Maintenance Man Short Story

Short Story Writer’s Journal: (May Contain Spoilers)

I was working with the prompt - maintenance man - and decided to write the story using a first person point-of-view.

The tale went well for about 1,000 words before I cycled back and realized everything was in the present tense. That freaked me out so I backpedalled and changed to first person past tense and all turned out well in the end haha!

I will at some point write a story in first person present but I think I need to go read the works of others authors who are already doing this.

I’ll read first for pleasure, and then give a second read looking for craft.

Writing My Digi-Pal Al continues my interest in how societies in the developed world might cope with widespread automation of jobs and the rise of robotics.

It was also stoked by soundbites from various politicians in the UK about the need for people (but not, obviously, the very rich) to keep working into their 70s and 80s.

Matching that recommendation with the widespread automation of the types of work that many older people would be limited to doing is going to present a massive challenge (I’m being polite here.)

And a minor cause for celebration: For the very first time I wrote a story (2800 words) in one long and tiring but satisfying day. I’m more than impressed with writers who can turn out similar word counts on an almost daily basis.

Onward!

(A summary listing of all short stories in this challenge can be found by clicking 52-in-52.)