Yo nerds!
Ya know 2020? Well, it was a complete failure when it came to writing anything of worth for me. I’m not entirely sure why. The world situation hasn’t really changed anything about my everyday life, and I’ve been under no extra stress than usual. I just seemed to lack focus. That’s okay, it is what it is, but I wanted to change things for 2021 and get back onto the writing wagon. It’s not a resolution, because those are silly, so don’t call it that, but I can’t keep referring to myself as a writer if I’m not writing.
Hey, shock and horror! It turns out that taking a week’s break from the twitter place fostered productivity. Who knew?! When I published The Fair Haired Boy, I had three other Ma Shen stories planned. I couldn’t seem to get that second story structured though. Anyway, during my twitter break I wrote a 24k words first draft. Whenever I was tempted to open twitter, I forced myself to write a sentence instead. So, I think I’ll be doing more twitter breaks when necessary.
I realised that getting that first draft done is usually my crux for any story I try to write, and so I made some minor changes to my pre first draft stages, and that seems to have made the process go much smoother. It does now mean I am writing a story summary, a 0 draft, and a 0.5 draft before I actually write the first draft. What a weirdo.
I also decided to scan through some pieces I wrote a while back, just for the lols, to see how much my writing style has changed, and to see if I could reconnect with the part of my brain that once fed on inspiration. Whilst doing that I came across this silly piece that I think I wrote in early 2018 – who can say for sure? Time is not real.
My inspiration for writing this piece came from reading hundreds of job applications, and never ceasing to be surprised at what some people consider a ‘good application’. I also had a colleague who I worked with for about 5 years (I was her Line Manager) who was rather unusual. I felt like she would often have conversations with people in her own head, and then judge the real life people on what the made up counterpart living in her head had said to her. I formed a character around her, Julie White. I think I wrote this as a way of keeping that character alive. The Applicant was included in my short story collection, Unsound Sounds, but seeing as that book is no longer available, I thought it would be groovy to share it here, for the lols.
The Applicant by Jack CJ Stark PDF
Anyway, I’m off to do some more writing or something idk. Peace and love!
Jack CJ Stark
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Jack CJ Stark 