
The Story Begins
My name is Quentin, but my friends from the nest call me Q. I was named after my father’s great, great, GREAT grandfather. He came to this country from France, and now he’s hailed as a hero in our family.
As the story goes, he and his lady friend left Paris to escape a dangerous gang called Les Rats. If he hadn’t had the brains and the courage to get on that ship, the both of them would have been eaten alive. It would have been bye-bye Monet family… and none of us would be here today.
I was born on Houston Street, in NoHo, but my family wandered a lot while I was growing up so there was no real place we called home. When my parents were killed – by an exterminator – my sister and I settled down in this cool little crib on 4th Avenue.
Tenants came, and tenants went, and it always seemed to work out for us. My sister (Star) and I lived quietly by day, and the tenants never failed to leave us delicious crumbs for the night. Sadly, after Joe and Lisa Gregory moved out – nearly a year ago – the place stayed empty.
The talk in the alley was that some new guy bought the building and then he jacked the rent up too high. Nobody was willing to pay it. The place was nice and all, but not THAT nice. Star and I had no choice… we had to start packing up. All of our rations were gone.
As I was running to-and-fro, making sure I’d left nothing behind, I heard a key rattle in the door. I scurried to the peephole and caught a glimpse of the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. She left the door open and came in and out, carrying boxes, cleaning supplies, and then a stool.
Before I could scuttle off to tell Star, the young lady began to sing and spin… her skirt twirling in the air. And there I was, safely behind my peephole… with a front row seat!
As the woman spun, my mind spun – in English and in French (although I know very little) – and suddenly everything I’d ever been taught about being unseen (or unheard) escaped me.
“Bonjour, Mademoiselle!” I squeaked.
TO BE CONTINUED
Working through the Plot
I thought it would be fun to get two different perspectives for this story… the woman and the mouse. I figured it was only fair (and maybe more interesting) to hear from Q first, since he’s lived in NoHo longer. And since I’m working my way through SIX elements, I may end up with twelve mini-parts to this story… but we’ll just see how it goes.
The elements I’ve been looking at, that I’ll be working on through this story, are as follows:
- The Beginning (Exposition): Establishes characters and setting.
- The Inciting Incident: an event that puts the main character(s) into a challenging situation – where the movement of the story begins.
- Rising Action: Where most of the conflict takes place, which is a major part of the story.
- The Dilemma: This is where things get harder. It can be a twist in the story, an additional challenge, or the time when an important decision must be made.
- The Climax: The big moment… where most of the tension is contained.
- The End (Resolution): Where things get resolved and all goes back to normal, or to the next level… a new normal.
So, I’ve made my way through the first element, the beginning. Yay! but we may repeat the beginning just a tad while we hear from the woman. She has no name yet, but we’ll soon be introduced!
I’ve never sat down to organize a story (I’m not very organized at all!), so this is NEW to me. I’m hoping to learn a great deal about writing as I stay focused on the “P” word, PLOT.
I also wanted to keep things moving through the alphabet – so that explains our character “Q.” Ha! That being said, I’ll see if I can progress through the letter “R” in Part II of the story.
Thanks so much for reading, and for being here as I learn! I hope you’ve enjoyed, and that you found some entertainment, amusement or maybe something new that you didn’t know.
See you soon,
-Janet