Finding the Form with Stephen J. Price
Most of my stories come to me as an image inspired by something like a line from a song or story or I have witnessed. The Hawthorne Effect begin as a refrain that kept swimming about in my head – This is a love story. It’s important to remember that. That struck me as interesting, like someone trying to come to terms with the fact that the long-term relationship they’re in does not resemble it’s frenetic, passionate beginnings. I wanted to tell a love story, but not of the romantic sort. I wanted to write about commitment.
I do not struggle with writers’ block. I write longhand for a minimum of twenty-five minutes a day. Every morning, after walking the dogs and having some breakfast, I go to my writing space, set a timer and write continuously for that stretch of time. It does not sound like very much, but a lot of words can be put down when one doesn’t self-edit along the way and usually I end up continuing past the allotted time. When I finally sat at my desk to try and make something out of the refrain that had been bouncing around in my head for a while- This is a love story. It’s important to remember that – it all formed quite easily. The character of Larry Mitchell waiting to give a victim impact statement came to me immediately. By the end of the first week I had the story. That first draft bears little resemblance to the story that made it to the desks of the editors of The New Quarterly. All I had was a real estate agent named Larry who had been attacked by a young man who was in love with Larry’s wife.
The Hawthorne Effect refers to the phenomenon where individuals modify their behavior when they realize they are being observed. It was coined during workplace studies at Western Electric’s Hawthorne Works in the 1920s-30s. It is about the only thing I recall from when I studied Economics at The University of Alberta because it always struck me as an engaging title for a story. (Like Larry, I abandoned Economics when I found out Calculus was a requirement.) I liked the idea that Larry was reviewing his relationship with his wife and how the past changes when it is observed.
It became apparent pretty early on that it was not a story that could be told with a standard beginning, middle and end. It needed to jump around, representing the way Larry’s mind is flitting from one event to another while sitting in the courtroom waiting to give his victim impact statement. The miracle of cut and paste was invaluable to me while constructing The Hawthorne Effect.
It was written during the pandemic and only now found a home. It was rejected several times, but I had faith in it. It just needed to find the right fit.
Stephen J. Price writes and teaches writing in Treaty 7 territory that he grew up calling Calgary. He is particularly interested in helping late bloomers, those who have taken up writing late in life.