I have absolutely no idea what to do with this idea.

[EFerrari]

I don't write fiction. The part of my brain that writes poetry or essays seems to also be the part that makes fictionalizing difficult.

Yesterday, I noticed that there are all kinds of characters going in and out of our local Mom -n- Pop store. It's the only store remaining on this block out here in the outer Sunset district, about two blocks from the beach. It's dingy and would need refurbishing before it was as nice as Fred Sanford's place.

There's a middle aged recent divorcee, trying to stay out of foreclosure and always trying to find or stretch a dollar but talking politics with the store owner at inconvenient times, always putting up a poster about the latest outrage although it's very unlikely that anyone who comes to the store ever reads them. A beautiful 6'5" somewhat psychotic black tranny who is gregarious and who sings as s/he pageant-walks around the neighborhood. There's a schizophrenic man with a Norweign accent who can't afford his meds the last week of the month. He wears a surgical mask and tells people to :"disregard, disregard, disregard" when he gets stressed out. Another lady, maybe in her early 30s, pretty girl but her face shows how much she's drinking lately. And sometimes, how much she's getting hit by her boyfriend. She usually has a pitbull on a leash and sometimes, she forgets that. There's the blue collar flattop guy, a sweetheart who married into a Filipino family. They all live in a big apartment together. He's always looking to make extra money and always baffled by his in laws. He told me that Obama was only going to take care of black people and was flummoxed when I pointed out that Obama's mom was a white lady. There's the Syrian who lives above the store with his extended family. He's a little angry and every now and then, he comes into the store to do a short rant about how Muslims are treated in this country. There's a Latino stoner who comes to stock the shelves. He's also very sweet and will listen to anyone and say yes to any neighbor's request, mostly because he's too stoned to say no. There's an Indian kid who works a couple of shifts a week. He's always on his computer doing homework and nothing ever seems to touch him except when there's a neighborhood cookout. There's also Keith, a homeless guy in a wheelchair who hasn't had a bath or a haircut since 1974. He came here for the good weather, he says. Everyone knows him. He could be any age from 40 to 60. The wheelchair turns out to be more for convenience than anything else as I found out one day, watching him push it down the block. Tourists and surfers are also in and out of the store all the time. Tourists asking directions and surfers dripping on everything.

The owner of the store is an immigrant from El Salvador. People call him "Pop" or "Poppy or "Orlando" although his name is "Rolando". He is also a stoner and mostly blind but about my age, 50. He's a survivor of the dirty war in El Salvador and he has the scars on his face where they cut him to prove it. He's the heart of the hood and he gives credit in some form to all of us characters. He's a little man who seems very gentle until he starts swearing at which point you realize, he's got a gun somewhere handy. But, he laughs even more easily and for some reason, he puts up with all of us.

And the name of his store really is "Your Market". Rolando must be the only Latino with a store out here where retail is dominated by Asians. He never takes a day off until he does\ and usually, without warning so the whole neighborhood reacts like a kicked over anthill. His wife seems to still be involved with cocaine which he gave up years ago. He's very tender with her when she calls on the phone. You can always tell when he's talking to Betty. She's even smaller than he is, thin as a toothpick and has a little dog that lives in her purse. She doesn't speak English unless she has to. The days when she comes to the store must be days when it's not safe to leave her alone at home. They've recently lost their son to gang violence and Betty's mom to extreme old age. They're sort of at loose ends and in a funny way, we are are their extended family right now. And all of us are struggling through this recession, depression or whatever it's being called today.

I have no idea what to do with this except that it seems that during my retreat from most things in that last two years, I've been piling up these details. Too bad there isn't a Detail Flea Market because I could use the ten bucks.

Thoughts?

[HamdenRice]

1. Sounds like a great story for the store as "framing device"

You might want to take a look at "Bridge of San Louis Rey" and "Go Tell it on the Mountain."

Both stories have an overarching plot story that then allows the book to go off into very detailed stories about individual characters. Only as the individual stories develop do you get a sense of why these are all connected, even more than through the frame story.

OK that's a bit abstract, and I hope I'm not being pedantic if you've read them.

BOSLR is about a terrible accident: A rope bridge over a canyon collapses while a group of travelers are crossing it in the 1700s in South America. A monk tries to discern the pattern of God by examining the life of each person who died, looking for similarities.

The book then tells the stories of each victim -- a shy twin brother and common laborer; a lonely, slightly crazy widow; an orphan girl hired out as a servant to the widow; the adoptive father and acting coach of a famous actress; and so on.

The story of each examined life is like it's own separate novella; but the story lines all inter-connect and a very moving theme emerges about how many of the characters were not able to come to terms with the great loves of their lives.

GTOTM is the story of a boy growing up in Harlem in an extremely religious household, with his mother and his abusive step father, who is also a storefront preacher. The framing story is about whether the boy will have an ecstatic religious experience, but the side stories are about the unhappy lives of the adults in his life.

It sounds like the store could be the frame. Each character could have his or her own novella.

[janet118]

6. Maeve Binchy's "The Lilac Bus" has similar construct

From Publisher's Weekly:

In the first eight interrelated stories of the dozen that comprise her new collection, Binchy ( Circle of Friends ) introduces eight people who travel on a lilac-colored bus from Dublin every Friday night to spend the weekend in their hometown, Rathdoon. Each of the seven passengers and the bus driver is the protagonist of an individual story; taken together, the tales have the cohesion of a novelette. Though these people have known one another for years, they are totally unaware of the compulsions, anxieties, heartaches and dreams of their fellow travelers. As is gradually revealed, everyone on the bus has a secret; thus the stories have the pull of taffy: having finished one, the reader is hooked on discovering the essence of yet another protagonist's existence. Each story delivers a kick of surprise--and often more than one--as Binchy peels back the layers of her characters' lives with empathy, compassion and not a little humor.

I once wrote a story using hypertext that told the stories of a group of people on a subway train in Boston. I've thought of doing another one using people in a restaurant - where you could move from table to table and listen in on conversations and follow the people you were interested in.

[HopeHoops]

2. How about turning it into a thriller?

The main character is you. You have compiled your observations into a subtle comedy piece with a touch of George Carlin but mostly honest description of what you have observed. Face it, people are funny. A national magazine publishes it. Although you don't mention your specific location in the piece, one of the more heavily lampooned characters recognizes himself in the article and figures out who you are. Needless to say, he is not amused. Take it from there.

[DavidDvorkin]

3. You need a plot

What you have is characters and a setting.

Or a theme, something from which a story can be generated.

[marions ghost]

4. write about how your characters

stick together in these hard times in this particular little microcosm. Something has to happen to put it all into focus but the ingredients are there.

Start with short stories about this place. If that works, write longer stuff, putting the short stories together.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

5. Paul Auster did it brilliantly

with "Smoke."

"Blue In The Face," the follow-up, wasn't, for me, nearly as compelling as the prequel, but it was still good entertainment.

Characters are everywhere, but you can have a bit too much color. Without defining story lines, all running parallel until they bend ever so slightly - that narrative arc - and intersect, they're just characters.

As my agent puts it, "You toss all the balls up into the air, and then, one by one, bring them down without dropping them."

It's harder than it looks, but once you've got the story lines, it's a lot of fun to write..................................................