We’re back to discussing the process we use before we start writing a story. This time we’re using the prompt: an everyman and a popsicle. During this episode, we’ll discuss all the things we had to think about to discover our story.
Rebecca’s Notes:
- Starting with a problem: do you figure out what the problem is at any point? Does it have to be clarified for you?
- What’s it like to have bits and pieces of the story come to you inside your mind? Do they appear in order or leave you to figure out where they go?
- How has this short story process helped improve your writing? Has it?
- My first idea was an ice cream truck driver who hit a kid, but I didn’t like that. Then I had this image of a popsicle melting and floating around in space. That stuck with me, but I had no story for it so I had to build from there.
- What is an everyman?
Katelyn’s Notes:
This story came to me out of nowhere. It started as just the ghost of an idea about an everyman who was not as he appeared to be. I like deconstructing the personalities that characters put forth to the world and comparing them to what they display behind the scenes. I wanted to take a break from fantastical elements and really stay grounded in a story from everyday life. I wasn’t entirely sure that it matched the trope of an everyman, but decided it was a story I needed to tell either way.