The Serendipity of the Moment: A Writing Lesson from Elizabeth George
Writers Elizabeth George and Rocky Cole at Books Inc.
A few weeks ago I was at Books Inc. in Alameda, California where Elizabeth George was speaking about writing and promoting her newest book, This Body of DEATH. Elizabeth said, “I am not planning on reading from my book tonight, I imagine you all can do that yourselves…” Rather, she spoke about her process of writing the book, and how her research often takes her in directions she did not expect.
One story she told was about being in the National Portrait Gallery in London several years previously and seeing a portrait of a striking young woman that had hung outside the museum as a poster. The portrait was not the one that had been chosen as the best for the year, but it was the one being used in the promotional materials and on the mammoth poster that hung on the outside of the museum to announce the exhibit. It was the portrait Elizabeth thought was the most stunning.
She said that she had gone into the museum store after touring the exhibit specifically to see if they had some post-card sized prints of the portrait and sure enough, across the room she saw a rack with prints of the portrait. She began to cross the room towards the rack to get one of the post-cards of the portrait, and when she was about half way across the room she saw a man walk up to the card display and grab all of the prints and buy them. He bought every one.
She was shocked, and the incident hit her mystery writer’s mind like a hammer. Why would someone buy all the prints? Who was the man? What was his relationship to the girl, or was there one?
In short, she thought, “There is a story there.”
Someone in the audience raised their voice and asked, “Did you go up to the man and ask him why he bought all the cards?”
Elizabeth George looked shocked. “No, absolutely not. If I had done that and found out why, then I would not have had a story. That is the serendipity of the moment.”
Every moment a writer lives is grist for the mill of their writing and potential stories are all around. Open your eyes to the serendipity of the moment and imagine your way into stories and see where they take you.