Sit and Stay Awhile
Anonymous
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I made this piece of writing completely on a whim in October while I was in class and bored, having already completed the assignment and not having anything else to do. Months have passed since then, so I don't remember exactly my thought process in writing it, though I do distinctly remember coming up with the idea of the first paragraph first, and then building a short story out of it. I loved the idea of building up a horrifying description for what inevitably turns out to be a benign household object. I ended up turning this into a metaphor about my own struggles as an artist dealing with perfectionism, as at the time I couldn't bring myself to work on my other projects out of the fear I wouldn't be able to do them justice. I also, at the time, loved the idea of playing with an unreliable narrator. I had the idea of making a story where the protagonist is a murderer who's trying to convince you their killings were completely justified, which bled a little into the original draft but just couldn't fit in the 500 word limit I eventually had to cut it down to. The only remnant of that left is the line "I stabbed, not wrote, with the pen." So instead, you're left wondering what's real and what the protagonist is projecting from their own head. Overall, I'm sure there's more I could do with this story, but I'll take a note from the protagonist's book and let my perfectionism go, and just see how it holds up. So, like I wrote it on a whim, I submit it on a whim too.
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I view creative writing as my most ideal career path. I've already written a novel, and plan to publish and use my young age to help market it. Therefore, exploring and expressing my creativity could be the difference between living my dream job or doing something I don't care about.
