I said, “That’ll be the title.”

William Goldman on story origins. (The Commonplace Book Project)

The Commonplace Book Project is a daily post based on Ray Bradbury’s advice to aspiring writers: read a poem, a short story, and an essay every day for 1000 days. These posts start with a quote and go wherever the rabbit hole leads. Follow The 1000 Day MFA publication so you don’t miss a thing.

“I had two little daughters — I think they were 7 and 4 at the time — and I said, ‘I’ll write you a story. What do you want it to be about?’ One of them said ‘a princess’ and the other one said ‘a bride.’ I said, ‘That’ll be the title.’” — William Goldman, The Princess Bride: An Oral History

Every story has an origin. At some point, every storyteller puts a character together with a situation or a setting sparks something or a child says I want a story about . . .

I wrote last night about how I’ve decided to read William Goldman this year, and watch some of his films, as a way to find my way back to pleasure reading.

I’ve ordered Goldman’s novel, Marathon Man, and his craft book, Adventures in the Screen Trade to start with. And tonight I’m watching The Princess Bride. When I’m done writing this post, I think I’ll make a list of Goldman’s books in my notebook — a kind of guide for the year.

I love the idea that each story has an origin. I suppose it’s something I’ve always known, but really articulating it like that makes it seem less like a story is a thing that might never happen for me again.

That’s a constant fear for me. Or it has been. I’ve developed systems for capturing those origins as they come together — so I have a collection of them now. For a long time I wrote each story in absolute fear that it would be the last good idea I ever had.

I call my system H2DSI (it stands for How to Develop a Story Idea, which is the name of a free class I teach. You can find it here.) It’s my magic potion for making sure I never run out of origin stories.

My book, The Astonishing Maybe, that’s coming out in March has a similar origin as The Princess Bride. When my daughter, Ruby, was five years old, she loved super heroes. When she dressed up like one, we called her Wonder Roo — and I set out to write a book about her. That’s just what I did.

The story I’m working on started with an article I read once about how much someone with long naturally platinum hair can get if they cut it all off and sell it to a wig maker. And the idea of a fat girl who finds her place in sports.

Every story has an origin. It’s a comforting thought, really.

I enjoyed this article about how The Princess Bride is at least rudimentarily feminist.

Here’s a collection of Goldman quotes that I found interesting. I especially like this one. It convinced me to buy the book.

“Writing is finally about one thing: going into a room alone and doing it. Putting words on paper that have never been there in quite that way before. And although you are physically by yourself, the haunting Demon never leaves you, that Demon being the knowledge of your own terrible limitations, your hopeless inadequacy, the impossibility of ever getting it right. No matter how diamond-bright your ideas are dancing in your brain, on paper they are earthbound. If you’re trying a screenplay, you know it’s never going to be Bergman. If it’s a novel, well, what kind of a novelist can you hope to be when Dostoevski was there before you. And Dickens and Cervantes and all the other masters that led you to the prison of your desk. But if you’re a writer, that’s what you must do, and in order to accomplish anything at all, at the rock bottom of it all is your confidence. You tell yourself lies and you force them into belief: Hey, you suckers, I’m going to do it this one time. I’m going to tell you things you never knew. I’ve — got — secrets!” — Adventures in the Screen Trade

Here’s an audio recording of Goldman giving the 1985 commencement speech at his alma mater, Oberlin College.

I’m not sure why this struck me as funny, but it did. As I was researching Goldman tonight, I came across his Twitter account, which is still active even though the author died in November 2018.

It has just one Tweet, written in 2010.

I’m excited to read more of Goldman than the one book that is part of my own personal origin story — The Princess Bride. And to watch some of his movies this year. (I was surprised to see that he wrote some of my favorite movies, so I know this will be fun.)

Today’s Poem:

Origin Story by Jenny Xie

I was profligate like a floodlight to the sun.

Hoarded saccharine and toothmarks, wanted only the thickest rhymes, two of each.

Full I was of promises I never intended to keep: puckered laughter, lines to feast.

I let everyone who entered my life enter through me. Demanded nonsense love and bodies that would ring.

Not to mention higher kilowatts of creeping joy, more red in everything —

Shaunta Grimes is a writer and teacher. She is an out-of-place Nevadan living in Northwestern PA with her husband, three superstar kids, two dementia patients, a good friend, Alfred the cat, and a yellow rescue dog named Maybelline Scout. She’s on Twitter @shauntagrimes and is the author of Viral Nation and Rebel Nation and the upcoming novel The Astonishing Maybe. She is the original Ninja Writer.