Story Behind the Story

One of my writing teachers, the amazing Lidia Yuknavitch (who had Ken Kesey as a teacher once), is working on a big, new book. She jumps onto FB sometimes, then "goes back in", and I know exactly what she means. Another great writer from Lidia's Portland writing group, Chelsea Cain, is working on her 8th Archie and Gretchen novel and seems to take little coffee breaks here (on FB). She recently mentioned something Lidia taught her, which is to ask, "What's the story behind that story?" Maybe I'd heard Lidia say that, but it didn't mean much before it started happening to me. Lately, I'll look at flat pages of my writing and sort of see bumps in the words that can be punched out, like a pill through blister pack foil, and expanded into blossoms of mini-stories that enrich the larger one. It's exciting, but I'm starting to dread it because it means MORE WORK when I thought I was done.