You’ve heard of Schubert’s “Unfinished Symphony”? Consider this my “Unfinished Story”. What I’ve written is exactly what was going around in my head one night. It was pleading with me to be written down. So I have done that. I’m welcome to any suggestions as to where I should take it from here.
Once there was a story. It was a simple story about a king and a queen. They were unable to have children and wanted an heir. As in most tales they made a deal to have a a child. Of course the condition agreed upon required them to give up something valuable when the child reached a certain age. The condition didn’t concern the king or queen when the agreement was made, however when the child came of age they needed a way to break the agreement. The story unfolds and a quest is taken until finally all things work out in the end except for the proposer of the deal. As I said a simple story.
But now our story begins, because this story had nowhere to go. Yes, it was created. There was a wonderful beginning and a happy ending, but until it could be shared it had no life.
The condition set, the something valuable will shape the rest of the story. What was the condition? With whom did the king and queen strike this deal? If the whole thing were do gain them an heir, then the offspring couldn’t be caught in the middle of this bargain, but the what’s at stake must be something as precious. Figure that out, and you’ll have some headlights guiding you into the rest of the story. You can only see as far as the headlights shine, but once you’ve gotten that far, another bit of your journey is illuminated. I want to know where this story goes and how it gets back home.
That is an interesting take on the story. I never thought of trying to expand that part of the story but it is something to think about. My purpose was to outline a story that was similar to many folktales, which is why I called it a simple story and to have the focus on the storyteller, or the importance of storytelling. I was going to use the simple story as a device to tell a different story. One of a teller who finds it and how he/she brings it to life. But maybe as part of that, the simple story might need to be developed to bring that about.