The Story

The Story

“That is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. You write a story every day?”

“Well, not every day, but most days.”

“Why?”

“Because I like writing stories.”

“Why?”

“I like to imagine things.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s fun thinking up things that could happen, or even things that can’t happen, and making a story up about them.”

“Every day...?”

“Most days...”

“Well, about what? How do you even start?”

“Well, in my case I get what they call a prompt, from a story contest.”

“What’s a prompt?”

“It’s either words or a situation they tell you that you need to have in your story. Like if I said to you, write a story about rocks or, how about, write a story that has the words ‘plaid’ and ‘envelopes’ in it.”

“Plaid and envelopes...?”

“Yes! You could write about somebody sorting envelopes at the post office and one of them is plaid.”

“And...?”

“Well, what if when the person picks up the envelope, the whole post office turns plaid! Then he panics, and tries to run away, but outside, the whole world is plaid!”

“Why? What happened?”

“I don’t know, I just made it up.”

“And you get to decide what happens next?”

“Yup.”

“Cool! But, Mrs. Jennet wants us to write a story about going on a trip.”

“A real trip you went on? Or a trip you’d like to go on?”

“Ah, she didn’t say...”

“Well! You could write about a trip you did go on that was fun, or you could make up a story about going to the jungle, or outer space, or...”

“Oh, oh!! I could write a story about falling in a hole and coming out on the other side of the earth!”

“Yes, yes you could.”

And another author finds his calling.