The Bad Version Part Five: What Every Writer Must Know About Story Spelunking

Story Spelunking: Why You Can’t See the Whole Cave From the Entrance

Read Part One, Part Two, Part Three and Part Four to catch up!

Story spelunking is acknowledging that the cave your story exists in is grand and mysterious. There are chambers, crevices, nooks and crannies that aren’t necessarily apparent to you when you set out to write. Some writers keep their head lamps trained straight ahead while others are constantly searching for those nuggets of gold that might reflect back on them from the deepest reaches of their stories. I highly recommend entering this cave with an explorer’s mind.

Some of these hidden chambers will be filled with fool’s gold - the bad version of scenes, characters, etc. But some will contain diamonds in the rough.

The true nature of feeling your way through a rewrite can be overwhelming for a lot of writers. When you discover one of these chambers that contains a glimmer of a better or more interesting direction to take your story, it can be tempting to ignore this and simply move on. The story architect’s mind likes to build - and sometimes these “better” ideas require some demolition in order to make them work.

The classic quote attributed to Alan Ginsburg, “Kill your darlings,” comes to mind here. 

**Note: Gisnberg was not the originator of this statement. It was, in fact, Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch (1863–1944) who said in his essay, “On Style” (1914):

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‘Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it—whole-heartedly—and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings.’ 

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Sir Arthur’s thesis is essentially to allow for The Bad Version, to savor it even. But always have in the back of your mind the knowledge that you can improve upon it and don’t become attached to the work - despite the fact that you most likely put time, effort, blood, tears, etc into it.

The Story Dilemma: Fool’s Gold or a Hidden Diamond?

It’s this effort that can give a writer pause when rewriting. I hear this all the time: “Well I like that [new] idea, but it would require me changing these three [old] ideas.” This is a legitimate excuse to throw said New Idea away.

But sometimes - sometimes - these Old Ideas are flawed to begin with. New Ideas can fill in the cracks. 

How can we give weight to these New vs. Old ideas and, more importantly, how can we ever know when it’s worth the work put in to incorporate them? For starters, acknowledge that things are not always black or white.

Often, New Ideas blend with Old Ideas, they don’t necessarily need to replace them. Drafts become hybrids and that’s precisely how they improve. Sometimes this happens on a micro level, but it can also happen with the very seed of your idea. Here’s a personal example: 

When Spelunking Leads to Demolition...and Success!

I had an idea for a horror story about a teacher who is hired by a couple to tutor their infirmed daughter, only to discover some nefarious plan or another. The idea lingered in my mind, but every time I tried to insert said nefarious plot, I ran into some logic problem that kept dead-ending me on the idea. That summer, however, I managed to contract Lyme Disease while visiting my family in New Jersey.

Along with Lyme, I was shocked to find that there had been a “co-infection” of the nasty blood parasite, bebesia, which is commonly passed along with the tick bite that causes Lyme. 

As I endured two rounds of powerful antibiotics, I began to research my blood parasite and it dawned on me that this was the missing element to my original idea. However, having my protagonist working as a teacher now seemed incongruous with someone who might encounter a blood disease…

Despite my attachment to the core of my original idea, I made my protagonist an ER nurse and the idea coalesced into my screenplay for BAD BLOOD which is currently in development with Baltimore Pictures, founded by Barry Levinson (Rain Man, Diner).

Story spelunking is about noticing what’s hidden in your draft. The pieces that don’t announce themselves right away, but deserve a closer look.

Some won’t work. Some will change everything.

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