Recently I realized that over the last few months I have been writing non-fiction almost exclusively. Between articles, poems, third-person bios, and website updates, I’ve been focusing on a lot of submissions and administrative work lately. For the last week in February, I challenged myself write exclusively fiction, (which I stuck to, aside from this post) not for a specific submission, but for the sake of intentionally writing in my chosen genre. When I gave myself the chance to release my creativity, I was met with some interesting results.

This week I started writing – mostly by hand – the story of an art forger obsessed with his former mentor, a tragic love story inspired by the song “after (h)ours” by VOILÀ & Chri$tian Gate$, and a thought-provoking story that blends cottagecore and eldritch horror.

Will I finish these? I certainly hope so. Will I publish them? Hopefully, in time. But that wasn’t the point of the challenge. The point is that I had fun doing this. That’s not to say that I haven’t enjoyed working on my various projects over the last few months, but that this was a fantastic reminder of why I do this: writing stories purely because I want to. I think in the future I’ll try to find a better balance, because I’ve missed this. This is the work that doesn’t feel like work, and is the reason why I write.