If You Don’t Write It, Who Will?
There is terror in the proverb, “If you don’t tell the story, who will?” and it haunted me.
I had done something very few people had done. In 1980 I left a full college ride to join the circus and become a trapeze artist. The stories had become a staple at dinner parties and chamber mixers, where I would start with the shocking statement, “When I was with the circus….” Eyebrows would raise, heads would turn, ears twisted toward me as I crescendo a thrilling story. Those were flash remembrances meant to amuse and befuddle.
As I sat down to make my story into a novel, I quickly realized the most discernable part of my circus life had escaped me as memories softened over the years. I was without a prefrontal lobe when I took this journey, so making a novel would require answering the plot conflict of WHY I ran away and joined the circus. Unboxing my naivety was unnerving. I quickly found that I could not write this in the first person. It made me sick to my stomach. I detested this naive girl and her impulses.
I switched to the third person, named her Gail, and got out of my own way.
I outlined the novel by setting down small vignettes marked by ??????.
The time I lost the elephants.
My April fool’s pranks.
My friendship with the domestic slaves, the grandmothers.
What it felt like to be an athlete and the loneliness of the road.
Why people should fear clowns.
Each day my writing would start with a search for ??????. Then I would write the full story of one reminiscence. The going was slow. Even though I was tricking myself with third-person Gail, this was my excruciating long-ago coming out in technicolor words. Three years ticked by as I hammered at the keyboard. Fits and starts were how I approached this novel.
I used to claim that I would just write if the world went away. I’d write until my fingers bled. I’d finish all the screenplays and teleplays and the circus novel. When my entire profession was taken away on March 12, 2020, by the Pandemic (I was a food critic and special event director), I knew that The Greatest Of Ease time had come.
“If I don’t write it, who will?” echoed in my dreams.
In the early panicked days of Covid 19, I finished two teleplays and a Christmas movie. Light, funny material. I sent them out into the world. Waiting is the most significant portion of a writer’s life. I was back to staring at ??????. The Greatest Of Ease haunted me. It stalked me, and I finally made a plan.
I vowed to write for three hours every day. I joined a county club because I needed quiet, as my home was filled with Zoom calls and bored grandchildren. I swam with the Karen’s then wrote in the yoga studio. On a glorious day by the pool, I opened my laptop and typed ?????? into the search bar. Zero results. There was no more! I had finished the ugly first draft. I printed it and set that bemouth of paper on my kitchen table. Walking by and marveling at this achievement. I spelled checked it, ran it through Grammarly (learned that I had no idea where commas go), and sent it to my Developmental Editor.
She returned me a four-page report on the structure and concrete ideas on how to make it into a readable story, not just a travelogue. At first, I lay on the floor, hammering my fisted hands into the ground. Then, I put on my big girl pants and got to work. This toil stole eight months, which was a welcome distraction. I saw the shape of the story. I relived it as a reader, not a victim. There were some paragraphs I could never experience again after they were written. The pain of an open wound after 35 years. I skipped them and went for fine-tuning the traveling circus smell, feel, sound, and look.
Next stop- my copy editor. She combed for tense, repeated words, and hideous grammar for six months. I developed my cover, front, and back during this time. The first run of that editing brought back more questions and things to add. A tremendous amount of dialogue was added, including descriptions of circus acts and life. It was sent back to the copy editor again.
During this maddening time- I went to work on building my marketing strategy and creating media assets.
Upon its return, I vowed to ring every drop of the power of the sentence, getting the most muscle out of each paragraph. I made sure all my verbs were active. I deleted adverbs and unpacked them into superior prose. I deleted junk words. I obliterated peacocks. Then I sent it to my finishing Editor, whose pen is as sharp as Excalibur. She returned a near-perfect novel.
The final editing step was my Beta Readers. Friends who were kind with their time yet meticulous with their red pens.
I took some of their suggestions as long as they kept my voice intact.
The final product was sent to Indiepub Solutions, who acted as a distribution Shepard. She procured the numbers and protected my IP. Distribution went to Amazon KDP, Ingram Spark, and Draft2Digital, which ensured its dispersal to every known platform. I even got a Dewey Decimal number.
The best day of a writer’s life is when a heavy box is dropped by a brown-short clad driver on her front porch. I opened with glee and reverence. There it was, The Greatest Of Ease. I videoed it for sharing on my social feeds. I’m internally impressed that I put 104,000 words in order. My story now has a handy 6 x 9 cover to keep it safe forever.
And the very next day, I started a new work.
This story has been turned into a workshop. More about Teri Bayus: www.TeriBayus.com
The Greatest Of Ease can be found here: www.TheGreatestOfEase.com
Follow Teri on her Substack for writing tips and podcasts, You’re Making That Up! https://teribayus.substack.com/
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Teri Bayus is a writer of words and a builder of worlds.
She has self-published two novels and optioned two screenplays and two teleplays. She has a nonfiction book, Why Not Me? about how the universe conspires to make everyone’s dreams a reality. Her current novel, The Greatest Of Ease, is about her time as a trapeze artist in a traveling circus.
Her previous novel, Consumed is the genre of culinary erotica.
Before the plague, she hosted and produced the TV show Taste Buds (www.tastebuds.tv), highlighting the chefs’ talents and restaurants worldwide. She was a food and film critic for twenty years and the executive director of the Central Coast Writers Conference for six years.
She has taught many writing and marketing classes at colleges and adult education forums.
Her love for inspiring others has brought her to the path of a professional speaker. She adores sharing her journeys with others by facilitating many workshops, classes, and marketing seminars.
She lives with her husband, who is a wild entrepreneur, two terrible dogs, and a wonderful cat in Pismo Beach, California.
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THE GREATEST OF EASE
Did you ever threaten to run away and join the circus?
It’s 1980, and Gail has decided to blow off her full college ride and become a trapeze artist. As she finds herself wandering the dysfunctional circus life, she realizes the safety net of the existence she once knew is unraveling, but the show must go on no matter what.
This honest, daring, and sexy story is about mysterious circus culture through the eyes of a young woman with a dream of flying.
The Greatest Of Ease is a roman à clef giving readers a fascinating, detailed view of circus life circa 1980.
Ultimately a story of redemption, The Greatest Of Ease, will make you gasp, laugh and cry. Join Gail on her journey of a permanent reminder of a temporary feeling.
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