Yesterday I posted my first piece of flash fiction for this new class. I wrote it in ten, published as is, then submitted. I treated it like a writing exercise, because it felt like one. The task came by way of Pamela Painter, whose text What If? has long been central to my summer creative writing workshop. In the first pages of the guide we are using for this class, Painter explained how and why she uses writing prompts. I languished in her explanation. It spoke to me in a way I haven’t been spoken to in a long time by another CRW instructor. Not only did I understand, I was inspired to elevate and explain how and why I do things in my own classes. It felt good to be reinvigorated by teaching. Painter’s approach is straightforward and honest. In a way, she lets you off the hook dore using prompts by arguing that what comes from them is genuinely your creation, and with a good prompt, no two stories will ever be the same.
My story goes off the rails early. I was thinking about escape rooms and imagined that a man might see relationships in that vein, and be misunderstood after a fashion–though not entirely. You saw the results. The prompt was to write a story that started with He said, ____________ and She said, _____________ . I continued on in this fashion until the end when the matter was, inevitably, decided.
I am enjoying the chance to write more and different things. That being said, I am increasingly excited about the direction of the novel in this rewrite. It is going to be good–better than it was and better than I thought it could be. This could be a top marks book for me.