Writing Process: "The Coin"

The short story "The Coin" was written as an example of the (very rare) story that has no named characters, not even a named Protagonist, not a human one, anyway. 

In almost all other stories, it is important to know how to write characters who stick in the reader's mind. "The Coin" is an exercise in the exception to that rule, since all the human characters are nameless, and the "main character" is an inanimate object.

Of course, there are **spoilers**, so if you haven't read the story yet, do that first, using the link in the first sentence of this post.

IDEA CATCHER

Here is the idea catcher for this story.

I don't expect you to be able to decode my handwriting, but here are some of the key elements as they came into view in planning the story.

IDEA

There were two ideas:

1. The challenge of writing a story where there are no named characters and where the 
   "main character" is an inanimate object. I purposefully do not call the "main character" the "protagonist" of the story, because the role of the protagonist is to have agency, make choices, and drive the story to a goal. The inanimate main character in this case should have things happen to it, without it having the ability to take action.
   
   
2. The very brief story from the Bible of the Coin in the Fish's Mouth (Matthew 17:25-27), what happened to the coin before and after.

 

The story was also inspired by this Reedsy.com writing prompt:

 Write a story about an ordinary object that becomes magical (either literally or figuratively).

https://blog.reedsy.com/creative-writing-prompts 

TITLE

This one was easy: "The Coin."

INSPIRATION

The most difficult part in developing this concept was the "tone" of the story. Two stories, in particular, provided inspiration. 

• Ernest Hemingway's "The Good Lion" (which can be found in "The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway".) "The Good Lion" is a rarity for Hemingway, in that it is a children's story, a sort of fable. The story behind the story is that a woman challenged Hemingway to write a story for her son. The tone of the story is whimsical, with a bit of a subtle dark twist at the end.
  
  
• Will Ludwigsen's "In Search Of" which you can read for free here, or get his short story collection which includes this and many other great stories. "In Search Of" is written in the second person (addressed to an unnamed "you") in a truly omniscient voice that appears to have absolute knowledge of everything that has ever happened at any time in the whole universe, and the story moves from broad topics towards a more and more personal story.

Even though the final story is quite different in tone from either of these, if you read both of them, and then re-read "The Coin", you can probably see where they both influenced me.

In addition to these two stories, during the writing process, another Hemingway story ("A Days Wait") which features a sick child, also became an inspiration. 

Then, since I knew I wanted both a spiritual and a scientific cosmological aspect to the story, I was inspired by these books:

• Gerald Schroeder's "Genesis and the Big Bang Theory: The Discovery Of Harmony Between Modern Science And The Bible" does a fantastic job of summarizing cosmology and shows how it relates (literally) to the six days of creation in Genesis 1. 
  
  
• A.W. Tozer's "The Pursuit of God", specifically Chapter VI, "The Speaking Voice."

Then there was this article on how the heavy elements, including silver, were forged in neutron star collisions. 

And, of course, the bible stories of Samson and Delilah, Micah's Idol, and Judas Iscariot's thirty pieces of silver.

CHARACTERS

In one way, there are no named characters, and the "main character" is an inanimate object (the coin, which for a long stretch is "the silver" that is going to make up the coin).

But, of course, I cheated a bit. There really are a host of characters, including:

• The Voice - God
• The two hot suns - who listen to the Voice and make the silver
• The miners - who dig up the silver
• The rich man - who has the silver necklace made
• The rich man's wife - who wears the silver necklace
• All the other wives - who are envious
• The rich man's great-great-great-great-grand-daughter - who donates the silver to make the "figure" (the first idol)
• The first priests - who make the first idol (where the silver becomes an eye)
• The soldiers - who tear down the temple and make the silver idol into many coins
• The long-haired strong man - Samson
• The woman who cut his hair - Delilah
• The son of the long-haired strong man - Micah
• The silversmith - who makes the second idol (where the silver becomes an ear)
• The widow who lost (and found) the coin - from the parable of the lost coin
• The fisherman - who drops the coin into the mouth of the fish
• The fisherman's evil cousin - who hits his cousin and pushes him into the water
• The fish - who gets the coin stuck in its mouth
• The man who was the Voice - Jesus Christ
• The friend - Peter, the Disciple
• The betrayer - Judas Iscariot
• The temple priests - who pay the thirty pieces of silver and later buy the burial field
• The man who sold the plot of land - who put the coin in the chest next to the cheese
• The mice - who steal the cheese and hide the coin in their mouse hole
• The great-grandfather - who digs for treasure and finds the coin

And then there are the characters that make up the framing story:

• You - a person with a fever (most likely a child)
• I - the person who tells the story to "you" (most likely a parent)
• The fat cat - possibly their cat, but more likely a cat that lives in the neighborhood
• The mouse - that the fat cat chases but never can catch (most likely no relation to the mice that hid the coin, but you never know)

That's a lot of characters, especially for a story about no characters.

WRITING THE STORY

And with that, I sat down, using the Obsidian note-taking software because I wanted a very clean, uncluttered container to compose the story. 

The framing story about the sick person (most likely a child) evolved in the writing, but everything else came more or less directly from the research into the Bible stories, cosmology, and ancient coinage. The story flowed naturally from the inspiration pieces and the research, and there it was: "The Coin".

Resources

Here are some other resources that will be helpful as you write your stories.

MY FAVORITE ALL-PURPOSE RESOURCE

The Writer's Treasure Chest - everything in one place, curated, organized, this is a great reference for all things writing craft, with tons of prompts, plot/character generators and other tools to inspire you to write great stories.

RELATED ARTICLES

Here are some articles that will be helpful as you work on all the aspects of the writing craft and your writing process: 

• Write Fiction Faster! — How to Speed Up Your Story Writing 
  
  
• Need a Great Idea for Your Next Story? Try the Story IDEA Formula
  
  
• From Idea to Story: 3 Methods to Develop Your Story Idea 
  
  
• How to Write Characters Who Stick in the Reader's Mind 
  
  
• What Makes a Good Story? — Great Scenes! Here's How to Write Them
  
  
• Make Your Story Sing — Write Great Dialogue!
  
  
• Flash Fiction: How To Use It To Supercharge Your Writing 
  
  
• Blast Through Writer's Block: How to Get Unstuck 

FREE COURSE, GUIDE AND WORKBOOK

Do you want to write fiction faster, while practicing your craft and your writing process to consistently get better? Check out this link to the "Write Fiction Faster ... and better" guide and workbook, which comes with a companion course with 23 bite-sized video lessons and 4 worksheets.