When I was in college, twenty fargin’ years ago, I cranked out a lot of amateurish science fiction. Tried to get a few stories published, never did (because they sucked, I imagine). I wrote dozens of stories, short and long, probably a couple novels worth of crap. And from the time I left college until a few days ago, I wrote *maybe* ten pages of fiction, and not a complete sci-fi tale in all that time. This sudden shift in output never much surprised me… I lost my muse, you might say, near the end of my college career. My inspiration for creative writing was gone, and working for sociopathic bosses and in bureaucratic corporate dungeons for a number of years really didn’t nurture its return.
Then for reasons that escape me, last week I watched two movies I haven’t seen since the late 1980’s… “Pretty In Pink” and “Sixteen Candles.” Those sort of called up memories long forgotten; when these flicks came out in the mid 80’s, I was in the age group they were aimed at. And I remembered them as being damned funny; “SC” more or less still was, but “PIP” was just HOLY CRAP DEPRESSING. In both cases Molly Ringwald’s character happily winds up with the *scumbag* at the end. Hell, in “PIP” she ends up at the prom (anybody else remember when you actually *cared* about the prom?) with the decent man who actually, honestly cared for her, and she promptly ditches him for the rich schmuck who consistently treated her like dirt. Gaaahhrrr. Stooopid adolescent females…
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Anyway, I think the combination of nostalgia for lost youth, and irritation at the realization that some of that youth was bound up in popular culture that celebrated Really Bad Decision Making, knocked a few rusty neurons loose in what I charitably refer to as my brain, with the end result being firing up Microsoft Word 1997 and banging out a complete 15-page story over the weekend. Admittedly, the actual story idea was two decades old; it had been left unscribbled for all that time, and basically forgotten until quite recently. I doubt I’ll do much with it. I printed out a draft and sent it to a friend; but unless the review is spectacular, I’ll probably just let it gather dust. Even so, it’s interesting what a good dose of reminiscence can do to your psychology. Speaking of which: this year is my 25th high school graduation anniversary. Huh. Yes. That makes me feel old.
I’m hoping that the urge to creativity will last long enough to let me make some forward progress on the Space Station V writeup. It has been stymied by writers block… even though it’s basically a technical description, it’s still creative fiction.