Just Going For a Cabbage, by site co-founder, Diane M. Dickson, is a fine example of seamless technique. The neighbors alert the MC to what’s really going on and cause the story to bloom fully in her head and for the reader at the same time.
Often, this sort of backstory laying in basically screams “Hey, I’m the backstory, read me carefully.” But here it occurs naturally as a wife innocently walks toward the greengrocers.
Q: There might have been fifty ways to go at this. Did you have other ideas for the important revelation of what was up with the husband, or was having the neighbors tip the hand the only one considered?
Q: It seems to me that Briony was more hurt about the embarrassment he had caused her other than the cheating itself. I’ve seen the exact same thing in people I know, and I’ve never understood how an ego can endure the one but not the other. Do you believe that women were once conditioned into this sort of thinking, or is it something peculiar to certain personality types?
Leila
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Q: There might have been fifty ways to go at this. Did you have other ideas for the important revelation of what was up with the husband, or was having the neighbors tip the hand the only one considered?
I don’t think I ever considered any other way to write this. Mind you that pre-supposes planning and I’m a terrible panster and this stuff just falls out of my fingers as it will. I liked the neighbour when he appeared – he was a rough diamond and actually didn’t mean any harm.
Q: It seems to me that Briony was more hurt about the embarrassment he had caused her other than the cheating itself. I’ve seen the exact same thing in people I know, and I’ve never understood how an ego can endure the one but not the other. Do you believe that women were once conditioned into this sort of thinking, or is it something peculiar to certain personality types?
I believe very strongly that there are many people, mostly women who attach far too much importance to what other people think. My mum was one of them and spent her whole life worrying about the impression others had of her and us. We tried to explain that actually most people are too busy to even notice you but it was to no avail. I’m not saying these types are not hurt and upset by such events but if putting up with the status quo is an option to save face then I think they would take that route. I don’t think it’s personality as much as nurture and a weird sort of vanity.
Thanks as always for giving one of my scribbles another airing.
literally stories 
Diane–
An excellent day for cabbage shopping. Your answers are beautiful. Yes, the incessant worrying about what others might think is, I think, an evil driven in by society. Don’t know if it will ever die out. Social media has many good sides, but its chief evil is forcing people into the same sort of needless worry we see in this story. Regardless the cause, it is a terrible thing and hard to kick.
Beautiful story.
Leila
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Good piece, compact and effectively told. The part about Briony knowing what was going on but tolerating it till others knew adds another layer thst elevates this far above a “he done her wrong” story.
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Thank you. I hoped that I could convey more than just the misery of betrayal.
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Yes. I like me a nice bit of cabbage and it’s good for your eyes isn’t it. I’m not sure Briony got her five a day that day though.
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Hi Leila,
Loved the questions!
Diane – Loved the answers. I can’t stress how much I agree with you. Folks worry / care / react to what others think of them when a simple ‘Fuck them’ would be a damn sight more healthy.
It took a long time BUT in early years for me to realise this. And to this day, that has been the best lesson I have ever had!!
Oh and another amazing story written beautifully. The control and pace you have in your stories is a lesson to everyone who writes.
Hugh
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Indeed, life in the cabbage patch is harder than it looks.
Leila
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