Hi all, Next year I have a creative writing disertation and my idea is to do a collection of 13 short stories all set in the same place. All of them will be able to stand alone as individual stories but have threads running through them that create one main story. Basically I want one character to start off with petty vandalism, teenage rebellion sort of stuff and end with a way more serious crime that is as yet undecided. I'm thinking of doing it over the space of a week but I am unsure if a week is a suitable or realistic amount of time for such an escalation. Would love some opinions on this. I'm only starting to plan the thing so plenty of room to play about at the moment. Thanks in advance
I don't see why a week would be too short, if plotted well. In fact the swift timescale would give a sense of events running out of control, perhaps an almost dream-like, surreal experience that feels predetermined.
The idea of predetermined is interesting. Hadn't considered that. I was thinking of just putting little references in each story but if each story had an event that directly contributed to final outcome that would be way more interesting and strengthen the connection. But now I'm thinking out loud haha. Thank you pinky
I would say it depends on the character and what happens. Someone who's doing tagging on a bridge, for instance, might be doing so because they were told specifically, "don't do the thing." Their motivation on the wall is clear, but to escalate would be a gradual thing of "well I didn't get caught" or "I don't feel like a worse person for doing this" as they steadily continue doing worse and worse crimes motivated by something (friends?). Someone who's desperate for money, however, could easily escalate. Especially if they were scared. They might start stealing when they were very young (pocketing chocolate bars into their pocket when their mum wasn't looking, because they know their mum can't afford to buy chocolate) but as they get older, when your story starts, maybe their first act of rebellion was tagging on some wall (or beginning as a lookout), but then they get invited to some small thing for extra cash and the extra cash leads them to wanting more of it, and then they do a bigger job which turns sour and ends up with them accidentally killing someone because as they were running, all they could think was 'if I get caught, I lose everything'. So, although they felt like stealing wasn't a crime because it got them what they wanted at first (chocolate, later, money) they're more likely to do a bigger thing, then they might be carrying a weapon, which they use out of fear when it all goes wrong. I hope that makes sense.
I think in reality, a week might be too short. Depends on what the triggers are, though. External factors could potentially cause that level of escalation in a couple of days.
Depends what shit is going down in her life. Abusive (as abusive as you need) father just got out of jail. Non-abusive father tops himself. Divorced father can't visit this weekend. PMT. Can't get her regular fix of weed. Boyfriend dumped her. A-levels came back too bad for her uni. Brexit. (You should have seen the post-apocalyptic world vision a friend of my daughter had!) Best friend gets beaten up at a demo, and she wasn't there and feels guilty. Best friend gets thrown out of a pub for "walking like she was drunk" - when she actually suffers from a disability (again, friend of my daughter) and she feels vengeful. Pick any/all/more of the above triggers, put them in order, and each one triggers something more serious.
I think the easiest way to make this convincing would be that the progression is accidental. To take @motherconfessor's example, the character could start out with graffiti on a bridge and causes an accident (throws the spray can and it causes a driver to swerve off the bridge, for example) and to cover up the accident s/he has to commit another crime, which then leads to another...
Yeah, I'd agree that it depends what the point of the story is, and whether you're trying to show how circumstances can conspire to take decisions away from people and make it seem as if we're caught up in a stream of events beyond our control (in which case a week sounds good) or whether you're trying to show that moral decay is a real risk and once you start down a path of immorality and crime your judgement will change and you'll make more and more bad decisions (in which case a week seems a bit short).
After a bit of thinking and planning, it has changed a little. I want the stories to look at ordinary life, sort of suburban fictionish. I think making a serious crime happen at the end might detract from this. So it might be worth keeping the things pretty petty and lead up to a confrontation at the end. I don't want it to end up as a crime story because thats not how I see it.
personally i would start now with a goal of meeting a self imposed deadline that is much earlier while absolute deadlines can focus you to write faster there is the risk of being late and also of reduced quality if you rush it too much
if you meant all the stories occuring in a week then i think that amount of escalation is far too fast
