Author commentary on stories featured on my Freely Written podcast in September 2024: Labor of Love and Wait For It.
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. 123 – Labor of Love – September 4, 2024
Listen first to avoid spoilers! Find the story here: Labor of Love
Sometimes my writing prompts come from simple free association. Labor of Love came about because I was writing on Labor Day (a US holiday) and thinking of related phrases. When the phrase came to mind, I first thought of a woman giving birth to a child named Love. Get it? She’s in labor to birth Love? Yeah… I quickly tossed that idea before I even started typing.
Instead, I decided to dive in with a worker named Love. Maybe a matchmaker home at the end of a long day? But as I started describing her, I thought a matchmaker seemed too simple. An aptly named couples therapist? No… too straightforward. So I made her the embodiment of Love. Or one of the “people” who embody Love. The rules aren’t clear and that’s okay in a short story like this.
I was making Love up as I wrote. Along with the entire organization behind her healing work. I like the idea of Love paying invisible visits to people in pain and the sadness of Love being in such high demand. This story would have been very different if I sat down to plan it out before writing. I probably would have gotten bogged down in how Love works and why… all of those questions that are sometimes better left unanswered. I like how the vague aspects of this story and tried to leave it open to interpretation.
Ep. 124 – Wait For It – September 18, 2024
Listen first to avoid spoilers! Find the story here: Wait For It
The prompt for this story came up when I wasn’t thinking about the podcast at all. Honestly, I can’t remember why Wait For It became a prompt, other than the fact that I was thinking about patience and growing up (after talking to a friend about parenting) and the phrase came to mind. I jotted in on my prompt list to writing from later, though I wasn’t sure I’d use it. Mainly because it’s now impossible for me to hear ‘wait for it…’ without thinking of How I Met Your Mother. (Which was a good show until that finale… Oof.)
Anyway, I took the phrase from my potential prompt list and sat down to start typing. I had a vague memory of adding it after a parenting chat, so that’s where my mind went. However, the story that came out had nothing to do with the conversation that inspired the prompt. Since I didn’t know where the story would go, I just kept typing, telling myself to wait for whatever ending might come.
Yet as the story’s conversation flowed, I realized that waiting for a plot twist wasn’t what mattered most. Instead, it became a message of active listening. Waiting for the other person to speak before deciding what you think they might say. I like when free writing works out that way, leading me to a deeper thought than where I thought the story might go.
Looking back, September was a rather introspective story month. I hope you enjoyed the stories and were maybe inspired to write some of your own!
Have a suggestion for a future writing prompt? Let me know! If your prompt is chosen, I will give you credit in the episode.