June 2024 …
Late last year I began working with a creative writing mentor, Dr Kate Ryan. Since I spent a great deal of time contributing to short story competitions she recommended a book with the wonderful title A Swim in the Pond in the Rain by George Saunders. The book presents seven short stories by great Russian authors including Chekhov and Tolstoy. Each short story is followed by an analysis, in some cases page by page, showing how the story has been constructed and how it engages the reader. George Saunders is (was) an engineer, like me, so this approach had a special appeal.
One story that George presents, and discusses, is titled ‘The Darling’ by Anton Chekhov. It is the story about Olenka and her experiences through four relationships – in some way they are almost four separate sub-stories. Each sub-story tracks Olenka’s ageing and contains several basic elements; she falls deeply in love, gets married, becomes devoted to her husband’s interests and opinions, then the husband dies. However, with each sub-story the elements change or evolve, revealing more about her. The reader’s opinion of her changes as well. A character trait that is cute in the first sub-story becomes a sign of a darker trait in the final sub-story. George even displays the story elements in a table format to demonstrate the progression – more than enough to appeal to this engineering mind.
This was a new idea for me, although on reflection it is used in many places and forms. Some TV situation comedies such as Keeping Up Appearances, Are You Being Served, Cheers, Friends and Frasier, use this basic technique from one episode to the next. Each week the viewer knows the basic plot so that the interest lies in what is portrayed differently. The movie Groundhog Day is also a classic example of a pattern story that shows the progression of the main character through the repetition of a basic story structure. I was fortunate to see Groundhog Day – The Musical which had the added complication of portraying a repeating storyline on a stage across several scenery changes. It gave me a deeper appreciation of the production and staging aspects of the musical.
Why am I interested in pattern stories? Apart from the various short story competitions and my two major writing projects, I am also laying the groundwork for yet another significant writing project. I had been wrestling to define a structure for this project and once I became aware of the pattern story format the ideas for the project fell into place. At this stage a broad outline has been written to allow additional ideas to percolate. I’ll share more about it in the future. Suffice to say it is a project that will allow me to extend and develop my writing skills.
Stay tuned!