Good point, it is an incredibly useful jolt to the narrative. Wasn't it Raymond Chandler that said if you're stuck, have a man walk in with a gun?
But also...Bloody hell that is a genuine dream scenario, for someone at the BBC to get in touch out of the blue and ask a writer to write something! How amazing and brilliant for you to have that happen - I'm looking forward to listening to it.
It probably was Chandler who said that. It seems so obvious, but one of those things that is so obvious as a way moving forward that it almost sits in a blind spot sometimes!
Totally saving this as a prompt! I love this literary device, even if today’s savvy (somewhat cynical) readers might baulk at the idea of too-good-to-be-true coincidences.
As for examples in literature, I’m thinking Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man…” but although it may be quite the unexpected encounter for the family to come upon the Misfit and his murderous gang in the middle of nowhere, we readers aren’t terribly surprised it’s happened. I guess that’s a distinction.
Love this about your analysis: “This ‘immediacy’ is storytelling gold. You’re giving the reader (and yourself) a sense of discovery."
Thanks for this great post, and most of all, congratulations on the BBC short story—I look forward to reading it!
Thanks so much Rebecca. Yes, in A Good Man Is Hard to Find, the Misfit encounter is complex, isn’t it.
It’s set up for the reader in the first paragraph that the Misfit is heading to Florida, so we have that foreboding sense that the family will encounter him. And grandma, being grandma, is already expecting the worse.
Then I think O’Connor lets us relax, we go into the story and though there is always that underlying tension about trustworthy people, the Misfit idea fades a little until the cat is literally out of the bag and the horror begins.
It’s what happens during that long drawn out scene after the crash that is in some ways plays with expectations and introduces complexities of morality, goodness, passivity, redemption and so much more!
This is so good Ken, great ideas! I look forward to listening to your story on catch up.
I had the same experience last year when a producer phoned me out of the blue and asked me to write a short story for Radio 4 on anything I liked so long as it ran for 13 minutes exactly and could be finished in 3 weeks. EEEEK! So happy and so terrified.
I wrote about the experience and what I did whilst panicking:
Good point, it is an incredibly useful jolt to the narrative. Wasn't it Raymond Chandler that said if you're stuck, have a man walk in with a gun?
But also...Bloody hell that is a genuine dream scenario, for someone at the BBC to get in touch out of the blue and ask a writer to write something! How amazing and brilliant for you to have that happen - I'm looking forward to listening to it.
It probably was Chandler who said that. It seems so obvious, but one of those things that is so obvious as a way moving forward that it almost sits in a blind spot sometimes!
Totally saving this as a prompt! I love this literary device, even if today’s savvy (somewhat cynical) readers might baulk at the idea of too-good-to-be-true coincidences.
As for examples in literature, I’m thinking Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man…” but although it may be quite the unexpected encounter for the family to come upon the Misfit and his murderous gang in the middle of nowhere, we readers aren’t terribly surprised it’s happened. I guess that’s a distinction.
Love this about your analysis: “This ‘immediacy’ is storytelling gold. You’re giving the reader (and yourself) a sense of discovery."
Thanks for this great post, and most of all, congratulations on the BBC short story—I look forward to reading it!
Thanks so much Rebecca. Yes, in A Good Man Is Hard to Find, the Misfit encounter is complex, isn’t it.
It’s set up for the reader in the first paragraph that the Misfit is heading to Florida, so we have that foreboding sense that the family will encounter him. And grandma, being grandma, is already expecting the worse.
Then I think O’Connor lets us relax, we go into the story and though there is always that underlying tension about trustworthy people, the Misfit idea fades a little until the cat is literally out of the bag and the horror begins.
It’s what happens during that long drawn out scene after the crash that is in some ways plays with expectations and introduces complexities of morality, goodness, passivity, redemption and so much more!
This is so good Ken, great ideas! I look forward to listening to your story on catch up.
I had the same experience last year when a producer phoned me out of the blue and asked me to write a short story for Radio 4 on anything I liked so long as it ran for 13 minutes exactly and could be finished in 3 weeks. EEEEK! So happy and so terrified.
I wrote about the experience and what I did whilst panicking:
https://sanjidakay.substack.com/p/the-secret-to-being-creative-quickly