I woke up this morning wondering whether Freud is the whole answer to why on birth certificates there's no equivalent to the "cause of" prompt that we take for granted at time of death? Does this tell us anything about storytelling propensities? In other words, do we not want to know because we think we know, and don't want to go there? Or could it be that we have some in-built urge to want to get on with the plot? So we linger over climax and motive at the end, but never at the outset?
Before coffee my brain is notoriously slow. That is my excuse for thinking there is also room for more originality when we face that final prompt. I might write, "To avoid a Toyota near Glans, he rolled his Polo into a roadside ditch. The other driver apologized, saying a giant hydrangea obscured his view. They'd both been buying apricots at the nearby garden center, which is really quite big." Or possibly, "At the Montreux Jazz Festival there was a special price on tandem paraglider descents. Who could refuse? Essentially they failed to stuff the landing, and thus were stuffed."
I wager you'll do better.
Bring on the bread and cheese.
David Ritchie,
Switzerland
