OVERLOAD OF INFORMATION
When you consider the many issues and concerns that confront us as a nation and personally, one can despair at the ideological divisiveness of much of the discussion that takes place. The internet facilitates people finding all the information that bolsters whatever side of the argument they have chosen. The problem is that many people are cowed by the many arguments but find very little opportunity to explore the issue itself.
FICTIONAL THERAPY
I want to propose short fiction as a method of helping people explore issues that confuse them. The Presbyterian Writers Guild, www.presbyterianwritersguild.org, is holding a writer’s contest that may be helpful in this process. They are asking people to submit either a piece of flash fiction (under 1,000 words) or a short story (under 4,000 words) that explores issues in our church and society. Whether you choose to enter the contest or not, you might want to take advantage of this process for your benefit.
FIRST STEPS
Choose any topic that interests you, be it personal relationships, the church, ministry, ethics, or some other concern in our society. Narrow that issue to how it affects the life of two or three fictional people. For example, the issue might be gun control, and your story might involve a family in conflict over whether their son should take a gun with him to college.
Provide fictional names for your main characters and have them interact over the issue. Try to make your chief characters complex enough to have mixed feelings even as they interact. Don’t have your protagonist act perfectly or the opposition be a cardboard picture of dumbness or evil. Show the complexity of real people wrestling with the issue.
CHOOSE AN INCIDENT
Choose an incident as a focus for your story that forces the characters to take some action—not necessarily good action—and then play out the consequences. Be sure to include the feelings generated as actions take place. The resolution of the story may be either positive or negative. Try to write the story in one sitting, maybe in less than an hour. The pressure to write quickly will remove the filters and give you the freedom to dig deeper.
HELP SELF AND OTHERS
What you are doing is putting words on the chaos of life and discovering how different behavior and decisions may have surprising outcomes. It is good therapy both for the author and the reader. You might even want to turn your work into the contest and allow others to benefit from your thinking.
The deadline for the Flash Fiction part of the contest is November 30, and the short story is due by February 15. More information about the contest can be found at www.presbyterianwritersguild.org.
