Author commentary on stories featured on my Freely Written podcast in November 2024: Pumpkins and Turkey Trot.
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. 128 – Pumpkins – November 13, 2024
Listen first to avoid spoilers! Find the story here: Pumpkins
Christmas creeps in earlier and earlier each year. Before Halloween, stores began unboxing Christmas decor. By mid-November, they began playing Christmas carols. That’s way too soon! I want autumn decor! Russet and gold and crimson leave. Bales of hay holding pumpkins and gourds. Crisp breezes and light jackets. Instead, we have a jarring transition from the heat of summer to candy canes and twinkle light. Blah.
This story’s prompt, Pumpkins, was an attempt to hang on to fall. It was also a reaction to the recent election. When I sat down to write this story, my soul was crying out for cozy sweaters and fall foliage. I needed charm, kindness, and a warm beverage to get my fingers typing. As always, I didn’t know where this story would go. I simply started with a quiet man walking down a quiet street on a crisp fall day.
Writing this story captured an interesting aspect of free-writing. Namely, the discovery of some deeper emotions surfacing with my flow of words. In this case, those emotions played out as a tug-of-war over the direction of the story. My writer instincts kept seeing opportunities to bring in conflict. My more vulnerable self resisted, wanting nothing but calm and cozy–story be damned. So I wrote that into the narration. I let the story unfold on two levels: the story of community-minded Davis and the story of a narrator questioning the need for drama in fiction.
Hopefully, that narration played well for listeners. For me, it gave voice to a need for safety and healing. Which is a beautiful result of the free-writing process. Try it yourself and see what subconscious needs may come up in your flow of words.
Ep. 129 – Turkey Trot – November 27, 2024
Listen first to avoid spoilers! Find the story here: Turkey Trot
November really fell apart for me this year. After the turmoil of the election, a family emergency took me on an unexpected roadtrip where I spent several days with my dad in the hospital. He is recovering well, which is a relief, yet I came home just in time to jump into Thanksgiving preparations. It was a lot. I only had the capacity to write a very simple story. Since the story would be out the day before Thanksgiving, I went with Turkey Trot as a prompt.
There’s nothing particularly exciting about this story. It’s simple but endearing (I hope). When I’m not feeling particularly creative, I tend to lean into writing a dialogue-heavy scene. Some sweet or silly bit of conversation. When I started this story, I had a vague idea of a very young child questioning the name of a neighborhood fun run. Setting it in the kitchen, during meal prep, was an easy way to capture a common part of the Thanksgiving. Same for adding a visiting relative, in this case Max’s Grandpa Terry.
Maybe I still had my dad on my mind as I gave Terry a fun story to share with his grandchild. That’s the kind of silly story my dad might have told me or my kids. Just like many grandpas around the world make up family lore to share with their offspring. This story came easily. No twists and turns. No creative wordplay. It’s just a simple story, which is exactly what I needed in the midst of a busy November. I hope you enjoyed it, too.
As we head into December, I plan to take each day as they come. Heeding my own frequent advice to let go of planning and expectations, as I see where life may take me.
Have a suggestion for a future writing prompt? Let me know! If your prompt is chosen, I will give you credit in the episode.