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Story Ideas - From a Class Reunion
By Deb Gallardo
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I don’t know about you, but I’ve attended all but one of my high school class reunions. What amazed me at the gathering I attended this past Saturday night was how glad to see one another the group was. This wasn’t always the case at previous reunions. There weren’t outright hostilities, but every so often I’d hear someone make a comment about a classmate, as in: “He was always like that.”
The possibilities for story ideas from a gathering of people with a history together — both positive and negative, dealt with or unreconciled, superficial or profound, fraught with bitterness or sizzling with passion — are almost limitless. Here’s are some cautions if you write about a reunion.
1.
Do NOT have a cast of “thousands.” You’ll want to people a reunion with just enough characters that your readers can keep track of them without a score card. Peripheral characters should be nameless. Instead, give them labels like these and occasionally throw in a nondescript first name with the title if you refer to someone more than once.
the quarterback
head cheerleader
drum major/majorette
class president
valedictorian
salutatorian
class clown
homecoming queen
the tattletale
the techie nerd/geek
resident “Einstein”
the troublemaker
2.
Give memorable names to all main and prominent secondary characters. Try to keep the first letter of each name different for every character. Your readers will confuse them.
3.
Just about any genre will work for a reunion story, from slasher/horror to mystery, to suspense, to romance or even time travel, paranormal or fantasy, although probably not historical or western.
4.
Think about some of the “characters” in your graduating class, your family, your church, your workplace or anywhere you see (or saw) the same people interacting on a regular basis. Consider the ways they conflict and the ways they get along, the things they disagree on (like politics, religion, money, personal philosophy, etc.) and things they agree on. Find the points of tension and fit them into a reunion setting. Populate your idea with TOTALLY UNRECOGNIZABLE people. Do not write about your classmates, relatives, etc. as they are.
Change the gender, the age, and the opinions. Change the ethnicity or national origin. Change all physical parameters. If someone you know and want to write about is a tall, thin, 30-something female who is a liberal and an atheist in real life, then make this character a short, stout, 60-something male who is a conservative and devout. But be careful here. If you know someone who fits this description, too, DON’T use it!
Keep tweaking the character, making him/her multi-dimensional, non-cliché, with a disposition unlike anyone of the same gender and physique. Invent a unique character flaw, large or small. Come up with a brief backstory for each character, including childhood traumas, family circumstances (invented entirely by you and not based on any one person you know), and predisposition to diseases, injuries, disabilities, etc.
5.
Now that you have the “who,” brainstorm the other 5 elements: what, when, where, why, and how. Keep these elements within the reunion story and see where they take you.
6.
And above all, HAVE FUN WITH THIS!
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