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Posts Tagged ‘Adoption’

Where do we get ideas for our stories?

We’d like to give you a peek into how we create our short stories. Technically, most of our stories are flash fiction, loosely defined as 1000 words or less. Short stories usually run 1000 to 7500 words.

Orion belongs to a writing group that meets every two weeks and conspires to come up with three prompts to use in a piece for the next meeting.

Once we get the prompts, we spend a day or two mulling them over. Usually, we come up with a few ideas for stories that could include all of the prompts. After a bit of discussion, we sketch out a rough outline, mostly detailing the dialogue, with a few character actions. Once that is done, we dig into whatever research is needed.

Sigh! I should tell you that research is often a black hole from which most writers have great difficulty escaping. One topic leads to another, one website to twelve others, and on and on, falling down the internet rabbit hole!

The funny thing is, much of what we find isn’t even included in our story. This research helps us to understand the character or the setting or some other aspect of the story. For example, for the short story ARROWHEAD, we did extensive research on adopting a child from China. Our research resulted in maybe eight lines in the finished story. However, the knowledge we gained about the subject influenced how we wrote the entire story and the way the characters felt and acted.

Arrowhead

Ever wonder how Evelyn became Kier’s mother?
We thought you’d like to know how it happened. Enjoy!


Evelyn shifted nervously in her seat. The waiting room was chilly. It felt like any other anonymous doctor’s office. Not what she expected  adopting a child from China. Around her, the other adoptive couples chatted nervously with each other.

But she was all alone, except for Maeve. When Keith and I started this three years ago, at least we had each other through all the paperwork, financial probes, and home visits. But after he died…. She didn’t want think about losing him. It had been a year since the Oakland police showed up on her doorstep to tell her that he’d died on a building site he’d been overseeing in L.A. They said he’d had a heart attack, then fallen several stories off the new LeRoux Worldwide Center.

She felt a warm hand on her arm, reminding her of Maeve’s presence. She turned to find her friend/receptionist/mother figure  smiling at her.

“Brighten up, hon. Remember, you’re about to become a mother. You’re ready for this.”

(more…)