On the one hand, I was living an idyllic life; a Canadian retired in Thailand, it’s like being on vacation every day. It’s a life dictated by self-imposed schedules, not workplace-focused calendars or clocks. My life centred on morning coffee, mealtimes, and entertainment. No rushing around, no stress, no worries.
Which leads to the other hand: a life without purpose, without meaning.
With all the time in the world on my hands and nothing worthwhile keeping them busy, I needed an outlet. There had to be something more I could do with my day that was on my own terms using my skills to fulfill this part of me that felt flat, empty.
My wife had discovered her inner artist. While she was playing with shape and colour, pencils, paints and papers, I watched her find a satisfaction she’d been missing and fulfill a longing, a dream for more. She started creating on a daily basis, discovering new skills, and improving her art (thank you Sketchbook Skool).
She offered me use of her supplies, but they weren’t for me. I’m a math guy. I’m more comfortable with words and ideas than shape and colour. I pondered it… how could I use words to paint? To create? Wouldn’t that require something epic, like writing a book? What would I write about? How does someone go about doing that? It seemed Herculean.
Years before, I’d been part of a local writing group. There was a monthly newsletter and within it a writing challenge: utilizing three prompt words, write a one-hundred-word story. At the time, I’d enjoyed the exercise. I’d sit with the three words for a couple of weeks, allow ideas to percolate, and by the date I needed to have my entry submitted to make the next newsletter, it was ready. There was something magical about seeing my entry, alongside others, in that publication.
Then an idea formed: what if I wrote one-hundred-word stories? What if I did one every day?
It sounded like a huge commitment but was it really? It was simply one-hundred words every day. I could accomplish that — couldn’t I?
I surfed the web, looking for places where I could be part of a writing community, hoping for a replication of what I’d had with the writing group from before. I didn’t find what I was looking for. What I did find was writers who worked in short fiction insisting that stories of very short length deserved the same care and crafting as longer works. That words should be used to paint elaborately, lavishly, carefully.
That didn’t fit my idea of what I wanted to do at all. I wanted to have a bit of fun, not toil in the trenches of vocabulary and grammar, cramming as much meaning as I could force into each sentence. What I wanted, in terms of visual arts, was less a painting and more a sketch. Get a story onto the page, lightly edit so that the result was something I felt good about, then move on with the rest of my day.
And that, is what I do and have been doing. Every single day.
For the past few years I have created a story every… single… day.
And today (June 27, 2021), marks the day I write my 1,000th one-hundred-word story. Even as I write the previous sentence, it feels unbelievable. And yet it’s true.
How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
With ketchup.
Do you wonder why I do it?
I write because:
It helps me laugh. The world can be doom and gloom, but I can spend some time writing about my imaginary characters: Frank Cappuccino, a bicycle cop from Massachusetts; people who call into the Cooking With Julie show; or conversations between animals in the ocean. This makes me smile.
It gives my creativity a place to stretch and be active. Writing stories is sort of like doing Sudoku puzzles in that you are constructing something active with your mind. But it’s also different in that you are placing the starting numbers in their associated grids. And then colouring in the spaces within the grid. And maybe even straying outside the lines!
The stories and ideas are something I can share with others. It feels good to know that a story can reach a lot of people. Clyde, The Forgotten Reindeer, a story I wrote around Christmas time a couple of years ago, went viral. That was amazing, watching the viewership rise daily.
It’s something that can’t be taken away. Each story is like a bit of treasure.
I set the rules. I control what I create. It’s deeply satisfying to do something where you are the one making the rules.
It’s a creative habit. No matter what’s going on in my life, birthday, holiday, moving, whatever, it’s something that if I don’t do it, the day doesn’t feel right.
It can lead to other, bigger projects. As I’ve been posting stories and interacting with the writing community, I’ve run into opportunities. For instance, I’ve had one-hundred-word stories posted in online publications. I’ve also run into opportunities to write larger pieces for contests, and while those stories haven’t won blue ribbons, one in particular is the starting chapter for a book I’m currently editing.
Having now established some reason(s) to write creatively, let’s delve into my how.
Here’s my step-by-step process:
1. Every day I pick three words.
The idea isn’t to pick massively complicated words and try to horseshoe them into a story. “Ocelot, Vertiginous, Narcoleptic” — any one of those could be difficult to use, not to mention all three together. As first choices, pick words with multiple meanings to provide plenty of flexibility. “Ham, Pick, Fall” — those can come together in a number of ways.
2. I take those three words and draft my story. I keep my word counter on to see how many words I have left or how many words I need to cull.
This is a good place to talk about the size of the story. For me, one-hundred words is sufficient to get an idea down but not so big as to require a lot of formulating of story. Sometimes I have to cut down my story to make it fit within my allowed one-hundred words, so I have to consider what the best bits are and keep those.
3. As far as the process of the creation of the story goes, I think the best way I can explain how I do it is with one of my stories:
He sits back, reading and rereading the three words sitting on the page; the remaining white space waits patiently for a story to coalesce. He sees the words form connections and can hear snippets of different stories containing a variety of plot lines and a multitude of points of view. They fountain forth, displacing what came before and washed away by what follows, until the fingers catch hold of words, sentences, paragraphs, and they appear as if by magic on the screen. He reads, edits, smooths, polishes but some burrs remain, inadvertently or not.
And then he does it again.
4. Once I’m happy with what I’ve written, it’s time to start publishing and recording:
a. I begin with YouTube. I read my story, perhaps act it out a bit, while my loving and ever-patient partner records (and laughs where appropriate)(usually). I treat these videos like Livestreams in that I don’t edit them — too much work required. A copy of the story goes into the Video Description.
b. Next is Medium. Medium is a subscription site, in that you pay to read articles there. However, it’s free to post stories. I use Medium because it formats nicely and I can use Unsplash pics and photos without worrying about copyright issues.
c. Lastly, I post on Blogger.
All told, it takes me about an hour (and usually much less) to go from beginning to end.
Are you interested in doing this too?
If you are, remember that this time is your time. The story is yours. It can be silly, sad, poignant… anything you want. Over time, you may discover characters, situations, or scenes that call repeatedly for more time on the page. One of my favourites is the Household Item Wrangler — an imaginary YouTuber who offers advice on how to keep common items in your home behaving nicely (the first story was about how paperclips like to swim in schools, like fish).
Are you interested in interacting with a supportive community of fellow writers? That can be found by following this link to my Discord server, where I post both daily prompts and the stories that come from them. Post your own stories and let fellow readers enjoy what you have to say!
I’ve found myself within the creating and telling of stories. I hope this story about my one-hundred-word stories inspires you to do the same.
