Show Parallel Concepts

Consider the following story:

Roger is a terribly average adult. Has a job, has some friends, and when he's alone, he watches TV until he goes to bed. After a particularly exhausting day at work, he has dinner at his favorite restaurant. During the course of his meal, he gets seated next to an extremely obnoxious couple. They smell of stale weed and are talking about their recent bowel movements. Roger asks to sit elsewhere, but is told they won't move him. He decides to suck it up and orders a chicken sandwich and a bowl of clam chowder. After a half hour wait, they bring him a chicken salad sandwich and a bowl of gravy. Roger gives up and walks out on the restaurant. He never wants to eat there again.

When he gets home, Roger turns on the TV and sees three cooking shows on three different channels. Food is the last thing he wants to think about, so he shuts it down and calls up his friends. It turns out that everybody has plans this night and nobody can hang out with him or even have a chat. Roger ends up sitting alone, seriously upset that none of his friends could even take a few minutes to listen to him vent. He never wants to talk to them again.

A week later, and Roger has neither eaten at the restaurant, nor talked to his friends. He happens to be walking by the restaurant and the manager sees him. The manager recognizes Roger as a regular and says that he wants to thank him by giving him a meal of his choosing on the house. Roger takes the time to consider if he really wants to give the restaurant another shot. He sees the sincerity in the manager's face and decides that he doesn't want to be rude in the face of such kindness. He has a meal and it is fantastic. Despite whatever fluke the last experience was, this one was wonderful; it reminded him why he was a regular there in the first place.

During that meal, Roger's phone rings. One of his friends is calling. He thinks that maybe his friends deserve the same chance he gave the restaurant.



Parallel concepts strengthen stories tremendously. In this simple one, we see how the idea of giving something you like a second chance, no matter how upset you may get with it, can result in good things. If this was a story about a guy who had a bad restaurant experience but tried again, we would probably not care. And if this was a guy who got upset at his friends, and then got over, again it would be lame. But in this format, it is more than just these events; the story is about the principle. It is about recognizing how these two seemingly unrelated things (friends and restaurants) have commonality in the experiences with them. This can inspire readers to think about what else it can apply to, and times when they have felt similarly and acted on those feelings.

In my creative process, I usually start with one story. And I usually start with thinking of cool stuff that happens. But what makes my stories better is finding what the principles involved are and what the lesson is, and seeing what other things can be going on in the area or in the characters' lives, and tie that in. Give it a shot yourself and see what you find. What connections are there that one may not normally see?