Did you Hear the One About?
Using Rumors and Gossip to Intrigue Readers
If stories are the ultimate form of gossip, of detail and context, and a window into the lives of others, some of my favorite stories are structured around rumors. I love being privy to how a shadowy character is perceived in their world, how often the main character or a chorus of characters doesn’t know enough, so they start to make up their own logic, reasoning, and backstory for the misunderstood antagonist. The most famous example may come from the chapter in The Great Gatsby where Nick attends his first party at the mansion, and all the guests have their own rumors, their own embellished meetings with the enigmatic Gatsby, and then there are the rumors that persist due to the secret nature of the character, and the other character’s wish to be seen as important via story, via lie, via rumor. For example, here are some of the rumors about Gatsby:
“Somebody told me they thought he killed a man once”
“I'll bet he killed a man”
“He's a bootlegger”
“He was a German spy during the war”
It is in our nature to be intrigued by gossip, to read on to see if any of this is true, if any of the gossip reveals the true nature of the character. We read with skepticism and hope that some and none of it will turn out to be true. So there is a natural tension to gossip and rumors, a tension that keeps us reading, that further engages us in the story, that makes us part of the process—a mystery on a smaller scale. It allows the reader to engage in their desire to understand, to know others, and then maybe know themselves.
Today, let’s look at “Hometown Johnnies” by Myna Chang to see how to use rumors and gossip to significant effect and develop a sense of both protagonist and antagonist by what is suspected but not outright known.
It was the night Johnny came back to town, one of those pent-up summer nights when the sky trembled heavy with unshed moisture, weighing us down, the burden of it pressing us into the dust, and we wanted to scream let go! but heaven wouldn’t unleash that water, held it fist-tight, just out of reach, pushing the young people to burst and the old people to beg.
The story doesn’t start with the rumors but with the return of our antagonist and a tension-filled description of the weather. This sets the stage of the story, sets the point of view, and adds a general sense of conflict. This opening lets us know that this is a story about young and old, a dichotomy of opposites, and how the young are ready to fight, to explode, that any of them could be a “Johnny.” Sometimes, even in a micro, it makes sense to set the stage, to crank up the tension before settling into the main event of the story. It’s this kind of tension that often leads to rumors and gossip and mean-spirited hot takes. Since they’re waiting for it to rain, for the burden of the heat and the dryness to relent, they need something to do. This leads into the second paragraph.
Someone said Johnny came in on the bus, he hitchhiked, Johnny cruised into town in a candy-apple Mustang, sweet as punch. He stood in his momma’s driveway, outside the diner, on the tracks by the overpass. Someone saw him walking down Main Street, eddies of powdered grit swirling in his wake.
I love the way that Myna creates multiple realities and multiple versions of this character through these rumors. Each one is specific and unique to whatever version of Johnny the listener believes. How the last line of this paragraph makes it feel like Johnny has control over the weather, something this collective group desires. This is a subtle move, but it gives more power to Johnny, makes him loom larger than life, and reveals what this group of characters wants from him, but maybe even more from themselves!
The following paragraph returns to the weather, increasing the tension, and showing that the pressure hasn’t abated yet. But the rumors return. They can’t be ignored. They’ve become as important as the weather. The reader's mind loves to categorize, so they very well might be trying to match the rumors from the second paragraph to this paragraph, a game of matching with no correct answer.
They said he’d been working on an oil rig, he’d enlisted in the army, he’d gone to California. Johnny followed the rain to places made of more than dirt, where droplets flew wild in the night, free from sacrifice and prayer. He’d gone to swim in the ocean, to wade in a creek, to dive headfirst into an impossible pool of crystal blue. They said he’d gone to make his way.
Here, the tension of the heat and dryness links up with the reason for the rumors and gossip. Johnny's returning might mean the return of rain, of respite from the elements, because rumor has it that he has a power to bring rain, to bring relief. He has been out in the world and, in some capacity, has the power to bring relief to them all. Such an astute use of the middle of the story, to deliver the possibility of relief, to show that the rumors have a context and a meaning for these characters. The rumors have helped create the structure of the story, because they give us something to pay attention to, to see how they might escalate or change throughout the story.
It was like so many other nights when the sky teased, and the ground ached, like so many other Johnnies caught in the between, consumed. We heard he lost an arm in a thresher, he shot a man in Tulsa, he struck it rich in Vegas. Johnny came home in a leather jacket, a three-piece suit, a star-striped box. His momma didn’t cry, but his daddy did, standing smack in the middle of the VFW parking lot, the high school parking lot, the Methodist parking lot, salting the hardpack earth under that brutal moon, bargaining with that bitter sky.
But here is the turn, the unexpected; this Johnny is maybe just like all the other Johnnys who have left town and returned, only to find failure and tragedy, and not the relief or the change the townspeople hoped for, so maybe this Johnny has or will succumb to the failures of the Johnnys before him. Maybe he will be just like them, begging for relief instead of creating it. The reader is caught here, paused, meant to feel the tension like the people of this town, wondering if there is any relief to come?
It was the night we searched everywhere, hoping to see Johnny around the next corner, wondering if our own sky would ever let go, or if we, too, might burst before we made our way through the drought.
That “if” is accounted for in this final paragraph, where both characters and reader are intertwined with their question of whether this Johnny or any Johnny can bring them solace, a way to exist in this harsh setting or escape? If the rumors are true, then maybe none of them will make it out unscathed.
Rumors and gossip can help us reveal characters in subtle and intriguing ways. They can ask the reader to pay more attention, to try to put the pieces together, and to help build the context of the story. Rumors and gossip can add tension and mystery and can be used to play towards or against as the story reveals the true nature of the character. Rumors and gossip can also reveal a lot about the characters resorting to this negative but basic human nature. What we talk about, how we talk about it, and what we don’t say all can lead to insights into our characters. Sometimes, it's what we don’t or won’t say about ourselves that echoes the loudest.
Prompt: Write a story that creates a character, probably the antagonist, out of rumors. What is known and unknown about this character? How can the unknown move the story along? What do the rumors reveal about the characters stating them? How can you create a main character or group of characters based on what they believe about another character? How can you use the rumors to create tension and conflict? Can the conflict be resolved? Can the rumor-starters face a reckoning from their gossip and rumors? How can the rumors and gossip lead to a crisis or turning point? Who wins in this story? Is there a power dynamic shift? Can any of the rumors be confirmed? If so, to what degree and to what consequences?
Try At Home:
Point of View: Before picking a point of view, consider whose story is this, and how much distance does the reader need in order to understand and also feel something from reading the story? Should we hear directly from the main character, or do we need a narrator that is outside of the character to help us understand? Is there a particular distance that we need due to trauma or a lack of sophistication such as a child, so we want to use 2nd person point of view? How does the point of view help you tell the story? How does it help you keep out the exposition and explanations? How can the POV help us feel like we’re in this moment with the character? Or do we need more space and distance from the character?
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Thank you for sharing, Amy!