Z IS FOR ZOE

Since I was an English Major in college, I took several Creative Writing Classes, as you might imagine.  The focus of this particular class was writing short stories that were true (aka non-fiction).  The class would break up into small groups of three or four, and read/critique each other's work.  I remember ONE of those stories twenty years later.  I can recall it in fairly accurate detail.  Let me share the bare bones of the story with you...

It is the story of an 11 year old girl who wants so much to grow up.  She wants to do grown-up things.  She has been yearning for the day when she can shave her legs with the razor that she has seen her mother use.  She knows how to do it.  It is merely squirting out the foam and then gliding that razor up the leg in precise movements.  Until all of the foam and hair is gone.  That act will define her as a woman.  She will leave the hair and childish things behind  her.  Today is the day.  She is finally squirting the foam and using her mother's razor to strip away childhood.  This day isn't the way she planned it.  There is none of the joy that she expected to feel.  None of the freedom.  There is no song in her soul.  After the act is done, she puts on the black dress hanging on the back of the door, and joins her father.  Today is her mother's funeral.  After they come home, her father surprises her with a kitten.  He knows that today was a difficult one.  She nuzzles the new friend to her chest and decides to name her Zoe, meaning Life.  The end.

I was crying by the end of that piece, which was actually several pages in length.  I had nothing for it by way of critique.  It was wonderful.  Until that story, I had never even thought about the impact of a non-fictional short story.  After that, I did.  I knew that a short story of no more than two pages, if it was well written could pull a punch.  It could land one right in the gut.  The fact that I remember that story is a testament to its power.

Will I ever write anything, long or short, that impacts a person the way that story did me?  I don't know.  However, this blog is me exercising my writing muscle so that it doesn't get flabby.  I might not knock out gems here every day, but I try to write *something* every few days just to stay toned.  That way when I jump back into the Writing Game of Life I will be ready.  Thank you Christine (the writer of the awesome paper) for the inspiration.  Thank you, too, Zoe!

Rating: Life Lesson

Who has inspired you to be a better writer?  What stories do you still remember twenty years later?