swankivy.com - writing page - short fiction

Just Like Stephen

© 2005

Technical Aspects

Story length: 6,834 words/16 pages double spaced

Voice: First person, present tense with flashes to past tense

Genre: Modern fantasy

Copyrighted: © 2005

Story information

Main character: George

Character description: A nineteen-year-old inventory specialist who has followed in his brother's footsteps in just about every way, including developing the strange and feared but vaguely defined power of magic. He does everything he can to hide it.

Supporting characters: George's brother Stephen (absent, but present in flashbacks). Also, in passing, some stupid customers.

Setting: Modern times, urban area, and too often in the bathroom

General Plot

In the society in which inventory specialist George lives, magic is a rare but real part of life, cropping up somewhat randomly among the population. Unfortunately, admitting to having magic is a one-way ticket to a government-run institution where officials channel the magical people's powers into controlled projects. The government basically considers having magic the same as having a sickness, and it's true that it can cause insanity, so they claim to be helping the magical people by institutionalizing them and training them. George's older brother Stephen developed magic one day, and suddenly everything was different--he had to be taken away, and no one seemed to care but George. Before leaving, Stephen urges his brother to try to hide his magic if he develops it later, which they both suspect he will. And in the present, George, now nineteen, has taken his brother's advice and has hidden his magic for four years. Unfortunately, magic has a way of deciding when it's going to be used, and this is a story of how George answers that call without letting anyone else hear him.

Information, inspiration, and other notes

This story's a mish-mash of some ideas I'd been kicking around for more than a year before I finally squirted it out. In one of my novels, Bad Fairy, the fairies have magic and also a sort of ingrained desire to be helpful with it. I took that concept a little farther in this story.

Read it:

BACKLINKS:

MAIN PAGE
WRITING PAGE
SHORT STORIES PAGE

Technical Aspects
Story length:	6,834 words/16 pages double spaced
Voice:	First person, present tense with flashes to past tense
Genre:	Modern fantasy
Copyrighted:	© 2005
Story information
Main character:	George
Character description:	A nineteen-year-old inventory specialist who has followed in his brother's footsteps in just about every way, including developing the strange and feared but vaguely defined power of magic. He does everything he can to hide it.
Supporting characters:	George's brother Stephen (absent, but present in flashbacks). Also, in passing, some stupid customers.
Setting:	Modern times, urban area, and too often in the bathroom
General Plot
In the society in which inventory specialist George lives, magic is a rare but real part of life, cropping up somewhat randomly among the population. Unfortunately, admitting to having magic is a one-way ticket to a government-run institution where officials channel the magical people's powers into controlled projects. The government basically considers having magic the same as having a sickness, and it's true that it can cause insanity, so they claim to be helping the magical people by institutionalizing them and training them. George's older brother Stephen developed magic one day, and suddenly everything was different--he had to be taken away, and no one seemed to care but George. Before leaving, Stephen urges his brother to try to hide his magic if he develops it later, which they both suspect he will. And in the present, George, now nineteen, has taken his brother's advice and has hidden his magic for four years. Unfortunately, magic has a way of deciding when it's going to be used, and this is a story of how George answers that call without letting anyone else hear him.
Information, inspiration, and other notes
This story's a mish-mash of some ideas I'd been kicking around for more than a year before I finally squirted it out. In one of my novels, Bad Fairy, the fairies have magic and also a sort of ingrained desire to be helpful with it. I took that concept a little farther in this story.