Monday, April 14, 2025
Time: 5:03 PM
Song: Apple Tree Blues
Artist: Caamp
Mode of Consumption: Listening to a mix CD on the way home from work.
Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/7qB3O5pjTCpuEpW98jrRHD?si=5333a2b9914f497b
A few years ago, I wrote a story for a competition from the point of view of a teenage girl who is sitting around a campfire with her boyfriend, his best friend and his best friend’s new girlfriend.
The title of the story was “Things I Wanted to Say,” and we find out what the girl wants to say throughout the night and then the often-trite things she actually says.
The girl is intelligent, likely the smartest of the group, and yet she continues to make poor decisions including staying in a relationship with a boy she cares little for while also having a physical relationship with his best friend.
I was rereading this story today, and still couldn’t decide if this story had value or if it’s self-indulgent drivel. Not to mention my tense use should get pulled over, it’s weaving all over the place.
This exercise is what I hope is the start of excavating my catalog of stories and possibly compiling the best into a collection. I have published four or five stories, and I won the recent Iron Pen contest. But, just because stories are publishable, doesn’t mean they belong in the same collection.
The issue here is I’ve never done this. I have read short story collections, but never spent much time thinking about sequencing and themes.
I suppose it’s a bit like a playlist. I’ve made plenty of those.
I just have to figure out what it is that I want to say.
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