The man sat at his open laptop, daydreaming.
There were days like this, when he didn’t do any actual writing. He would call up ideas on his laptop and look them over, maybe make hand-written notes about what he was reading, sometimes typing in a few additional points, and then shelving it all to be considered later. On other occasions he would steam ahead, banging out all sorts of material, some being completed items, others being fleshed out, and then tucked away in folders were such things belong. He sat for a while contemplating his own particular style of what he called scribbling.
Generally, he had found, through his own reading, that brief, succinct and yet comprehensive descriptions of a subject are often hard to find. He estimated that when a reader has neither the time, nor the inclination, to read a book in order to gain an understanding of a topic, the compact version is invaluable. He considers that for the writer, the greatest challenge, after reading the subject, often taking in several reference works, is to reduce all the knowledge down to a concise narrative; short yet complete. For him, it was like this with stories. In other words, to paint a picture with as few words as possible.
In general, he avoided giving his characters names, in the main he regarded these being superfluous to his stories. He considered that giving a name may bring about some kind of personal memory prompt; someone the reader liked or someone they didn’t. He tended to keep adjectives and adverbs to a minimum; likewise with the number of characters, with a preference for just one or two. Metaphors had never held much interest for him. He had always considered them rather trite, despite the fact that most advice was to recognise how wonderful they are.
For him, it had always been about brevity. He had felt a sense of powerful elation on coming across Friedrich Nietzsche’s idea that it was his ambition to say in ten sentences what others say in a whole book. Although it might be considered that a short-short story should contain between one-hundred and one-thousand words, this was not his usual goal. In the main, he had modelled his stories on the basis that they would contain somewhere between three and six hundred words.
On the subject of averages, a standard piece written, using five-hundred words, would only take three minutes to read. It was his overall intention to choose an effective and meaningful title, along with a simple opening line that adequately set the scene. He felt that this needed to be an introductory description that would lead into the heart of the story. He had always strived to keep his poems and stories as short and as simple as possible. He did his best to focus on a key emotion to drive a story. He tried to limit the number of scenes, to one if possible, and he constantly endeavoured to concentrate on some small, yet powerful moment in a character’s life.
Many of his stories are just simple moments, suggestive of life statements, usually occurring between limited players, most often just two. These are brief domestic moments that indicate some instance, either reflecting on or leading up to, the twists and turns of the human condition. In many cases this genre falls just outside of the constraints of science fiction.
Regarding the activity of writing, ideas for new material or updates to existing work, can kick in at any time. He reflected on the fact that he found no need to use overt violence, descriptions of nudity, explicit sexual content, bad language or references to substance abuse to tell his stories.
He likes to think that his stories are simple, although his somewhat shadowy style has occasionally got him into trouble with his readers. Using something of an opaque veil drawn down over events, together with an apparently unrelenting enigmatic style, can unhappily leave a reader puzzled. His attempt to make adjustments in this area had only been partially successful, although he genuinely wants his tales to be enjoyed. This probably comes down to one of those ‘I am what I am’ things.
Over time, it seems that a pattern of genres has emerged. On reflection, crime, drama and mystery along with fantasy and comedy, with a touch of the absurd and the whimsical thrown in, would seem to sum it up. He tried to present a variety of plots and moods. In truth, the reason that these categories come about can only be put down to the fact that he finds them the easiest to write.
As for the future, because he never seems to be short of ideas, he reflects on the fact that his apparently widely-scattered group of blog-readers are likely to continue to stumble into his offerings for some time yet.
He would just keep on scribbling.