I brought my latest short story to this year’s Tin House Summer Workshop hoping for an ending.
I had no intention of writing another scene. The characters were going to have to work it out within the bounds of the current version. I had four scenes. A luxury, really, but I just couldn’t break open the main character so she’d take the bait, like the guy, and freak-out at the end. This was the map I wanted to draw.
Everything I threw at these characters was thrown back at me.
- White hot story pacing
- Character banter like battle armor
- Insecurity traps and mind games
- A robbery
After the workshop, the first thing I did was tighten the noose with setting descriptions. This slowed down the dialogue, built a little more tension and helped anchor the reader in the last scene. I couldn’t figure out plot, but I knew they got out of a car and walked so I described that in detail. At least I was fixing something, even if I didn’t know what was supposed to happen at the end.
The main character still wouldn’t break, but the workshop had validated my hunch on where she would break in the banter. I tested those spots after each round of edits. Nothing.
A friend from the workshop reread the draft and suggested that I should draw out the first scene (do more show than tell). This helped set the trap and open up some opportunities. I also spun in some quirks and mind games. Threading them through the story helped me to bust up the banter to show some character vulnerability.
When the character finally broke, I touched up the ending and deleted a lot of the new stuff to get back to the bones of the story. The whole process reminded me of Piranha.
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