Jaycee Woods

I observe that often my drafted stories have a musical influence.

In this century, Colin Hay, famous as the lead singer for Men at Work in the 80s, made a mature and reflective song called “If I Had Been a Better Man.”

As inspiration, such a song risks venturing into territory that is too autobiographical instead of being fiction; I don’t want to self insert.

In the middle of last night, I figured it out…a story about a lonely single childless woman in her 30s reconnecting with a father long estranged by a divorce when she was a child. The influence of the song would be enriching the perspective of the father in the reunion by accepting his own prior faults and processing his regrets while leaving the past in the past for a potential future with his daughter.

Meanwhile, the female lead would be one of the developed characters from Chad’s blind dates. As part of the vetting process he developed throughout the timeline to identify red flags, Chad finds out about his blind date’s relationship with her dad. I know that I have one draft story in inventory (Purple) in which Chad offers to hire a detective for his date to find her long lost dad as a means to help her work through her mental & daddy issues.

For a reader of that Chad story who reads the follow up focused on her, they would see Chad have a positive influence on a woman he rejected as not being wife material for him. Often early in Chad stories as a date realizes that she risks getting eliminated for a red flag, she objects that Chad is denying the value of women per se or saying he thinks all women must be X when he is only describing the one woman he seeks for a wife. This new story would be a different concretization that Chad can recognize that a woman is not wife material for him even when he recognizes her value in a different role.

Later in Chad’s character arc, instead of simply diagnosing why a blind date is inadequate as wife material for him, Chad suggests ways in which she can improve major issues in her life. In the novel, this character development in one of his blind dates is demonstrated in the reoccurring character Purple the painter. In future maybe I could draft a few follow up independent short stories of his former dates taking accountability to make choices to direct actions to improve her own life in a way that is independent instead of expecting a marriage with Chad to solve the problems she created in her life. I am thinking of these as Homework Stories as the blind date leaves her evening with Chad giving her homework about improving her own life.