Member-only story
Climate Change is a Runaway Train
I wrote a short story about it for a Vocal Media challenge
I alternate between being terrified of the effects of climate change and being hopeful for what visionary Joanna Macy calls “the Great Turning.”
I don’t want to be Pollyanna-ish, but I also think hopelessness is a cop-out. I think there is something empowering about hope.
My writing process for fiction is interesting to me. I am not a planner, I’m a “pants-er.” I write by the seat of my pants. I will put my characters in a situation and then think absent-mindedly or sleep on it and then something will come to me which will take them to the next situation. Only after a draft is done will I re-work it to form a cohesive story.
This form of writing fiction inevitably produces a story that manifests my conscious and subconscious thoughts and concerns. It is like having a dream.
So it is no surprise that when I tried to write a story for a Vocal Media prompt about a runaway train, it became an unhidden metaphor story about climate change. My character is trapped in hopelessness and futility. But he needs hope to find the courage to survive. We all do.
Here is the story (so far it has zero views on Vocal!):
