This week I was assigned to write a plot summary in my novel writing course. I'd been thinking of the story arc, the map of my book, with birth-dates and marriage-dates and death-dates, but I hadn't thought of a plot summary. If I'm calling it a novel I guess it should have a plot.
In my mind the characters intertwine in the stories, which take place over the decades from 1941 through 2012. Although a story may be about one character, in each we learn about what has happened to some of the others. Ruby's mental illness impacts her siblings, her husband, her children throughout the book. Sam's recklessness causes a rift between his sister and wife, and ultimately the loss of everything. We see some of the siblings age badly, others well. Their children and grandchildren are impacted also. But this is not a plot.
As a stop-gap I listed the stories I plan to use. Seeing them on the page, with the names of the characters and their connections to one another, helps me to think of the book as a whole, instead of as individual stories. I am wondering if the connections are enough, and I am busy reading other books of linked short stories to see how the authors handled the question of plot. I am looking at recent books, like Molly Ringwald's "When It Happens to You," Elizabth Strout's "Olive Kitteridge," and Amy Bloom's "Where The God of Love Hangs Out." There are older books too, such as "The Women of Brewster Place," by Gloria Naylor. I will continue to do research as I complicate my character's lives with more and more conflict.
And meanwhile, I have a flash fiction story called "Home Visit," published as a Showcase story on the homepage of Echook Digital Publishing. Go to www.echook.com. and look for my picture.
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