Finding the Story You Have to Tell

by Paula Gail Benson

Earlier this month, KM Rockwood posted a message about her love for short stories and about writing “Burning Desire,” the first story in Heartbreaks and Half-truths, a new anthology edited and with a story by Judy Penz Sheluk (Superior Shores Press), available June 18, 2020. Yesterday, in the Stiletto Gang, I gave a short summary of each of the anthology’s stories, including my own, “Living One’s Own Truth.”

My journey in writing the story is different from my previous work. Usually, I start out with a clear idea of who the narrator is. I thought I’d discovered her when, in response to the call, I began with the image of a daughter raised by her embittered and abandoned mother to be a heartbreaker. I could hear the daughter’s voice explaining how her mother, a stern classics teacher at a 1931 boys’ school, tortured the students and encouraged the daughter to concentrate on using her looks rather than her brain. I sensed the daughter resented this manipulation and acquired limited knowledge to rebel. When a new teacher arrived, a handsome fencing instructor who appreciated both the daughter’s mind and body, she was ready to run away with him. However, his ultimate aim was to use her against her mother. I kept trying to determine how the daughter was going to turn the tables on this beau/betrayer.

Only, I couldn’t figure out how she would manage it. She was intelligent, but being so limited in focus and experience made her self-absorbed. She had known manipulation, but she had no capacity for reversing it except by using her beauty, which didn’t work. The story stopped moving forward.

I could still hear the daughter telling about her upbringing, but I realized that she needed someone to listen to her and perhaps consider her best interests. At that point, I discovered there was another teacher just waiting in the wings to hear the daughter out and show her some sympathy. That new teacher became the narrator of and a key player in the story.

Before Covid 19 redirected our lives, I had hoped to attend Louis Bayard’s class on writing historical fiction at Yale University this summer. In fact, I had submitted the opening scene of this story as my writing sample for admission.

In a way, writing this story and learning how to confirm and incorporate historical accuracies was a good substitute for the class (although, I still would like to take it, if it is offered again). Did you realize that the punctuation in Emily Dickinson’s poetry as she wrote it differs from that in the later published versions? Because my story took place in 1931, I had to use the punctuation in the earliest printing rather than the 1955 version that was greatly edited.

Part of my story involved the sport of fencing in the Olympics. I researched when women competed in fencing and learned about the spelling of the fencing gear. Judy and I had discussions about sabre vs. saber.

Judy Penz Sheluk

Some of my initial research about the Framingham Normal School in Boston introduced me to the institution’s founding president Cyrus Pierce. His quote, “live to the truth,” led to the story’s title.

Are you looking for a great summer read? Please let me recommend Heartbreaks and Half-truths. Each story interprets the theme quite differently. There are computers, science experiments, PIs, and just regular folks from different time periods experiencing and reacting to love and loss. And, in each story, part of the fun is uncovering what is hidden. The secret you think you know may be a different truth altogether.

Come and explore this anthology which includes the following contributors: Sharon Hart Addy, James Blakey, Gustavo Bondoni, Susan Daly, Buzz Dixon, Rhonda Eikamp, Christine Eskilson, Tracy Falenwolfe, Kate Flora, John M. Floyd, J.A. Henderson, Blair Keetch, Steve Liskow, Edward Lodi, Judy Penz Sheluk, KM Rockwood, Peggy Rothschild, Joseph S. Walker, James Lincoln Warren, Chris Wheatley, Robb T. White, and me!

Do you enjoy reading short stories? I hope so.