Once a Cheater
Growing myself as a thought-leader depends on how I cultivate my creativity. As I’ve relaunched The Hustle Legacy, I’ve also looked for ways to grow creatively. One way this has manifested in my life was through the form of The Narrative Method - a nonprofit that addresses loneliness through creative expression by hosting weekly zoom writing sessions. I’ve attended a couple thus far, and tonight, as I wrote with my new community, I became inspired to share the experience with you. Welcome to The Narrative Method Series - unedited stories, written by me, prompted by my time with The Narrative Method. These articles are meant to be nothing more than to give you a look inside my mind and a front seat to me exploring my own creativity. I invite you to become a part of my process: raw, unfiltered, and always open to interpretation.
The Prompt
Tonight’s writing was based off the imagery of a lantern in a cave - the idea that there is always a light looming in the darkness. To start, we were prompted with an image; a painting of a man on his phone and his dog. We were then given a phrase; “and suddenly, everything began to make sense”. This is what I wrote in that time:
The Writing
His dog was tugging at his leash, antsy to keep the walk going. But, there were other priorities at hand. Ones that involved Rosalina. Then again, what in this guy’s world didn’t revolve around Rosalina?
Today, it was different though. Today, it wasn’t about winning her back. Mainly because as he stared at his phone screen, his face washed over with blue light, he realized it was too late. Rosalina moved on. He lost.
What’s worse, she moved on with the one guy she always told him he wouldn’t have to worry about. Yeah, right. This guy has been a problem since things first started getting rocky between him and Rosalina.
He cheats one time and instead of crying about it to her girlfriends like any normal girl would, she had to go cry about it at work, to her “work husband”, whatever that is. Your nickname for your guy friend includes the word “husband” and that’s not supposed to make your boyfriend feel some type of way?
As Brodie pulled the pair across the street, they passed an Amazonian Goddess walking her poodle. The boy and his furry best friend both couldn’t resist looking back and admiring the lovely lady and her pooch. “Well whatever, they deserve each other” the heartbroken boy says as he slurps up his drool. “There’s plenty of fish in the sea, right Brodie?”
The charcoal lab licks his nose in response. “Yea. And this time, I’m gonna get a girl that could actually get along with other girls. Like that smokeshow we just passed on the crosswalk. That way, the next time I cheat, I won’t get myself into this mess.”
The rest of the walk, the lonely boy continued to scroll through his ex-girlfriend’s feed. Analyzing every micro-detail of the photos since their breakup, he convinced himself and his dog that all things happen for a reason. Things were never gonna work out between the two of them. A girl that could be friends with other guys isn’t worth wifing up anyway.
“Thank God I dodged that bullet.” he said to himself as he closed the door to his home behind him. “Guess there really is a light at the end of every tunnel.”
The Debrief
As the timer began, I wasn’t sure where to take the story. I had challenged myself to write a fictional story this week, of characters far different from myself, in third person. I had never written something like this before, so the words didn’t flow out of me as easily as they usually do. The prompted image - the one of a man and his dog - helped me get into the mind of a new character. I am not a man, nor do I own a dog, so this week’s prompt gave me a great place to start. Connecting it to the overarching theme (a lantern in a cave) was a bit more difficult. Once I figured out the angle I would take, the words flowed out of me.
Still, I had no idea how the story was gonna end when I first began writing it. I didn’t expect myself to play with the character’s morals or know what the concluding message was going to be. The story took turns I didn’t expect, as if I wasn’t the one writing it. I didn’t foresee myself making the main character a cheater. Although I’ve never been cheated on, I knew this element of the story came from my rather morbid perspectives on love and dating. When I realized my story was loosely connected to next month’s topic for The Hustle Legacy (love & dating), I saw how my experience with The Narrative Method connects to what I am building here with my blog and podcast.
What if I based what I write at The Narrative Method on the topics I’m focusing on for The Hustle Legacy? How will that open my mind up for the conversations I hope to tackle? What new perspectives will that uncover? How will that impact my creative growth?
All these questions ran through my head as I filled the lines of the page. Then, I realized that there was nothing stopping me from finding the answers to these questions. This is a space meant to empower Hustlers to embrace their identities, so why not show you all how I’ve been embracing mine? I hope it’s enjoyable to be a part of this experience with me. Let me know what you think of the short story I wrote tonight in the comments below.
