WRITE: A Modern Love

Title: A Modern Love (Short Story)*
Role: Author**
Description: A short story written for a 2004 creative writing class. The story follow’s lovers Ben, an alcoholic Jazz musician, and Delilah as they pass through stages of love, marriage, parenthood and their struggles dealing with Ben’s alcoholism.

Original photo credit: Aaron Blanco Tejador. Modified artwork credit: Ryan Woldt.

What I Learned: I learned that a story is never really done being written. It is a continually evolving organism. I also learned a lot about constructive criticism. Specifically, how to take it.

This story was originally about an alcoholic man sabotaging his relationship as he slowly went insane, traveling inter-dimensionally into a future world filled with robots named “Kloot”. in his mind. The story wasn’t broken down by date but by Ben’s time spent in the physical world vs the time spent in his mind.

I had grand ambitions, and when I presented the first draft to a class of my peers the response was fairly unanimous. They hated it. They didn’t get it. They tore it to shreds. Despite my efforts to defend it, as they poked holes in the storyline I had a hard time not seeing their point.

I started to make edits. Version one became two became twenty-two. In the end I had a tragic love story about an two people who found love, and then lost it. Both characters grow despite the brevity of this story. Ben attains an awareness about his selfishness and personal demons with alcohol. Delilah becomes a stronger version of her already capable self. In the end it isn’t enough for them. Their story diverges.

This version, version 23, is fairly similar to the one I turned in at the end of that creative writing class. A few edits here or there, but the heart of it remains.

*There is new TV show called, “A Modern Love,” but this was published back in ‘04!

**The PDF download of this story was designed in Adobe InDesign.