Genesis of a Story
Part I: I would like to share the creation of a new story, from conception to delivery on the page. It would be interesting to see how others do it, although I believe that much of the process is universal. I will use a story published here a couple of weeks ago, Thieves In A Cave.
André Cayatte: The story had its seed in an old French film, Le Glaive et la Balance, by French auteur André Cayatte, and with Anthony Perkins and Jean-Claude Brialy. He was a trained lawyer when he went into films, and he used many of them to put some interesting legal point under the microscope. The film came out in the early sixties, and I never saw it, but I was an avid reader of film reviews and trivia, so I knew that it was about a killer seeking refuge in a tunnel, with the police waiting at the other end, when not light, but two men walked out. I believe it was a court drama, and I do not know how it ended.
Birbal: Birbal was supposed to be a philosopher and wise man living in the court of Mughal Emperor Akbar. So impressed was the latter with the sage
and poet, he named him First Adviser. Whenever he was confronted by a thorny issue, he summoned the man, and asked him to square the circle. Which Birbal, with his infinite wisdom usually did. I have often used him as a model in my writings.
Challenge: It is my belief that no story comes from the air. It is well-known that all stories can be put into five categories. No two people agree about the number though. Some aver five, others six, and yet others, seven. Be that as it may. I thought of a Cayatte type situation placed in front of a Birbal. Hence my two men in a cave.
Gestation: So I had two men, one guilty, the other guiltless, and the problem is to separate them. Birbal used nothing but logic, and I tried to find a rigidly logical scenario. Usually after no more than a couple of days, I would come up with one. This time after a whole week I was nowhere near. Which confirmed my belief that the conscious mind is no good when it comes to inventions. I thought that I might ask our colleagues here to take up the challenge, but never got round to doing it.
Throwing the Sponge: I put the story aside, and forgot it. Wrote some others in the meantime. Suddenly during my siesta one afternoon, thinking about something else, I had a flash. The subconscious has done it again! Yes, I now knew a water-tight method of concluding the story. I opened my laptop and began typing away.
Serendipity: It is my experience that Serendipity never walks alone. Having written the introduction to the story, the two men have been smoked out of the cave… Stop. I suddenly saw a quick solution. I aborted and finished the story more or less straight away. The reader will remember that the man who explained that as soon as his eyes became accustomed to the light, he had a full view of the killer who had just entered the cave, was instantly apprehended by the Wise One. Obviously (let me mansplain) had he been inside the cave already, as he had claimed, he would not need to adjust to darkness. Logical, water-tight and foolproof. Q.E.D.
Confession: That was not the story I started to write.
Part II
The real story of Thieves in a Cave.
A thief, having attacked a merchant in town, and robbed him of ten gold pieces, then runs away, chased by the locals, but he outruns them all, and is seen taking refuge in a dark cave. The locals gather outside, armed with sticks and knives, and wait. After 24 hours there is still no sign of the villain. In the end they decide to smoke him out.
They didn’t have to wait long, for the smoke has its effect, and someone emerges from the cave, coughing. Some two, in fact. Strangely they are of similar build, and both have a brown tunic on, and sandals. The victim of the attack shakes his head, he cannot identify which of the two men had robbed him. They are escorted to the town jail for interrogation by The Wise One.
They both claim to be innocent wayfarers taking a rest from the burning sun outside. Henceforth, they will be referred to as A and B. A explains that he had been inside the cave for a good few hours, and was having a little nap when he heard a commotion. B says the same thing.
The Wise One kept questioning them for hours on end, without finding anything. Clearly there was an innocent man, and a very intelligent thief, who readily came with an answer. But which one?
Finally the Wise One said that he would have to give up, as there was no way of eliciting the truth of the situation.
-“Gentlemen,” he said finally, “it seems that my questioning will lead nowhere, so I am going to release both of you.”
Immediately both men indignantly began shouting. “Then there is no law in this place where thieves and murderers can get away with anything.” But although this passed unnoticed to the audience, it did not escape the hawk’s eyes of the Wise One.
“I pronounce B guilty,” he said with a smile.
The audience was perplexed, and asked how he knew.
-“Both men protested, but B’s came three hundredth of a second later than A’s.
