Short Stories, a Perspective of Wonder, and What To Expect From This Blog

Posted On January 8, 2021

Look at the birds of the air; they do not reap or sow or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

Matthew 6:26

I’ve been planning what to write on this blog for a long time, and now that I have it, I need to pace myself so that I don’t post 15 times a day. As for what I’ll be posting, I want to share some of my short stories, so I am sorting through my favorites to decide which to post. Several of them will likely be from previous writing classes I took, which is when I do most of my short story writing.

Short stories are a lot of fun to write, one reason being there is less pressure to create something amazing. A short story can be small and simple, but the thing about them is that you need to capture your reader’s attention in fewer words.

My short stories have ranged from between 300 and 2000 words, but usually hover around the 800 word mark. It depends on how inspired I am to write it, and how much happens it it.

I’ve written two short stories about a young girl named Emery for a writing class I took recently. Honestly, I was stumped as to what to write about. I wanted to create something that people would remember, something beautiful and full of wonder. You know, it’s harder than it sounds. The first problem is that not everyone will like something that you do. You can’t expect to please everyone, so I’ve stopped trying. I want to please myself, and that means I can write whatever I want to. That gives me much more freedom to create.

The way Emery was discovered, it turns out, I needed a simple character who could give a new persepective on matters. Someone who could lend a view of wonder to the most mundane things.

So I invented Emery, a young girl whose father shows her beautiful things, though they may be simple.

The first Emery story I wrote, the prompt was to show something mundane and everyday from a new point of view, to write it in a way that made it new and inspiring. Now, as I have only seen the ocean once, over ten years ago, it is very inspiring and the opposite of mundane. So I wrote about Emery seeing the ocean for the first time. I imagined what it would be like to be a small girl, who has no idea what the ocean is like, and visiting it for the first time with my father who is so excited for me to see it. From this idea came Fields of Water, my first short story about Emery.

The second is much smaller, a quieter story with less excitement. Emery has been watching a caterpillar grow in a jar for weeks, and her father is about to show her where butterflies come from. She has no idea what is about to happen, and what results is a beautiful reflection on butterflies.

I think a perspective of wonder is important. Looking at the world through the eyes of a child, seeing things as fresh and full of beauty. Sometimes I feel like we miss seeing the beauty in things, because we get so stuck on everything that’s wrong. I don’t want to be like that, I want to keep my eyes open for everything good in the world. Though there is a lot of bad things, you know, the Kingdom of Heaven is here and so there’s no reason to worry about anything. Throw your worry on Jesus because he cares about you. (Plus, He’s way stronger than you are.) We are ambassadors, in the world but not of it! So keep your eyes of wonder on! It’ll make things look a lot more beautiful.

Sometimes I look out the window, and I notice the trees, and I think about how perfect they are. They don’t need to be told it’s winter, they know it and they shed their leaves. They don’t worry about clothes, and they are more beautiful than the height of fashion. Have you ever seen a maple tree in autumn, all yellow and orange and red? It’s dying, but it’s never been more pleasant to look at. I think about Jesus, preaching to the people on the mountain. “Don’t worry!” He says, and He’s laughing. “Your Father will take care of you, don’t you see?”

Anyway, I plan on sharing both of those Emery stories soon, and I hope you enjoy them. There are other writings of mine that I want to post, so those won’t be the last! One in particular is a poem I wrote a couple years ago titled “Why I Stayed Up So Early Last Night”, a funny rendition of my life at that time, reading into the wee hours of night.

Oh, I am also planning on posting some of my art, my favorite paintings and drawings. We’ll see what else I come up with. As of right now, I am overflowing with ideas and I don’t expect to run out of content anytime soon!

That’s a quick look at what you can expect from this blog, along with more posts on my thoughts and reflections on life. Sometimes it feels good to write those things out, get them off my shoulders. Maybe you can relate.

Thanks for reading, and be looking for some writing soon!

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash