Ever heard someone say that not enough happens in their life to make stories? And then, people who live an exciting, adventurous life hardly have time to write stories. If you think your life is all too mundane to find a life story, try these three story types: vignette, slice-of-life, and conflict and plot.
Vignette
A vignette is something that caused you to pause and ponder. It’s a description. It could be exquisite, unfathomable, elegant, disastrous, flavorful, or primitive. It’s a pause that stirs or pulls your thoughts together about something.
It’s without a plot. There’s not a problem to solve. It can function as part of a larger story.
I could write a vignette about a rose on my ‘Joseph’s Coat’. The buttery, creamy mellowness of the yellow. The ranges of orange and apricot, a robust pink and deep blue-red. All colors on one bloom that I might not have thought to mix.
I think about what caught my attention then expand with a declaration about what moved me.
Slice-Of-Life
A slice-of-life is about a time when normal everyday things happen. You can validate the worthiness of the everyday life stories in books and movies because people pay for and spend their time reading and watching slice-of-life stories.
The book and movie, 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff is the true story of a twenty-year correspondence between a London antique bookseller, Frank Doel (Anthony Hopkins), and free-lance writer, Helene Hanff (Anne Bancroft) based in New York City.
Another slice-of-life, The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro. The story of a butler, Mr. Stevens (Anthony Hopkins) and housekeeper, Miss Kenton (Emma Thompson).
There’ll be some emotions, not intense emotions. It can lack plot. Doesn’t always have an end. It’s without heightened conflict that swells into bigger emotions. It tells about real things that happen in everyday life. It might have moments of the vignette.
Stories in this category aren’t as intense. The character hasn’t dangled from a helicopter to rescue someone atop a train. Did you notice that characters in action stories never stop for meals? A slice-of-life will have more daily life moments such as the rituals of meal time.
Something mundane and yet entertaining as Viktor Navorski (Tom Hanks) in the routines of everyday life in the John F. Kennedy Airport in The Terminal.
Conflict and Plot
Conflict stories are about something that got in your way of a goal. The story will have more emotion than a slice-of-life. See how story types are gaining emotion. The conflict story has some sort of problem to solve. It could be a technical problem, transportation, health, nature related, the weather, location, time, inner conflict, a person, resources or lack of.
The plot is the way you arrange the story that makes us curious to see how it resolved. How you define the conflict, persevere the trial and error, and eventually, the solution will help people better understand you.
Conflict stories are unplanned (car trouble) and planned (kitchen remodel). There’ll be some trial and error to find a solution. Stories aren’t usually neatly tied. Conflict stories hopefully have an ending. Sometimes they’ll be written this way: things were normal, something happened, things went back to normal.
Your stories won’t need to be as intense as you might think. It’s unnecessary to dream up or elevate drama just to make days more meaningful or interesting for better stories. Every life has a rhythm of its own.
Story Types Blend
A vignette can show up in a slice-of-life story or grow up and become a plot story. This happens in my story about a turtle.
On the way to my neighbor’s house, I saw a very large, very old snapping turtle sitting in the street. His grey-green shell camouflaged well with the asphalt. His nails were long and thick and curled. And his shell had sprouted algae. The scales on his legs and neck looked rough and worn. His tail, easily twelve inches.
For me, this is a vignette, now it takes a turn and becomes a conflict story.
I crossed the street to my neighbor’s house, threw my beer bag inside and asked, “Did you see the turtle?”
We discussed ways to get him up off the sizzling pavement. It had been 101º earlier. Cars whizzing ’round us. One driver swung by and suggested we put him in a grassy field surrounded by parking lot. Well, he can’t live there.
I tend to think of kitchen tools to solve problems. And, a big spatula could be of value to scoop him into a box. The neighbor who brought a box went back for a bigger box, then went back and got a shovel.
Our destination was a nearby pond where we thought he’d be at home. I was appointed the turtle’s designated driver because I was late for Friday-night-beer with neighbors. And everyone had already begun.
We found a grassy place beside the water. He was so big and so wild that we weren’t careless. Flipping him out of the box seemed the best idea. But he landed with his nose shoved against a plastic pot turned sideways.
He couldn’t get around. And we couldn’t see a way to help him because . . . we didn’t bring the shovel. But he tossed the pot up in the air with one swift whack of his jaws. Then slipped through the reeds and into the water.
Mix Story Types in a Collection
Mixing story types for a collection of summer stories, holiday stories and travel stories will give some variety and different story subjects.
A vignette will give readers something to mull. A slice-of-life has contentment and details of everyday life. And conflict and plot stories add excitement. Try a mix. Life is made of all three.
Photo by Freddie Marriage on Unsplash