Writing “This Story is Continuing to Develop”

Last post, I shared my latest short story “This Story is Continuing to Develop.” I wrote this piece because a colleague asked me to participate in a reading, and whenever someone does that, I usually try my hand at writing fiction. I’ve shared a few of these pieces before, namely “Paper” and “Adieu.” With the former, I also wrote a craft essay discussing where the idea for the story came from and I made some of the stylistic and thematic decisions that I did for that story. Today, I want to do the same with “This Story is Continuing to Develop,” providing you with some insight into what I think about when I write.

It’s been said that every story, no matter the genre, resides in at least 95–99% reality, the rest comes from elsewhere. The longer I think about the idea, the more I agree with it, no matter if I’m watching a film like Star Wars or reading something like Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower. The foundations for stories come from reality, from our lived experiences, and we incorporate that reality into the works that we produce. “This Story is Continuing to Develop” does just that, reaching back into my own life and stories that others have told me to construct a narrative that, read alone, seems like it has no real connection to any type of reality. It feels, at times, like a phantasm and at other times like an over-the-top gore-fest. Yet, every aspect…