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Author Topic: Gloom, Despair and Agony O'er Me  (Read 911 times)

Helena

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Gloom, Despair and Agony O'er Me
« on: August 04, 2020, 02:28:36 PM »
At first I was going to let Writers in Motion know I couldn't do it because all the image invoked in me was dread. Looking at the prompt all I felt was death, being terribly alone and depression. I thought about writing a story about someone going to the little house to die but that seemed too heavy. It depressed me. Then I thought about how the end of a serious relationship or  marriage was a kind of death. I had just watched Umbrella Academy 2 a day or two before and Vanya was living with a family and absconded with the wife and child and I was thinking about the husband character and how that must feel for him. Even though he turned out to be a bit of a jerk he had only tried to do the best he could for his family before his wife realized she was in love with Vanya. And I thought about a guy at my old place of employment (who also was a bit of a jerk) whose wife left him for another woman. He used to announce it to all and sundry at work and add, "Can you believe that?" He would shake his head in disbelief as he said it followed by a fleeting expression of hurt.

The longer I looked at the prompt the more I begin to rise from the feeling of dread and notice how the little structure at the top of the mountain glowed and it kind of reminded me of a lighthouse and I thought maybe the little building could be a place where someone/something could be dying but could also heal or find enough strength to carry on even if irrevocably broken. I also thought about how betrayal would feel and how people have a tendency to feel that love equates to ownership and possession. And what do you do when what you love, what you've built your life around, isn't yours anymore? I wanted to capture the 5 stages of grief and I'm not sure I did that, and am not sure I can in 1000 words. But to me the prompt felt like a story of grief and maybe a place to learn to accept what you cannot change.

SKaeth

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Re: Gloom, Despair and Agony O'er Me
« Reply #1 on: August 06, 2020, 12:15:47 AM »
I'm so glad you'll be jumping in with a draft Helena! Your thought process is so gorgeous and I'm eager to read how you weave it all together. I love that you went with an emotional aspect to the prompt!

Helena

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Re: Gloom, Despair and Agony O'er Me
« Reply #2 on: August 06, 2020, 05:36:55 PM »
Thank you so much for the encouragement. After feeling such a strong, emotional response to the prompt, the only way I could see a story was to give in to the emotion and see where it took me.