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How to make a Simple Story sound Interesting: Learn from LaVyrle Spencer's 'Morning Glory'

Don't let the premise fool you.

By Monisha SenPublished 3 years ago 5 min read
4
How to make a Simple Story sound Interesting: Learn from LaVyrle Spencer's 'Morning Glory'
Photo by freestocks on Unsplash

2020 was a year full of romance novels for me. Maybe because it's the easiest genre to read and also quite fun. More than that, it helped me take my mind off of this awful situation we all found ourselves in.

I've probably gone through a hundred contemporary romance novels by now, given the fact that I'd finish each in less than 2–3 days. Just recently, I met a dead end and couldn't find any more authors or plots that I like and honestly, I didn't have the motivation to go through a bunch of suggestions online and then figure out which are more suited to me.

So, I decided to re-read some of the ones I'd already gone through and liked more than others. Thinking this, my mind was trying to recap what I read in which one and which story stayed with me longer than it should have. The one name that kept popping up was Morning Glory by LaVyrle Spencer.

I've read some other books as well by LaVyrle Spencer and I genuinely admire her work. There's a certain earthiness to her storytelling which appeals to my practical and grounded side. However, thinking about Morning Glory, I wanted to break down what was it really about that particular story that has stayed with me months later. I wanted to know what was the secret ingredient in that sweet, slow-paced, ordinary story that made it extraordinary for me. I wanted to know all of this because even before I started writing a blog or stories on Medium, I always dreamed of being a novelist. I still do, but alas, the idea for a novel eludes me and more importantly, I don't have the patience and the commitment to finish a novel, yet.

Morning Glory revolves around Will Parker and Elly Dinsmore. Elly or as her townspeople call her, "Crazy Elly" is a pregnant widow with 2 children who gives an advertisement in the local newspaper that she's looking for a husband. Will Parker is an ex-convict who can't seem to find a decent job because of his prison record. He's desperate for a place to sleep and food to survive. He comes across Elly's Ad and agrees to marry her and take care of the farm and her children. What starts as an arrangement between two people to co-exist peacefully turns into a love that forever binds them together as a family.

The crazy thing about Morning Glory is that it defies all the requisites required to write a hit. It doesn't have a 'Big Idea' which is unique to the story and doesn't pack a bunch of dramatic shifts as well. It doesn't use the opposites attract trope, neither does it use fatal danger to draw the protagonists closer to one another.

What it does is celebrate simplicity and the mundane. The writer shows you how everyday life can be beautiful and fulfilling, how one doesn't need too much to be completely happy in life, how grateful one can be when they've been dealt a bad hand in life and how humility, as bizarre as this sounds, can make you fall in love. I loved how grateful Will Parker was for everything he received from Elly, whether it was her home-cooked meals, her house, her children and especially, her love. I loved how Elly admits that she loved her first husband, but also tells Will that it doesn't mean she'll love him any less. I love that LaVyrle ventures into an emotion that we often see but overlook in real life, that is, of how Will was attracted to the mother in Elly. He confesses to Elly that he's envious of the way Elly lovingly runs her fingers through her children's hair and wishes for her to do the same to him. It reminds him of being touched and loved by a mother he never had.

If I were to take away just one thing from this book, it would be what humility can do for you as a human being. I was moved by the humility of the characters, the humility of the backdrop and most importantly, the humility of the author in writing a story that might seem lacklustre on the outside but holds a sea of emotion beneath the surface. It is proof that it is always the author who drives the story. It's not always necessary to have a unique idea to reach the masses, it's rather how uniquely the writer uses his or her voice to tell the story. That's what makes an artist, doesn't it? An artist sees beauty even in the drabbest situation and describes it in a way that makes others also see the beauty through his or her lens.

And now, here's a poetic excerpt of Will & Elly's internal dialogue from the book which made me fall in love with this book.

They lay flat, quivering inside, disciplining themselves into motionlessness. From the corner of her eye she glimpsed his bare chest, the looming elbows, the hands folded behind his head. From the corner of his eye he saw her pregnant girth and her high-buttoned nightie with the quilts covering her to the ribs. Beneath her hands she felt her own heartbeat driving up through the quilt. On the back of his skull he felt the accelerated rhythm of his pulse.

The minutes dragged on. Neither moved. Neither spoke. Both worried.

One kiss-is that so hard?

Just a kiss-please.

But what if she pushes you away?

What is there for a man in a woman so pregnant she can scarcely waddle?

What woman wants a man with so many tramps under his bridge?

What man wants to roll up against someone else's baby?

But most of them were paid, Elly, all of them meaningless.

Yes, it's Glendon's baby, but he never made me feel like this.

I'm unworthy.

I'm undesirable.

I'm unlovable.

I'm lonely.

Turn to her, he thought.

Turn to him, she thought.

-Morning Glory, LaVyrle Spencer

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About the Creator

Monisha Sen

I share my views on various topics including love, romance, books, movies, life and spirituality. I write what's in my heart and my style of writing is honest.

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