UPDATE, October 1, 2023. This has not yet happened, but I’m thinking about it again less than a year later, which is less hopeless than usual in terms of “Will this actually happen?” So there’s that!
Yeah, nearly every promise I’ve made about writing I’ve broken in some way or other, but every time I come across some goofy old story I’ve written (usually based on a prompt or ridiculous high concept) I’ve always found things that delight me. Perhaps I’m just excellent at delighting myself.
But I’m going to try to write more of these. Plus, I think writing is just a good way to keep my mind nimble, to constantly force myself to write “its” when the entire internet is writing “it’s.”
What made me think of this was recalling that I had written a short-short story about that classic concept: Going back in time and killing Hitler, but imagining it from the perspective of a not-incredibly bright barista.
The story is here in case you are time travel curious: Writing prompt 1: Inevitable time travel
When I finally also do that other thing I always promise to do but never quite pull off, namely the redesign of this very blog, I’m going to collect all these short stories and fiction bits (mmm, fiction bits) so they can be easily accessed and enjoyed and/or wept over. Stay tuned!
