The Process

Last week, I was leading a small writing group, and our prompt was “once upon a time.” Fifteen minutes later, my page was full and I had to remind myself that they were supposed to be doing the writing.

Anyway, I ended up with about 150 words of a very basic short story. I thought it would be fun to share my process as I shape this rough draft into a finished story that I can submit. I don’t know if I’ll go all the way to the final draft, as some publishers would consider it a reprint. We’ll see.

For now, let’s get started with the original paragraphs from the prompt.

“Once Upon a Time…”

Once upon a time, there was a dragon who lived on top of a mountain. She was very old and wise, but she was lonely. Sometimes people would come to her lair and try to steal from her hoard. The dragon didn’t mind. She just trapped them for a while, so she would have someone to talk to. She asked them for news of the goings-on in the valleys below. If they told her their problems, she gave them good advice. Then she would let them go back to their homes.

After a while, the people stopped coming up the mountain to try and steal. They just came to talk to the dragon. She told them tales from long ago, and she still gave them good advice. Even kings and queens might come. Soon, the dragon wasn’t lonely any more.

Pretty simple, right? I like the way it gives the dragon a problem that people might not expect, and uses some of the typical dragon lore in a fun way. It needs to be fleshed out with rich details and description, though. Next time I’ll share my first real draft.

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