{"id":2529,"date":"2016-07-16T11:23:19","date_gmt":"2016-07-16T18:23:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gydlepublishing.com\/blog\/?p=2529"},"modified":"2016-08-23T18:17:46","modified_gmt":"2016-08-24T01:17:46","slug":"found-and-lost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gydlepublishing.com\/blog\/2016\/07\/found-and-lost\/","title":{"rendered":"Found and Lost"},"content":{"rendered":"

I had so much fun at the Vancouver Story Slam<\/a> in May that I decided to do it again.<\/p>\n

I decided I would be bold and write a sequel to the first story<\/a>. I could recap the entire plot of the first part, and then develop it with an appropriate arc into a second story, all in under 1000 words.<\/p>\n

I wrote a draft, without a satisfying ending. Interrupted by an impromptu visit to New Mexico \u2014 Mom was in the hospital \u2014 I had just three days to finish the story when I got back. I panicked and wrote a whole other story, about a grumpy man in Switzerland who was obsessed with his backyard monkey puzzle tree. But it was terrible, so I abandoned it and somehow managed to finish the sequel. I repeated the story in my head as I ran through the forest on the morning of the Slam. It had a few good lines. The plot had thickened. Maybe it would work…<\/p>\n

At the Story Slam, I drew the third spot. The good lines worked. I’d brought a whole slew of friends with me, and they were smiling as I came off the stage. (They’re my friends, after all.)<\/p>\n

But I knew right away that it hadn’t clicked with the audience. it didn’t have the story magic my first effort had. I felt like I’d let my friends down. A bit embarrassed. At least Marc had bought the beer!<\/p>\n

I learned a really valuable lesson that night.<\/p>\n

For a story to work, to resonate with the audience, it has to be simple. There has to be something at stake, and you have to get your audience to care about it. Humor is key. A tragic, sad, or disturbing story might be compelling, but unless you can lighten it up a bit, people won’t love it. And that kind of story told as autobiography will tank because it just makes people feel uncomfortable and guilty.<\/p>\n

Bottom line, there’s a reason that ghost stories and fairy tales have persisted as human entertainment over the centuries. They’re not personal, they’re universal. There is a simple moral, or a good outcome, the unthinkable alternative nearly averted. The story captures the listeners, draws them in, away from everything else.<\/p>\n

My story failed because it was too complicated and didn’t have a compelling tension and release to it. You can judge for yourself (if after all this you still want to read it). Here it is:<\/p>\n

Found and Lost<\/strong> – a sequel to Lost and Found<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cHang on,\u201d I said, interrupting Lucy mid-sentence. \u201cLet me get this straight. You screw up a perfectly decent date with Ryan \u2014 who is solvent, sane and somewhat good-looking \u2014 by pretending to be married. <\/em>And now you\u2019ve hooked up with Grieving Gary \u2014 who just happens to have a five-year old in tow? Are you insane<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>\n

Lucy was telling me an incredible tale involving a ring she\u2019d found in a restaurant washroom while on a date I\u2019d set up with a friend of a friend. I\u2019d advised her to sell the ring, but no, instead she\u2019d gone back to the restaurant and handed it over to a little girl who was attached to a guy with gorgeous green eyes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did not <\/em>hook up with him,\u201d said Lucy. \u201cAnd for your information his name is Greg. And also for your information Ryan was a terrible date. Total drone. Fin-tech. Robotic banking.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGrieving Greg,\u201d I said. \u201cThat\u2019s even better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThings happen for a reason,\u201d said Lucy. \u201cIt feels like I was meant to meet Greg and Alex.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d I said. \u201cNo you weren\u2019t. You just did a good deed. You should have sold the damn thing like I told you to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI tried! But I couldn\u2019t get it off my finger!\u201d said Lucy. \u201cAt least not until I was back in that restaurant, walking over to their table. This is gonna sound crazy, but I think it even made me pretend to be married on that date with Ryan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lucy may be my best friend in the entire world, but she\u2019s a writer. Terribly dramatic. Magical rings are right up her alley. Best to let the fairy tale play out.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight,\u201d I said, the epitome of patience.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo then they invited me to sit with them,\u201d she said. \u201cIt turns out, a week ago the mom, Isabel, just vanished, leaving everything behind – including that ring, which she put smack in the middle of Alex\u2019s pillow. And get this – it\u2019s her talisman. She\u2019s never ever <\/em>taken it off. It was definitely a sign.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDid they call the police?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course,\u201d said Lucy. \u201cBut they were all, \u2018marriage, motherhood, depression \u2026 don\u2019t worry, she\u2019ll turn up soon.\u2019 Seriously? She could be dead in a ditch somewhere!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo she was mentally ill?\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo! She loves Alex! She loves Greg! She was fine! She has a good job! My god, if every woman took off when she felt stressed by marriage and motherhood, half the world would be a missing person.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLucy,\u201d I said, gathering myself. \u201cYou don\u2019t know these people. Maybe this woman is a bonafide psycho. Maybe Gary \u2014\u201c<\/p>\n

\u201cGreg!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2014 maybe Greg\u2019s a wife beater. Could be she took off for a very good reason.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo way! He was devastated<\/em>. You had to see it. Plus, abandon a kid like Alex? No way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell,\u201d I said. \u201cThey must at least be happy to have her ring back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s just it!\u201d Lucy\u2019s eyes were shining and she buzzed with a kind of maniacal energy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ring. Alex was wearing it around her neck on a chain, and it fell off in that washroom. This is gonna sound crazy, but I really believe it<\/em> found me<\/em> and led me to them. They believe it, too. Which is why I still have it! We have to help them!\u201d<\/p>\n

We?<\/p>\n

Time for my schoolteacher tone. \u201cThat\u2019s the second time you\u2019ve said \u2018this is gonna sound crazy\u2019. News flash, sweet pea. It is<\/em> crazy! Number one, rings are not magical. The kid lost it, you found it, end of story. Number two, I hate to break it to you, but writing is not the skill set you need to hunt down a missing person. Number three, I\u2019m not getting involved in this particular fairy tale, no matter how cute the kid or how hot the husband. Repeat after me: Not my circus, not my monkeys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lucy shook her head. \u201cThat\u2019s where you\u2019re wrong! Guess where she works?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow would I know? Starbucks?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAHA!\u201d she yelled. I jumped in my chair. \u201cShe\u2019s a reporter! With the Sun<\/em>! I bet Paul knows her!\u201d<\/p>\n

My boyfriend Paul is an investigative reporter with the Vancouver Sun<\/em>. Or was, until the budget cuts. Now he just writes fluff.<\/p>\n

Lucy beamed. \u201cOh, Marie! This is the most interesting thing that\u2019s happened to me in absolute ages! I\u2019ve just been going through the motions! I\u2019ve hardly even been alive<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

After she said that, I could hardly pop her bubble by stating the obvious, which is that being an investigative reporter and being a detective are two very different things. So I didn\u2019t. I promised to mention it to Paul.<\/p>\n

Later that night, I remembered.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe strangest thing happened to Lucy,\u201d I told him. \u201cShe met a man whose wife has gone missing. She\u2019s at the Sun. Isabel somebody. Do you know her?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIsabel?\u201d Paul repeated. \u201cDoesn\u2019t ring a bell. What department?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

So that was that.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Until Wednesday, when Paul called me from work.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat woman Lucy was telling you about?\u201d he asked. \u201cIsabel, was it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes,\u201d I said. \u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe paper got a strange letter today,\u201d he said. \u201cTurns out she\u2019s doing a story on refugees and human trafficking. They just assumed she\u2019d been away hunting down sources, working on the piece. But then we get this weird letter.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat does it say?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of cryptic,\u201d he said. \u201cSomething about a ring. Probably referring to gang activity, like a human smuggling ring. I\u2019m supposed to look into it.\u201d<\/p>\n

A ring? Shit. Maybe this isn\u2019t a fairy tale after all<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had so much fun at the Vancouver Story Slam in May that I decided to do it again. I decided I would be bold and write a sequel to the first story. I could recap the entire plot of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[9],"tags":[320,107,230,277],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1R58n-EN","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gydlepublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2529"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gydlepublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gydlepublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gydlepublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gydlepublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2529"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.gydlepublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2535,"href":"http:\/\/www.gydlepublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2529\/revisions\/2535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gydlepublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gydlepublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gydlepublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}