Toto, I Don't Think We're In Kansas Anymore
When I was younger, my stories were pretty fantastical. I wrote about assassins and the sorts of plots that are a little hard to swallow. I was Dorothy--in Oz. Because Kansas just didn't seem very interesting.
And now, with whatever wisdom I've gained over the years, I realize that there really is no place like home.
Why? Lately, I've been trying to take a break from the news. I scan the NY Times every day, but I'm trying to stop my habit of checking CNN.com every ten minutes to see if the world is ending. Most of the news is bleak. It will still be there tomorrow morning when I read the Times.
But all I have to do today--or any day--when I read the news is to look at all the insanity next door. I don't mean NEXT DOOR, but I do mean in the ordinary. Today's headlines are about sickening predators living amongst us, or about a crazy love triangle (and I don't use "crazy" loosely here) gone awry. Or about a murder for hire when a husband tired of wife number one and wanted to move along to number two without having to pay alimony. In short, Kansas is pretty interesting, as twisted and dark as those flying monkeys
It took me a while, like Dorothy, to realize this. That human drama can be fascinating in the most intimate of settings. Even when I read thrillers, where a global conspiracy is taking place, I find that when you cut away at the story, the race against the ticking bomb, the traitors and the villains, it is still, at its heart, usually about Kansas. It is usually about a man or woman trying to preserve his or her family, or former lover, or child. Think about the first "Die Hard" movie--I cared more whether his wife would take him back than if the building blew up. (Of course, he would have to SURVIVE the building blowing up to get his wife back, but you get the idea.)
So after traveling to Oz, in my writing, I more likely find if I click my heels three times . . . I do believe there is no place like home.
Thoughts?
Peace,
E
And now, with whatever wisdom I've gained over the years, I realize that there really is no place like home.
Why? Lately, I've been trying to take a break from the news. I scan the NY Times every day, but I'm trying to stop my habit of checking CNN.com every ten minutes to see if the world is ending. Most of the news is bleak. It will still be there tomorrow morning when I read the Times.
But all I have to do today--or any day--when I read the news is to look at all the insanity next door. I don't mean NEXT DOOR, but I do mean in the ordinary. Today's headlines are about sickening predators living amongst us, or about a crazy love triangle (and I don't use "crazy" loosely here) gone awry. Or about a murder for hire when a husband tired of wife number one and wanted to move along to number two without having to pay alimony. In short, Kansas is pretty interesting, as twisted and dark as those flying monkeys
It took me a while, like Dorothy, to realize this. That human drama can be fascinating in the most intimate of settings. Even when I read thrillers, where a global conspiracy is taking place, I find that when you cut away at the story, the race against the ticking bomb, the traitors and the villains, it is still, at its heart, usually about Kansas. It is usually about a man or woman trying to preserve his or her family, or former lover, or child. Think about the first "Die Hard" movie--I cared more whether his wife would take him back than if the building blew up. (Of course, he would have to SURVIVE the building blowing up to get his wife back, but you get the idea.)
So after traveling to Oz, in my writing, I more likely find if I click my heels three times . . . I do believe there is no place like home.
Thoughts?
Peace,
E
posted by Erica Orloff at 8:00 AM
8 Comments:
I've not written something that's completely from the 'ordinary' as you put it, but I do find little seeds of it in my WIPs, usually it's something ordinary happening to a character to make them extraordinary.
Erica, This post is exactly why I think you need to publish a book of essays on writing. You are so right on every single day.
First of all, I've had to cut my CNN habit, too. I realized that I had a problem when my daughter started jumping and clapping when the breaking news anthem sounded. Yikes.
And you're right...you often don't have to look much farther than your own community to realize that truth really is stranger than fiction. Did you hear the story yestreday about the astronaut who drove 500 miles in a diaper so she could kidnap her romantic rival? No editor on Earth would publish a fiction novel like that because they'd say it was too unbelievable. :)
My current WIP is an entire journey in the unbelievability of the ordinary. It's set in the small cluster of farm towns where I grew up. I fully expect an editor to reject me because it's too farfetched!
Weez :)
Hi May:
I am sure, even in the most fantastical novels or sci-fi, there is that element of truth and "home" and the emotions we all relate to.
E
Louise:
Thanks so much. I just try to write from my own writer's journey.
And yes, that story is the love triangle I am referring to. If any of us made that up, it would seem insane.
E
Words of wisdom as I brainstorm my new thriller.
As always, my dear.
I like writing about outragous things. It seems more fun that way.
I feel like I am driving through life with blinders on when I read about the horrible things happening to and by people right in my figurative backyard.
I see my nice neighborhood. People out washing cars on the weekends. Mowing their lawns. The weekday commute in rush-hour traffic. Billboards advertising stuff I mostly ignore.
It is all so surreal that just by tuning that out and actually looking around you can see a very different and often disturbing world.
I live in a city that is rated one of the safest in the country. Yet just last year there was a series of break-ins, a kid down the street selling and using hardcore narcotics, and a homicide/suicide. This is a "safe" neighborhood. I'm raising my two small children here.
I refuse to watch the news on TV/Web. it is the same thing, day after day, city after city, country after country.
Now that we've explored the underside of the rug, lets lay it back down and go back about our business, ok? :)
Hey Brian:
I know it's there, too. I am attempting, as much as possible to tune it out and filter it out of my world. But definitely when I write fiction, I "go there." I just think it's rich for exploration . . . the lies and the facade.
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