For the short story class I am in, part of our work obligation is the expectation that each student will write a short story during the month’s class time. We meet together for four weeks and read an acclaimed story each week and talk about it, and we talk about what goes into creating an effective story, but we also spend time sharing and reviewing each other’s work as each student crafts their tale.

In week two, guru Gish asked each of us about our stories- what was our story’s main idea? What did we have in terms of rough drafts and ideas?

Ummmm.

Up to that moment when he asked me, I had had nothing. I thought briefly of the Udaya story I wrote earlier this year, and the fact that that story that actually got written came from a different earlier concept.

I heard myself tell Gish that my project was my original idea for that story about Udaya: Udaya raises a mountain lion.

Gish’s cautions about my story were already my concerns. “Do you know what would go into raising a mountain lion? In writing a period piece, do you understand that you have to be careful to try and get the times right. That’s necessary when you write historical fiction.”

The reality is I did already know that I had to have some background insights on my story’s period and subject- and maybe that is why I steered away from writing the story before. All of my dealings with this character and her time frame are sketchy. I know extremely little about life as a Picuris Indian living in the hills on the west slopes of the Sangre de Cristo mountains in the mid-17th century.

But that is the challenge. You just have to figure out how to have just as much as you need to write the story, which is a snapshot of a time and place, of a people, of a culture, of a family, of a way of living.

My writing ideas always seem to be simple, and feel simplistic. Udaya raises a mountain lion. Where is the story in that?

Stir in the considerations that Udaya has two brothers, and that she does not raise the animal with the knowledge of her family, and that one of her brothers is a dishonorable delinquent, and that sheep disappear questionably from the community, and that secrets betray, and there is some good potential for drama, for a story arc, and for rising and falling action.

Moving from concept to draft has to happen soon, and quickly, which means some basic research has to be done. About the culture and belief systems of the Picuris. About living in northern New Mexico 350 years ago. About the habits and habitats of the cougar. About what a young girl would want to raise a big cat.

So begins a story. Will it work out? I’m not sure. But it’s what I got right now. A rough draft is due Tuesday. A final draft, in two weeks.