THE DRUMMER ARRIVES: Notes On A Story
- BUSAYO
- 18 hours ago
- 5 min read
I was thinking recently, that it has been a while since I wrote a “Notes on A Story” piece here on the blog.
Really, in all of 2024, I only wrote one last year, and it is the story that got published in print by the A Coup of Owls Press. My copy currently lives on my bedside table but that is besides the point. Ha-ha.
When I started writing the “notes on a story” series, it was a way to sort of give back to the literary community – or the creative community in general. I am often inspired by the creative processes of other artists be it musicians, film directors, or other writers, I love knowing the back story to their creative works. I love knowing what they were thinking while conceptualizing the work I have fallen in love with.
So, it was a way for me to keep that culture going; of having other artists see the inspiration behind my work, and hopefully be inspired to do something in their own works as well.
The story I will be featuring in this blog post is oddly a story about becoming an artist. Specifically, a folk drummer of the Yoruba talking-drum tradition. And overcoming all of the problems that might come with it.
That story is The drummer arrives. Or very simply in Yoruba; Alayande.
THE CONCEPTION
I conceived the first few lines of this story on a random evening. It was a hot, it was dark, and the thought just came to me; I haven’t written a short story in a month or so, let me pen something down.
As usual, I wrote the opening lines of the story; the first few paragraphs or so and left it alone to spend time figuring out what I even wanted to say. To ask myself what the story was and how best to represent it while keeping in mind the cadence of the opening paragraphs.
And the cadence was important.
It might not be so very obvious to many readers, but there is a particular lilt to the prose in the story, and I worked it that way to give the story the essence of a musicality that would be similar to what you hear when listening to a talking drum.
I didn’t want to make the prose sound like a talking drum, I wanted it to sound like it was a far-off echo of what a talking drum should sound like. Because that is the instrument that the main character was using. Then I wove that musicality around a pretty straight-faced manner of telling the sadder parts of the story. The echo the almost staccato cadence the Yoruba language is often described to have by non-speakers.
An editor read it and said the language was ‘crisp’.
Not what I was going for but a compliment is a compliment.
Another cool thing I love about writing short stories is always the central question. It helps me to navigate the often-complex layers I like to build my stories with.
In this story, the central question was a simple one:
How do you navigate inheriting a talent and calling that you ‘shouldn’t’ have.
I don’t really want to go into the details of why she shouldn’t have inherited the talent (because of people who might not have read the story) but I will say one thing: it is very hard to come to terms with a part of yourself that is obviously inherently good, yet puts you at odds with the community you consider closest to you.
The main character here had to face all of these things, and it was not easy – which made the story a fun one to write!
THE STORY’S RECEPTION
I don’t often think about how my work is received. If I get to write something that is as close to what I originally envisioned in my mind; THAT IS A TRIUMPH.
However, now that my stories are getting of a better quality, I am starting to reconsider what the goal of publishing for me should be.
It is starting to feel hollow now, getting published just to say that the work has been published.
It is becoming important now for me to consider having my own readers, and my own audience. Those are things any writer would want to have; people that connect with your work and love it just as much as you do!
That is something I am starting to get on board with.
That being said, this story was not easy to land in a magazine.
Well, maybe the sort of magazines I had submitted it to were SUPER competitive. I had a lot of almost yeses. Quite a few.
It is a different kind of annoying when the editor literally says they have no complaints about your work, but they just can’t publish it because of scheduling constraints, or some other logistical reason.
Sigh.
When it got shortlisted in the On The Premises Prize, I was ambivalent about the news. Thinking it would be another almost. Once it got the greenlight – winning a honorable mention, thereby a slot in the publication schedule, more than anything I was relieved I wouldn’t have to keep submitting the story.
Ha-ha.
If you’re a writer who is currently submitting work anywhere, my advice is to not get your heart caught up too much in the process. Just enjoy the work you do enough that you would do it even if no one else is looking. Very often, that is when you create your most spectacular work.
In Summary.
My idea of what a story consists of is expanding.
Not only in terms of what I choose to write in a story, but also what I choose to do with the story once I am done writing it.
It feels like there is just so much room for growth now that I consider my stories in the context of the rest of the world, and not only in the small corner of a notepad where I scribble an idea before it takes shape.
Stories are truly very expansive things. I love writing them, listening to them, reading them, watching them because of what they say about the challenges of being a human being. And also about what they say regarding how we navigate those challenges and overcome them.
How about you?
What do you look for in a story whether in books, film or otherwise? Let me know in the comment section!
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