The Bones of “Closing Costs”
It was just a joke really. A fantasy quietly twisting in Kailen’s mind.
Since I mentioned Saunders last week, I’m skipping ahead to another story inspired by him. “Closing Costs” centers around Kailen’s frustrations with being priced out of Hawaiʻi. Needing “release,” he and his partner Lindsey crash open houses and carry out elaborate pranks. Things change (and escalate) when he learns that his brother plans to sell their childhood home.
The first lines of the story (quoted at the start of the post) came easy. I was walking around Kāneʻohe, counting the number of open houses, and just wondering how many people that were looking at these places were actually from Hawaiʻi. The rest was more difficult. I kept trying to take things in a more serious direction (the story that precedes this one, “What We Forget,” has that covered, taking on the gentrification of Kailua and a family member struggling with dementia). Every time I got a few paragraphs in, I lost the momentum, what to do?
Photo credit: Donald Carreira Ching
Well, what I did was move on to other stories. If something isn’t working, give it time and space. Let it breathe and come back to it. See if the energy is still there.
And the energy was still there, but I still couldn’t make it work.
Then, I was reading Saunders’ notes on Nikolai Gogol’s “The Nose,” and how the story is infused with what he calls “Multiple Superimposed Weirdness Syndrome.” Now, “Closing Costs” doesn’t have a nose appearing in a loaf of bread, but it does have a character urinating into a closet. When he tells his partner what he does, her reaction? It’s certainly not a rational one, and that’s what unlocked the story for me.
I want to say a lot more about this story, about the ways neighborhoods are changing in Hawaiʻi, the way that property divides families, and how the average price of a single-family home in Hawaiʻi is over one million dollars.
But instead I’m going to offer another prompt. If you don’t get to this one right away, don’t worry, I’ll offer a version of it at this month’s Writing Jam (RSVP here).
Here’s the prompt:
Take a story you’ve been struggling to finish. Find the section that’s giving you the most trouble, and rather than going with the “rational” route, think what would be the weirdest or most irrational way to continue the section. Write it out.
Feel free to share what you come up with in the comments. I’d love to read it.
More soon,
Donald
Feel free to share a piece you worked on using this prompt by posting it on our The Bones of Blood Work prompts page. Or email us at [email protected]!
Want more writing tips?
RSVP for the next BR Writing Jam, led by Donald!
Join us on Saturday, May 31st from 3:00 to 4:15 pm HST online for a special writing jam session with Donald Carreira Ching on breaking the block by glancing askance at a story. It’s free and casual.
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