Dad probably hoped to take his secrets to the grave, but a heart attack scuppered his plans.

“Will you come back for the funeral, Aaron?” my sister, Becky, asked when she called with the news.

“Yes, of course,” I replied.

“And can you stay a few days to help Mum and me tidy up Dad’s stuff?”

“Okay,” I agreed, suppressing a groan. I left my hometown over twenty years ago and rarely return, even for significant family events like birthdays, weddings and funerals.

These are the opening paragraphs from my short story, Stolen Passions, which I shared on the Tall And True writers’ website in October 2024.

Please note: The Story Insight below contains spoilers.

Story Insight

I wrote Stolen Passions for July 2024’s Not Quite Write Prize run by the Not Quite Write Podcast. Their brief was:

• Your story must feature the word TABLE. This word must be used in full, with no spaces or interrupting punctuation. However it may be included within a longer word provided the original spelling is retained, e.g. tabletop or constable.
• It must feature the action of “stealing something”. You don’t need to use this exact wording and you can feature the action prominently or simply as an aside. The action may occur before the beginning of your story or after it ends as long as it’s clearly referenced somewhere within your story.
• And it must break the rule “avoid purple prose”. You can interpret this anti-prompt in whatever creative way you see fit. Whatever your approach, your goal should remain to tell the best story possible.

The Not Quite Write Podcast emailed the brief on Friday midday (Australian EST), and writers had 60 hours to write and submit their stories before the Sunday midnight deadline.

Table and Anti-Prompt

I had lunch with a friend on Friday after the brief arrived, and he suggested TABLEAU for the TABLE brief. Tick one! 

All I had to do was write a 500-word “purple prose” story where someone stole something. I knew stealing something wouldn’t be hard to slot into my story, but “purple prose”!?

The Not Quite Write Prize is famous (some may say, infamous!) for its anti-prompts, which have included:

• July 2023: Your story must break the rule to avoid all adverbs
• January 2024: Avoid clichés
• April 2024: Always use said. 

Yes, I may have used purplish prose in my early writing, but I like to think I’ve matured as a writer and learned to “kill my flowery darlings”. Writing purple prose felt like being asked to write using my non-dominant left hand!

Share Your Writing on Tall And True

Discourse on Poetry, Symbolism and Purple Prose

The purple prose anti-prompt had me stumped, but as I wrote my story about an estranged son returning home for his father’s funeral, it occurred to me that A Discourse on Poetry, Symbolism and Purple Prose in Victorian Erotica would be the sort of book an English Professor might write.

The reason for the estrangement, his father’s philandering with university students, is revealed when the son finds hidden bundles of letters in his father’s desk from “the young women whose passions he had stolen”. Ticks two and three from the brief!

Stolen Passions wasn’t short or long-listed for the Not Quite Write Prize, but I enjoyed the weekend writing and signed up again for the October 2024 challenge. Will it be fifth time lucky? I’ll let you know!

© 2024 Robert Fairhead

Thanks to Michael Bußmann for sharing the funeral cortege image on Pixabay.

N.B. You might like to read my first Not Quite Write Prize story from July 2023 on Tall And True, In Her Head.