The internet in my corner of the world was lit up this last week with photos of The Wuthering in Edinburgh.
The Wuthering event is a glorious tribute to Kate Bush, where hundreds dress in a similar style to the original video - a sea of red dresses recreating the Wuthering Heights choreography. It happens in several UK locations, and after seeing last year’s photos on social media, I promised myself I’d eventually take part!
As a teenager, I’d danced around my bedroom to that track.
I loved Kate Bush, her wide eyes, wild hair and expansive movements.
Even now, I reckon I could sing along with every single song on Lionheart or The Kick Inside albums. I played them hundreds of times back in the day before a fast-forward button existed and I still have those original vinyl albums.
So when a women’s magazine put out a call for summer stories - even though we were still in the grip of winter - I dropped into my drafts folder and found a wild, half-formed note to self:
Write about the Kate Bush Wuthering. Set it in Edinburgh.
If only it were that easy!
As I hadn’t actually attended the event myself yet, I didn’t want to risk writing directly i.e. as if I were in that crowd. Instead, I had to find a creative way to write around the edges of it.
Building this piece over time reminded me that short stories of this sort often rely on a few elements, and I’m going to mention four of them here. The things that brought it to life - and a slightly embarrassing confession about what happened when I finally read it in print around six months after I actually wrote it!
1. Look for the Unrelated Connection
A writer’s mind is always training itself to see connections, and when you put two differing things together, it can really shake things up. Write regularly, and it’s amazing how tuned in your brain can become.
The first draft was slow and awful, but then I coincidentally saw an apartment for sale in the exact area of Edinburgh where the event takes place. Boom! That apartment became the accommodation for the characters. I pictured a character clawing at the door, “Let me in! Let me in!” (if you know the song, you’ll get it!). So, keep writing, keep training your brain - even when no-one else is looking. Put your brain in gear!
2. Weaponise the Antagonist!
As I mentioned, my first draft with a reporter covering the event kind of fell flat. A good story needs some amount of friction - external or internal (even better if it’s both!). So, I gave the antagonist enough of a past to rub Cath up the wrong way. As soon as I visualised Alex’s arrogant arrival, the story unrolled. They both had a past that neither had gotten over (enemies to lovers anyone?) and I gave each of them a distinct angle on the theme. Cath is a Brontë fan; he is a music photographer who loves Kate Bush. Then, bam…there was a background thing from the past that made everything about them make sense.
3. Stretch Beyond What You Know
I know, I know - we’re told to write what we know. I didn’t make it to the Wuthering because I was up in Findhorn (which I wouldn’t have missed for the world!) but writing allows us to step into imaginary shoes, do things we haven’t been able to do in real-life, be someone else for a short while. People say “write what you know”, but I do believe there’s merit in stretching well beyond our immediate experience. Get the facts right, of course, but focus more on making the emotions ring true (especially for the women’s magazine market). If your characters are true, your reader will follow.
4. Take A Six-Month Estrangement (The Crying Test)
I have a confession that feels like peak literary vanity. The story Let Me In appears in print this week, but because I wrote it six months ago, I had little recollection of the fullness of the story. I sat down in the car with it in my hands as a reader, wondering how much of Kate Bush and her music I’d actually put in there, completely missing the crumbs leading to the ending - so that I sat in the car park and cried at my own ending like a total sap. What an idiot!
Admitting I cried at my own story feels big-headed, but six months of distance from your own words can be a powerful learning. If you can leave your work alone for long enough to forget the mechanics of how you did it, you get to experience the magic of the story just like a stranger would. Sometimes I send a story away quickly because I have a gut feeling it’s ok, good enough, but by the time I receive an acceptance and wait for publication, a lot of time can pass - one of them took two years to reach print! So, it’s quite easy for me to have almost forgotten I wrote them at all!!!
A Tiny Writing Tip Before You Go:
You only have to hear the opening bars of the song Wuthering Heights to know exactly what song it is! Make your short story openings just as memorable - drop us right in. We have only a few words in a short story, so get to the point!
Behind The Scenes and Where to Buy
We are between trips, but our next motorhome trip is going to look and sound incredibly exciting. I can’t wait to tell you about it - and I am sure it will give plenty of inspiration for a story!
For now, though, here is what the Feel-Good Fiction bookazine looks like. It’s available from UK supermarkets like Morrisons, Asda, Tesco and Sainsbury’s as well as online via the D.C.Thomson online shop or on Amazon.
Over to you!
I’d love to hear from you in the comments:
Have you ever revisited an old piece of your own writing and been completely surprised (or moved) by it - no need for any false modesty here!
Or, is there a specific public event you’d like to attend or a hobby you’ve been dying to weave into a story background?
Let’s chat!
Happy writing, friends, and lots of love from Jackie in the Little Writing Corner in Scotland x x
Illustration/story courtesy of The People’s Friend Feel-Good Fiction Bookazine
If you are new here, you may like to take a look at last week’s Post, where I recorded the audio from the beach at Findhorn in Scotland:
Writing Lessons From Findhorn
This week, I stepped away from the page to soak in the wild to help silence my writing doubts.
I also have a few pieces of free short fiction and some creative non-fiction that you will find if you click through to my page. Enjoy!
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