It Takes True Grit to Make up Family Tall Tales

By Terry Spear

While researching my own family tree, I teased my friend about her husband’s last name, Cogburn.  Was he related to Deputy Marshal Reuben J. “Rooster” Cogburn, portrayed in the movie, True Grit, and played by John Wayne?  “Oh, yes,” my friend assured me.  “My husband was indeed related to the deputy marshal, but he was really a mean ol’ cuss, and not half as good as depicted in the movie.”  We both lived just a few miles from Fort Smith, Arkansas where the story took place, so I never doubted her husband’s sincerity.  Fascinated, I dug into his claim and found this: Arkansas native, Charles Portis, wrote the novel, True Grit, which was first published as a serialized story in the Saturday Evening Post in 1868. Good ol’ Rooster Cogburn really was a combination of several marshals that had served under the hanging judge, Judge Isaac Parker!  Poor Vonda.  Her husband isn’t truly related to the “famous” deputy marshal, but he’s a great teller of tall tales!

Writing THE Story

by Terry Spear

Begin at the beginning.  I was born in 1901 and…

Okay, so maybe not quite the beginning of the character’s life, but start at the beginning of the dramatic change to the character’s life.  Take SEIGE ON PRECINCT 13.  In the beginning, the hero is a cop, doing a cop job, and his partners are gunned down because of the decisions he made.  Everything was fine before this.  He was doing his job.  Life was simple.  That, we don’t want to hear about.  It’s how he resolves to handle his life from now on that’s interesting.  How he changes from being a washed-up cop to someone who’s dealt with the harsh realities of his job, and overcome.

So begin the story with a change to the character’s life.  Give him or her a goal.  Give them a realistic motivation for wanting to accomplish the goal.  Then throw roadblocks in the way. 

Progressing along, we come to the middle.  The character must continue to grow, to deal with setbacks, to set new goals for himself as the situation requires, or continue along the same path.  Throw in more conflict, more problems.  New twists and turns help to prevent the sagging middle.

The dark moment.  The moment when the character gives up, doesn’t want to live, doesn’t want the girl, feels hopeless and helpless and can’t accomplish the goal no matter what it is or how hard he tries. 

And then the climax.  What we’ve all been waiting for.  A satisfying, not necessarily happily ever after ending, but one that we can sit back and think, wow, now that was some story.  I wish I’d written that.  One that we ponder on long after we’ve finished the book.