Looking into the Ark

Looking into the Ark
After the Philistines returned the Ark of the Covenant, several people looked inside and died. My first thoughts were that this is what happens to an employee, a member of a political party, or a team member who questions the ethos and morals of the organisation; they are ostracised or fired. Then I noticed a comment in the newspaper that a head transplant would be possible within ten years and the Bible story took on a more important lesson. Let's assume we have a student who has applied for assisted suicide at a time when the head of a Stephen Hawkins; a twenty two year old soccer star, for whom his English team have paid a million pounds; a millionaire in America; or the director of a Polit Bureau in Russia, all need a body and make up your own mind about the outcome. It takes morality into the financial arena. If we accept head transplant, what will this be the harvest of this whirlwind? The murder of those sleeping in the street or the sale of children in a return of the days of the body snatchers? So the real lesson is that, when it comes to morality, there are no free lunches. Adultery sacrifices loyalty, murder sacrifices security (if it's all right for one person to do it, they justify for them to be murdered) etc. etc.

Losing the Ark

After Ruth, the Israelite story shifts to Eli, the prophet, and his son’s. The sons are abusing their father’s power and Eli is warned there will be consequences, not for his person but his family and his reputation. This is one of the incidents that make me think the Bible is not just for the church but for all of us and for our daily and  business lives; a precursor of Aesop and his moral fables. The lesson here is that the stigma of a misuse of power, even a dishonourable deed, not only affects the perpetrator but their parents and clings to a family for at least another generation. In the case of Eli’s sons, it affected the war with the Philistines; even bringing their most miraculous artefact, the Ark of the Covenant, didn’t save them, in fact, they lost the Ark. That brings a warning for business managers, executives and owners that dishonest trading kills a business for years. Individuals and even governments that promise things they cannot produce will suffer consequences, not only for the moment but in the future.  Not only that, their actions will enhance the reputation of those they cheat, their rivals, making them appear victims.

Enough is not enough

The story of Samuel begins with his mother Hannah and her rivalry with Peninnah the other wife of Elkanah. Hannah was childless and ridiculed by Peninnah. Peninnah was doing her job and bearing children. Elkanah saw Hannah's job as just loving him but she wanted more. She took a risk and, in return for children, dedicated Samuel to work for the community. (I am assuming working for the church is community service.) Peninnah is not mentioned again and the heroine of this episode is Hannah, why? Because she was prepared to do more than just her job, or the job Elkana alloted her. The tale is one of those repetitions of the maxim that, to succeed, you must do more than your job. We all know who Hanna's god was. The god of a business is sales profit and a business will fail if it only just satisfies the current needs of its customers; someone else will give better service, a cheaper price,or a slightly better product and any organisation must be constantly looking for a better way to do things. If your god is promotion, there are other people 'doing their job' and to satisfy your god you need to do more than that. If your god is job satisfaction, just staying in a boring but safe job won't work for you, you need to take a risk.
There is a spin-off in the tale - while Hannah was praying, Eli the priest thought she was drunk - don't judge the book by its cover is what fills the bill there. Don't assume, because the Bible is used by the church,that it has no messages about living, business and personal relationships for others. It is the original self help book.

Historical plots for short stories

Historical tales is in my genre and I was delighted to find Writing Magazine's next competition was for just that. Now I need a plot line that meets the editors requirements of:-

Something forewarned about. A menace that hangs over the protagonist. The bomb is set to explode in ten minutes but the disarmer doesn't know and is being deliberate. The tsunami is coming to the beach. He's trying to make a big sale but doesn't know he'll be made redundant if he fails. 

A ticking clock. A deadline to meet or a delivery to make before the closing time for the contract, or the organ being transported dies.

High stakes. I doubt if the type of high stake that Bertie Wooster experiences would qualify. I assume it is life or death type of thing. Maybe an important job interview, or getting Brexit done or stopped.

A moral dilemma. Should the sniper fire when he knows the armistice is due in ten minutes? Should he keep the money and let his pal take the blame? Should she marry for money or love?

Complications. Brexit has to get through parliament. The new job would mean moving away from his elderly parents. He's Moslem and her parents are staunch Christians. Is he marrying her just to get a passport? 

Hero/Villain dynamic. Normally the people would know each other. Two boxers in the ring or two political candidates. It doesn't need to be two people it can be someone trying to stop a runaway train.  

Now where do I find a historical tale that will fit all that? David and Goliath maybe. Harold at the battle of Stamford Bridge with William the Conqueror ready to invade. A pacifist Campbell at Glencoe. Someone on the Titanic or the Hindenburg. One of the Scots in the English army at Bannockburn.A submarine captain looking at a hospital ship he's been told carries tanks. That's the list started and beginning to move but I need to give it more thought. 

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Ruth's new job

Looking deeper into Ruth’s story, up till now, the stories have been about leaders and a growing or already large organisation but this story comes down to employee level. It’s a tale of someone joining a new company. Ruth makes the change successfully because she embraces the new culture without reservation. Not only that, she takes advice from an old member of the culture, her mother-in-law, Naomi. The lesson is that when someone changes jobs, they should buy into the new culture and not hanker after how it was elsewhere. It’s the same with relationships, none of which is perfect, and comparing the new relationship with an old romance only serves to highlight shortcomings in the new one, while romanticising the old. It’s better to enjoy a new partner’s scones than tell them they’re not as good as Mother made.

That is not to say it is wrong to suggest changes in a new situation but they must be made using the culture of the new one and not seem to challenge it. Of course, if the new culture doesn’t accept suggestions, keep quiet, that’s the culture!

What about Naomi? She didn’t try to hold Ruth tight and keep her to herself but urged her to explore the relationship with Boaz; a relationship which would elevate Ruth to at least her equal. In the end that relationship would produce David, then Solomon and his wisdom. How that worked out teaches us that we should not be afraid of helping those who are our juniors to climb the corporate ladder or become stars in the team, they may take the company, or the team, to greater heights.

Horsemeat in the trenches

I was about to start on the horse flesh idea I listed for a Writers' Magazine competition and thinking of where the story starts, which is not always at the beginning but where the dramatic question is postulated. For a short story of 1500 words it would need to be close to the time the soldiers were 'going over the top'. That would have the cook thinking he had at least given them a good meal and go into backstory to set up the sadness when only half came back. There were other possibilities but, as I turned them over, I realised there was a lot more in the story and to build the characters properly it would need more than 1500 words. I'd want the colonel to come and, like Forester's General, stir things up. The increased activity would get people killed and the men against him. He might even get one or two shot for cowardice. There is the cook's reaction to trench food and his decision to join the catering corps. The General would have to replace all the old lieutenants, reluctant to risk the lives of men they had been with for months, with new ones who were gung ho and wanting to make a name. There is the sergeants' reaction and so much more to explore that it would take maybe 40,000 words or more to do the thing justice. With that, the story has gone on the back burner with several other ideas. In actual fact, I'm not keen on writing about the trenches and much prefer the German South West Africa (now Namibia) and German East Africa (Tanzania) campaigns (starting in King or Kaiser and Shadows in the Veldt) with the movement that allowed characters to develop. I need to finish the 1820 story but then I am going back to put Koos, the coloured man mistaken for white by the recruiting office, back into Intelligence.

www.sullatoberdalton.com/pen-sullatober

Writing to a style

I've talked about the short story competitions in Writing Magazine several times but have yet to give it a try. The trouble is, I've other things to write up and there's no point in submitting an entry that isn't in the style of what wins. By style I don't mean just the length of the paragraphs or sentences but the real ethos of the thing. I have a check list for analysing short stories but what it can't do is give the feeling of a typical story. Again, the stories may have different scenes and outcomes but they will have a feel about them that is quite distinctive when you get a handle on it. Like any magazine, to find that ethos, I find it is necessary to read a number of their stories and to read them one after another, and maybe even several times. To send them the best story I've ever written without doing that is just a waste of time. I suppose what I want to find is the magazine's voice. Anyway, the latest competitions are for Historical Fiction and another with an open subject so maybe I'll do my homework and give it a try.

www.sullatoberdalton.com/pen-sullatober