Story Excerpt: Faith

See larger image The First Five Pages: A Writer's Guide to Staying Out of the Rejection Pile (Paperback) By (author) Noah Lukeman List Price: $13.95 USD New From: $5.20 In Stock Used from: $5.19 In Stock

I began this story a couple of years ago and lost steam after a few paragraphs. I didn’t really know where I was going with it. This was supposed to have a theme of perception of both the character and the reader. My idea was to start big and then gradually move smaller and smaller until I reach the level of individual perception. It has potential but like all of the other projects that I have listed on this site, I don’t have any interest in pursuing it further.

As always, it certainly is possible that someone else has already plucked this idea out of the ether and written the story so you may want to be on the look out for that if you choose to use this idea. Otherwise this idea is public domain. The plot, characters, settings, names etc are all free for you to use with no expectation of reimbursement. Have fun.

Sometimes I like to think I am a divine being sent here on a mission from god. I like to think that deep within myself and hidden by my skin and bones is an angelic essence sent here to effect a great change in humanity. Or instead maybe I’ve been sent here as the next step on my angelic journey and when I die I’ll have earned a pair of wings that will take me back to heaven. Or that being here is the celestial version of being sent to bed without dessert. A chastisement for refusing to eat my broccoli, or for plucking a cherubim’s wing or playing marbles with the worlds in the universe.

Sometimes I like to think I am a Prophet or a Buddha or a Shaman cleverly hidden as a mundane human. I like to think that my poetry, though just a jumble of confused thoughts and misused words, are in fact divinely inspired messages in which the secrets of the world are revealed. Or I’m a the only remaining survivor of a dead planet sent here as a child and that any day now my superpowers will kick in and I can start fighting evil.

I like to think that my ex-husband left me because he really is a shallow jerk.

I like to think that I survived child abuse so that I may help other victims of the same tragedy.

Sometimes I like to think I am a human worthy of being treated humanely. That when I smile at my neighbor he’ll smile back instead of rolling his eyes. That when I perform a kind gesture, that it will be acknowledged with a thank you instead of suspiciousness. That every Christian I meet won’t tell me I’m going to hell.

I like to think that one day when I look up the word normal in the dictionary, I’ll see a picture of me.

I like to think there is a purpose for it all.

Yeah, I like to think that.