Setting Goals and Following Through: Story Challenge 1

So, part of making myself write is completing challenges for myself in writing. So that is my goal. While I won't necessarily put the story on here (who knows?), I will go ahead and post my progress, or lack thereof. I want to challenge myself to 10 minutes a day, free of the overwhelming plot concerns of my fanfiction sagas. But don't worry, imaginary-fanfic-reader-who-follows-my-stories, I shan't abandon you.

I took my prompt from a post about short stories that seems to have a good, random nature that can challenge me. (The post is from the group/blog/entity(?) Creative Writing Now which seems to offer a lot of resources and some free online courses that I'll look at more in the future).

The challenge is as follows: 1. A stolen ring, fear of spiders, and a sinister stranger.

My first thought: "Sooo... just plagiarize Lord of the Rings?"

While this isn't a serious comment, the first goal would be to come up with a plot. Now, as a writer, I despise the ordinary and common. As Audrey Lourde said: "There are no new ideas. There are only new ways of making them felt." But I also agree whole-heartedly with Jordan Peele, who said "I don't see myself casting a white dude as the lead in my movie. Not that I don't like white dudes. But I've seen that movie."

Now, I can never understand what it is like for a black man, who has only seen black men in limited types of roles, roles that often reinforce stereotypes. But, as the meme goes, I know that feel. I know the feel of seeing woman constantly relegated to either the temptress, damsel, or psycho bitch. Countless TV shows and movies have only disappointed. The Amazon Prime series, Carnival Row, drew me in at the start with a trailer focused on the (white) female protagonist in a fantasy world. Of course. that character, even though she started the story and introduced the world, quickly became an introduction to the true main character, the white guy. Again. With dread, I looked up the season spoilers and I was right. His character is "the one", the guy with the great destiny; she's just his girlfriend, the ass-kicking Trinity to his gruff, tough guy Neo.

So, as I said, when I write, I don't want to write the same story and character arc. Will my characters and plot be revolutionary? I doubt it. Will they breathe new life into a genre as Peele did for horror films? Probably not. Will they be something I made? Yes, they will. And that is the point of art work; it isn't to receive praise or make money; art is about wanting to create something.

So, for the next few days, as an exercise, I will work in the reverse from my usual style, which is get an idea, work on it obsessively, and then let it fall away. I will start by planning the short story, creating the characters and story before writing the story itself.

Wish me luck.