Home for the Holidays? Write About it!

By Terrie Leigh Relf

Looking for some inspiration? You don’t need to look any further than the person sitting next to you at the dinner table. Ok, maybe across the table. Okay, maybe across the street.  All right! They live out of town and you haven’t seen them for years. Or maybe you just got off the phone with them, and they’re coming to stay with you for a week or two or three…

Who are they?

Why they’re your family:  immediate, extended, blended, adopted, or created!

You’ve no doubt heard the oft-repeated adage: write about what you know. I believe that extends to write about who you know. Imagine the possibilities! 

One of great things about “using” your family—however you define them—as the rough material from which to create fiction (or non-fiction, but that’s another column) is that you also have the physical, mental, and emotional commentary from other family members from which to draw as well. What do I mean by that? Just call up your sister or your brother or your mother and ask them a seemingly innocuous questions such “How do you make mushroom gravy?” or “Why do you think uncle so-and-so disappeared for three hours when he said he was only going to the store for ice?” to know what I mean.

Remember those flip books to make silly creatures?  I love them. You can do it with people and their beloved quirks, too. Here’s how:

1. Fold a piece of paper into three columns. You can also use a WORD page, or EXCEL or the table function. 3x5 cards are also great if you like stiffer paper to shuffle. You could also cut these cards into fours.

2. In column one, write a list of family members, friends, etc. (note:  be sure to leave space in between each item as you’re going to be cutting them out.)

3. In column two, create a list of their attributes, quirks, etc.

4. In column three, create a list of things they’ve said, such as adages, cooking tips, or advice.

5. Cut them out by category (Oh go ahead--color coordinate them, too. Red for people, blue for attributes, orange for snippets of dialogue).

6. Shuffle and lay them face down.

7. Take one from the people pile, one from the characteristics pile, and one from the dialogue pile, then lay them face up.  Write this material in a notebook or word file under the heading of “character bios”—or whatever works for you.

8. Get out your “writers license” and add in other quirks from other characters. Ask yourself what motivates them, what they want, what they don’t want, etc.

9. Now write a little drabble (100-word short story—exactly 100 words, no more, no less…not counting the title), a flashshot (no more than 110 words), a piece of sudden or flash fiction (Word counts vary. Some say they’re no more than 1,000, others, no more than 500. I like the 200-500-word variety.)

10. Do another one.

11. Go ahead! Do another one and another one and another one. Before you know it, you will have peopled an entire universe. 

After the holidays—or even during—you can edit and revise while feasting on all those left-overs…You’ll have a veritable cornucopia of short stories in process!  So, next time your family gathers, having now read your short story or novel, and they’re “up in arms” or “incredibly delighted” that they’re in it, you can point to that little disclaimer that says:  "This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to real events or real people is pure coincidence," then shrug and smile. After all, writing fiction is often like a crazy quilt; we piece it together as we move along.

Oh--before I forget…I suggest you change their names--just in case!

Here’s a mish-mash from one of my three-part column exercises (and yes, I’m playing it safe!):

After I cut this up and shuffled it around, I had Auntie Karol experimenting with hydroponic gardening, altered states of consciousness and laughing all the time. Uncle Swampy had a thing for maps and mumbled “M-i-crooked letter-crooked letter-i-crooked letter-crooked letter-i-humped back letter-hump backed letter-I.” Uncle Lee had an alligator farm and said, “Your sense of humor will keep you sane,” and last, but not least, Timmers was a gourmet chef who asked everyone, “So what do you think about that?”

There’s got to be at least four good stories there!

Enjoy!

Terrie Leigh Relf lives in South Park, an arty community nestled within San Diego, CA.  She is a freelance writer, editor and writing/creativity coach.  You may contact her at tlrelf@cox.net, but whatever you do, don’t give your “family” her address, phone number, email or CC them this column! Unless, of course, they’re thrilled with what you’ve written.