Writing Process: "What Could Be Worse?"

The flash fiction story "What Could Be Worse?" was written in the "Character" method, one of the 3 ways to develop an idea into a story. That is: take a central character through a character arc or transformation, based on the idea, developing the story around this character transformation.

Of course, there are **spoilers**, so if you haven't read the story yet, do that first (flash fiction = a very fast read), using the link in the first sentence of this post.

CHARACTER METHOD

Here's a refresher on the Character method, illustrated by the familiar story of the "Frog Prince":

In the "Character" method of developing a story, we pick three images:

1. Before (who is your character before the story?) - in the illustration, the character is a frog;
2. After  (who does the character become at the end?) - in the illustration, the character is now a prince (with the love of a princess);
3. Turning Point (what is the moment somewhere in the story when your character will begin turning from the “before” to the “after” version?) - in the illustration, the princess kisses the frog.  

Let's look at how I used this structure to develop the story, starting with the idea.

IDEA

The idea was to reverse the frog-into-prince dynamic, a prince turning into a frog, perhaps? 

But that didn't seem interesting enough, so instead, I thought about one of the most famous short stories featuring a physical transformation from a human into a creature: Franz Kafka's disturbing tale of a man who wakes up to find himself transformed into a gigantic insect.  If you have not read this story (or haven't read it recently and want to re-read it), here is a link to a free PDF version of "The Metamorphosis".

The idea, then, was to write a story that ends where "The Metamorphosis" begins, with the closing words of my story being the exact opening words of "The Metamorphosis":

    As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. He was lying on his hard, as it were armor-plated, back and when he lifted his head a little he could see his domelike brown belly divided into arched segments on top of which the bed quilt could hardly keep in position and was about to slide off completely. His numerous legs, which were pitifully thin compared to the rest of his bulk, waved helplessly before his eyes. 

 

     “What has happened to me?” he thought. It was no dream."

                                                      - Franz Kafka, the opening lines of "The Metamorphosis"

 

 

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

 Write a story with two characters who meet for the first time — and one of them has a secret.

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

BEFORE

I read "The Metamorphosis", looking for ideas of an opening image.

Gregor Samsa is described as a traveling salesman (a "commercial traveler") and at one point he laments about his traveling life, "worrying about train connections." 

There it was: the opening image of "the salesman" in a train compartment, by himself.

The other part of the opening image (the salesman's memory of having just seen a woman commit suicide by throwing herself on the train tracks in front of the oncoming train), evolved as part of coming up with the "turning point". 

AFTER 

I already had this: the closing image of Gregor Samsa waking from uneasy dreams to find himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.

TURNING POINT 

What came naturally was someone joining "the salesman" in the train compartment, and this sets in motion the metamorphosis that will turn "the salesman" into a gigantic insect. 

At first, what came to mind was something like a gypsy curse, maybe a woman "the salesman" insults or in some other uncharitable act hurts or offends.

But, what felt more true to Kafka's original story was that "the salesman" encountered a demonic presence of some kind, not that Gregor did anything wrong to cause his metamorphosis, other than perhaps to tempt fate.

NAMES

Since we already know the true name of the main character (Gregor Samsa), the real trick is to keep that name from the reader until the very end, since anyone who has read the original story would immediately recognize Gregor Samsa's unusual name, and that would spoil the story.

I thought about masking the name, either as "Greg" (felt completely wrong) or "G" or "G.S.", but in the end, the more elegant solution was that the main character would simply be referred to as "the salesman" (until the end, when first "Gregor" and then "Gregor Samsa" is revealed.)

Therefore, the antagonist character -- the man who joins the salesman in the train compartment -- would also have no name, simply being referred to as "the man in black."

The third character, not seen, only spoken about, would simply be referred to as "she" and "that woman" who committed suicide by throwing herself in front of the oncoming trains. 

Finally, I included the name of Gregor Samsa's sister, Grete, from "The Metamorphosis".

TITLE

The title emerged in the writing since the "what could be worse?" (than death) line of dialogue became the pivot into the turning point in the "Character" structure of the story.

WRITING THE STORY

And with that, I sat down, using the Obsidian note-taking software because I wanted a very clean, uncluttered container that also gave me immediate feedback on word count since I tend to get wordy and I wanted to make sure I stuck to the "less than 1,500 words" convention for flash fiction.

The story shaped itself around the opening image, the dialogue between "the salesman" and "the man in black".  

A little bit of polishing, and there it was, the story: "What Could Be Worse?".

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.