Dark and twisty

I used to run a short-story collaboration called “Storyteller”, whereby I posted a topic once a month, and the collab participants would submit stories based on that topic. I’d publish them on my website and we’d discuss them. I wish it was still going on, but it didn’t garner enough interest or momentum to continue. Still, all the entries and contributions remain out there in the ether for our entertainment.

I just re-read this one that I wrote back in September of ‘05 in response to the topic, “The one that got away.” What a dark and twisty piece of work it is! It’s funny, I don’t remember actually writing it. I don’t remember the writing process of any of my short stories, they’re just there. I did them, got the idea out of my head and onto “paper”, then promptly forgot about them.

Weird.

In the re-reading of them, my fingers itch to polish them up a bit. But I’m going to leave them alone. They’re done. They reflect the writing style and headspace that I had/was in at the time. I think I’m going to try my hand at another short story sometime soon, and see if I still have the knack of it. I used to write them all the time, for my own entertainment. I still have all the word docs, and earlier hand-written stuff from back in the late 80’s and early 90’s, back when I first discovered an urge to write fiction. I used to get ideas for stories all the time. Not so much, lately.

Really, the first time that I recall having to write a story because its concept loudly occupied my brain and wouldn’t leave me alone until I got it OUT, was in eighth grade (GAH… bravely dating myself, that would be circa 1987-1988). I still have it, written long-hand for an English assignment. It’s hidden in my bedroom closet and it’s going to STAY there.

Prose-type reality style journaling and blogging has been the main fixture of my writing since the first grade. It’s fun (and good for one’s writing skills) to occasionally exercise my brain in a different way.

Here, have a laugh at these other gems:

Untitled – February 2001.

It Could Have Been- April 2001. (GAH. Actually, don’t read that one.)

Gamepieces – June 2001.

The Awakening – January 2002. (Actually, I kind of like this one.)

Summer Wind Gods – March 2002. (Obviously I was homesick when I wrote this one.)

Oh, the humanity.