Every 5-Saturday month, I attempt to write a short story. Last month’s story was called The Most Beautiful Story. Now, before you begin thinking that is a bit of a presumptuous claim on my part, let me explain. I am not claiming the story I wrote was the most beautiful. Rather, it was the pursuit of the protagonist.

Ever since I started doing these 5-part stories I have had this idea in the back of my mind to follow one character through his or her lifetime. To skip ahead to certain ages. But another idea would always surface and this plot point would be placed on the back burner.

Then I binge watched This Is Us (2016-2022). I specifically and patiently waited until the series ended so that I could watch it all at once. Have you ever watched 6 full seasons of a show all at once? What happens is it becomes your point of reference for that short amount of time.

I was mostly impressed with the detail and the nostalgic feel. I enjoyed it and I recommend it if one is so interested in good writing and acting . I watched it on Hulu but it is an NBC show so it may be moving to Peacock (hence the reason I watched it so quickly. I didn’t want to get midstream and have it move).

When April was looming and I was going through my typical but what should I write about phase, this show was still on my mind. Plus, I had always wanted to do some kind of life-span story. So, the timing seemed to fit to give it a try.

Unlike other stories I have written I didn’t have a plan outside of the timeline. So, I sat down a few days before the first Saturday in April and just started writing. I had no idea the direction this was going.

Since I wrote it so close to the scheduled post date I didn’t have a lot of time to edit. Once it published I was stuck with the premise and had to roll with it.

Another difference with this story is that I didn’t write it all at once. Instead, I wrote it week by week. The only thing I knew going into the next chapter was Harrison’s age. The rest I was unsure about.

I totally wrote and then erased and rewrote chapters 3 and 5. The first iteration saw Brian making many more poor decisions in life. But I cleaned him up in the rewrite. It didn’t feel right to have Harrison’s kid be such a screw up.

While this was an interesting exercise I don’t think I would purposely write another story in this manner again. There are things I would have added or hinted at in the early chapters that I thought of after they were published. I’m also not completely pleased with the story in general and will probably revisit the whole lifespan concept again.

If you did read my story last month, thanks for stopping by. The next 5-month short story will be in July.

The Most Beautiful Story