He sat over his keyboard. It was time to suffer. He remembered his professor’s famous line from writing class back in the day. “If it was hard to write, it should be hard to read.” He kept those wise words next to his computer. He was fully disgusted with himself. He’d typed up a full manuscript and received an offer from a publisher. They’d shown much enthusiasm and offered up a generous advance. But there was only one problem. He hadn’t suffered enough. Therefore, it just wasn’t right. He took one last look at the manuscript’s only copy before throwing it into the fireplace with a loud thud and watched the pages blacken and curl. Ironic, this. It was painful to watch the manuscript burn. He was finally suffering properly. Now, his work could begin.
NOTE: The brief narrative above was brought to you by TZ Books and The Bite-Size Fiction Project, created by Dave Baldwin and Sheila Lee Brown (this particular one is a Dave-story). The results of this project are bite-size story morsels for short attention spans. These tidbits are sometimes fun, sometimes weird…but always short!