What do you write? [Undiscovered Stories Collection]

Open Cage

Story Name:

Open Cage

Genre:

Short Story

How did you come up with the title:

It’s a metaphor, actually. When I finished deciding the back story and plot for my story I thought, what is the real moral behind my story? What is this story really about? Among many things, it’s about starting over. Metaphorically speaking, the main character, Brooke, has been imprisoned in a so-called “cage” of insecurities and judging people and it’s really about her being released from that cage. I knew that the title had to be important and relevant to the plot. I spent a lot of time thinking about it and, finally, I just said, “That’s it. That’s the one.”

What inspired you for your story:

As I mentioned, Brooke has really big struggles with herself. She used to be bulimic, she has no friends, and she’s still insecure and feels neglected by peers and family…. I think that many girls (and guys too) can relate to that neglect and insecurity. Honestly, the majority of Wattpad stories (not all) are mainly about sex and boys and unrealistic scenarios. I wanted to write something that had real meaning and was important to me and a handful of other people.

The idea of putting my writing into a form of a short story is actually largely because my favourite story is the short story “Take a Risk” by @onion_knight. I’ve always thought that since stories are so, well, short that they have a lot of emotion and a lot of moral and, ultimately, a big lesson. I also think that in many ways, they are more effective than novels because all of the important details in a novel are spread out and hidden between the lines whereas a shorter story needs to include it all in a small amount of writing. The message tends to be clearer and I didn’t want to lose readers before my point got across to them.

How do you name your characters:

In most of my books, I try to find a name that has a meaning behind it. For example, I’m writing a story about a teenage prodigy and their middle name is Arie, which means “best of thinkers”. For “Open Cage”, the name was a small part of the story. I think it was only mentioned, like, five times or something throughout the story so I didn’t feel the need to go searching for the “perfect” name which is surprisingly very difficult and time-consuming. Often, I’ll go to “Random Name Generator” and browse through their list of names until I find one that I connect with. I wait for that spark or calling or whatever.

How do you name your chapters:

Sometimes I don’t. It really depends on the story. If it’s a novel, there’s a good chance that it will end up as simply “Chapter 1”. For “Open Cage” I wanted it to be more meaningful. It has three chapters so I put up something in a series of threes that shows change. Eg. Confined, fractured, freed. That is also metaphorical. You can see the gradual change from her being sort of imprisoned, I might say, to being released from that prison. In the middle chapter, she’s halfway there. Just like the title, I thought very hard about the chapter titles. A lot of people have no idea what goes on behind the scenes. I like to think that the chapter titles add that little extra touch.

How long is each chapter:

“Open Cage” is around two or three pages long each chapter.

What does ''show not tell'' mean:

A concept that very few truly understand. It means, to me, that I’m not saying what someone is feeling, what they look like, what their motives are. I show it. If someone’s angry, I show it through their reactions and actions rather than saying, “Molly was mad”.