I spent some time reading about story structure and decided to jump in feet first and begin telling a story. It will be a short story, I will work to include all the elements of a proper short story. The story might suck, but I’ll learn how to structure a short story and I’ll work to make the next one better.
It’s early, the sun is already up and the air is crisp and cool. The kind of outdoor mountain air that makes you feel better. Could be the trees, the altitude, the sounds or a combination of all of them. I come here to think, away from the noise and distraction of the city, the job and the life back home.
Morning is my favorite time, a complete reset from the day before and a blank page of the day ahead. I sit with my coffee, the fresh mountain air, my iPad with my daily reading materials and a good old fashion journal for handwritten notes, dreams and ideas. It’s in this place that I can do anything, be anybody, and nothing seems to get in my way.
As my morning slips away and nature begins to wake up with the sounds of birds and trees blow in the wind, my perfect world shatters awake, with the alerts, emails and messages all poking me for attention. It’s hard to break away from the mountain oasis, but one message on my iPad sits like a rogue piece of string on my shirt. It’s 50-50 if I pull on that string, one way it’s just a small piece of string and it pulls right out taking nothing with it, or it’s attached to a hem and with one pull the whole shirt could go.
The subject of the message reads; “Project X Results are in – John is missing… “.
I’ve often wondered if highly skilled scientist succumb to the same level of greed as that of a highly skilled business person? I built X Consulting Group from the ground up, self funded it from the beginning, as it grew the pressure to please clients and increase staff always lead to greed in some form. XGC like most small business start-ups was born of energy and adventure with the goal to help the most people do the most important work. Over time, the most important work became the most expensive work, and the projects and scientist needed to complete this work ran in short supply. That’s when I found John.
More to follow on this short story, it’s day 3 and I hit the 100 words.
Be Good.
- Chris