It was just something fun that happened

If I may, I’d push back a little on that idea.

It may not be full of high drama, but all emotional shifts are important – and valuable – even when they’re low key.

I don’t know the details of your story, so obviously I’m likely to get it all wrong. But as a hypothetical: a woman finds a message in a bottle may be factually correct, but readers / viewers won’t care much unless we see the woman’s emotional state being changed, even slightly.

For instance: just before finding the bottle with a message in it she might have been mildly bored. Having found it, she might feel bewildered – what is this bottle, with a message inside?? – then positively intrigued, and even thrilled.

Those emotional states will be presented by her body language, the way she interacts with the bottle, the people she talks to about it – and those are all things you can describe in your writing.

As the story continues to unfold, she might decide to reply to the message in the bottle and feel excited about it. Or she might tell herself to not be silly because surely nobody will receive her reply.

Or whatever.

All of these emotional states help the reader see that someone in the story cares about something. And when we see that someone cares, we care too.

If this doesn’t ring true, please let me know.

I guess the funny part about finding the bottle was that my boyfriend at the time, an immigration lawyer, advised me not to touch the bottle, as it was ‘just garbage’ and ‘some sailor looking for a green card’. I hadn’t included that part in my writing because it sounded so negative.

I told him that I’d spend the money on a stamp and take the ‘risk’ of replying.

That could add some kind of emotion?

I wasn’t actually thrilled or overjoyed or anything like that when I found the bottle. I didn’t expect it to change my life or anything. It was just something fun that happened.

I’d read so many fairy tales and legends growing up that it almost seemed ‘normal’ that I would find it.

That exchange with your then-boyfriend is so good! 

Again, it may not be high drama but it contains a tiny fragment of conflict or even just mild disagreement between two human beings – and that is the essence of a great scene. 

It also casts a strong light on everything that follows because any reader will want to know if he was right - or you. 

Also, your reply to me here suggest that you could set up this part of the story with at least some fleeting reference to your having previously absorbed many fairytales. They were your “normal”.