Coming Soon: Saturday Stories

Rediscover a love for fiction, because stories can change the world

Saturday Stories are stories that were written in about 15 minutes with a prompt in one of several writing groups that I either attended or facilitated over the last 15 years.

I hope these stories will accomplice three things:

Re-ignite a love for reading fiction

With so much information coming at us, much of it online, many people have learned to skim rather than actually read. They are often surprised when they pick up a novel and find they can’t focus on it. Even those who were avid fiction readers as kids may face this problem. If you are out of practice with reading, actually reading, not skimming, it could take 30-60 days of reading 15 minutes a day to rebuild the muscle of focused reading. (These numbers are just my estimates, I’d love it if someone did an actual study on this, or if you know of one please share.)

Inspire spontaneous fiction writing

Over the years I’ve been blown away at how much insight and depth comes of just 15 minutes of fiction writing with a prompt. Often, we think we don’t have time or don’t know how to get started. One thing I like about these short writing exercises is that you can have a cliff hanger and you don’t have to figure out how it’s going to end. You can play and have fun, it’s a little like dreaming while awake, or perhaps like lucid dreaming, a skill I’ve never mastered.

Provoke curiosity, compassion, and new ways of thinking

I hope these stories will be enjoyable and fun to read as well as give you a new way of seeing the world. Ultimately, I want to increase understanding and compassion and I think writing fiction is one of the most powerful way to accomplish that. When you read fiction, you become the character in a unique way. You hear their thoughts in a version of your own voice. You visualize what is happening in the story in images created from your own life experience and imagination.

So please stay tuned for this Saturday’s Story!