In this post I’m going to take you on a trip through my imagination, and tell you about all the unfinished stories that came and went between the conception of Kennison’s Foil, to the actual writing of Kennison’s Gifts.

Following much needed lessons on “Theme & Strategy”, “Plot”, “Scene & Structure”, “Characters & Viewpoints”, and “Dialogue”, I was ready to write the best fiction money could buy. Well, at least I thought so at the time. However, as you will learn, there was still one seemingly impenetrable wall that I had not yet run up against, but would soon come crashing into head on.

Stories I started, but couldn’t get through: (They are all copy righted, so no use in stealing)
T.O.S.O.T.C., “The Other Side of the Coin”. Love this story about two little kids, a Jewish boy, and a Catholic girl, who live next door to each other. Told mostly in little vignettes, each having something to do with the toss of a coin, follows the lives of the two main characters as they grow up. I started writing it in a screenplay format, have thought about turning it into a novella. What I have is adorable, but never finished it.

“The Obese Connection” This story idea was given to me by a rather rotund customer of mine. When I told him I was trying to write a novel, he suggested that I write a story about a wife who is feeding her husband to death. I laughed of course, but he said, while patting his large belly, “Don’t laugh, that’s exactly what my wife is doing to me!”

From that concept, I came up with the idea for a large private detective named, Ezra Pound, who is wealthy, well educated, and haughty, and who is called upon, and only takes those cases that are too baffling for the local police, or in-house insurance investigators. After solving a case, he then writes novellas about his exploits. By the way, my character’s name is the same as the American Poet, Ezra Pound, whom I learned about while researching different kinds of poetry, which the use of came much later.

I thought this concept would work nicely into a series. The first case would involve the mysterious death of the third husband of a beautiful and curvaceous Italian woman. And you probably could guess that he was obese, and died of a heart attack! Never finished the story, but think I will some day.

“August Blue-Blue Knights Investigations” Another series, this one for TV. Fantastic characters and great venues would supply endless stories. First episode started very well, got muddled up, and hit a dead end half way through. It also went to the file cabinet drawer, and I’ll probably be dead before it sees the light of day again! Too bad, one of my oldest sisters loved it!

I could go on and on, my file cabinet is over-flowing with half finished stories, some I might say, have great potential. However, you may have noticed what all of these stories share in common—no? Well it’s that seemingly impenetrable wall that I had not yet run up against earlier, but with all of these stories I came crashing into head on. That wall is known in the fiction writing business as THE MIDDLE! And I think most writers have banged into it many, many times during their career.

So, the eight-hundred pound gorilla, firmly ensconced in my writing space, was named The Middle, and I had to find a way through, or around him, or forget about writing fiction all together.

And, I nearly did …