Tue, April 25, 2006

I've been interested in adding a short fiction section to onebee since its inception. (In fact, the Bionicle Fan Fiction section was one attempt at serialized fiction, but imploded under the weight of my expectations for it.)

I'm really hoping that some of my time in Florida will be spent writing short stories and things like that. Really writing them, like coming up with ideas, writing them out, organizing them, revising them, and formulating coherent and entertaining stories with a point.

Right now, I'm too busy unpacking boxes.

But I'm also busy cleaning out the closet from my old room at my parents' place (we had to clear out for carpet installers), and I found a notebook from my 12th grade creative writing class. So, I'm kicking things off with a very brief story – almost more of a stream-of-consciousness exercise – from September of 1995, which I absolutely do not recall writing.

It's wholly disconcerting to read something I wrote that long ago, especially since I have no recollection of writing it. No idea why I wrote it (whether there was a particular prompt, or just a "free write"); no idea what I was thinking about while I wrote it; no idea what I meant for it to say (if anything). This particular piece (which I've retroactively titled A Purple Place) seems particularly ripe for psychoanalysis. I really wonder if it tapped into something I was feeling at the time, or if I just randomly dashed it out as fast as my hand could write in order to meet a deadline.

It is kind of funny to notice that my predilection for wedging random non-sequiturs into a piece – sometimes at the expense of a cohesive tone – has been around for at least a decade. At least now I know what to work on!

Hope you enjoy the piece. There are certainly more to come. (Until I figure out a plan, I'm tentatively restricting comments on the fiction posts – so feel free to comment about them here. I just think it might be nice to allow new readers to experience them without comment – if you have any thoughts about this idea, I'm eager to hear those, too.)