Have you ever experienced an awkward or unfortunate moment of misunderstanding due to your research as a writer? Well, today you can write about it, or imagine it. Keep reading to see the full writing prompt and my completed version of it.
Today’s Writing Prompt: Wait. It’s Just Writing Research.
Today, write a scene with an awkward or unfortunate moment of misunderstanding that occurs due to a writer’s research. Consider things like what the writer in the scene is researching and why, and whether the research is taking place online or in person. Try to add a bit of humor if possible in what you write today.
Completed Version of Today’s Writing Prompt
Wait. It’s just writing research., by K.E. Creighton
Dating is hard enough as it is. But it can be even harder if you’re a writer. Because walking around like a zombie all the time due to staying up all night finishing a draft that you’ll probably have a meltdown about when you scrap it first thing the next morning in both a post-caffeinated haze and the same clothes you’ve been wearing for days isn’t the most attractive lifestyle to most. Except for other writers, potentially, but writers dating writers is typically a bad idea due to said meltdowns that can’t always be scheduled or coordinated on a rotating timetable. Not to mention, people who aren’t writers typically find it rude when you randomly excuse yourself mid-conversation all the time to go write a major scene or plot point you’ve been trying to figure out for months. Or when you cancel plans last-minute three times in two weeks to work on rewriting dialogue and character arcs.
So, you can imagine my excitement when Travis didn’t care about any of that. For months, we’d been enjoying our time together. We mostly hung out at my place since I don’t get out much anymore, or want to for that matter. But still, things were going very well between us. He was so understanding and patient. Well, until last night.
Last night I went to take a shower while Travis used my computer to order us takeout. But when I came back into the living room, all shampooed and refreshed, he was gone. No note. No nothing. There was barely a trace he had been in my apartment at all. But when I looked down at my computer screen, I saw that he had apparently found my recent search history, which was full of inquiries about incest, clowns, and dismemberment. At first, I was upset he hadn’t given me a chance to explain. Then I realized how ridiculous and impossible that would have been anyway because he already knew I was currently working on a late sixteenth-century romance novel that didn’t necessarily include any of those things in my search history.
[All Rights Reserved by K.E. Creighton and Creighton’s Compositions LLC. The above work is a piece of fiction. All names and locations referred to are the product of the author’s imagination and are used entirely for fictional purposes. Any similarities to real-life persons or places are purely coincidental.]
Notes on Completing this Writing Prompt
While what I wrote above has never happened to me, per se, I have received a lot of sideways glances and looks of bewilderment after sharing information about what I’m researching before. Or after reciting random morbid or unusual facts about things I have researched that people don’t really want to know about. I probably know more about serial killers’ psyches than the average person, for instance, although I don’t ever write about serial killers. I suppose this is one of the occupational hazards that come with being a writer.