Bad Trip

In this and subsequent posts I'm going to discuss how the idea for a short story comes to me and how I eventually write it.

I keep a newspaper file of ideas, gleaned from the papers and from the web. The more bizarre the story, the better, particularly if it has an element of crime. Right now the file has about half a dozen ideas, everything from children's stories, short short stories, and longer stories that will take a lot of work.

I had planned to write some of these in March, but well, yanno, it didn't happen. I did make 10 speeches at Toastmasters and do three more drafts of my novel, plus volunteer work for 4 organizations, and a garden, yada, yada, so the rocking chair wasn't getting a workout or anything slothful.

I thought about each story, waiting for a spark, which did not come. And then, I was thinking about a blog article titled "Bad Trip" discussing several recent airline flights and how such a thing as a good trip was practically an oxymoron, when instead, "Bad Trip" popped up as the name of one of the short stories.

Always helps to have a title.

Thinking of bad trips, I thought of a late night incident at a motel in Oakland that could be used in the story. And the characters came to me as well, Kevin and Janine, and they had a back story, coming home from a funeral, and another character appeared, based on another reading of the newspaper story, and all of a sudden I had a beginning, middle and an end. I need to drive through a sleazy neighborhood to pick up some architectural details, and review some photos from the Oakland trip. I remember sitting around the pool and taking a few shots of the coke machine, which I can now use. I may even have some notes from the weird event at the motel.

Then it will be time to write. The first draft is always horrible, but at least you have something to work with. Looking forward to that. You will be the first to find out how it goes.

So it goes.

Grapeshot