ACHTUNG BABY: This Sunday, April 27th, at 4 PM EST/1 PM PST, instead of a live chat “Writing Advice” forum, we’re switching to a live video stream. This way I can practice talking instead of typing. You type your questions, I answer with my face. Paid subscribers get automatic access.
These short fictions from “the vault” (mostly from 2009-2011) mark a transitional phase in my writing—between my early abstract-expressionist inclinations and the funny dramatic realism I practice now. (Joking. But how else to describe these things? I don’t know.)
“What a pretty blindfold!”
I vaguely remember writing this story. What interests me about it now is that it pushes past the point at which it exhausts its initial motivation and gets into some undone territory, which is where I think it begins to fall apart. I can see clearly why I quit writing it. The title “A Purpose-Driven Heroine” baffles me. I did my MFA in creative writing at Brown, where the prevailing ideology was still proudly “experimentative,” so I don’t think this story was written in response to a basic workshop prompt or anything like that. I also don’t understand how the heroine is driven by purpose.
If I were to re-title this story today, I think I’d call it “Moths.” And I’d add some moths to the story. I’d also be curious to see what happens if I we never leave the house in the story. I think there’s some potential for drama around one of the maids.
I don’t think this is a good story.
A Purpose-Driven Heroine
My mother did not wear a blindfold. That would have been cowardly of her; she was a grown up woman after all.