Continuing Without a Trace
Today’s creative writing exercise let me explore ‘the messy middle’ one of the main characters in my current WIP is navigating and led me down an enlightening path. Read on, then join the chat!
August Theme: The Creative Life
Big Question: How do we build a creative life that works for us?
Week 3: The Messy Middle
What I wrote below is based on the following creative writing prompt included in Saturday’s Writing Prompts for Navigating ‘The Messy Middle’ post.
Prompt: Almost Giving Up
Create a character who almost gives up on something important.
Why did I choose it?
I chose this prompt because it reminded me of something one of the main characters in my current WIP goes through, something that propels her character arc, and the broader story arc, forward.
I’m also always drawn to those moments in a story when a character is ready to give up but doesn’t, as well as the ‘reluctant hero’ archetype. Not only are these moments and characters usually mysterious and intriguing, they’re also relatable, and therefore make a story more relatable and more enjoyable to follow, for me anyway. I mean everyone loves a Superman-like character and storyline, but we can’t forget that even he has kryptonite, right?
I’m not sure if the following excerpt will end up in the final draft of my current WIP, but I hope it ends up helping me explore the broader arc of the story I want to tell better, along with my main character’s personality and motives. And I hope the excerpt includes enough context to make sense here, outside of the WIP itself. Let me know if it doesn’t, and I’ll do my best to fill in any gaps where I can.
Did this prompt, or any of the others shared yesterday, bring up any interesting ideas you want to explore, or encourage you to write something this week? Let me know in the chat or comments so we can discuss!
My Response: Continuing Without a Trace
Eli’s words were still ringing in Eve’s ears the next morning, along with the residual effects of all the tequila she had consumed the night before, in a way that made it impossible to tell which wanted to make her vomit more.
You keep saying there’s no proof mom didn’t go rogue on her own but never stop to consider that the opposite is true too.
That’s what he had said to her last night, eerily calm, his eyes full and bright, as if he hadn’t just come home from another grueling shift shoveling… whatever it is that he had been assigned to shovel. As if the very thought of their mother’s vitality was an apparition strong enough to bring him life too somehow, regardless of their current state of living.
Even in her hungover haze, Eve knew Eli was right, technically. She had no tangible proof that their mother willingly chose to leave them behind. Despite it being what Parrot had been strongly suggesting on every public screen across the city for more than a year now. And despite it being what everyone else, even those closest to them, seemed to believe at this point, including her best friend, Ruth.
Almost everyone in Elysia except Eve’s twin seemed convinced Esther had decided to leave all the comforts of her home, her life, her children, every single one of her hard-earned merits, and civilization itself behind, including Eve. But not Eli. No, from day one he had rallied people from all over the city to search for her. Within the first forty-eight hours alone, he had already organized drone perimeter searches and teams run by volunteers at the Center to comb through endless hours of video footage and data trails that inevitably led nowhere.
Eve had supported him, too, sitting at the Center scanning video footage for hours and hours until the hours started turning into days then started turning into weeks which turned into months, and now a year, yielding zero concrete proof of their mother’s whereabouts. Yes, one of Eli’s Safety pals had claimed to see their mother at the border while he was on patrol the night before they noticed she was missing, but no video or data evidence had ever been recovered indicating that she had actually been there, no solid proof Eve could verify with her own two eyes.
Which could only indicate one thing in Eve’s mind at this point: Esther went rogue, and that was that. She had simply packed an overnight bag like she was going on one of her overnight assignments across the border, then decided not to come back. Just like the other twenty-six citizens who had decided to leave in the dead of night over the past few months. Defections Eve had been tasked with cataloguing in the ArXiv herself.
Granted there was solid proof of the other twenty-six defections, unlike her mother’s. There had been the typical trails of movement and data, and at least one video source per defection that hadn’t been fabricated or intentionally altered to some degree for widespread entertainment on MyBox before being wiped from all public systems.
But still, the longer Eve’s mother remained gone, the more she wanted her to stay gone. And the guilt of carrying that sentiment no longer plagued her like it had in the beginning. If her mother wanted to disappear and no longer be a mother, fine, then Eve no longer needed a mother…. or so Eve tried to convince herself nearly every hour of every day, as Eli’s words continued to ring in her ears.
Even now, Eli remained adamant that Esther would never do such a thing to them, not after their father had gone rogue when they were still infants, not when she had no real motive to do so, and especially not now that they were both up for their evaluations. But that was precisely why Eve was starting to believe that her mother was capable of doing it. They were going to be officially declared adults soon. And if one parent could abandon them so easily without a trace, why not the other? Especially now, when all parental obligations to look after them were evaporating.
Besides, based on the outdated jump drive Eve held in her hands now, it was clear her mother was adept at keeping secrets.
She would have never known the drive existed, embedded in the heart pendant of the necklace her mother left behind, if Ruth hadn’t pointed it out the night before, when Eve had temporarily relented her resentments long enough to put it on and wear it to Jacob’s elaborate party.
But here she was now, inserting the jump drive into the legacy hardware adapter Ruth had lent her, after dusting it off with two microfiber cloths.
Half of Eve was secretly pleading that the information on the drive would lead her directly to her mother. Of course it was. She had already spent too much energy and time and anguish searching for Esther to give up completely now. Esther was also still her mother, all said and done.
The other half of Eve, however, insisted she’d only discover the drive to be as blank as the last year of her life had felt.
So, split in two, she drew a deep breath and clicked on the first file name she saw, revealing something she never…
[To be continued…]
My Reflection and an Invitation
Working on this prompt was fun and proved to be a useful exercise for me to complete as I continue to work on my WIP, though I’m still unsure whether it will end up in the final draft. Regardless, it did help me uncover things about Eve and her mother that I didn’t know before. And allowed me to explore some emotional and logistical complexities in the WIP that I needed to unpack further, which should come in useful for the next few chapters I write. So, all in all, I enjoyed completing this prompt.
How about you? What did this prompt or creative writing piece surface for you?
Leave a comment or join this month’s Drafters Workshop chat so we can discuss your writing related to Writing Prompts for Navigating ‘The Messy Middle’, or anything else you’re currently working on.
Whether you join the chat to share your responses to this week’s prompts, ask questions, workshop an excerpt of something else you’ve written, or simply want to encourage others, we’d love to see you there as we explore what it means to build the creative lives we truly want throughout August.
Continue Exploring August’s Theme, The Creative Life
This Week: The Messy Middle
Writing Prompts for Navigating ‘The Messy Middle’
ICYM Week 2: Creative Habits
Writing Prompts for Building the Creative Habits You Want
Immersive Storytelling Mode and the ArXiv
Should writers have quantifiable creative habits?
Reading Notes: The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath
The Habits That Help Me and My Creative Life Most
Striking the Right Balance with Quantifiable Creative Habits
Popular Posts from Week 1: Making Space
A Day Alive in the Lakeside Library
How to Make Space and Time for Your Creative Life
The Creative Life as Play and Work
Consider going more in depth with this month’s theme with The Creative Life Writing Collection
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