Write Fast: Change Story

Responding to Life – Step 2

Next up, write a brief story about a time when your life changed.

For this capsule story, choose one of the pop touchstones you identified in Step 1 or another change in your life. A few possibilities: a life-changing trip, a teacher, a big fight with a friend, a new career, a bad decision.

Then write the story, including “before” and “after” to create an arc. If you’re not sure how to proceed, try one of the story formulas in the box below.

A complete story can be conveyed in 150 words, your target length. Just remember — write it fast, putting it into your Process Notebook.

Suggested Time for Activity: 15 minutes

Suggested Length: 150 words

Do your best to tell the full story: before the change, how it happened, and afterward. Write as much as you can in the time limit, but keep going if you like.

Q. Can my story be longer than the target length?

Keep it under 300 words.

Yes, but try to keep it under 300 words (about one print manuscript page). The point is to write this first draft quickly, completing the story arc without overthinking it.

Q. How serious do my turning points need to be?

A turning point doesn’t have to be a gruesome crime, losing your home in a hurricane, or any other headline. We don’t control everything that happens to us, but we do respond to changes. So, emphasize active participation in your own fate, whether you decide to leave a job or run into a burning building to save a child.

A turning point isn’t a headline.

Some of the best fictional short stories focus on quiet changes. Take John Updike’s “Still of Some Use,” in which his main character cleans out old board games from an attic after a divorce.^[1]

Internal shifts can matter as much as what happens externally. For classic New Yorker short stories by Updike or other literary writers, “nothing happens” is a common complaint. And yet, the drama often turns around whether a character makes a change, which means doing nothing has consequences, too.^[2]

In writing your own change story, include some action, but it need not be serious. Maybe it involves an intellectual turning point, when a new idea changed your outlook. Or it can be light. I often ask students to write funny stories about a mistake they made. That’s one possibility, if you’re feeling stuck.

Q. Do I have to stick to the chronological sequence?

Describe the events in order.

Yes, for this “Write Fast” activity. Describe what happened in order, from beginning to end. When you revise later, you can decide whether to change the chronological sequence of events.

The story formulas below provide a guide. Formula 2, for instance, concludes with regrets about a decision, which can help pin down a story’s meaning.