The decision to dedicate 2021 to short fiction wasn’t taken a long time ago. It was two days before Christmas and I was aimlessly browsing the web. Came across a list of 52 short story concepts on Tumblr and it made me think. What if…?
I have written 2-3 shorts in my entire life. 4-5 if you include short film scripts that could potentially be adapted to stories. Writing 52 in as many weeks seems like a challenge destined to fail. So, why not?
I immediately started working on ideas. The concepts the Tumblr list presented me with start with the following.
A story entitled “A New Beginning”.
A story about rising to a challenge.
A retelling of a fairytale.
A story about three siblings.
A story set in London.
A story about finding something that has been lost.
A story about a journey.
A story set during a war.
Fairly vague concepts. I really have to come up with the stories myself. What this list does is give me a starting point. It will prevent me from writing the same story time and time again. So, what do we have so far?
A New Beginning is finished and will be published next Friday. The story about a challenge is written, I just need to edit it a bit. The fairytale? I dabbled in Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, but ultimately settled on Norse Mythology where Mjölnir, Thor’s hammer, is stolen by the Jotnar and must be brought back. I’ve just started that one. Three siblings, I’m thinking about the great flood in the Netherlands in January 1953 but haven’t come up with a concept. That may change, it may become something entirely different. London, lost and journey, I have no idea. A story set during a war, I have an idea of what I want to do there but haven’t written anything yet.
None of this existed prior to 22 December 2020.
So you see, this really is 52 stories in 52 weeks. I don’t have anything laying around that I can use. This year will see my typing a lot, struggling to write more than I’ve ever done. Life is bound to get in the way.
Here is hoping someone will discover this project and cheer me on. I think I’ll need it.
Look out for A New Beginning coming Friday.
You‘ve won me for the team cheering you on. I love the idea and I am Loopings forward, what you come up with
Thanks! It’s good to know I’m not the only one excited about this. Hope the stories meet expectations.