Credit: Peakpx
If you follow me in Substack Notes, you know I am participating in Volume II of Same Walk, Different Shoes which is a collection of fictional short stories organized by Ben Wakeman, in his Catch and Release newsletter. The posts will be published tomorrow, Friday, July 5, at 8:00 a.m. eastern.
In this collection each writer parlayed a 100-word prompt into a short story of up to 2,500 words. This is my first effort at fiction, so from the moment I volunteered for the compilation I was trepidatious. My “Inner Critic”, which I’ve now affectionately named “fearmongering fuckwit”, immediately went to work on me.
Special thanks to
for his excellent post about inner critics.
The inner dialogue with ‘fuckwit’ went something like this -
fuckwit: Are you crazy?! You don’t have a fucking clue how to write fiction. You’re going to fail. Everyone will know you’re horrible at writing.
Me: Oh! My! God! I don’t have a clue about how to write fiction. I’m going to fail. I suck at writing.
fuckwit: Thank goodness you got off that ambitious crazy train. You can try this the next time, maybe (big fucking maybe, HUGE) when you aren’t such a horrible writer.
Me: I gotta get outta this. I need to tell
something came up. I can’t do this.Me: Wait a minute! If I want to run the other way isn’t that fear? Shouldn’t I forge ahead when I’m scared. Hell yes!
The rest is history. The process, which I left for nearly the last minute because - hello, fear - was easier than I expected.
What I would love is feedback about the story from you, good or bad. It was a pleasant surprise to find that I enjoyed writing it, even from the prompt of a stranger. Your feedback will help me write better in the future. Thank you for your support!
Hey-yaa, Same-walk/different shoes buddy! Can’t wait for my story to go live! It’s daytime here, if I calculated right (okay, I googled!) 8:00 am Eastern time US will be 3:00 pm where I’m at. I wonder if it’s my prompt you got?! Anyway, glad to have you on board the fiction ship! Is it smooth sailing all the time? Of course not! I right mostly fiction. I’ve tamed my inner critic, so he’s a good boy.😂 I can’t wait to read the stories, and if you want, I could give you feedback!🩶
Love the voice here, telling that critic who’s boss! 😅