My Music Journal 2025 - January 18, 2025

 

Saturday, January 18, 2025

Time: 2:32 PM
Song: How to Save a Life
Artist: The Fray
Mode of Consumption: Listening to radio Mac 94-7 while finishing writing contest story.

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/5fVZC9GiM4e8vu99W0Xf6J?si=a61cf0db7987441a

I’ve just finished a draft of the story I started last Saturday for a writing contest. Truthfully, I did a complete rewrite this morning from a 3,000 word draft I had completed during the week. 

As a reminder, the contest prompt demanded that I do certain things. I had to pick from five possible characters and settings. I picked a journalist and a tavern that also rents out a few rooms. The story also had to have a well. 

My first draft was a about a journalist coming to a small town to do a story on a missing serial killer. It was a dark and brooding story that led to a pretty empty climax of the journalist abandoning the story and town for a lead on a different story. I liked some of the writing but it wasn’t all clicking together on the page. 

This morning, I decided I liked the setting and character, but the idea of researching a serial killer wasn’t working. 

I altered the central issue. This time it was about digging into the story about a boy who went missing in his family’s pasture 40-years earlier. I gave it more of a supernatural bent, and it breathed a new life into the urgency of the story. 

I even kept a few scenes from the original, in part because I didn’t feel like I was spending enough time at the tavern as required by the rules. 

The sticking point on this version of the story was figuring how the story was going to be resolved. I knew that I was going to lead my journalist down the same pasture path from 40 years earlier. He was going to go with the boy’s twin sister. 

But what would happen?

Would the man be lost? Would the twin be redeemed? I won’t spoil it, but as the Fray’s song plays on the radio, it felt appropriate. 

The song is about taking the time to talk to people who are experiencing depression and other mental issues in order to save their lives. 

While part of me didn’t want to take the time today to completely rewrite this story, I saved the story’s life by doing so. At least, I think I did. I still have to edit out a couple hundred words, but I feel a lot better about it now.