BACKSTORY: Anecdotes from a writer’s desk by Debra Loughead

 

                                                      

Loughead, Debra - BWL Publishing Inc.

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about how story ideas are generated. And how frequently the inciting incident in a novel revolves around a particular inanimate object.

The ‘inciting incident’ in a novel is the event that sets the story in motion. It’s the first instant that initially hooks the reader and keeps them turning the pages. The event that forces the protagonist’s ordinary life to suddenly veer off track into the realm of the extraordinary, setting in motion a series of challenges that the main character could never have anticipated. And quite often, the mysterious object that is about to alter the trajectory of someone’s life is discovered early in the opening chapters.

I’ve been reflecting on some of the many famous and classical stories with an object woven into the fabric of the narrative. Often these objects are imbued with magical properties. The iconic novel The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, a young adult Bildungsroman by Ann Brashares is a perfect example of the object as plot device in literature. Four girls, best friends since forever, discover a pair of old jeans that quite curiously fits each of them perfectly well in spite of the fact that they’re all different shapes and sizes. Over the course of a single summer, the girls each have a chance to wear the possibly magical pants, resulting in journeys of growth and life-altering experiences for all of them. 

Of course, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis is another example of an object at the heart of the story. During wartime London, four siblings are evacuated for their safety to a home in the English countryside. While exploring the peculiar old house, the youngest girl stumbles upon a magical wardrobe in a spare bedroom. This leads to a whole new world and countless adventures for all of the children over the course of the entire Chronicles of Narnia seven-book series.

A few more novels and short stories that immediately come to mind: The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Monkey’s Paw, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Gift of the Magi, The Lord of the Rings, several Harry Potter books. You get the picture, and I’m sure you can think of countless others in any and every genre. In each of these cases, an inanimate object just happens to set the story in motion (and so many of them just happen come to a terrifying conclusion!)

Which leads me to my own body of work, as well as Happenstance, my latest novel. Back in 2009 and 2011, two of my short reluctant readers novels were published by Orca Books. In The Snowball Effect, hurling a snowball off a bridge on a snowy winter night results in serious consequences for young Dylan. And in Struck, a teenaged Claire gets caught in a rainstorm, opens a discarded umbrella she finds in a trash can, gets struck by lightning, then returns to her home to find that her circumstances are suddenly changing. Another middle-grade historical novel, Bright Shining Moment, from Second Story Press, centres on a dime that young Aline steals from her mother’s purse so she can contribute to a charity box at her school. That seemingly innocuous incident sets a whole series of circumstance into motion that might never have happened if not for the theft of that one thin dime.

I’d always wanted to explore the concept of an object triggering a series of linked events in longer form, and this is how I came to write my new YA novel from BWL, Happenstance. Telling the story of a lost-and-found moonstone ring from the perspectives of two young adults, Tara and Sophie, in two different voices was a gratifying challenge, one which I’d never attempted before. Each of the girls comes with her own unique backstory and her own set of experiences and struggles, friends and family, personality traits that affect her decisions, and her own intense soul searching as she begins her coming-of-age journey over the course of the novel. And it all starts with that sparkling ring. That object of everyone’s desire, or so it seems. The one that may or may not be endowed with magical properties. A ring that seemingly alters the course of two teenagers’ lives. Or maybe it was all just a matter of happenstance.

If you can recommend any object-based novels that held you spellbound as you eagerly turned the pages, please feel free to share them! Thanks!