I love talking to my mom because she's always sharing local stories that start out with something like, "Did you hear about Bob? He was crushed by his tractor." or "You should be keeping those plastic bread bag clips. A teacher in Eatonville is trying to collect 1 million." Local Flare
Last night's story was a keeper. Mom started out with, "Did you hear about June? She ran over her own foot?"
I shook my head. June's a short woman in her late 60s who recently had a heart surgery and shouldn't be running over pieces of herself. She may be of tough farm stock, but people are only so tough.
Mom said, "June got out of the car to get the mail and left the car out of gear. It started to roll and June went after it." It turns out that in retrieving it, the car managed to run OVER June and she was stuck underneath with the car resting on her ankle.
I asked how June fit under the car — she's not exactly svelte.
Mom shrugged and went on, "It was dark, and the car was in the middle of the road. Luckily, someone stopped to check it out and noticed June's hand sticking out from under the car, trying to get his attention." Mom demonstrated.
Mom went on to explain that had to explain to the young man how to drive the car off her — I assume in a manner that would cause her the least amount of injury.
Remarkably, mom said, June had no broken bones, but her ego's a little damaged.
Collecting stories
I've started collecting these stories because they're both strange and entertaining . . . and I LOVE them. Unfortunately, I can't use them "as is". Truth is stranger than fiction, and that's why readers won't believe your "true story" if you use it straight up in your fiction.
One of my first scripts included a bunch of weird stuff from my home town. The consensus from several agents was "The story's great, but none of those things could really have happened. Could you make it more believable?"
June's story
Now I collect my strange, local stories and piece them out as needed. For example, I already have a use for a hand coming out from under the car, summoning help.
Too bad truth is TOO strange for fiction, because June's is a great little story!
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4 comments:
That story reminds me of two that I wrote about on my blog a while back.
One was about my accident when I was 16 and fell on a fence and ended up in the hospital for three days when I was supposed to be at the state fair.
The other was last summer (2008) when I was working my summer job from H E Double hockey sticks. I had a very enlightening experience with a power pole and a wire while in a giant metal box, walking away with nary a scratch.
If you are curious I'm sure I could dig out links but you'll have to remember they were written when I was averaging 5 hours of sleep a day top end.
Great stories. How come you're only getting 5 hours of sleep?
At the time I wrote them I was working my summer job (14 hour night shifts) and sleeping days.
Though I'm still very much a night owl and it is rarely a night I get to bed before 1 or 2 am (and am back up by 7 for classes).
By the way- I've really been enjoying the English/Drama class I've been taking (its just the end of the second week now though). We've spent a lot of time analyzing and discussing the play "Trifles" and the related short story "A Jury of Her Peers" by Susan Glaspell. Very interesting read.
Who cares if people believe then or not, they're interesting and can be funny. I say go for it. And add a bit of fiction where it could use it.
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