It’s been a while since I’ve written anything close to resembling a narrative novel. But I’m in the process of developing this short movie idea I’ve had poking around in my mind and I thought I’d approach it by first, writing a short story then adapting it for screen…
Here’s a short sample:
“YOUR SHIPMENT HAS ARRIVED” Klink-clack. Klink-clack. Klink –klink –klink-clack. Yurek sat, hunched over a scuffed keyboard, a stubborn layer of grim caked on even with his determined poking. He often wondered why tinkering with artifacts of the not-so-distant past had become a mild obsessive compulsion. He smiled at the fortune of finding a roommate who regularly brought in, by all accounts, trash and not-so-regularly discarded them; Feeding wildly into his obsession.He settled between a mountain of pre-World War III doohickeys and doodads that towered around him the way rubble from a destroyed building would, dull and tiresome. Under the right light (or lack thereof), one might of thought of him as just another wayside object scooped up by Tomei’s deft scavenging hands. Sometimes an object from the very top would come crashing down with a loud crash. It would settle at the base, expanding its real-estate. Last week it was a tin coffee can. It hit the concrete floor with a resounding ker-PANK! –and a cup’s worth of coarsely ground beans spread across the floor like some creeping shadow. Clack-clack. Klink-clack. Klink –clack –klink-clack. “Oi yeh, just like that, cleaner then, much cleaner. Oh yes, shiny…” he mumbled.He cleaned the keyboard as if it were a child whose knee had just been scabbed. Propped under a dim light, he observed, in admiration, his handy work. Apart from stripping away some of the letters, the keyboard looked dirtier than it did before Yurek’s meddling. But under the sickly green light, Yurek could not tell the difference. It hardly mattered, he was proud of whatever differences he recognized. to be cont’d…
I’ve got to say, it’s challenging! There was a time in the past when writing short stories flowed easier in my head. For those that are curious, the story is about Yurek, a man living in a common post-World War III life (whatever that might be). He finds his clean air supply close to depleted and re-orders a batch, completely unaware of the procedures and efforts required to procure oxygen samples used for clean air.
Art by Vladimir Manyuhin (posted on http://www.funzug.com/index.php/unusual-things/cities-after-the-world-war-iii.html)