Gas Money
Episode 15: Gas Money of the Winter of Different Directions podcast is now available . . . Listen, if you haven't already . . .
"Gas Money" is the last story I wrote for the Winter of Different Directions collection. And because every story in the collection had been worked on at Carkeek Park in north Seattle—usually at this picnic table . . .
I decided to set the majority of the story at the park.
I do my best writing outdoors in a natural setting. Over time Carkeek Park became a kind of talisman for my writing. Every time I was stuck on a story I'd go to the park, hike through the woods down to the beach, and end up at what became my favorite park bench to write first drafts and revisions and make edits. Every story page in the collection has spent time on the burnished wood of this picnic table.
The Story Behind the Story . . . is that one day when I was at the park revising "Fresh Sludge" a beat-up old panel van parked nearby and a scroungy guy set up a manual typewriter at another picnic table. He spent a couple of hours pecking away and stuffing whatever he was typing into manilla envelopes (undoubtedly submissions to literary journals). He was still going at it when I left. Although I didn't start working on the story for a couple of weeks, I knew right then that I would write a story about that guy and his typewriter.
I have a couple of different versions of a story called "Fly-by-night" that is about a landscaper who has a habit of skipping town. Neither of those stories are included in Winter, but you can listen to the short-short version over on my podcast and readings page. Some of Radcliffe's—Mr. Gas Money—back story can be found in "Fly-by-night." I toyed with the idea of giving this character the novel treatment, but more likely it will be a series of linked stories, with the longer version of "Fly-by-night" as the beginning followed by "Gas Money" and one or two other stories showing his later exploits.
As with most of the stories in the collection, "Gas Money" has an open ending and reflects my ongoing attempts to resist explicit closure in short fiction. Thus at the end the story you don't know for certain whether he got the job or not. The aesthetic at work here is that the journey is more important than the destination. Radcliffe is at the bottom. The point of the story is not whether he makes it off the bottom, but what actions does he take, what character does it take, to do so. By withholding the answer to the most obvious question posed by the story, I mean to turn the reader back into the story to seek from the sequence (the journey) their own interpretation. What traits has he shown? He's on the precipice of a defining moment. Already made a break from his old patterns by admitting his situation to the bank manager. What do you think? Will he say what needs to be said to win the job? But even knowing that answer still leaves the larger question: How will he end up? And isn't that also the open ended question of our lives? Getting the job does not mean you live happily ever after. Likewise, losing the job is not the end of it all. Whatever the result of our daily dramas, the journey continues. Radcliffe knows what he needs to do and is working hard to pull it off. That's what defines him, not whether he wins or loses. Not an ending for some, to be sure, but for me, that feeling of suspension is exactly what I was after.
Next up in the Winter of Different Directions podcast is the title story: "Winter of Different Directions."
Thanks for listening and reading! Subscribe, spread the word, and keep the feedback coming.
"Gas Money" is the last story I wrote for the Winter of Different Directions collection. And because every story in the collection had been worked on at Carkeek Park in north Seattle—usually at this picnic table . . .
I decided to set the majority of the story at the park.
I do my best writing outdoors in a natural setting. Over time Carkeek Park became a kind of talisman for my writing. Every time I was stuck on a story I'd go to the park, hike through the woods down to the beach, and end up at what became my favorite park bench to write first drafts and revisions and make edits. Every story page in the collection has spent time on the burnished wood of this picnic table.
The Story Behind the Story . . . is that one day when I was at the park revising "Fresh Sludge" a beat-up old panel van parked nearby and a scroungy guy set up a manual typewriter at another picnic table. He spent a couple of hours pecking away and stuffing whatever he was typing into manilla envelopes (undoubtedly submissions to literary journals). He was still going at it when I left. Although I didn't start working on the story for a couple of weeks, I knew right then that I would write a story about that guy and his typewriter.
I have a couple of different versions of a story called "Fly-by-night" that is about a landscaper who has a habit of skipping town. Neither of those stories are included in Winter, but you can listen to the short-short version over on my podcast and readings page. Some of Radcliffe's—Mr. Gas Money—back story can be found in "Fly-by-night." I toyed with the idea of giving this character the novel treatment, but more likely it will be a series of linked stories, with the longer version of "Fly-by-night" as the beginning followed by "Gas Money" and one or two other stories showing his later exploits.
As with most of the stories in the collection, "Gas Money" has an open ending and reflects my ongoing attempts to resist explicit closure in short fiction. Thus at the end the story you don't know for certain whether he got the job or not. The aesthetic at work here is that the journey is more important than the destination. Radcliffe is at the bottom. The point of the story is not whether he makes it off the bottom, but what actions does he take, what character does it take, to do so. By withholding the answer to the most obvious question posed by the story, I mean to turn the reader back into the story to seek from the sequence (the journey) their own interpretation. What traits has he shown? He's on the precipice of a defining moment. Already made a break from his old patterns by admitting his situation to the bank manager. What do you think? Will he say what needs to be said to win the job? But even knowing that answer still leaves the larger question: How will he end up? And isn't that also the open ended question of our lives? Getting the job does not mean you live happily ever after. Likewise, losing the job is not the end of it all. Whatever the result of our daily dramas, the journey continues. Radcliffe knows what he needs to do and is working hard to pull it off. That's what defines him, not whether he wins or loses. Not an ending for some, to be sure, but for me, that feeling of suspension is exactly what I was after.
Next up in the Winter of Different Directions podcast is the title story: "Winter of Different Directions."
Thanks for listening and reading! Subscribe, spread the word, and keep the feedback coming.
Labels: Winter of Different Directions
