The Story Around the Corner

True story. So, I was vacationing in North Carolina this past summer and I went to visit my friend and critique partner Donna Ball one day (I wrote about Donna in an early post titled “Partners in Crime.”) Donna lives in Rabun County, Georgia, roughly an hour’s drive from where I was staying. I left early in the morning, planning to arrive midmorning for an early lunch and a day of brainstorming. After typing the address into my GPS app, I set out. It was a beautiful day. The drive was scenic, although the scenery didn’t resemble what I remembered from my previous trip to Donna’s. I figured the nice GPS lady must be taking me on an alternate route from the one I’d taken before. Relax and enjoy the views, I told myself. What could go wrong?

Famous last words.

You see, I’m cursed with directional dyslexia. It runs in my family. The Goudge women are famous for taking wrong turns. Or, in some instances, going forward instead of backwards. My mom once drove her car through a store window after shifting her gear into forward instead of reverse.

I didn’t realize I was going in the ENTIRELY wrong direction until I arrived at the address and saw an unfamiliar house with a sign posted in front that read A HERO LIVES HERE. Well, I love my friend, and to me she’s a hero, but I knew she hadn’t served in the military, nor was she a healthcare provider working the front lines during the pandemic. That was when I took a closer look at my Mapquest app and saw the route I’d taken had led me to the right address but in the wrong state. I was still in North Carolina, many miles east from my intended destination. It seemed I hadn’t looked carefully at the dropdown menu of options after I typed the address into Mapquest (nor the signs that aren’t prominently posted along the back roads route I’d taken). There were several addresses listed that matched Donna’s. Only one of them was in Georgia, however.

It was another three hours before I finally arrived at Donna’s. I had phoned ahead to let her know I’d be delayed. We had a good laugh over my boneheaded mistake after I arrived. I enjoyed the lovely lunch Donna cooked and we spent the rest of the day talking, brainstorming, and walking her dogs.

I could choose to see this a sad statement about my personal failings. But I’m a writer, so I see it differently. Because for writers it’s hardly ever a total wash after we get lost or turned around or even when we slip on Life’s Banana Peel and take a fall. In the words of the late Nora Ephron, “It’s all copy.”

A wrong turn, a negative encounter with someone else, a disappointment in life or love, can provide inspiration for story ideas. A wrong turn that takes us on an unexpected journey is just another blank page on which a story is to be written. We writers thrive on the unexpected. It’s the oxygen to our craft.

The sign I’d seen posted outside the wrong house at the right address? It became the title of the short story I’m working on, “A Hero Lives Here.” It had me wondering who did live there and what their story might be. A kernel of an idea sprouted and months later, a story grew from it. I’m about halfway done and loving it. I hope you will too.

I may not always know where I’m going, but when it comes to story ideas my sense of direction is true.