Behind the Story

Hello ATS.

I thought it would be interesting to delve into the why's and what's behind the stories written here for those who have questions and those who wish to share. What inspired a particular story? Why is a certain tone set? Did you plot it out or just let the tale develop organically? I would be happy to start with myself, so, a bit of background.

I am an older, American man, a father and grandfather, and a veteran. I am a fan of fantasy, sci-fi, mystery, crime and many non-fiction subjects. I've lived a fairly long life to date and fitted much experience into my time on Earth. If the body is a temple, I've treated mine like a demolition derby. I've always just written for my own entertainment, short stories, 2-3 page fantastical tales and some song lyrics from time to time. I've always put a piece of myself into any writing I've done whether it's a life experience, an innermost thought or personality trait.

I lurked on ATS for over 15 years before finally signing up and in that time I enjoyed reading the short stories here. It became a regular stop for me while perusing the site. I never wrote anything for "public" consumption prior to FYI2023, in fact, I wasn't even aware of there being a contest until the day I wrote my first story here.

So now, the story behind the story:

The day I wrote Old Scars, I was on break at work, sitting with some buddies comparing scars and old injuries incurred during our misspent younger days. The weather had been crappy for a while, cold and wet with a pressure system hanging around that caused every ache and pain to be accentuated constantly. I had clicked on the Short Story forum and seemingly noticed the contest for the first time, read all that had been submitted then thought to myself...maybe. I sat staring at the lines crisscrossing my hands and arms for about 2 minutes, flexed creaky fingers and opened Word. Five minutes or so later, I had submitted my first story and a few days later, it "won" me the title of Writer.

That's my story behind that particular story. Perhaps not everything that went into it but the basic premise that it came from. What about my fellow brethren? Care to share? Any questions?

a reply to: Moon68

I will gladly share.

My personal history is not dissimilar to yours, generally speaking. My foray into ATS began with no view towards short stories at all. It was about the "big conversation" when I began to realize that despite prevalent 'characterizations' - nearly everyone I had ever met was in fact a "conspiracy theorist." Since then I have realized that to be human is to be a "conspiracy theorist," even if only sporadically.

I found that, although I had been pretty much hiding my mind among those in the world around me, I actually had no reason to hide... most everyone welcomed looking deeply at the world around them... and I do mean everyone... from the guy with the food cart outside the admin building, to the executive administrator's staff, to the CEO's and senior officers themselves. (Never mind their acquaintances and families.)

So I came here to explore 'discussion' with others (where I felt there might not be immediate repercussions for any rookie mistakes.) I found that the idea that talking about these things - from the esoteric of philosophy, to topics of the unknown or unknowable, and even extending to the political realm (to some degree) - were not in fact 'socially problematic at' all - despite it being constantly reinforced in media as "tin-foil" or "crazy" to do so.

Bang! To me it was a moment of realization that people were generally being socially dissuaded from daring to speak of things that truly matter. By the popular media no less... and then - another revelation... Academia was doing the same thing. It kind of pissed me off. So here I am... for the count.

But I have always been a writer. I just couldn't seem to stop myself. I suppose it beats talking to myself... and it leaves a record I can return to (though I never have.) In my technological life I have literally lost thousand of pages of material... hard drive crashes, computer death of varying kinds... entire 50 pound boxes of old papers and creative efforts lost when 'moving' or destroyed by flood, and once by fire. Believe me, I have never lacked for the impulse to write.

I began experimenting here at the debate forum, where my writing took a more academic form... and blessedly I was introduced to Johnny Anonymous who pointed out the Short Story forum... it was a gift for which I will be forever grateful. Here my words have some degree of independent permanence - at least until I really upset someone who might be in a position to 'erase' me. (But "fate" has erased my work before... I learned to deal with it... except the first time... I was quite depressed.)

Beyond that, I found I sincerely like it here ... I find invention and creativity to be a motivation. My utopian vision is that someday we might find a way to expand our creations together... either through aggregation or collaboration... and there have been tentative efforts to do just that ... but that flame hasn't quite caught yet...

My first story was a true 'experiment' in that I expected nothing.. perhaps even negative feedback.. and I was prepared to accept it. But no one poo-poo'd me caustically, and I found that I could learn and practice other different ways to express a story... and you all inspired me to try... so here we are.

I never got the "writer" designation for reasons that bear no notice, but I don't really feel that as a distraction... I think being a writer is about the writing itself... but I admit, I have always been a little jealous... just a little...

Generally speaking, when I do any writing, it is mostly off the cuff, organically driven with no idea at the beginning where it will end up. I may get inspiration from a word or phrase, something I see or overhear. Sometimes it's just a random thought that pops into my head and I'll start jotting stuff down. I'm as surprised as anyone how a story will finish.

When I started Today is the Day...Again it started as any other story I write with exception that I actually took some notes and I knew it would be a time travel story.

As far as putting a part of myself in the story, I've always been the kind of person that, should someone say I CAN'T do something, I will by God do it!

All in all, I was happy with the way it turned out. I would have liked to flesh the back stories more but when I started to, it just started getting way too long.

I will add my backstory for Worthless

When I first read the prompt, I thought, "When science fails...give it a good kick." Immediately, I had my ending and I just needed to figure out what to kick, who kicks it, and why. I thought of a mysterious object that appears nonfunctional. A space ship was the obvious choice, but I wanted to keep it simple. I settled on a monolith, like the ones in 2001: A Space Odyssey. I also wanted it to be lighthearted and the name Johnny fit the bill.

When my kids were younger, we would turn down the volume on movies and TV shows and I would provide the dialogue. My kids loved it and I'm pretty good at it. I was speaking for a Narnia character; specifically, Edmond in a scene from The Voyage of Dawn Treader. In the scene, there is a pool that turns things to gold. Edmond puts a stick in, and as it gets heavy and the gold is rushing towards his arm, he throws the stick into the water. When he did this, I said, "stupid stick." My kids died laughing because it just fit so well with everything else. It became a private joke between us, and I still use it to this day. If something is difficult, I might say, "stupid..."

I doesn't matter what others think, I get a kick out of it. Hence, "Stupid rock."

a reply to: Moon68

Hey Moon68, sorry, I missed your post. Thanks for sharing your background and giving us an insight into your writing process.

I think there are two extreme styles of being creative with prose; either calculated and clinical or inspired and improvised. I tend to fall in the latter category, but once I have the draft of the story, then I try to be more precise with research and details. Although, I’m not a writer by choice and half the time, I don’t have a bloody clue what I’m doing.

As with your story being based on your personal experiences, I tend to look inwards for inspiration. However, when I’m stuck for ideas, I become more attentive to my daily grind for anything that can be reworked to fit the theme of the contest. I find it’s not always possible and many a contest I’ve missed through lack of an ideas.

I’ve also used Dapaga’s method; know the ending and reverse engineer a narrative to bring you to that point. Or even a simple one-liner that repeats and around which you build the story… much like your Trust the Science with “if there was anything he was good at, it was surviving.”

I’m looking forward to reading more of your stories.

a reply to: Moon68

You're so nice.

I should read the story you wrote.

I did the last two contests and came in third place twice with non writer status. That was great, my native language is European. I just improvise or what you might call write organically.

I actually read noone elses stoeries and starred or flagged none. That's what it was. I didn't care, sorry. My expeirence and that of ATS is changing. I don't know why something seems to be looking at the vacuum cleaner right now like it has done something wrong.

Oh boy..

originally posted by: Dapaga
I will add my backstory for Worthless

When I first read the prompt, I thought, "When science fails...give it a good kick." Immediately, I had my ending and I just needed to figure out what to kick, who kicks it, and why. I thought of a mysterious object that appears nonfunctional. A space ship was the obvious choice, but I wanted to keep it simple. I settled on a monolith, like the ones in 2001: A Space Odyssey. I also wanted it to be lighthearted and the name Johnny fit the bill.

When my kids were younger, we would turn down the volume on movies and TV shows and I would provide the dialogue. My kids loved it and I'm pretty good at it. I was speaking for a Narnia character; specifically, Edmond in a scene from The Voyage of Dawn Treader. In the scene, there is a pool that turns things to gold. Edmond puts a stick in, and as it gets heavy and the gold is rushing towards his arm, he throws the stick into the water. When he did this, I said, "stupid stick." My kids died laughing because it just fit so well with everything else. It became a private joke between us, and I still use it to this day. If something is difficult, I might say, "stupid..."

I doesn't matter what others think, I get a kick out of it. Hence, "Stupid rock."

Definitely got the 2001: Space Odyssey vibe from your story and love a good homage to the classics

While I never did sit down and watch Dawn Treader, even though we owned it, I can absolutely relate to making up dialog for movies. When my kids were young we used to have our own Mystery Science 3000 sessions. It made for some of the best memories for us.

Congrats again on getting the writer title and I look forward to reading more.

a reply to: Encia22

Thank you for joining this thread Encia and offering your insights I'm hoping that by discussing our story thought processes that we might be able to collectively elevate our prose and expand the boundaries of our imaginations through collaboration.

I also, as you stated, am clueless about writing. I don't know HOW to write I just write. I tend agree with the two styles you've listed but I would contend there's a third. Immersion and absorption, where you are drawn so deep into the story that you are living it in your mind while your fingers just put the words down. It seems to me that the first, calculated and clinical, generally leads to boring uninspiring stories. Although, if one were a series writer trying to keep scores of story arcs straight it would most certainly be a necessity. Meeks' tale started as a type of the first, with bullet points to track the progression but plenty of room to apply the second, inspiration and improvisation. I ended up down a rabbit hole of the third, so absorbed into it that I looked up, thirteen Word pages in and not even a third of the way through the tale, lol. I felt I needed to start over, hitting the salient points that drove the narrative without derailing too much into the minutiae.

As far as my own personal connection to that story, I too farm, among other work and I'm very good at surviving. Although, breeding children for food is a long ways beyond my moral boundaries...I hope.

a reply to: Moon68

Yes, I agree with you about the third writing style, however, when that has happened to me, I put it down to too much beer... full absorption... yep, definitely the beer driving the narrative.

a reply to: Moon68

That openuing post makes a worthy story on its own

Mine come from various places...the what ifs of life, the paths not taken, its a safe place to revisit choices you could have made, a story.

Also some of the funny strange things that happen to me in life, some of the people I meet, they are just too good not to write about.

Finally there is the speculative stuff, the left field, almost thought experiment type of story.

My method is usually to slip on some headphones, turn up the volume and groove to the tunes until the story feels done, and whatever comes out is good enough for me.

originally posted by: Untun
a reply to: Moon68

You're so nice.

I should read the story you wrote.

I did the last two contests and came in third place twice with non writer status. That was great, my native language is European. I just improvise or what you might call write organically.

I actually read noone elses stoeries and starred or flagged none. That's what it was. I didn't care, sorry. My expeirence and that of ATS is changing. I don't know why something seems to be looking at the vacuum cleaner right now like it has done something wrong.

Oh boy..

Thank you Untun, you are too kind.

I find your writing to have shades of early Gibson sprinkled with a dash of obscure Thoreau. Short, terse and a bit disjointed, coalescing to form a coherent story that dances on the cloud edges of ones imagination, especially Little Timmy's Need for Speed.

Whatever Floats Your Boat gave me kind of a Cloud Atlas vibe mixed with a Biblical parable

I've enjoyed your writing and would highly recommend reading others as there are quite a few talented tale-tellers here. I always read everything submitted and treasure the small bits of themselves each writer allows us.

Looking forward to more of your stories Untun...and keep an eye on that vacuum!

a reply to: SprocketUK

Lol, the opening post. I do sometimes seem to get a case of diarrhea of the prose but I promise it's not intentional pretention-ness.

Ah yes, the what ifs of life. And the older one gets the more what ifs to work with

As to the music aspect, I believe I was listening to some Iron Maiden when I wrote Old Scars. Definitely think there was an influence there

a reply to: Moon68

It can definitely affect you, I was listening to0 EDM and other techno stuff with my little flight of cyberpunk fancy

a reply to: Moon68

I would like to write some stories. How many posts do you need to make a story thread?

a reply to: Assmodeus

I believe it's 20 to start a thread. Quick enough to get by just being chatty

I look forward your sharing. The more the merrier.

a reply to: Moon68

I don’t know how I missed this and your Old Scars story! It’s really good! Thank you for writing it!

My stories come from my old alcohol problem. I used to way over drink. Sober for many years now. The patterns of thinking while drunk are crazy. I both have found love and hate while drinking.

I lost my son’s mom because of my drinking! Many stories were and are written. I don’t post most!

Your stories are amazing! Thank you!

a reply to: JJproductions

Thank you for the kind words JJ and I'm glad you found it.

I have found that stories written that relate to personal situations are often the most powerful. I've read that one should write what they know and I think there's a lot of truth in that. Good or bad, the emotional connection is more real. Congrats on your sobriety and I pray for continuing success in perpetuity for you.

I hope you continue to share your stories and poems as I've enjoyed them immensely.

a reply to: Moon68

Thank you kindly! I look forward to your writings!

8 years ago I woke up and made a choice to never drink again. That is the only way to stop. I quit smoking too on that day! I have learned that you can’t tell someone they need to quit. You have to have inner willpower and just do it!