Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and I was excited for another opportunity to write a Thanksgiving story. However, this fall I worked on two fairly big projects that both culminated the same weekend in November. The second. One finished with a big event on Friday and the other on Monday. Sharing all that to explain I was pretty busy all of October and into the first part of November and did not spend as much time on my 5-part short story yet again. But I always say that, don’t I? So, let me just jump in and share the inspiration for this story.
The premise might have looked and sounded familiar for any tv-watchers in the early aughts. If this reminded you of The O.C. (2003-2007) there is good reason. While visiting my niece, I flipped through streaming services looking for something to watch and stumbled on this. I watched most of it when it was on tv and a few years ago rewatched it all. But during my visit with my niece I rewatched the first few episodes again. Mainly because I had pretty much forgotten about it.
While watching the first few episodes I was reminded of a few things about the series.
One, oh – the drama! Not just any drama, teenaged drama. The relationship of Ryan and Marissa is just plain annoying. That was the hot-ticket item of the series though and when [spoiler alert] Marissa was killed off at the end of season three, it barely made it another season. To be clear, I do not rewatch it for this relationship and tend to avoid any Ryan-Marissa centric episodes.
Two, it is a smutty soap opera. If you need me to explain this in detail too bad. I will sum it up with one particularly disturbing storyline. Marissa’s mom hooks up with her ex-boyfriend for a short arc. Enough said there.
Three, what I liked and still like is the premise of Ryan becoming part of the Cohen family. I really like the few little nuggets of him and Kirsten, the mom, as he becomes more like a son. I wish there would have been more time focused on this relationship. And this is really what inspired November’s story. I created a similar setup and tried to focus more on the new family dynamic. The fact this family took in a boy that had no hope for a future and expanded his horizons.
That is what I hoped to accomplish but I realize I didn’t quite make it. Unfortunately, I didn’t make enough time to plan the story arc accordingly. But that is what I was going for.
I realize my last two stories haven’t been all that great. These 5-part short story months were intended to help build my writing skills by letting me practice writing stories. But lately, I haven’t been doing them justice. So, unless inspiration hits me in the next couple of weeks to start writing for January’s story, this might very well be the last story I share. At least for now. I will take a little break on the short stories.
As always, thanks for reading!
ck's days 