I have to force myself to not lock my car in between trips inside when bringing in groceries, cannot compute the lack of door locking overnight in a house!!!
My dogs employ that same trick where they wake me up in the middle of the night, assuring me it is most urgent and if I don't comply there will be a big mess to clean up in the morning. Only to have them run out of the door as if ejected by a cannon to chase something in the back yard that cannot be allowed. They also realize I will not fall for this trick very often so they only do it about twice a year. The rest of the time they quietly shit on the floor if they really have to go-with no notification whatsoever.
True story from my hometown (a nondescript Boston suburb with low crime but where we always did lock the door growing up) that is terrifying but happily does not end in murder: in the summer of 2007, a fifteen-year-old girl whom I'd once been on a swim team with came home and found her parents asleep and her brother not home. She left the door unlocked, thinking he'd need it unlocked when he came back (he was actually sleeping over at a friend's house). That night, a guy broke into their house, went into the girl's bedroom, and held a knife to her throat. Her parents heard something, got up, and were able to wrestle away the knife and restrain the guy until the police came and arrested him. Now, all that is terrifying enough, but it gets worse: after his arrest, they connected him to murders in a couple of other states. He was a LITERAL SERIAL KILLER. The sole reason he picked that house? He tried others and that was the first one he found with the door unlocked. (Google Adam Leroy Lane if you want the whole story.) So yes, OMG, LOCK THE DOOR. Even if you live in a town with low crime, there is a chance that a guy will try to kill you for no reason other than he got off the highway near your house and the door was unlocked.
One of my favorite books is The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowles. In chapter 13, Fowles breaks from the narrative to talk about how the characters he has created have taken over. It’s fascinating reading. There are other surprises later, but I don’t want to ruin it for you should you decide to read the novel. If not, ch. 13 can be read on its own. I had my high school composition students read it as they were developing characters for the short stories they were writing. I look forward to reading your sub stack every week, Amy. Oh, and I grew up in one of those small towns. Everyone locked their doors after a horrific mass murder in the 70s.
I listened to an interview with a documentary filmmaker who was talking about the difference between making docs and fictional tv. And how you have to shoot loads and let the story emerge in the edit for docs, vs just orchestrating events in a fictional show. Very similar!
Laughing so hard at "lock the damn doors". I am literally in the land of Stephen King and in a small town where people say the exact same thing about leaving doors unlocked. Nope. Pass. Double lock!
Love that distinction between creative nonfiction and fiction! We start school again next week, keeping this bookmarked for my DP language and literature class!
I have to force myself to not lock my car in between trips inside when bringing in groceries, cannot compute the lack of door locking overnight in a house!!!
My dogs employ that same trick where they wake me up in the middle of the night, assuring me it is most urgent and if I don't comply there will be a big mess to clean up in the morning. Only to have them run out of the door as if ejected by a cannon to chase something in the back yard that cannot be allowed. They also realize I will not fall for this trick very often so they only do it about twice a year. The rest of the time they quietly shit on the floor if they really have to go-with no notification whatsoever.
True story from my hometown (a nondescript Boston suburb with low crime but where we always did lock the door growing up) that is terrifying but happily does not end in murder: in the summer of 2007, a fifteen-year-old girl whom I'd once been on a swim team with came home and found her parents asleep and her brother not home. She left the door unlocked, thinking he'd need it unlocked when he came back (he was actually sleeping over at a friend's house). That night, a guy broke into their house, went into the girl's bedroom, and held a knife to her throat. Her parents heard something, got up, and were able to wrestle away the knife and restrain the guy until the police came and arrested him. Now, all that is terrifying enough, but it gets worse: after his arrest, they connected him to murders in a couple of other states. He was a LITERAL SERIAL KILLER. The sole reason he picked that house? He tried others and that was the first one he found with the door unlocked. (Google Adam Leroy Lane if you want the whole story.) So yes, OMG, LOCK THE DOOR. Even if you live in a town with low crime, there is a chance that a guy will try to kill you for no reason other than he got off the highway near your house and the door was unlocked.
One of my favorite books is The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowles. In chapter 13, Fowles breaks from the narrative to talk about how the characters he has created have taken over. It’s fascinating reading. There are other surprises later, but I don’t want to ruin it for you should you decide to read the novel. If not, ch. 13 can be read on its own. I had my high school composition students read it as they were developing characters for the short stories they were writing. I look forward to reading your sub stack every week, Amy. Oh, and I grew up in one of those small towns. Everyone locked their doors after a horrific mass murder in the 70s.
I listened to an interview with a documentary filmmaker who was talking about the difference between making docs and fictional tv. And how you have to shoot loads and let the story emerge in the edit for docs, vs just orchestrating events in a fictional show. Very similar!
Laughing so hard at "lock the damn doors". I am literally in the land of Stephen King and in a small town where people say the exact same thing about leaving doors unlocked. Nope. Pass. Double lock!
Love that distinction between creative nonfiction and fiction! We start school again next week, keeping this bookmarked for my DP language and literature class!