Friday short story time: “Time-Lapsed”
This week’s Friday story has a reason behind it, which you’ll already know if you’ve been following me on Twitter this week.
But for anyone who doesn’t (or just doesn’t pay attention): as an exercise for my creative writing MA this week, we all wrote pieces outside our usual styles, left our names off them, they were shuffled and handed out, then we each read one out and everyone had to guess who wrote it.
So what do I write when trying not to sound like me? Well, here it is. And I’m proud to say no-one guessed it was mine at all.
(Although a couple of people tried to imitate me by including bodily fluids or plot twists to throw others off their scent. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, isn’t it?)
Friday short story time: “Backgammon: The Movie”
Today’s Friday story is about, well, backgammon. Basically, I’ve been bemused for a while by the need for a movie about the old board game Battleships. (Or “Battleship” if you’re American, and yes, they’re really doing that. It has Rihanna in it.)
So I thought, this must be suitable for some cheap satire. What’s another game that features almost no actual plot whatsoever that I can nail a story on to?
Well, I may not have quite found a part for Rihanna, but I think backgammon is the one nonetheless. For those unfamiliar, a backgammon board looks like the nearby picture. It features two sets of counters trying to move past each other on the big triangles.
I know what you’re thinking, sounds ripe for big screen adaptation, doesn’t it? Hollywood agents, form an orderly queue.
Friday short story time: “Astronauts Beyond Space!”
Finally had time to do another Friday story, and thought I’d try for something a bit cheerier, since the last three included a story about internet misery, a sequel to that one and another called “Ready Salted Failure”.
So it’s time for a jolly adventure involving astronauts and a few off-colour jokes. And maybe a slight sense of end-of-an-era poignancy, but I can’t be serious all the time.
Time for lift-off!
Friday short story time: “Ready Salted Failure”
This week, a story I already debuted to my MA class on Wednesday. I had to read the whole thing out, so as a result, it’s a bit shorter than usual. A snip at just under 500 words, which is about half what I normally do.
It’s also a bit depressing. Sorry about that. It was written shortly after a conversation with a friend about jobhunting, and I’m an easily influenced writer.
Friday short story time: “Ruination”
This week, a rare sequel or follow-up. These have gone badly for me in the past, but I had a thematic continuation in mind. And since it’s a sequel to last week’s story, I can even pretend it was planned at the time.
Well, maybe not anymore. And no, you probably don’t need to read the original. Anyway, yes, this is once again a reflection on something that really happened. Are these stories close to becoming a form of therapy for me?
