Origin Story - Me, You, And The Tiramisu
Let me just say that if you have not yet read Me, You, And The Tiramisu, I urge you to do so before reading the following. Please and thank you!
This is the first in a series of posts under the “Origin Story” category here on A Few Thousand Words. Think of this as the after party to the show.
I do feel a bit weird doing this because it assumes that I’m an accomplished professional—meaning I’m published by one of the large book houses, I’ve had a best seller or three, have taught my craft at some university, have a collection of many leather-bound books, etc. This also assumes that I am someone with the skill of a wizard. Nope. Perhaps one day I will be. Until then, I’m just someone with a passion who wants to share his journey, add whatever I can to your day, and, possibly, learn a little bit about myself.
Origin Story
Me, You, And The Tiramisu started because I wanted to have a little fun with my first submission. I already had it in my head that I wanted to start writing (more) regularly and I wanted to share the work with some of my friends. I posted on Facebook asking friends and family to provide me:
Four names (were not gender specific)
A dessert
A Beatles song
A movie from the 1990s
I would incorporate each of these items into the story. And it wouldn’t just be a simple mention. I wanted each to have a significant role in moving the story.
As my friends posted their suggestions, I took one from each person and did it in order of, say, a football draft. When I got to the end, I would start right back to the top. I didn’t want to cherry pick ones that would’ve been easy for me because it would feel like—frankly—cheating. Broadly, the goal of my Substack is to get some story ideas out. I want to get the creative side of my brain going. One of the ways for me is to hit up friends (and soon, subscribers to AFTW!). Think audience participation. I thought it would be fun.
The Long And Winding Road
When I started this story, I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to accomplish or how it would end or even how to get there. I figured, just write and write and write and eventually the story will reveal itself. Have faith.
I started with the characters and kept going. Oddly, in my head little things began to pop up that I’d put in. Married couple. They’re waiting for their friends. What’s up with the wife? A little bit of tension, with the history of said tension to be a mystery.
Despite all of this, at this point I still didn’t know how to tie everything together.
Having never formally plotted out a story, I only ever relied on a broad idea of what I wanted. With this story, I didn’t even have a broad idea other than finding a creative way to incorporate the four elements my friends provided me.
I’ve read how writers take a methodical approach. The more complex a subject, the more background work needs to be done. With my work and life schedule, it was about finding times when I could get in a few hundred words or more. Don’t look for me to be tucked away in a corner somewhere doing research. At least not yet.
A great portion of the writing was done on my iPhone through my Google Docs app under the cover of my blanket so the light from my phone wouldn’t wake my wife. Honestly, it sounds like I was watching something I wasn’t supposed to, if you know what I mean. Simply, I didn’t want to get up and get my laptop as the clacking of my fingers on the keyboard certainly would have woken her. Note: I type really loud for some reason.
I just tapped away on my phone until past one in the morning. And I had to get up early the next day! I walk the dog at about 5:45 am, take my daughter to school, come home and get ready for work, then leave to take my son to school. I’d be dead ass tired. But inspiration really struck and I couldn’t stop. I was in a groove. Do you know how horrible your wrists and arms feel after typing on an iPhone for almost two hours? I probably looked like a T-Rex. Thankfully, I hit a bit of a wall and decided to sleep on it.
I read about the processes of different writers. Some schedule times when they write, like clocking in and out for a 9 to 5 job. Others will jump whenever inspiration strikes. The remainder take advantage of the times they have available to them, whenever they become available to them. That’s me. Life is busy and for me this is a personal pursuit. Most of what I have been able to do is while I am in my car, in a long line of cars, waiting to pick up my daughter from school. Then there are the Fridays where I get my daughter and my son back-to-back so I get a good hour plus.
And of course, there are the late, late nights.
The Professional
I was blessed that this movie was on the list because it was one I used to watch pretty regularly when I was younger. To me, the entire premise of the movie wasn’t the action and the back-and-forth between the two main characters. To me, it was the relationship between these two very different people and how it grew throughout the movie.
Looking back, I wish that I could’ve taken some part of that growth in the movie and wove the same path for Sonny and Maya. I had a pretty lengthy back story in my head for both that just didn’t feel right to add into the piece due to the parameters I established for AFTW. Perhaps I’ll revisit Sonny and Maya in a later post.
As for The Professional, whether or not you’ve seen the movie, the ending is one of the best (although sad) for me. The way it’s revealed. He’s getting away—oh shit, he’s not. I talk about it later, but the ending for this story felt somewhat the same.
Magical Mystery Tour
I am a huge Beatles fan. So I did want to indulge myself by incorporating one of their songs into this piece. But I had no hand in falling on Magical Mystery Tour. Believe me, I would’ve chosen something else. As an aside, the song (at least the title of it) was an accurate description of this writing journey for this piece. The storyline for me would be a mystery, it would be a tour or a journey, and—I guess the way the ending popped in my head was magical. Insert shrugging emoji here.
I actually started to type that Sonny put in a Beatles CD and started playing the song but it seemed too forced. I was shoehorning a piece in there. Besides, it’s not even one of my favorite songs so I can’t imagine that it would be anybody’s either. Most of all, for a story that’s supposed to be very contemporary…popping in a CD?
The Ending
The absolute truth…I had no idea how things would end. It wasn’t until I realized that I had gotten through 75% of the story that I had not yet done a single thing with Stan and Rae other than use them as background mentions to move the story along between Sonny and Maya. Obviously, there’s a tension between Sonny and Maya. But what was driving her to dress up and to have this springy bounce to her step when it seemed that all wasn’t well between her and her husband was really someone else?
When I began, I declared that I would just write through the piece and not edit unless there was a grammar, consistency, or continuity error that was too embarrassing to leave in there. But, I confess, I couldn’t just do a rough cut. I did go back and add a few flourishes here and there. I wanted to strengthen the tension as to what was going on between Sonny and Maya. I wanted to add little hints as to the real motivation behind what Maya was doing with the clothes and such.
One thing I did end up going back and adjusting is that whenever there was some aspect of Maya that wasn’t for Sonny, I would just refer to her as “wife” or “the wife”. It probably isn’t as tight as I’d like it to be, but I can be happy.
The ending came to me as I was awake and couldn’t sleep. I didn’t want to pick up my phone and write more. I wanted to get a break and walk away. But then--bam!--it hit me. I grabbed the phone and did a quick brain dump, roughly typing it all out just to get the thoughts on paper---I mean phone. The next morning I would flesh it out some more.
“It’s kind of like in Jaws, emphasizing the terror of the shark without showing the shark. You get the music and sometimes you get the fin.”
Anyway, I realized that I didn’t want to have Stan appear in this at all. I felt that to maximize his impact was to minimize his inclusion or participation, if that at all makes sense. It’s kind of like in Jaws, emphasizing the terror of the shark without showing the shark. You get the music and sometimes you get the fin. In the story, it was a phone call that Sonny answered and Stan decided not to reply and ultimately hung up. Then he called Maya. Same thing. Stan helped me build a lot more tension. A friend of mine thought that he had been in an accident. After all, it was storming out. Maya noted how there was traffic at all hours. They were late to Movie Night. All these little distractions and false detours just flooded me. I couldn’t believe it.
I figured, do the same thing with Rae. Reveal her a bit more and use her as a device to think that they were indeed in a car accident. I still wanted to keep pushing more distraction from the ending by making the reader think that the problem is with Stan and Rae. They are the ones that broke up. It wasn’t until the very last moment I decided, “Let’s not drag this thing out” and made the slow reveal.
I thought about a version where Stan shows up and there would be this fight between two friends who were as close as brothers. But that didn’t feel right for me. It felt cliche. How do you close the loop on that? The memory would end up being the fight between the two and not the slow crumble between Sonny and Maya.
The Tiramisu and the Title
The title was the last thing I thought of. Normally, I’ll write something as a rough guide and use it as a working title. But the approach with this story (soliciting friends for inputs) wasn’t going to really lend me much. I did have it listed as “Friends and Dessert and a Movie”. That alone didn’t strike me. I mean, reading it now as I just typed it I’m cringing and asking for forgiveness.
I thought of the tiramisu. The story was about Sonny and Maya. The two. Sonny was the one that was hurt. Wait. Then, like the ending in The Usual Suspects, all the pieces started to fall into place and I had my Keyser Soze of a title. Truly, that’s what happened. I wish I had some magical stroke of genius, but I didn’t. I just had a spontaneous, free association session as words cartwheeled in my head while I waited in the car line to pick up my daughter from school.
Thanks for reading! Please let me know your thoughts and feel free to email me any questions. Until next time! Hit me up at afewthousandwords@gmail.com.