“A Story Like A House”

Short Stories

Years ago I started on a new career as a writer. I started writing, and then I started reading about writing. Recently a short excerpt on writing from Alice Walker “a story is like a house” brought to mind something I read when first began writing:

The king died and then the queen died…is not a story.

I went back to my stories and re-read them and they were all ‘the king died and the queen died’ stories. I re-wrote them again and again, proof-read them, some fifteen times and more, until my stories came close to being stories worth telling, and I hope worth reading.

‘The king died and then the queen died of grief…is a story’

I wrote about what happened in the in-between years, in those years of the grieving queen, in those years she outlived the king. Much happened in the time between the king’s death and the queen’s. I linked subplots and characters, still keeping the story simple and characters few. Simplicity is easy for me. I am able to tell simple stories.

From time to time I go back to my stories, make house visits, like the house Alice Walker mentions, and linger, wander about, visit the various rooms, meet the characters, renew friendships, pick up little things here and there, think on how I’ll word them now and put them back, enjoy the layout, the style, the ease. I like what I have written and give myself assurance to continue writing.

Alice Walker:

“A story is not like a road to follow … it’s more like a house. You go inside and stay there for a while, wandering back and forth and settling where you like and discovering how the room and corridors relate to each other, how the world outside is altered by being viewed from these windows. And you, the visitor, the reader, are altered as well by being in this enclosed space, whether it is ample and easy or full of crooked turns, or sparsely or opulently furnished. You can go back again and again, and the house, the story, always contains more than you saw the last time. It also has a sturdy sense of itself of being built out of its own necessity, not just to shelter or beguile you.”

Soon to release

Short Stories, 3rd Collection