Do you wish you could write?
Enter the Short Shower Story
Each time my love for reading or writing comes up in conversation with my friends and family it’s a familiar dialogue…
“I wish I could write. I just don’t have the ability” or “I would love to be able to write, but I don’t have anything interesting to say.” The latter is my favorite one to address. More on that in a minute. The former is a little more complicated. Unfortunately, I do think some people may have more of an ability to write than others. Not to say that there are certain people who can write and others who cannot. There is no gatekeeper (that I know of) that prevents any Joe Schmo from sitting down at a computer and throwing words at it. E.L. James, anyone? There is a bit of skill, or at the very least vocabulary, that helps you along while writing. I get that it isn’t for everyone. I suppose I could do math or balance my checkbook or whatnot. Actually, nope. I can’t, but I digress. Maybe you’re more of a numbers person and that’s cool. The world needs you. I need you (looking at you, hubs and Sara if we are out and about and I need to calculate a tip or split something).
Now, for those of you who think you don’t have any ideas or anything interesting to say. Half of what I write/think about writing is utter nonsense. It isn’t always poignant. Most of the time it isn’t even entertaining, but I have these words and sometimes these stories floating around in my head and I’m just enough of a narcissist to write them down and share them with you. If you’re thinking you don’t have those words or stories floating around, let me introduce you to the “Short Shower Story” or SSS. The SSS is not about the length of your shower. It is about the story you concoct in your head while in the shower (duh). It requires nothing more than a scenario that you wish you could do over. You know what I mean…The clerk at the gas station gets snippy with you because you can’t figure out the credit card machine. You say nothing or say something that is equally as humiliating as being too old to know how to use the chip reader. Later, when you’re in the shower you will relive this moment, but instead of being awkward you use your SSS to recreate the scene into one in which you are triumphant. You say something witty. You don’t fuck up the tap versus swipe versus insert situation. Basically, you get a redo. If you want, you can use scenarios from your own life to create dramatic endings where you are the hero or villain.
Most of my ideas for short stories, novels, etc. come to me from real interactions that have went terribly wrong. That time I cried in front of my boss over an email? REDO. The horrible guy I dated and got dumped by? REDO. What I’m saying is I’m neurotic AF so I keep playing those situations over and over again, but in my writing, I get the opportunity to take those experiences and build on them. Craft them into something that is funny or heartbreaking for the reader, but also therapeutic for me. Next time you hop in the shower give it a go. Maybe you’ll find yourself with a story so entertaining it would be a crime not to share it.
P.S. The SSS also works wonders on winning arguments you have with your husband. If only in your own mind.Each time my love for reading or writing comes up in conversation with my friends and family it’s a familiar dialogue…