30-Day Short Story Writing Challenge : Chapter 1

An Introduction

A few weeks ago I met a good friend for a coffee, and we got onto the subject of 30-Day Challenges. Upon returning home I began investigating the principle further. I discovered this succinct but inspirational introduction to the concept with Matt Cutts: Try Something New for 30 Days TED Talk, where he talks about having, among other things, written a novel in 30 Days.

“Is my book the next great American novel? Of course not… I wrote it in a month. It’s awful!”

I also recently saw this equally inspirational and, in turns, genuinely moving and amusing TED Talk by writer Elizabeth Gilbert: Your Elusive Creative Genius, where she talks with a breathtaking eloquence about where creativity comes from. So, in combining Matt’s time-line commitment with Elizabeth’s philosophy to simply turn up and, in doing so, coerce an equal commitment from the genius that lies dormant in the corner of my room… my inertia is about to creep.

Clearly, Matt Cutts’ either had a disturbing amount of time on his hands, or combined a 30-Day Insomnia Challenge with a dedication to insanity in tackling a 50,000 word novel in the time-frame. So, I’m intending to sleep, and teach, and continue to walk Willow, and have a life outside of my bloodshot eyes out on stalks by taking on a 30-Day Short Story Writing Challenge and combining it with my photography. I’ll be posting a chapter and image each day for 30 consecutive days. If the gods and the, up until now, extremely discrete creative writing genius turns up, everything should converge on Day 30 with Chapter 30 and a denouement, of sorts. Well, of only one thing I can be certain… it will come, ready or not. Time waits for no man!

So, strap yourselves in. Or maybe I should be strapping myself in?

Chapter 1

When autumn comes she falls. Her colour slides and fades to a trickle like softly falling rain. He always watched her. The weight of pain. The tears that tumbled into her pillow and mingled with the scent of loss. And her heartbeat would slow to the fluttering of a winged insect trapped inside. He always watched her.

Chapter 2