The Turn
All I want to do is practice narrative turns, so that’s what I want all of you to do, too.
Make a list (or 5, or 10, or 100) of story ideas/premises that you want to write. Find a central image or organizing principle for a few of them. In this heartbreaking piece in Barren, called Strong Enough to Withstand The Loss, the image is the flowers. In this flash fiction piece in Smokelong Quarterly, called The Final Problem, the image/organizing principle is the clues.
So, you have an idea or a premise. You have a central image or organizing principle. Now, try to write the essay or story, and let it be a big mess. Change the central image if it’s not working. Play around. Be loose. Have fun. You have to be wiling to start over! It’s fine. Start over!
Once you have something with a bit of life in it, something halfway decent, now you can really get to work! I want you to shape that piece like a cut jewel, so that the narrative turn, that moment when we say, oh shit, that’s what this is rea…