Holiday Writing

Holidays are a great setting for writing.  Whether it's a crazy family drama; a revelation; or a charming sweet story of reunion or gathering, the holidays are a time when we act differently from our everyday routines.  And of course it's the non-routine occurrences in life that make for the best stories.  The unusual, unexpected, improbable.


Thanksgiving is a great start for a short story.  It's all about sitting down to a meal.  One dinner, one day.  Write down what you're doing for this Thanksgiving.  Before it starts or before it gets too far along, write down as a quick list who you're spending it with, what their relationships are to each other, what you'll be eating, where you'll be spending it.  Now how about writing down who isn't there, who you might have expected but aren't coming, and what they're doing instead.  Write down your quick expectation of how dinner will go.


Now write a story about how it didn't go, how it could have been very different.  Was there a topic that was avoided?  Was there a fight that could have broke out?  Or you know, maybe one did.


Remember it's one meal, one day, one get-together.  So keep it to a short story length.  See how it goes.


Happy Turkey.