The freedom short story competition

“It’s fantastic isn’t it,” he said, “the greatest freedom there is.”

“What’s that?” I asked, I hadn’t been paying attention.

“The freedom of the blank page,” he said, “I sit poised to write, knowing that I could create anything, any story, any style, any time, any place.”

“And any length?”, I suggested.

“Well, no, it has to be under 2,000 words.”

“Ah, for a competition is it?” He can get very excited about writing competitions.

“Yes, it’s the ABC Tales competition, themed around freedom.”

“Well, you’re not free to write anything then are you, not if it has to be around the theme?”

He shook his head. “But I can still write anything within that theme, there are a million potential stories, more than that, a billion. I’m free to write whatever I like.”

“As long as it’s under 2,000 words.”

“Yes.”

“And finished by 5 November.”

“Yes, but you’re being deliberately awkward. You’re ignoring the sheer liberating excitement of the blank page, I have total power to create a beautiful work from nothing, with no restrictions.”

“Other than the restrictions I mentioned.”

He ignored me and started typing on his laptop.

“What’s that?”, I asked.

“It’s the word ‘no’,” he said, “the first word of my story.

“That’s not very liberating is it?”, I said, “the word ‘no’, that’s not a word that inspires thoughts of freedom, liberty and mom’s apple pie.”

“You’re right,” he said, deleting it and writing the word ‘yes’ in its stead. “There, that’s much better, a really positive opening that conjures up the very vision of liberty.”

“It still limits the story you can write, though. From a blank page that offered total freedom and liberty (within word limit and general theme) you are now constrained to a story that begins with the word ‘yes’.”

“Well, I could cross it out,” he said, “write something else.”

“But you’ll never write anything if you keep crossing out the first word. What you’ve stumbled upon is the harsh truth about the apparent liberating freedom of the writer.”

“What’s that?”

“Whilst you’re free to write anything you like, once you’ve begun a story you’re bound to telling that tale, every word on the page becomes a millstone around your neck. The freedom ends as soon as the story begins.”

“You’re right,” he said, “that’s so depressing, writing isn’t a freedom at all, it’s the worst form of bondage, once you’ve started you can’t escape from telling the story.”

“Never mind,” I said, “at least you’re free to read everyone else’s entries.”

He brightened up at this suggestion. “That’s right, there are some excellent entries already, and the standard of all the stories in the last competition was really high.”

“A wide range of high quality stories available to read for no charge. Now that’s what I call freedom.”