Written in reveiw // reflecting on my writing this year
This year was the year I finally felt like my prose had reached a standard that feels compatable with the stories I aim to tell, I’m more articulate, the plots of my stories have become more interesting and enganging and my dialoge no longer feels like it’s been put through google translate one too many times.
Here’s everything I wrote this year:
Sumatran’s a type of tiger, 2673 words
Sumatran’s a type of tiger was the first story I wrote that didn’t have a coded white narrator and is the most complex and layered story I’ve written to date. It has three layers, with triple meanings and every repeat read reveals new previously hidden information around the protagonist and better clarifies the cliffhanger ending. I’m super proud of its quick and engaging narrative and strong and cohesive plot but I do admit it gets pretty complicated at time and it wasn’t surprising that cutting it down to 5,000 words would cut out some important information. Overall a really stong story but definitely getting someone to read through it first before submitting it next time.
Yard Work is a short story I wrote for my first English class which is why it’s so short, however, it’s a super interesting story that evolves really fluidly and I intend to lengthen it to a submittable length so it’s going in the short story section and not the flash fiction section. I love how all the little details help cement this story into believability, with all the books and board games being published or that specific edition being around in the 1940′s. Each of the siblings feel so real and I can’t help but wonder whether my subconscious slipped details of my own sisters into this story. But this story is just evidence of how much! my! plot! has! improved! The narrator’s motives are so complex and the progression of the house being emptied and it’s contents sold to symbolize him fully abandoning and cutting off his toxic living family members by making their memories move out is so nice to read.
I wrote Cabin Teeth after reflecting on my writing and realising how white it was and so I started consuming and reading more diverse writing and so when I started drafting my first horror story my main characters were naturally diverse and the story from then on developed into one of my favourites. It’s that perfect kind of horror, the kind seen in Hereditary and Mindsommar the kind that sticks with you and feels eerily familiar. Everything is unknown and I loved adding little details that emphasized how ‘off’ everything is. The fact that Carrie has the money to book out an entire holiday park but not enough to afford her own apartment, that Harrison’s teeth have been growing overnight, the fact that Tans family were finishing a catered funeral four months prior to the death. It all culminates in a hauntingly nostalgic tale. I can’t wait to write more horror in 2021.
Kidnappers Favour, 300 words
Artwork by J.C Leyendecker
Kidnappers Favour is basically a call out post by the narrator on why he doesn’t care that Casper, the village baker’s boy was kidnapped and cruelly wonders why out of all the kids in his town the stranger chose to take him as well as clearing his name and formulating an alibi for how it wasn’t him. The story was a one-off submission and I love how the tiny word count challenged me to introduce concepts and information to the reader in a few short sentences.
Little excerpt /-“It'd be a matter of hushing his howling. His kidnapper would have to be quiet too and not cry or curse when he scratched and bit, and yet someone did. They did the whole thing, the taking and the hiding.”
Maybe it’s better if the kids are left alone, 500 words
Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t, this story was a response to a heritage photograph of a group of children wading in a brook supervised by a couple teens. I adore stupid little stories that perfectly capture the energy and experience of growing up in a small town with friends you know but not too well and one or two good hang out spots. It needs to be rewritten so bad, I wrote it when I really didn’t care how good it was and now I’m looking back and having regrets.
Night Blooming, 1,000 words
Night Blooming is an Inuit lesbian love story with motifs of nocturnal flowers, she-wolves and arroyo’s vast bodies of water. It follows the narrator falling in love with married Quppa. I absolutely loved doing the research for this piece but unfortunately I didn’t finish it before the deadline for it’s paired competition so now It sits in my google drive...waiting.
Beginning/Developing Big Projects in the New Year, 2
In a month I wrote 21,000 words for Sun Ballad and I’ve just recently finished Chapter Six
I’ll be starting to draft Celestial Bodies In 2021 with my co-writer and can’t wait to write my first screenplay.
Moving Forward/ Writing Goals
-Improving Dialouge + Productivity
-Diversifying projects and escaping my genre comfort zone
