Sometimes I'm not sure if I'm kidding myself or keeping hope alive. Or do they amount to the same thing? Oh well. For what it's worth, I'm writing. This piece comes from a combination of prompts. I think one was about a one-sided dialogue. You hear what one character says but not the other. And …
Continue reading Story-a-Day September heads into the final stretch!
Last night I worked on a story for Story-a-Day. When the story began, I was sure a particular character was dead. As I came to the ending though, I brought her back to life. It wasn't because I loved her so much I couldn't let her go. Instead, I couldn't put her best friend through …
Story-a-Day September continues! I've missed two days so far. I tried to torture myself by staying up too late to write something, anything, but then I remembered that suffering isn't required and anything I wrote while half-asleep wouldn't be worth the effort. Perspective. Right? For about half of the days, I worked on previous stories, …
I finished my third story for Story-a-Day. I'm feeling that familiar mix of joy--I did it!--and dread--It's probably terrible. Being terrible isn't the end of the world though, is it? Why do we feel compelled to do something that we don't even have confidence in? It really makes no sense. It's actually a privilege to …
Two days in and I'm sticking to my plan. I've taken two old stories and finished them up. Well, I say finished... Yesterday, I reworked my story on a typewriter. Last year, I came across this typewriter in a thrift shop on sale for $20. Twenty bucks! And the blooming thing works! (Maybe I've talked …
Dear Llama, If you told stories, what stories would you tell? Would llamas write of teen angst, mid-life crises, or trips to other planets? Llamas in space? Llamas in love? The Llama, the Witch, and the Wardrobe? Probably not the wardrobe. More like a barn door or a pasture gate. Actually, no. Why a manmade …
I went through files and files and files this last weekend in a crazed effort to organize my writing as if this will fix all my problems. Well, the problems remain, but I do now know that I have 124 short stories. Thank you, Story-a-Day! Or curse you as the case may be. The stories …
Marta Pelrine-Bacon 