I host a flash writing critique group on Yahoo. Now, this came about by accident as it was started as a place for writers who had contributed to A Flasher's Dozen to meet each other and discuss their stories. But when the publisher, my friend and mentor, KR Mullen, passed away I asked the members if they'd like to continue the group in a critique forum. That was nearly three years ago now and we're still at it.
Every Friday I post a prompt and the writers build a story around the premise of that prompt. Yesterday, I used Black Friday as the prompt thinking of the fun we could have creating a story out of the mayhem that surrounds this holiday tradition. But last night it was driven home how not funny this is. At the end of the day there were three people dead.
One man was trampled to death as he opened the doors at a Wal-Mart store. And two men shot each other in a Toys-R-Us store as their wives fought over some stupid item that was on sale. My, God, are things so desperate that people have to kill each other for a bargain?
As writers we find fodder for stories everywhere and even as I heard about these deaths my brain was swirling around the idea of a man arranging a hit on his wife during the madness of Black Friday. So, I wonder, who's worse? The people who committed these obscene murders or me for wanting to write about it?
I think I'll pass on this week's prompt.
2 comments:
Sandra, you're only being human. Humans, in general, tend to be pack animals (someone out there is going to hate me for using that word). There are times they forget themselves and these incidents are proof.
In the future the store may have to allow in only trickles of people at a time to control them and keep shoppers safe.
Thanks, Barbara. I know that people can be herded into acting stupidly, but it just seemed so wrong this time. Christmas has never been about the bargains for me. An maybe that's what I reacted to so strongly.
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