Story Details
Published on 2022-04-11
It all started with a strange feeling of fading away, an eerie sense of dissociation from the world I’d inhabited, taken for granted and never questioned. The terrifying realization I existed only on Her whim, punctuated by the gunfire sound of a delete key, ruthlessly followed. I was gone before I could react, and I woke up here. Note: The fact that we have a story titled "Kill Your Darlings" and a piece on writing with the same title is pure serendipity. Of course, they both complement one another by stressing the idea that everything you write and every character you create does not necessarily make it into the final draft!
Author Details
A.J. Mietke Kill Your Darlings
A.J. is a scientist who’s discovered the best approach to time-travelling and escaping to other universes lies within fiction books. When she’s not busy crafting her own fantasy novels, she can usually be found on her yoga mat or hiking with her husband. Story Notes: The fictional strand of this piece came to me in one sitting as I worked on Susan Dennard’s #StoryAMonthChallenge. Her February writing prompt sent my imagination flying and gave the first line of this story. At the time, revising my novel had turned into a frustrating exercise, and this short story became a fun escape, enabling me to imagine how my characters might experience similar feelings to mine. After I finished it, I worried the story would not make sense to a reader who isn’t familiar with my novel in progress. My writing group read the piece and convinced me otherwise. They made the excellent suggestion to weave in my author’s perspective, which greatly improved the piece!
Kill Your Darlings, by A.J. Mietke
Author Details
A.J. Mietke Kill Your Darlings
A.J. is a scientist who’s discovered the best approach to time-travelling and escaping to other universes lies within fiction books. When she’s not busy crafting her own fantasy novels, she can usually be found on her yoga mat or hiking with her husband. Story Notes: The fictional strand of this piece came to me in one sitting as I worked on Susan Dennard’s #StoryAMonthChallenge. Her February writing prompt sent my imagination flying and gave the first line of this story. At the time, revising my novel had turned into a frustrating exercise, and this short story became a fun escape, enabling me to imagine how my characters might experience similar feelings to mine. After I finished it, I worried the story would not make sense to a reader who isn’t familiar with my novel in progress. My writing group read the piece and convinced me otherwise. They made the excellent suggestion to weave in my author’s perspective, which greatly improved the piece!
