To say staying at home on #Coronavirus/#Covid19/#pandemic #LOCKDOWN has dammed my creative juices is a woefully inadequate understatement. I produced blank pages (the equivalent of silence) the whole month of March, with the exception of my daily #vss365 one-tweet stories.
Seriously, it was depressing.
Given the number of go-go-go posts I've produced on overcoming fear, facing demons, staying motivated, my dry spell proclaimed personal failure, hypocrisy, and shame. Where was my advice when I needed it? (Right here, on the internet, easily accessible.)
A friend urged me to participate in a challenge to write a short story based on a visual prompt. Between being challenged and the thousand words implied in the photo, I did feel inspired. Prison Break came out of me and boy, did I feel triumphant and emancipated!
The story struck me as unfinished, so the following week, I wrote more.
How far could I push it? The week after that, I wrote even more, all the way into a corner. I was running out of creative juice, so Lucky Lucy suddenly had nowhere else to go.
Lmao, talk about life imitating art imitating life, however metaphorically.
Lockdown continues. I must carry on.
The same friend writes every single day, motivated by deadlines and challenges. She wrote a short story and entered it into a weekly competition, and invited me to join in also. The submission guidelines were straightforward, so I went for it.
It sparked an idea that I could possibly stick with this and enter every weekly competition. Maybe I'll win one.
If not, I'll at least build up a body of work and unleash it on the world to fame and glory.
😎
Sorry, I'm laughing maniacally at my own joke. Apologies if you don't find it as humorous as I do.
The fact remains that my job may or may not wait for me when lockdown ends, so I have several empty pages of days to fill. Stay tuned.
If you'd like to read my contest story - Back to Dreams Aphotic - it's posted on the writers' resource website Reedsy.
My submission leans into the dark side, about a weird asshole named Orland. Since the word count max is 3000 to enter, I decided to skip giving Orland a character arc, but rather treat the entry as a character study into a twisted mind.
If I've written it well, you'll probably hate Orland. To vote for it, LIKE it. Reedsy will ask you to create an account and they'll send you a follow up email. If you're a writer who enjoys or wants to start writing short stories, it's a fantastic opportunity to stay motivated. On the other hand, if you're a fan of reading short stories, it's a great way to find new writers, because you'll get a weekly email with the new prompts.
My short stories are listed here.
Be well, stay 6 feet apart, and have a magical day
Mackenzie
I still struggle a little writing short stories, since I never can seem to pack a beginning, middle, and end into fewer words then a novel. But I love that you have shared your creative process into this tale, and I hope you continue to let the words flow.
ReplyDeleteHello Jaya,
DeleteI completely understand, since I struggle with them too. I'm using them as exercise to develop my skills - either for imagery, dialogue, voice differentiation, emotional depth, character study, etc. Thanks for the vote of confidence.
Mackenzie