Invisible People
This idea came to me while self-editing a novel I recently completed. The backstory, set in Italy during the last few months of the war, revolves around a classic love triangle. A young woman, beloved by two young men – one a partisan and the other a fascist, writes a letter that sets in motion a tragedy of betrayal and suffering that echoes down the generations to the present day.
Since the woman didn’t actually appear in the novel I didn’t give her much thought. It was only when my mentor asked me about this character that I realised she and her story were important; the letter she wrote was as a result of her backstory, it didn’t appear fully formed out of the blue as a plot convenience. I had to start with her, not with her letter, even though she herself never did make an appearance in the book.
This got me thinking about invisible people: the people in our lives whom we take for granted and hardly notice until they are no longer there. In my family there was an elderly maiden aunt, Nell, who was always at the dinner table on Fridays, always there on our family high days and holidays. As a child I took this for granted and never thought to ask why Nell’s shadowy presence was always with us.
After she died my mother told me that when Nell’s father was dying, he made her brother, then a very little boy, promise always to look after his much older sister. He honoured this promise and eventually took her into his own family where she remained until the day she died.
It turned out that young Nell had given up a lot to keep the remains of the family together. She trained to be a teacher but because she had to look after her little brother, and because women teachers at that time were not allowed to remain in work if they married, she stayed a spinster until her brother was old enough to leave school and earn his own living. By this time Nell was an established spinster and forming her own family was out of the question.
Delving through old family photos revealed an interesting picture of Nell. There is some kind of important event taking place at the school where she taught. All the pupils are assembled in one room and behind the ranks of little girls is a line of worthies: the mayor perhaps, and aldermen? And the teachers. Aunt Nell, the humblest of them all, is on the extreme left, almost hidden from view, her head hardly rising above her pupils’. Her appearance is self-effacing: hair scraped back, a severe right-hand parting like a white scar running up her scalp; wire rimmed glasses perched on her nose. She isn’t smiling.
Looking into Nell’s history revealed an interesting life if not an exciting one. And she was kind. She deserves to be remembered.
Exercise
We’ve all had people like Nell in our lives; they might have been family members, classmates from school, or work colleagues. For the purpose of the exercise, it’s time to think about them.
When you look at them, you will see them afresh and be surprised what you see. You will discover you have taken a lot for granted.
Think of the following:
· What the life of your chosen invisible person consisted of
· What they might really have wanted to be and do
· How, years later, you now view them differently
· Write about them as though you are constructing a character study for a novel
When I set this exercise for the class, there were some interesting reactions. Two or three people said that they were invisible people. Other students simply couldn’t think of anyone; the invisible people in their lives were so colourless as to be apparently just not there. But in the end everyone came up with someone - and no one wrote about themselves.
Since the woman didn’t actually appear in the novel I didn’t give her much thought. It was only when my mentor asked me about this character that I realised she and her story were important; the letter she wrote was as a result of her backstory, it didn’t appear fully formed out of the blue as a plot convenience. I had to start with her, not with her letter, even though she herself never did make an appearance in the book.
This got me thinking about invisible people: the people in our lives whom we take for granted and hardly notice until they are no longer there. In my family there was an elderly maiden aunt, Nell, who was always at the dinner table on Fridays, always there on our family high days and holidays. As a child I took this for granted and never thought to ask why Nell’s shadowy presence was always with us.
After she died my mother told me that when Nell’s father was dying, he made her brother, then a very little boy, promise always to look after his much older sister. He honoured this promise and eventually took her into his own family where she remained until the day she died.
It turned out that young Nell had given up a lot to keep the remains of the family together. She trained to be a teacher but because she had to look after her little brother, and because women teachers at that time were not allowed to remain in work if they married, she stayed a spinster until her brother was old enough to leave school and earn his own living. By this time Nell was an established spinster and forming her own family was out of the question.
Delving through old family photos revealed an interesting picture of Nell. There is some kind of important event taking place at the school where she taught. All the pupils are assembled in one room and behind the ranks of little girls is a line of worthies: the mayor perhaps, and aldermen? And the teachers. Aunt Nell, the humblest of them all, is on the extreme left, almost hidden from view, her head hardly rising above her pupils’. Her appearance is self-effacing: hair scraped back, a severe right-hand parting like a white scar running up her scalp; wire rimmed glasses perched on her nose. She isn’t smiling.
Looking into Nell’s history revealed an interesting life if not an exciting one. And she was kind. She deserves to be remembered.
Exercise
We’ve all had people like Nell in our lives; they might have been family members, classmates from school, or work colleagues. For the purpose of the exercise, it’s time to think about them.
When you look at them, you will see them afresh and be surprised what you see. You will discover you have taken a lot for granted.
Think of the following:
· What the life of your chosen invisible person consisted of
· What they might really have wanted to be and do
· How, years later, you now view them differently
· Write about them as though you are constructing a character study for a novel
When I set this exercise for the class, there were some interesting reactions. Two or three people said that they were invisible people. Other students simply couldn’t think of anyone; the invisible people in their lives were so colourless as to be apparently just not there. But in the end everyone came up with someone - and no one wrote about themselves.
Spider Diagrams
This is one of the easiest ways
of getting started on a story especially if you’re completely stuck for
ideas. And if you do it as part of a
group you won’t stop laughing for a very long time.
Simply write a word in the middle of a piece of paper and draw a circle round it. Think of other words that you associate in some way with your first word, write the new words around the first one and encircle them too. Link them to the first circle with a line.
Look at Bella’s example below: she has written the core word ‘Giggle’ and linked it to: silly, happy, fun, laughter, cute and annoying.
When you’ve written as many secondary words as you can think of, choose one and write down other words that you associate with it. Circle them and link them with a line to the secondary word. Continue to expand this diagram until your page is filled with words.
When you’ve filled the page, select some of the words and write a story incorporating the chosen words. It works. Read Bella’s story and see for yourself.
Simply write a word in the middle of a piece of paper and draw a circle round it. Think of other words that you associate in some way with your first word, write the new words around the first one and encircle them too. Link them to the first circle with a line.
Look at Bella’s example below: she has written the core word ‘Giggle’ and linked it to: silly, happy, fun, laughter, cute and annoying.
When you’ve written as many secondary words as you can think of, choose one and write down other words that you associate with it. Circle them and link them with a line to the secondary word. Continue to expand this diagram until your page is filled with words.
When you’ve filled the page, select some of the words and write a story incorporating the chosen words. It works. Read Bella’s story and see for yourself.