Facing a Problem

In one of my recent articles I've mentioned the use of flashbacks as a useful tool, which I used in turning a short story into a novel. I haven't got much experience myself, and I'm not the ripe author or a tutor; I wish simply to share the solution of a certain problem that I was faced with, which can be food for thought for solving entirely different problems that any writer might encounter.

The idea isn't complicated at all. We get stuck facing a problem that seems to us as a very hard one, or even impossible to solve at first thought. But with some mental effort and stubbornness, we may reach the solution that would give our creation a unique and significant value, and not just some acceptable kind of version.

As I've already mentioned I've written a short story, which was to my humble opinion my best one. I was recommended to turn it into a book. But a short story is a summary of the whole plot, and thus I had a problem how to continue it.

In my example the plot describes a meeting, in which a young man is forced to carry out a mission. Whether he'll carry it out or not we don't know yet, but all the details are told already, most of the details are insinuated, but the main idea is quite clear. At the end of the story the young man shocked and hesitant outside, on his own - decides to carry it out.

All I wanted to highlight in that short story was a brainwash technique, in which an unexperienced young man is persuaded by a pro to commit a crime. The meeting atmosphere, the pro's changes of attitude, the scorn and demands, the accusations, the hidden threats and the successful result - are the story's heart, there was no need to add the details of the mission itself.

But if it's going to be a book and that short story is its first chapter, should I change the first chapter, or at least part of it?

I didn't want to change anything, I liked it as it is. I decided to find another solution.
As his mission had to be carried out on the next day, the second chapter described his inner struggle on his way home, the dear price, whether he would succeed or fail, how would it influence his mom, his relatives and friends. Who might be arrested and interrogated, while he will be free in some other country.

The solution was reached in the third chapter on his way to carry out his mission. In flashbacks in which he recalls what he was told to do and how, step by step (the flashback, his thoughts, written in italics), and dispersed along his itinerary. From the moment he wakes up remembering he'd forgotten to adjust his alarm clock. He lies to his mom his next hurdle, for he she'll never see him again. He reaches the central bus station and recalls how he has to behave, where to get off, where to ambush his prey and how to commit the crime - the flashbacks are intertwined along his advancement toward the site of the crime.

After I've reached that satisfactory solution, I didn't have any problem to carry out my mission - to finish the book.

Sometimes a banal problem turns into a challenge that when it's answered, it endows the writer a great step ahead in developping his talent.