Image Credits:-
Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos. AI images avoided. Screenshots were taken by me, Allison Symes.
There is a lot of truth in the old sayings. One which immediately springs to mind for this month is Ne’er cast a clout before May is out. It is always a good idea to have a coat to hand until we get into June at least! But can we use these old sayings for stories or as themes for stories? Definitely. Because these things are timeless, that will help give your stories longevity too.
This post then will explore a few sayings and suggest some thoughts on what could be done to use them for creating stories. Bear in mind too, these sayings are often open to interpretation. Also, even where they’re not, you can use them time and again for different characters and situations.
Basically, you have ready made writing prompts here. As I write a lot of short fiction, I’m always looking for ideas for characters and situations and I often do use the old sayings as a theme and/or title. They resonate with people and always will do. Writers can put that to good use.
Ne’er Cast A Clout Before May Is Out
One idea for using this saying is to use it as a theme and have a character either follow its advice and be glad to do so or, even more likely in my mind, do the exact opposite and have cause to regret it. There would be good potential for humorous stories here.
It’s Raining Cats and Dogs
If you write fantasy, you could have a literal interpretation for this one! But the general premise here is for appalling weather when it’s not expected. You could place that weather scenario in any country or any world. The story will then be based around how your characters cope with it, how does it get in the way of what they’re meant to be doing, and what they do to overcome all of that. If they don’t overcome it, what do they do instead?
A Stitch In Time Saves Nine
I’ve used the first part of this as a title in Tripping The Flash Fantastic but it also makes for a great theme. Who discovers the truth of this saying? How do they find it out? What do they end up saving? What are the consequences of that saving? The story could also imply what would have happened if someone had not acted on the saying. The saying also links to:-
For want of a nail the shoe was lost;
for want of a shoe the horse was lost;
and for want of a horse the rider was lost,
being overtaken and slain by the enemy,
all for want of care about a horse-shoe nail.
The point here is lack of attention to small details can have catastrophic consequences. Good story possibilities there, of course, but you can also make it less dramatic, even humorous, depending on what is lacking. Someone missing out a small ingredient from a cake recipe will find their cake is probably not going to turn out as they expected, for instance. What could come from that?
A stitch in time shows someone acting in time to prevent something going wrong. So there can be story ideas about who that person is, what it is they’ve spotted they need to stop going wrong, and does anything or anyone get in their way as they try to do that. Again, there can be humorous possibilities here if you have another character trying to butt in at the wrong moment.
A Fly In The Ointment
Plenty of possibilities here. Who is the fly getting in the way of your character’s “ointment”? What does your character do to get rid of the irritant here? And it can be reversed in that your character could have committed a crime, say, and the fly in their ointment is whoever it is who makes sure they don’t get away with it.
You could also write to this theme as a love story. Who is getting in the way of your character having their happy ever after?
The theme would also fit horror, sci-fi and fantasy. It boils down to something or someone getting in the way or spoiling something. That something or someone could be a monster, an alien being, a fairy godmother.
Of course, there are possibilities to be explored as to why someone wants to get in the way or spoil something in the first place. Okay for a crime tale, a detective has a clear reason to want to stop the criminal. For a love story, there could be two characters in love with a third. The two characters concerned could both feel if only the other one wasn’t around, their love would be bound to fall for them.
Actions Speak Louder Than Words
This is a great theme for showing, rather than telling and again this can cross several genres and moods of story. The actions the characters take should be understandable to the readers, though they don’t necessarily have to agree with them. I can think of some of my own characters I don’t agree with. But their actions, which definitely spoke louder than words, were understandable from the character’s perspective.
Also, I think it would pay to focus on one action. That will set consequences in motion. There will then be reactions to those consequences. There would be a lot of drama going on there.
In longer works, there would need to be more than one action. Character A does X, Character B responds by doing Y, Character A does something else in response to Y and so on. In the shorter forms of fiction, there would probably be room for just one action, one response, one result.
Barking Up The Wrong Tree
Well, as a dog owner, I was bound to pick this one, wasn’t I? Again, this theme can cross genres and is open to humour. I do enjoy setting a character up (who deserves it) who ends up barking up the wrong tree. It’s a great way to prick pomposity and bring a character down to earth with a bump. That is fun to write but I do have to show why my character deserves this treatment.
As for those who bark up the wrong tree by accident, the story would follow on by showing what they did to put this right.
Conclusion
Old sayings and proverbs are wonderful to write about and there are plenty of them. I still occasionally use my old book of proverbs and pick a theme to write to from there. It works!
Do you have a favourite proverb to write to? I enjoy seeing my characters get their comeuppance when they merit it so actions speak louder than words, with the appropriate consequences, comes into my work a lot.
But you do write to themes and topics you care about and I think it helps to make your characters and their stories more believable. To ask a reader to suspend their disbelief to read your stories, you have to give them something they can get behind.
So writing to a timeless theme makes a great deal of sense here. We all understand these themes so seeing our characters reflect them again makes sense.
Happy writing!
Related Posts:-
Read interviews with Chandler’s Ford writer Allison Symes: Part 1 and Part 2.
Read blog posts by Allison Symes published on Chandler’s Ford Today.
Never miss out on another blog post. Subscribe here:
Leave a Reply