[— Karen Myers —]
Sometimes I’m inhibited from doing something outrageous in the form of a plot twist by a sense of unlikeliness — a fear that no one would find a particular development naturalistic. But just recently I’ve realized my own personal story has acquired an amusement I would never have believed, out of context.
Let me explain…
I’ve been a tenor all my life (well, since puberty anyway). Believe me, this can be a tad… awkward at a K-12 all-girl school, and I still frequently find myself insisting to strangers over the phone that my name is “Karen”, not “Kevin” or “John” or whatever other assumption seems better to them. I’ve always sung in amateur and semi-pro groups wherever I end up, for Early Music, Trad Folk, Classical, Sacred Harp, etc.
I’m a much better tenor “trumpet” than an alto “cello”, and almost all singing organizations have long since adapted to the handful of women like me singing with the men. (It doesn’t hurt that tenors are always scarce on the ground in amateur groups anyway, in my experience.) But there are still a few genre exceptions, one of which is Barbershop singing (4-part male voice).
Barbershop singing in America is highly organized (choruses in districts in regions in larger groupings, with annual judged competitions), both for the traditional 4-part male and the more recent 4-part female (Sweet Adeline) equivalent organizations. These choruses tend to be much more community-service focused social groups, compared to other amateur singing orgs, with weekly luncheons, etc., and as such have been more resistant to accommodating oddball singers like me, since it disturbs the social dynamic. But… tenors = scarce, and on an individual group basis some of them have been choosing to take advantage of whatever members they can get, now that the headquarters rulings have allowed that. So, just a few months ago, I was able to satisfy my fondness for the genre and join one such group in my local railroad-town in central Pennsylvania.
Barbershop choruses have a tendency to spawn barbershop quartets, and I’m running a brand new one now (because of course I am… 🙂 ). Both types of ensembles perform in the community: singing valentines, retirement homes, birthday parties, commemorations, and so forth… including local minor league baseball games.
Think of all the times you’ve listened to some pop singer on TV nail those high notes at the opening of a national baseball or football game. Ever have a nightmare about being on stage under the lights like that and hoping your voice can do the job? Well, in a couple of weeks, my barbershop quartet will be performing the National Anthem and God Bless America at the Altoona Curve Double-A ballgame. And since the tenor line is the high (descant) line in a male quartet, this means that (after a lifetime of singing way down low in the female-ensemble cellar) I’m the one who at almost 70 will be trying not to crack on those exposed high notes (in my appropriate octave) while the giant TV screens zoom mercilessly in. 🙂
I would never put a plot twist this bizarre in a novel but — you know what? — that would be wrong. Why not acknowledge the inexhaustible unlikeliness of real life, and milk it for humor, surprise, and raised eyebrows? Not to mention making the primary character take on some character-building risk…
What oddball plot twists have you encountered (in real life) and lived to tell about? Have you imposed them upon your characters? And did you grin maniacally while you did it?
Mad Genius Club 
19 responses to “Stranger than fiction”
Much depends on the timing and the point of view. Many ideas that are too strange for fiction are merely too strange for the climax.
…and thank goodness — I wouldn’t want that upcoming performance to be the last thing I do…
This immediately brings to mind “Lend Me a Tenor”. Which was hilarious.
…which I had never heard of. Thanks for the ref…!
Improbable plot twist in my life? Becoming an author. The idea wasn’t even a background thought until a little over a year ago.
Ah, yes, the trumpet A or C (depends on the key.) Since my vocal range is so variable*, I have to plan in advance if I’m going to make the attempt, or if I’ll stay on the vocal note.
I’m trying to think of oddball twists in my life that have not happened to others or are already present in fiction (the academic with an interesting past and skill-set; flying planes upside-down for fun or profit; the Thing in the Long Grass; …) Mine all fit the rest of my life.
*Without going into detail, there’s a reason some operatic sopranos had/have “grace days” written into their contracts. Some voices are more affected by hormonal shifts than are others.
It adds to my sense of the surreal that the visiting team is the (wait for it) Richmond Virginia Flying Squirrels.
Try the Savannah Sand Gnats (great team logo) or [deep sigh] Amarillo Sod Poodles.
Ooh, I’m afraid that leaves me with a bit of a dilemma. You see, I’d love to root for your hometown team, but I’m not sure that I can root against a team called the Flying Squirrels!
In all seriousness, though, congratulations on the gig. I know it must be a bit scary, but probably also kinda cool. I may have to go around bragging to everyone that I know a famous singer!
(Reading your blog posts counts as “knowing you” for this purpose, right?)
Absolutely! Esp. since I indulge in way to much personal info… 🙂 It’s all in the tribe.
Hey, I’ve heard of them!
(My husband grew up in Virginia, I think one of his sister’s friends is a fan.)
Improbable plot twists?
The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Just listening to how badly it happened, from start to finish, all ending with the actual shooter just sitting at a cafe, lamenting the failure of the six or seven people that tried, and having his targets just pull up and their car stall right in front of you without any security at all…
I’ve decided that if I ever throw something in that improbable in my stories, I’d point out that even weirder things have happened.
Or the Battle of Leipzig. The corporal had one job. One. Job. And … Oops.
Drachinifel has a wonderful thing on YouTube about the absolute disaster that was Mark 14 Torpedo. Just look up “Failure is Like Onions” on YouTube.
There was another fanfic idea I had years ago that involved using that whole thing as a comedy skit.
The kicker was, I didn’t even have to make anything up; the actual secure handling instructions when combined with the real contents of the documentation was so ludicrous that it looked like an anime grade over the top comedy routine, without doing anything at all.
I once heard a writer describe an incident too unrealistic for fiction: a conspiracy of murderers were going to get away with it, the wife of them being unshakeable in testimony that she knew her husband had returned because the theme song for the TV show at the time. . . . Whereupon the prosecution produce the TV station manager who testified that the show had been pre-empted that night.
I thought, well, no. You might change the crime to affect the tone, but that would be a good inciting incident where, oh, the cops have to protect the accessories, who realized that the ringleader would wreak a bloody revenge for that failure and turned state’s evidence. Or it could be an incident in the background of a police procedural or a courtroom drama, to highlight a theme of, say, thoroughness.
For a climax, true. Impossible.
Considering that probably happened in the ’50s, I could see it working/happening.
(But, then again, I’ve spent far too much time studying human memory and how it can play tricks on people to know that there’s a “blurring” that happens.)
For internet opsec reasons, I’d rather not get into details, but my extended family is a rather adventurous and overachieving bunch.
With regard to the female tenor in the barbershop quartet, it sounds like the foundations of a perfectly good “hitting the big time” artist/musician story.
Well, yes, I suppose you’re right. It just never struck me that way personally, since I’m the wrong age for the “career launch” arc, and my mind therefore didn’t go there. 🙂
The movie The Rookie about a baseball player getting into the majors in his 30s, was a true life, deeply improbable story. I saw the backstory on it, and then wished I hadn’t. The guy was coaching baseball for some high school, and told his losing team that if they won, he’d try out for the majors. They won, he did, he played for some big team for a few years. BUT one of his players pointed out in an interview that their own pitcher had been out for some reason, so the coach had been pitching for them in practices. So of course when they played other teams they won.