Write, Edit, Slash. What’s Left to Publish?

Recover and re-purpose what you reduce

I was researching for an article on a Heritage Train to publish in Recollection.

I collected an enormous amount of information about the region where I once lived.

Historical information, and stories of how the period train developed into the icon it is today. I wanted to have all the correct information. I had all the links ready to embed into the article. I collected copies of photographs and researched the provenance so I could credit them correctly.

I read through what I gathered and found it sounded like a website information trip guide for an excursion in the country in the late 1800s.

Very factual with dates, documented quotes, historical views of the gold rush era, the development and demise of towns as industry blossomed or withered, populations swelling and subsiding.

Where is the spark?

A quick word count, and I realized I had a possible novel on my hands instead of a five-minute read.

How could I create and develop an interesting pivotal point to the story? What was my takeaway message for the reader going to be?

The information was undoubtedly correct, detailed, and a very deadly deterrent to any reader.

The spark was missing, there was no vibrancy, no fireworks to keep a reader’s attention. Where was the “showing” in place of “telling?” Where was the mystery, the momentum, the motivation?

This early draft needed a lot of attention

It’s not enough to go wide with a story. It’s necessary to go deep and more in-depth.

I couldn’t comfortably write this as a narrative, as there was too much information.

I’d lived on the outskirts of the town, and the railway line was within sight of my home. It was a photograph I took of the steam train as it traveled by, smoke billowing, and passengers waving, that started my thinking about the subject for an article. This was how I planned to introduce the story and then write a backstory.

However, I wanted my backstory to deliver what happened. I wanted to bring the characters to life. I wanted to show how they lived, what their environment was like, and to portray an understanding and motivation of the key players.

I didn’t want to discount or discard all the information I collected.

Finding the correct context

I looked for a way to break it into more useful chunks of writing.

I realized I had multiple stories within my research. It needed to become several stories. None of the information will be wasted, but I had to find the correct context for it.

All your collected research can be used by thinking wisely about how to enhance it into workable stories. My plan for my research, was to work on developing ideas for multiple, unique stories for new articles.

When you have abundant researched information, never discard it, re-purpose it.

This is a really great way to develop deeper ideas for new stories. You already have the information and references to draft your other stories quickly.

How can you develop in-depth stories to take the reader on an adventure depicting a different way of life, a contrasting era, looking back almost 160 years, so the reader can savor the experience, immerse themselves in another time, another place?

A great way to tell a story is to put yourself into the narrative. Write about your viewpoint by including:

• Emotion — fear, love, happiness, achievement, grief, pain, courage
• Perspective — emotionally, intellectually and spiritually
• Aspirations — following the dream, conceptual strength, goal setting, beliefs
• Industry — lifestyle, survival, management, community.

Trials and tribulations of topics

My bygone era story was the history and restoration of a heritage railway — the trials and tribulations of how it survived and how it’s sustained as an enterprise today.

As I worked on the break-up possibilities of the information I had, I came up with quite a few stories to tell. These ideas may be helpful to you when you come across dry documentation of historically interesting facts, and want to turn the facts into an entertaining , “told through the eyes of …” whoever you nominate as a character.

I decided it could be told through the daydreaming of a passenger on the trip itself with musings on how it would have been in the beginning and how the countryside the train travels through, has changed.

This heritage enterprise is managed today by a not-for-profit organization with many volunteers, including key personnel such as engineers, firemen, and conductors.

Perhaps telling the story through the experiences of a new volunteer joining the organization, and what they discover as they find their niche after researching their interest in the history of the trains, would be of interest to your reader.

The narrator could be an older bushranger, who held up the train and robbed the passengers, who is remorseful now as he remembers his misdeeds with regret.

Another viewpoint could be from someone who lives along the route the train travels and what it means to their life and livelihood.

Does it mean the delivery of sustainable goods for someone living in the late 1800s?

Or does it mean speculative non-fiction from a local, waving to tourists as they travel the route on a day’s outing during the holidays in 2020, and wondering who the tourists are, where they’re from and how their lives may differ from the local person’s life?

The route of the train is steeped in history. Small towns scattered across the valley were reliant on agriculture, timber, and dairy businesses. The population faced frequent floods from the river winding its way through the valley, swollen from tributaries in the mountain ranges. There are agricultural stories, tales of danger and lives lost, stories by children, stories by their teachers, who may teach a small number of students of different ages in one classroom.

The golden times

This was the gold rush times here in Australia, and so many towns were pop-ups as the gold fever gripped a poor country and left behind broken lives, dismantled society, and buildings when the veins of gold disappeared.

The viewpoint of a young wife and mother living in hardship is another narrative.

Many of the country towns celebrate their history by re-creating events, holding festivals, competitions, holding remembrance ceremonies, and erecting statues of significance. Any of these occasions can be a topic for a story with an elaboration on its historical origins.

Value your research

Everything you gather in your quest for writing stories can be re-purposed.

Think laterally when you find you have an abundance of research, or rather I should say, think creatively and dig deeper for hidden significance or consequences, to give your stories the vibrant voices they need for vigor and vitality.

Have a look at the story of the Rattler here. Only seven minutes not a novel!