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“You enter the extraordinary by way of the ordinary.” ~Frederick Buechner
Betta’s Song Book Launch
Family,
Faith, Mystery, Courage, Choices, Action and Adventure.
When bandit soldiers raid eleven-year-old
Narah’s village, she finds herself abandoned except for toddler Jael. While
attempting to reach her uncle in the next town, they are found by foreign Suman
soldiers who send them to a hostile household as servants.
Can Narah overcome her fear enough to uncover
hidden secrets and reach out to help others, including her enemies? Will her
compassion for others, her desire to be reunited with her grandmother, and her
growing faith in the Most High God be enough to sustain her through her trials?
E-book. Ages 8-12
Available now on Amazon: Marcy Weydemuller
Click on the cover and go straight to Amazon.
Hope you enjoy her story. If so, please take a few minutes to post a review, or
a star rating, or both. Thanks!
Read Deep
Marcy
Write with Impact
 Albert Einstein said, “When
I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the
gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing knowledge.”
Einstein called his imagination “a holy
curiosity.”
Mythic mystery absorbs this concept of holy curiosity
combined with awe.
“Manna—what
is it?” Israel asked, mystified by the flaky fiber carpeting the earth,
surrounding their camp.
“Bread from
the Lord,” Moses replied. Gather as much as each needs, an omer apiece only,
one day at a time.
They did not, could not, recognize
the substance. They struggled to comprehend it, classify it, cook it. Food from
heaven. Fare of the angels.
Mythic mystery creates a sense of yearning ‘awe’ that
ignites a heart hunger. It combines a search for answers as well as a
willingness to just absorb the beauty and questions left behind.
Science has given us detailed explanations of why the sun
rises and sets. Yet the causes do not affect the unique beauty of each one
spreading its palette of design across the heavens every day.
Jane Yolen refers to folklore as “constantly transforming and being transformed, putting on chameleon
like, the colors of its background.” So despite the familiarity, the story
is always new and unique.
The lure of a mystery is present in all genres due to the
main story question. If we are hooked at the beginning we will read, even
through dull sections, determined to find the end’s answer. Chapter endings,
scene endings need to leave us with that pause of ‘will she or won’t she
succeed or fail’. The books and movies that keep us wondering breathe that
mystery thread with both multiple possibilities and/or multiple questions.
When we add and weave a mythic thread of mystery’s awe into
our stories, then we can also leave a lingering sense of yearning and a ‘holy
curiosity’ that fuels our soul language as well. We write with deeper impact
and significance. Like a light breeze causes us to pause, mythic mystery leaves
a catch in our throat.
Share: What aspect
of nature continues to fill you with awe?
Read deep,
marcy
Write with Impact
 “Myths are narrative
patterns that give significance to our existence.” Rollo May
Why do we need myth? What exactly is it?
According
to one google search, myth is defined as:
“1.
a
traditional story, esp. one concerning the early history of a people or
explaining some natural or social phenomenon, and typically involving
supernatural beings or events.
2.
a widely held but false belief or idea.”
How
to reconcile two seemingly opposite concepts? The Bible itself is filled with
stories under the first category and yet there are also a few verses warning
against myths as lies.
Rollo May says that, “A
myth is away of making sense in a senseless world.” Perhaps that is where
the crunch comes—what makes sense in one situation can be a serious threat in
another and seen as senseless.
Yet when we study myth under the first definition above we
find ourselves building bridges of understanding between a different world and
our world. We begin to see with a new perspective. A perspective that drives
from a heart/soul story truth rather than a formal legal rule.
Like wisdom literature or love, myths speak across time and
across cultures in fresh and ever changing language. It encompasses mystery and yearning, truth and hope, imagination and creativity
in myriad possibilities.
Mythic literature refers to stories that have been handed
down from generation to generation, orally and finally in print. They include
proverbs, parables, wisdom stories, creation, family heritage, cultural, songs,
fairy tales, and folktales.
According to Rebecca J. Lukens the term ‘traditional’ or
‘folk literature’ expresses the universality of human wishes and needs. “Folktales have been called the ‘spiritual
history’ of humankind, the ‘cement of society,’ binding a culture together.”
Whether we recognize it or not myth plays an integral part
in our lives. As writers when we can tap into its qualities we are able to
write our stories with deeper impact, regardless of genre. Sometimes myth will
drive the entire narrative and sometimes it will add only a few spices. However
it’s premise of soul language has the capacity to add significance whenever it
is used.
Over the next few weeks we’ll take a close look at mythic
characteristics to see how they can help us build our stories and write with
impact.
Share: What mythic
story has impacted you?
Read deep,
marcy
Sample Movie Deconstruction
(4A)
 “A Turning Point is
like a cliffhanger—a moment when the story is taken in a new direction and we
wonder what will happen next.” Victoria Lynn Schmidt. Ph.D.
Each point has a goal a purpose, to catch the viewer or
reader up into the atmosphere and conflict. If done well it catches us
unawares. We might think we know where the story is going but the shift changes
everything. The person is not who we thought. The danger is nearer. The
betrayer is a loved one.
However these points also need to connect to the seeds
planted in the very beginning. Rosenfeld says the purpose of the beginning is
to lay a foundation, pull “the reader
into the action of the significant situation”, and “create a sense of mystery or suspense by withholding information.”
Here are the rest of my turning shifts from the first
episode of Firefly that I shared last
week. I’ve marked in bold the pieces that sparked a mystery for me.
Eight) Dining area—meet passengers
Meals—comment made “here to judgment day”
Nine) Mole discovered
on board
Ten) Callie shot
Eleven) Argument—establishes himself as captain. I don’t
ever remember anyone saying his name. (Reynolds)
Twelve) Reevers—fear evident
Thirteen) Whitefall—land
is desert setting/old West echo/shoot-out
Ambush
Fourteen) Reevers attack on planet—saved barely
Fifteen) Close—offers to let the doctor stay on board
despite being a fugitive
“still flying means a
good day”
Journal Prompt:
1.
Look at the focus point of each shift you noted in the last journal prompt and
write next to it what characteristics echo back to the beginning scene you’ve journaled
out?
Share: Which of my
above creates the most curiosity for you in this sequence? What does it make
you want to know?
 “Location is the crossroads of circumstance, the proving ground of
‘What happened? Who’s here? Who’s coming?’ –and that is the heart’s field.” Eudora Welty
Although all four stories in Central Park Rendezvous are guided by the same three key details:
letters, a coin and a bridge, they each develop the story mystery with
completely different emphasis.
The contemporary, Dream
a Little Dream by Ronie Kendig, combines two mysteries, a personal one as
the main characters begin to understand each other, and a ‘What Happened’ as
they try to unravel a missing person from forty years ago.
In Dineen Miller’s A
Love Meant To Be, mis-understanding, jealousy, and interference crush hope
in two lives. Can the scattered jigsaw pieces of circumstances and fear fit
into a whole new beginning?
To Sing Another Day,
by Kim Vogel Sawyer tackles “Who’s here?’ as both main characters try to
unravel their mystery with crumb size clues. She can’t understand why someone
who left her is such despair is now bringing gifts. Or is it someone else? He
can’t bear watching her struggle without faith. Can he really help or is he
making the situation worse?
Mary Lu Tyndall, battles with truth and honesty in lives
torn apart by war in Beauty For Ashes. An
honorable man gradually uncovers the secrets kept hidden under selfish desires and
realizes the trap before him. So he prays for time. And waits at the bridge to
see who is coming.
All plausible abodes. All everyday common. And all touched
by translucence when hearts allow love to breathe metaphor and maps and memory
and mystery throughout their stories.
Journal Prompt:
In
your novel look for your bridge (a specific recurring location), your letter
(information) and your coin (a valued keepsake). Write up a history question
for them in three time stages, either over a past year, or decade or longer.
And/or write up a future mystery thread for them to play into—again with three
time frames.
Share: Which one
was the hardest to capture? Which the most fun?
Create With Mystery
“On the contrary, the
world where this Joy happens is as full of darkness as our own world, and that
is why when it happens it is as poignant as grief and can bring tears to our
eyes.” Frederick Buechner
Seeds of mystery by even minor characters can add an extra
layer of atmosphere to the overall story world you are building. Sometimes the
mini-sequences can pack a strong emotional jolt just because they are a brief
close-up.
There is an excellent example in the novel The Crystal Scepter by C.S. Lakin. Every year, to a combination of
disgust and fear by the inhabitants, the trolls visit the poor fishing village
that Perth lives in. This year however, Perth finds he must face them and hopes
to stave off their rage long enough to retrieve a stolen item.
Perth finds that everything horrid about them matches his information.
Yet on the other hand they wore “shreds
of clothing in a hodgepodge fashion,” and one wore dozens of necklaces.
They spoke his language, much to his astonishment. And their conversation
became stranger and stranger.
Perth stood
listening in disbelief. Carrying on about tea and crumpets? These trolls were
odder than he ever imagined. ‘I could get you some clotted cream,’ he offered
without thinking.”
When the truth about the trolls comes to light, it brings tears as to
what happened to them; admiration for their determination to hold on to their
heart truths, and a recognition that light can exist even in the darkest
moments. And touches of laughter as they wrestled with the good and evil battle
they were forced to face.
For Perth, their brief encounter became another
stepping-stone forward to decisions he needed to make and strength to face his
own battle with darkness.
Journal Prompt:
Buechner also says that “Good
and evil meet and do battle in the fairy tale world much as they meet and do
battle in our world, but in fairy tales the good live happily ever after.”
How can this concept be applied to the genre you are working
it. What have you read that would fit this description?
Share: The story
where this works.
 Even if we don’t write mystery novels, all novels have a
sense of mystery or the lure of what will happen next. And like a mystery
novel, if a situation, a question or a particular detail is brought to the
reader’s attention it needs to be addressed with a sense of closure. Or we risk
losing credibility with a reader. Especially if it has been given a build-up.
In a recent discussion with a sci-fi and fantasy reader over
the movie John Carter, I was really
surprised at how much he disliked it. But as we talked though what worked and
what didn’t it all came down one main criterion: a mystery thread that didn’t
get answered. Now perhaps in the book series it was an ongoing thread to carry
from one book to another, but in the movie for this one viewer the ball got
dropped.
I remembered the scene and yes, I wondered too, but decided
perhaps the main purpose was characterization as it showed the determination of
the heroine to save her planet and a villain out to sabotage. It annoyed me too,
but I was drawn more to the actual overall world building so it didn’t ruin the
movie for me. But my reader friend waited the whole movie expecting an answer
to why it was so important and instead the closure to that situation was never
explained.
There’s a saying know as Chekhov’s gun that is a reference
to a note he wrote in a letter, which is now used as an example of
foreshadowing.
Just so,
the movie never explained why Dejah, Princess of Helium, expected the large
machine to save her people and city from the Zodanga.
Journal Prompt:
Take a look at your first few chapters and see if there is a
prop that could become a foreshadow for a main plot point, or a sub-plot point.
How far could you stretch the highlight before it becomes interference rather than a
positive thread?
Share: What is a
movie you feel never gave a satisfying closure to mystery threads it began
with?
 The lure of a mystery is present in all genres due to the
main story question. If we are hooked at the beginning we will read, even
through dull sections, determined to find the end’s answer. Chapter endings,
scene endings need to leave us with that pause of ‘will she or won’t she
succeed or fail’. The books and movies that keep us wondering breathe that
mystery thread with both multiple possibilities and/or multiple questions.
The movie Shag
keeps several story lines as bait.
For the trip itself, we are introduced to each girl leaving
in the car, two by choice, one by stealth and one reluctantly so our first
questions are why the hesitation and will they get away. Then will they caught
when they head for a different place? If they get caught what will the
consequences be? To everyone or just those whose property has been ruined? Each
step of the trip requires a choice and each choice has unforeseen consequences
that keep the reader wondering.
Another thread of questions lies in character discovery.
With each girl acting a little out of character we begin to wonder if everyone
is not what he or she seem to be. What are the hidden agendas? Which parts are
masks and which parts are real? Sometimes the characters themselves aren’t sure
which adds even more suspense. Or are others misunderstanding what they see?
Journal Prompt: On
a recent TV series one of the main characters is caught by some incriminating photographs
that become publicized as an affair and yet in reality are not. Put your character
is a compromising situation, and then list three to five alternative reasons
that she is there. Choose the one that will require the most confusion as to
why or the one with the most costly consequences.
Share: What movie
or novel kept you on the edge of your seat until the final page?
 Questions are hardwired into us from the time we grasp
communication. Spend a day with a toddler and the main conversation is
surrounded around “Why?” And knowing the answer can still be insufficient.
“How” often comes next.
The mystery genre takes the desire to uncover motives
ranging from a cozy pleasant afternoon adventure of “who, when, and where” to complicated psychological puzzles.
The mystery writer must plan out every detail to hold the story’s interest.
However other genres need the curious just as much. The clues become imbedded
in the plot.
Wrong turns, false trails and coincidental characters are
the enticement that we follow like breadcrumbs to find the answer. “What” will happen next?
When we create with mystery regardless of genre, we add an
additional layer of depth to our storyline. Even if we know, or think we know,
the outcome we’re more than willing to engage in the adventure. We are ready to
discover the path that gets us from here to there. And the more tangled the
better.
For example, in the movie Penelope, the diligent journalist Lemon follows his clues
thoroughly. All his primary facts are right. However since his assumptions are
slightly off kilter they not only mislead him but also his co-characters and the
audience. In addition the error creates a long thread of subplot points adding
to the story tension and resolution. At each junction the lure “why” creates
more curiosity. When finally the beginning situation is revealed all the
threads unravel into a clear understanding.
Journal Prompt:
It’s not only mysteries that can provide red herrings.
Choose a conversation your protagonist has with someone important to her. Now
take each line of conversation and choose a way it could be misunderstood. Do a silly, comedic version and a serious
confrontational version.
Choose the one that best fits your theme. Plot out a
sequence of decisions that could result from that error in communication. Can
you incorporate them as tension points in your novel?
Share: Share a
movie or a novel that when the twist came you couldn’t believe you didn’t
recognize it. And it fit perfectly into the story.
 “I suddenly understood
that photography can fix eternity in a moment.” Henri Cartier-Bresson
Looking at life close-up, or from a different perspective
than everyday normal, can add a dimension of awe and wonder. The ordinary becomes mysterious. We
begin to examine the intricacy of the moment. A snowflake, a sunrise, a
fingerprint—all one of a kind in a world teeming with creation.
Studying a craft we fall in love with gives a lifetime of
moments. Sometimes it becomes a vocation. A puzzle to solve—a medical
breakthrough—a window into a person’s life or character—all breathing with hope
and possibilities.
In the movie Hugo the
young boy quietly and desperately tries to unravel the mystery of the automaton
his father discovered. Its repair began as a mutual bond between them and now
Hugo feels he must complete it as the last connection with his father. He is
certain he will discover a message in it. He alternates between fascination and
frustration as he applies his growing skill to unravel the mystery behind it.
However the mystery is not his alone, but involves others
and their personal stories. The circle widens. The mystery is not something
fixable like his machine, but needs interpersonal healing of memories and new
beginnings. When the answer finally comes it produces so much more than Hugo or
his father or the automaton’s creator could ever imagine.
A message that gathers many moments and gives a glimpse of
eternity’s awe.
Journal Prompt:
1. What
creative ability does your character turn to for discovery and study?
2 How
can the qualities of either the craft itself, or the skills your character uses
be implemented into your plot?
 Why do tiny fish come out to feed in the fog? And why is everyone afraid of them and hide indoors? In the Doctor Who series version of A Christmas Carol, their beauty charms the Doctor as they swim around lamplights reminiscent of Dickens time. Shortly after he discovers the real threat, the giant sharks that come down out from the clouds to feed and will swallow the Doctor if possible. They are guided by a radio signal so when the Doctor manages to disengage it, not only can the shark not return to the clouds, but also is dying because it swallowed the Doctor’s screwdriver. Now he must discover a way to save the shark along with the other crisis plot lines. Unraveling one mystery keeps opening the door to another. It’s fun for this science fiction, but also points out the lure of discovery that all why and how questions can generate. And even more amazing are the mysteries and discoveries of science and nature in our own very real earth. Reading Just A Second from the library had both myself and five-year-old grandson amazed at what humans, animals, earth, universe, plants and much more are capable of in one second, one minute, one hour, or one day. For example, “a howler monkey’s deafening scream travels 1,125 feet” in one second. What might that look like in a traditional cozy mystery where after hearing the screams odd things happen in a small town. Or that in one minute “A skydiver in freefall plunges two miles.” What if your heroine is forced to escape a plane by jumping out and is terrified of heights? Extraordinary mysteries happen all around us in creation and can provide unique ideas to our stories. We just need to approach the possibilities with a new perspective. Remember the old movie “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids” where four “inch” size children had to navigate an entire back yard? The un-mown lawn became a hazardous jungle.
Journal Prompt: 1. Look at your last indoor scene. Is there any aspect of nature/science in the setting? Or could you add some? Look at a rose in a vase. Could its perfume be deadly in some situations? Could it cause an allergic reaction, only the medication has been tampered with? 2. What about outdoors? Does your protagonist go for a morning run on a new trail; only someone reversed the open trail sign with the closed one? What danger is lurking down there, a mudslide, snakes, poison mushrooms?
 Sometimes we don’t need to search for mystery. It can happen during an ordinary day. The unexpected happens, either positively or negatively, shifting our perspective into a whole new direction. Suddenly the ground shifts out and the familiar, the foundation, is cracked opening into a world we do not know and cannot understand. Choices follow. Do we get out a flashlight and investigate the new terrain, however hesitantly, or hide away and hope the world tilts back to normal in the morning? Perhaps a little of both enables ourselves, and our characters, to cope with sudden change. In the movie Larry Crowne, when he is called into the office for a special meeting, Larry confidently expects to receive yet another employee reward. Instead he is fired for a supposed lack of education. Which is a total mystery to him. He grew up in an era when high-school education was the only requirement and work experience became the criteria for advancement and evaluation. Now none of it is considered valid? When and how did the life rules change? Or did they really? Although still in shock, Larry begins to build a new life trying to adapt to a new culture for him—college. Like a young child entering the world of kindergarten everything is a mystery. Some days are extremely difficult and bewildering. However he also embraces the unknown with curiosity, changing not only his life but also those around him—especially his worn out, jaded instructor. He finds a way to blend his past and present into a rich discovery.
Journal Prompt: Put your character in a situation where she goes with expectations for a promotion, or an engagement, or a birthday surprise party, and instead receives the opposite. How does she process the ‘mystery’ of everything so right going so wrong?
 When you’re really rushed for time, do you find yourself toe-tapping when someone gives you a long explanation? What is the point, you wonder. Racing from here to there doesn’t allow for leisurely conversation and even less for stories or riddles. Yet, what if the meandering is really an invitation to a mystery that can enrich your day, or your heart, or your soul beyond your imagination? In The Land of Darkness, by C.S. Lakin, Callen and Jadiel are running out of time. With each new clue or riddle they unravel to bring them closer to their goal comes an even more mysterious saying and confusion. Callen’s impatience grows—he wants a direct answer now. But a life-changing mystery, like a parable, needs time to uncover and even more time to discover the meaning. “Callen’s head swam with images: the king-priest buried under the terebinth, with its boughs in the heavens. The tree cut down, but sprouting again. A king returning, blowing breath into dry bones. But not the king-priest of Antolae—a different king. The boar’s words swam dizzily in his head. ….. How were all theses stories tied together? And the one image that wouldn’t come was the one he yearned for most—the bridge.” At the end of the encounter all they have is another city to travel to with even more questions that need asking.
Journal Prompt: 1. Even if you do not have a mystery in your novel choose a situation to become a mini-mystery parable with long reaching significance. 2. Pick a scene where your character is pressed for time. Make a list of possible obstacles, such as a flat tire. Have a good ‘helper’ come alongside to assist, but keeps making the situation worse. 3. Then, when your character finally reaches his goal, he realizes that the interference saved him in some way—maybe from a huge embarrassment. How does that change his perspective on his frustration?
 Thresholds as Connectors Do we open the locked door at the end of the spider-coated hallway? Are we ready to hear the words written in the old manuscripts found buried under the house? When Eve saw that the tree God had forbidden, “was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave it also to her husband with her, and he ate.” Pandora couldn’t contain her curiosity and opened the box. “Out flew every kind of disease and sickness, hate and envy, and all the bad things that people had never experienced before. Pandora slammed the lid closed, but it was too late.” Both these women were well warned before they succumbed to temptation, but what about the times there are no clear directions. We have good reason to hesitate before the unknown. When do we need courage to resist a threshold, because the consequences are beyond our control and could bring great suffering, or risk stepping into the unknown to bring light into darkness? If Lucy had not opened the door at the back of the wardrobe and discovered Narnia, she and her siblings would not have been instrumental in breaking the White Witch’s spell. By willingly entering the Beast’s palace, Belle breaks the curse. Hercule Poirot follows every lead possible until he can bring a culprit to justice. Often the clues needed to solve a mystery, bring about justice and bring the truth out begin with ordinary things and familiar words. The investigator needs the insight to see them in the right light and respect warnings when given. “..stop and look around and step forward with courage and cognizance across otherwise invisible Thresholds into Discovery.” Tim Wynne-Jones Journal Prompt: Look at the literal thresholds in your character’s daily world and choose one to explore as a figurative threshold. Think of ways they could become a life-changing threshold for your character: doors, windows, cupboards, gardens, railroads, or books.
 “Thresholds are necessary in the creative process in giving an idea somewhere to go.” Tim Wynne-Jones Change, no matter how small, can create mental and emotional chaos as you turn into a different direction, physically or emotionally. To cross a threshold though requires a choice, even if it has been forced upon you like a refugee fleeing his war torn land. All sensory memory is heightened and sharpened. It is not just the moment that is at stake, but the journey that follows it. Thresholds become part of our soul shadows as much as our physical bodies cast their shadow. And the question can linger. “Did I choose the right fork in the road?” In the movie Green Dragon Tai is forced to make a deliberate choice for himself and his newly melded family as a threshold crossing into a fresh beginning. He must face a country filled with mystery, compared to the one he left behind and probably never to return to. On the surface it is a passage of a moment. Yet it includes walking away from a place, and choosing to no longer be who he was a few minutes earlier. At first fear paralyzes him from taking that step into discovery. There have been too many changes, too many losses and disappointments. Then his American friend takes him for a drive, over the dried-up hills to investigate the small town just beyond the camp walls, just beyond sight. And he returns with a grocery bag filled with familiar foods. He returns beaming with possibility and encouragement, not only for himself but also for the other refugees. A new possibility has bridged the gulf of despair into hope. He is ready now to face mystery with anticipation and curiosity.
Journal Prompt Choose a psychological threshold that your character must face at each main stage of the novel structure categories: set-up, response, attack, and resolution. Which one has the most emotional impact? Write it up as a new scene.
 When should a personal mystery be left hidden and when must it come into the light? Buried it has the ability to harm entire lifetimes, and sometimes generations. There’s no recourse for accountability, and truth, for restoration, and healing. Yet digging it up also has the potential for emotional and psychological disaster. Perhaps the better question is why is it important, and then, what is the motive behind the hunt. Is it purely for self-satisfaction and accolades, or out of a genuine concern for another? Sometimes those lines get blurry too. In the historical romance “A Memory Between Us,” by Sarah Sundin, Major Jack Novak is determined to find out Ruth’s secret, despite her reservations and warnings from his friend Charlie. “It’s got to be big,” Charlie said. “Huh?” “With Ruth. Something about her makes me think she’s been hurt and badly.” “Nothing I can’t handle.” “Watch that pride.” Jack is falling in love with Ruth, and yet he can’t see her as clearly as Charlie does. Her secret, the mystery has become a challenge, a problem to solve. Charlie later accuses Jack of treating her as a project instead of a person. But Jack keeps pushing for an answer regardless of the consequences. And shatters Ruth’s heart even more than it already was.
Journal Prompt: 1. Put your character together with a new person that you know is going to become important in his life, whether as a friend, or mentor, or lover. What about himself is he not yet ready to reveal? How does he keep avoiding the conversation when it steers that way. 2. Plot out the steps he takes towards revealing himself with this person.
 Curiosity begins before it has language to express itself. Watch an infant seeing his environment, or a toddler discovering a ladybug. Then as language expands the questions come buzzing incessantly for answers. Where are we going? How does it work? What makes the sky blue? Why? Spending a few hours with a mystery novel or movie refreshes us and feeds our natural curiosity. Not only do we take a break from our normal schedules, but also we can exercise our imagination and our deductive reasoning together. An enthralling mystery nurtures all our senses. Often we only need a title to draw us in. The movie caption, as in The Secret of Moonacre, tells us what we are to discover. Or does it? What is the secret? The answer is quite simple but the path to it is long, with twists and turns emotionally and physically. It is covered over by layers of misinformation and misunderstandings. Why did her father leave her only a battered old book? Why can she see the story when she opens it? Why does her uncle lock it away from her and refuse her access? Why is everyone so angry? The questions swarm like bees. One answer opens another and then another until she is running to escape the onslaught. And yet, she must find the answer now for herself. Her curiosity pulls her deeper and deeper.
Journal Prompt: A few weeks after an elderly relative has died, your character receives a special delivery envelope. Inside is a key, a locket, a note from her relative that says, “I’m sorry”, and an oilskin pouch containing a map of his summer home and a ink-smeared fragile letter, that is at least fifty or more years old. What happens next?
 Often when we encounter a new idea or challenge it excites us. The joy of discovery and the puzzle of understanding with insight grips our imagination. We’re eager to share our delight. Our amazement. But then another mystery follows. Others don’t find it as interesting, even those closest to us, whether personally or vocationally. Or they’re not willing to put in the time and effort necessary to comprehend all the implications. Perhaps solving the mystery is only a prelude to years of painstaking research with personal risk, as so many doctors and scientists have done to find medical cures. In the movie Avatar, after years of study the scientists make an astounding realization. They realize that the indigenous people connect within their world like a neural network. They have achieved an inter-connection between all living organic matter, which is far beyond mankind’s achievement. They rush to stop destruction, desperate to protect the people and the science. But then they face rejection and ridicule, and finally are confined to jail to get them out of the way. This mystery costs them everything. Their breath-taking words split open the wide gulf of difference between values and beliefs. Journal Prompt: Your character has discovered a truth that can bring healing to mind, soul or body. How does he communicate that discovery? How does he react when others reject his gift of life?
 Mystery opens a trail into questions. It catches us sideways with curious glimpses. When we’re too busy or pre-occupied to notice, it often nudges a little harder, or makes us stop a moment to consider a possibility. In the Season Five of Doctor Who the story thread of a crack in the universe (that erases memory) takes a backseat among all the chaos and adrenalin in continuing episodes. Yet in each one, following its introduction, somewhere The Doctor manages to ask, “Do you remember what was in your room when we first met?” Or suddenly he’ll hesitate, look quizzical, then murmurs, “Why don’t you remember?” He doesn’t expect an actual answer and his companion regards him clearly confused as to why he is even asking such strange things, especially now in the middle of dire threats. But it makes the audience remember, and we sit up, take notice, mull the possibilities, and come up with more questions. It must mean something but what? What does it have to do with this episode? Where’s the connection? The storyline here is completely different. Or is it? When the finale comes at season’s end we discover the intricate puzzle woven throughout and that all the pieces fit perfectly. And then I wonder how many people were prepared? And can it come back again? What other thread throughout the series will re-surface? Journal Prompt: Whether you’ve watched the series or not, make a list of causes that could create such a crack in the universe. Approach it from different perspectives such as science or history, legend or architecture. Play with at least three different threads and set up cause and effect scenarios.
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