FictionBrigade

By Preston Randall

I always wish I had more imagination. I read all these stories about wild and crazy characters and situations with incredibly beautiful poetic descriptions and think—why can’t I do that? Every night I sit down in front of another blank Word file and talk to the screen. C’mon, think of something, dammit. Let’s go. I write three sentences, stop, hit the delete button, write three more, stop, delete and then storm off to the fridge to eat something…anything.

Eventually I start writing about stuff I’ve done or seen. I remember taking a trip to the mountains with some friend about thirty years ago. But because I can’t recall exactly what we said or where we went or what we did I just start making it up. Bingo! A couple of hours later and I’ve got the first draft of a story called The Punishment and a month later I place third in an online contest for short stories. I’m still in shock.

So now whenever I feel like I’m stuck for an idea I think back to any experience and start to write out the plain old boring details. Then I go back and embellish the hell out of it and try to think of some kind of crazy twist if it even remotely fits. It doesn’t always work but I’m amazed how often something I thought was incredibly mundane can actually be transformed into a pretty engaging story.

I really only started writing “fiction” in the last year but I’ve already discovered that the more I write the easier the ideas seem to flow. I know everyone says this but it works. I write a ton of emails at work and even that mundane task, I believe, has helped in some way. If nothing else, I’m not afraid to simply sit down and start typing away. And even idle chatter can spark an idea. Like just now, I thought of writing a series of mundane emails that tells a story. Maybe this character is so lonely that he actually writes emails to himself all day. But of course it drives him crazy so then he … wait a minute. What am I telling you this for?

I was complaining recently to my wife Lynda that I have no imagination. She laughed her head off, saying she always thought the opposite—that I had more imagination than anyone else she knew. But like an anorexic staring at the mirror, I still see this average boring guy who curses at a blank computer screen and can’t string more than three sentences together. Well, what do you know? Look what I just did.

Preston writes short stories and flash fiction whenever he can get away from his day job as an Administrator at the University of Victoria in British Columbia. He joined the writing group at Bookrix.com in December of 2011 and immediately won 1^st place in a Journalism-style writing contest, followed up by a 3^rd place finish in the hotly contested Write Whatever You Want. He is quickly becoming one of the favorite writers at the site, and has started publishing a series of humorous letters at Amazon.com under the series title Letters I Wish I Had Sent. Although known for his quick wit and sarcastic humor, many of Preston’s stories include veiled and not-so-veiled messages regarding serious issues of the day.