The writing of “Thirty-Six Leonids”

 

This was my first-ever attempt at short story writing, so if you want it to be better, please email me. It took me quite a while to figure out what and how the hell I was going to do it, but RTF 331R /Death motivated me to do both. I looked at the first project as an opportunity to be experimental and try something I had never done, so I chose a short story because I’ve always wanted to write one but have just never done it. Because the class is Death, I chose to write a story very loosely based on my own life about the future death of my father. My Dad is still alive and can kick my ass in reality, despite him being almost 62, but his inevitable demise is an event that frightens me deeply. So, in order to deal with this fear, I chose to represent it fictionally, basing the supporting cast off of my real friends and actual experiences that I’ve had. The title refers to an actual experience I shared with my father as a child that is elaborated upon in the story. The three friends are my three best friends in Chicago and the events in the story are a photoshop-like amalgamation of actual experiences we’ve had. The story in its entirety took me about a week of writing no less than four hours a day and a solid twelve hours strait the second to last day before the presentation. The end product needs a crap-load of work, and a lot more action and dialogue as opposed to exposition and background information, but for my first go I feel I did well. It was a blast to actually do, and I hope it was some what enjoyable to read.