“Professor Cranston, I’m surprised to see you here today. Come to settle your wager like an honourable man?” One of the yellow journalists called out from the sidewalk. Cranston patted a fat envelope in the breast pocket of his vest and nodded.
The stories that I’m most proud of are the ones that have been written for a specific reason beyond “hey, here’s an idea.” As part of my writer’s journey, I’ve been gathering my thoughts on what inspired those stories.
I thought it might be time to start sharing a bit of this universe, where it’s going and who’s taking you there. And I thought it’d be fun to start with character names.
Writers are a worrisome bunch. We can come up with many great story ideas and just as many weird things to worry about (beyond even imposter syndrome).
Getting back to 100-word drabbles, here are three of mine that all were published a decade ago. Sadly, the venue that published them, SpeckLit, ceased functioning sometime in 2018. I’m forever grateful to Alex Fayle and his crew for being my first paid market.
This is the first half of a scene in a story I’m developing. I know, that description sounds vague as all get-out. Sorry, I like it that way.
As part of a writing course I was recently taking, we were asked to develop some character profiles. this is the profile I developed for one of the antagonist.
As part of a writing course I was recently taking, we were asked to develop some character profiles.
One of the interesting weeks we had in my writing course was where we had to deconstruct then rebuild a famous story, in this case, Frankenstein. I decided early on that my version would have Elizabeth Lavenza (Victor von Frankenstein’s fiancé) as the hero, and that the story would involve nanotechnology.
Writing is often filled with tropes – preconceived ideas that both the writer and the reader bring to the story. For this assignment we were asked to redefine a fairy tale trope of our choice. I chose trolls.
