 137 seconds (why that specific time frame was never answered but a Biblical reference could give a clue using those numbers) and they “flash forward” to see visions of their lives six months in the future. Many of those visions were unsettling and had the characters wondering if that future could be changed. For others they wanted to get to it quicker. So the viewers never got to see the fully evolved story that the writers had swirled in tornado like fashion with so many of the characters being sucked into the vortex of each others lives.

I used to watch soap operas which are great for creating your own story line as the plot lines are so glacial with just the occasional calving. When I couldn’t sleep at night because my brain was creating too many thought devils (like dust devils being mini dust tornadoes) I would create my own storyline taking characters from all different shows and swirling them together in a new creation known as All my Children who are living with Friends in Smallville.

So what thoughts are swirling in your head today? What stories can you create to draw others into your creative writing world?

This month’s blog chain as listed on the right is about swirling as is today’s post. Swirl on!