Author commentary on stories featured on my Freely Written podcast in May 2024: Birds of a Feather and Reusable Straws.
At the end of each month, I’ll shed some light on my writing adventures.
If you’re new to Freely Written, this podcast offers very short stories written from a chosen prompt with no planning and very little editing. These stories are an exercise in letting go of perfection and embracing spontaneous creativity. You may even be inspired to write a story of your own!
Episodes are released every other Tuesday and are around 10 minutes long. Listen with your favorite podcast app or from the links below!
Ep. 115 – Birds of a Feather – May 14, 2024
Listen first to avoid spoilers! Find the story here: Birds of a Feather
Yes, I’ve become a birdwatcher. Or… birder? Okay, it’s birdwatching in a very passive, rather uninvolved way. Peter and I put up a bird feeder with a camera that identifies birds and sends us pictures throughout the day. It’s been entertaining to see how the birds behave around the feeder. And annoying as we’re joining the fight to discourage the squirrels. (I just bought hot petter seed, so we’ll see how that goes!)
This story is a reflection of our new bird based hobby. It features a house finch (the first species to show up at our feeder) and mourning doves, which we haven’t seen as much since the feeder arrived. So far, the house finches seem to be fairly well behaved. The mourning doves, when they do come by, keep their distance and are more likely to eat the seeds that have fallen on the ground.
Since writing this story, we’ve had a lot more house sparrows, and I have mixed feelings about them. They are very cute, but they also toss the seeds all over the place while digging through for their favorites. While I really don’t know much about any of these birds, it was fun to invent personalities for them. If I’d planned and edited this story, I would have made the mourning doves more clearly sarcastic and teasing. In this version, they may come off as standoffish and rude. Apologies to the mourning dove community. They are lovely birds and probably quite nice, too.
Ep. 116 – Reusable Straws – May 28, 2024
Listen first to avoid spoilers! Find the story here: Reusable Straws
This is one of those stories where I had absolutely no idea what to write, surrendered to my crazy brain, and ended up loving the result. It’s not perfect. If I were editing it, I would clean up a lot of the wording and make some minor changes to the conversation at the end. Yet, it felt really good while writing it.
Starting with a group of drinking straws judging each other for their differences seemed like an easy start. I’ve had similar stories with social inanimate objects. Their conversation wandering into existential and afterlife territory wasn’t too much of a surprise either because existential questions are always churning around in my mind. The twist to switch it to a teenager writing a story struck me out of the blue. I ran with it and like how it raises questions about the value he puts on his writing before leaving his future as open ended as that of the straws in his story.
We often set aside the things we love to do, saying they aren’t as important as spending time with family or friends (or career) and thinking there will always be time to pick them up later. But if we never make the time, what are the chances we’ll magically find time to pursue those interests?
Have a suggestion for a future writing prompt? Let me know! If your prompt is chosen, I will give you credit in the episode.
Until next time, try a little free writing of your own. Let go of any planning and see where your imagination takes you!