While I stand in the park, I start to understand fiction, I think. The fountain splashes into the unseen pond over the hill, the cicadas in the trees ceaselessly sing, the coach shouts “Go!” to the group of kids practicing soccer. I watch and listen as each of these stories remain boring. I need for 

One of the walker’s would let their dog go down to drink from the pond, and then an alligator would burst from the surface and eat the dog. 

Or the cicadas would stop singing in fear, and a moment of silence would ensure just before a tyrannosaurus red breaks through the trees. 

Or the soccer coach would say something cruel to one of the kids and that kid’s dad would jump up out of his lawn chair and punch the coach in the face. 

Perhaps none of these stories are believable. 

Perhaps there is a climax here. I just can’t find it. 

So how long do I wait before I start making stuff up?