So here is the a little behind the scenes peak
at the creative process behind the Short Story Challenges of weeks 5-10,
(For weeks 1-4, click HERE).
Opening Line: Four Children were left on Martha’s
doorstep, one each for the four seasons. Winter’s baby came last, wrapped in
night and gazing at the stars…
This one was a beautifully written and
intriguing opening sentence. Writing a story about each of the four different children
was a given for me – the challenge here was to condense each one to the
appropriate amount to keep the story at a reasonable length.
I chose to distance the narrator of the story
from the events somewhat, in order to give it a fairytale-like feel - but then
again, of course a story where four babies are left consecutively on one
woman’s doorstep is unlikely to exist in a real world setting.
I liked the idea of each child having different
temperaments that end up defining their personalities and their respective future’s,
all foreshadowed by the characteristics that we sometimes attribute (northern
hemisphere-wise) to each season. If I were to have had more time with this
story, I definitely would have spent more time exploring the upbringing and
later lives of each child, perhaps delving more into specific events that show
their personality traits in action rather than having just stated them.
This story stood out as a highlight for me
personally for its poetic and bittersweet quality.
Opening Line: A few seconds, that was all it took; the
camera was gone, and my only chance of success with it…
This was probably the most rushed and the least
favourite of my stories – just because the style comes across as a bit glib and
inconsequential. But if it elicits a chuckle or two then I am happy with that.
I was reading a lot of Cracked around that time and wanted to write a slightly silly and
humourous piece in the style of Soren Bowie, one of the regular columnists
there. I also wanted to explore the idea of doing a whole story of someone just
literally hanging from a cliff – kind of the complete opposite in terms of the focus
and time frame of the previous short story.
The tone I was going for was that of an
adventure serial or spy pulp – complete with silly names - Luther Dexter
actually being an amalgamation of the names of two friends' babies!).
The 'boot-sock-foot-fake leg' idea bizarrely came
to me late at night and was recorded as a voice memo on my iPhone in the dark –
hey, it happens.
If I was ever to write another short story in
this style I would like to revisit these characters again but again in some other
ridiculous situation.
Opening Line: Some people might ask me the reasons I
constructed a throne made entirely of bacon, but they’ll never understand…
This story was another example of trying to
make sense of an initially ridiculous sounding opening sentence and giving it
context through the story rather than to treat it merely as a non-sequitur
opening.
Although the ideas surrounding what constitutes
‘art’ are explored here, this is not an indictment of modern art or indeed
successful artists such as Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin etc… Its more just an
observation of the intention behind it all and how ‘accidental success’ (also inspired
by Brian from Spaced) can simply
spiral out of just being in the right place at the right time.
There is also the thinly veiled allegory of
making a deal with the devil; and also the returning theme of the search for
meaning that everyone craves in their life. With this character, it is through
his artistic expression – he wants so desperately to make a mark even though he
doesn't quite know what he wants to say – he just wants to say something. It reminds me of some of the
douchebaggery encountered in my first year at uni: overheard from a random
student “I want to be political about something – I just don't know what to
be political about…”.
Sigh.
Opening Line: He put the shock puppet over his hand and
threw back the curtains…
Again, back to a more detached style for this
one – an overview of one man’s rise and fall. The eeriness is present in this
story as it taps into that age-old creepy feeling we always have about puppets
(aside from the ‘uncanny valley’) of what if the puppet was controlling the man
and not the other way around?
In this story it was taken to the furthest
extreme in that it was the most basic kind of puppet (just a sock) – and that's
also what made his ‘act’ so amazing for all those that watched it.
I personally liked the Parky bit the best
– I could hear his voice and interview style when I was writing it.
I felt the ending could have been fleshed out a
bit more if it was a longer story but I just felt I had to bring it full
circle, which ended the story nicely.
Opening Line: Time seemed to turn into slow motion as it
toppled unsteadily…
I always like the idea of playing with the
reader’s expectations and this story was pretty much just totally about to do
that. It's all kept purposefully vague – on the surface it’s really just a
description of a sequence of different emotions and its up to the reader to
infer their own meaning to what’s going on. Most people would automatically
assume it's a description of a couple in a relationship splitting up (due to
the title) - however this is also spelled ambiguously (no hyphen? one word?) and
reading it over you could also interpret the story as a simple tale of a girl
pushing a boy (perhaps even just playfully) which results in an embarrassing
accident.
It was intriguing to ponder, if time slowed
down and you had the time to think whilst it was all happening – what would you
do? How would you feel?
So that's it for weeks 6-10. Hope you enjoyed
reading them. There won’t be any more for a while, just because I want to focus
on other projects, but I feel it has been a worthwhile exercise.
Until then, dear reader!
27 Sept 2012
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