Okay folks, this is how I write a short story.

THE THEME~

The theme for my first four stories is ‘Death and cheating  death’.

Why did I choose that theme? Because some of my favorite  stories deal with death.

Here’s an example:
http://www.flashfictiononline.com/f20090201-golden-pepper-jay-lake.html

When I think of death, I think of how hard it can be to say  goodbye, and how everyone meets death in the end, regardless  of how high and mighty their station might’ve been in life.  While some people welcome death, most people fear it. Near  death, many people wonder if (and how) they’ll be  remembered. When people kill, they’re doing something that  they know absolutely nothing about to someone else.

Besides inevitability, dying represents the unknown and has  fascinated cultures for thousands of years. Most societies  agree that death should be feared, some even going as far as  to never mention the names of the deceased again. But other  cultures have dared to ask the questions, “Should death  really be feared?” and “Why can’t it be celebrated?”.

No matter what society, almost everyone reserves a fear for  death. After all, it’s the ultimate unknown.

Do the stars and space have something to do with death and  birth? There are so many concepts involving infinite cycles  and the afterlife, but how many unexplored possibilities  remain?

And what if death was a living being? Had feelings? What if  Death is/was? a nice person? If he/she?/it? could speak to  us, what would he have to say for himself? What if he’s  bound to take souls to the afterlife, even in situations  where he doesn’t want to? Can death really be cheated? Is  Death immortal, a demi-god, or is being ‘Death’ merely a  curse placed upon unsuspecting souls?

So I chose this subject because no one will ever mine all  the narrative possibilities. Until death is completely  cured, this subject will always be relevant to our world.

AN IDEA WORTH WRITING~

When I generate story ideas, I try to make them play nice  with the following…:

1. I prefer to have a definite beginning, middle, and end.

2. I prefer endings that are either inevitable, profound,  emotional, or create some kind of infinite loop. Or all of  the above, if possible.

3. At least one character must change, for better or worse,  over the course of the story.

4. If I can make it work in a fantasy setting, all the  better.

…because they are characteristics typical in the short  stories I enjoy reading the most.

THE CONCEPT~

Okay, so I have a theme, and a-million-and-one different  ways to approach it. (Not that I usually come up with a  theme first. In fact, I never do. I come up with a concept  first, and the theme just kind of surfaces as I write. But  in this case I decided to choose the theme first to ensure  my four stories were linked somehow. :P Anyway…)

Now this is where it gets tough. If I haven’t thought of  anything by now, and I’m really interested in writing a  short story on that particular day, I’ll think about things  like the stream of consciousness I started this post with.  The ‘What If?’ game.

Mowing the lawn, taking a shower, anything that gives time  to think helps. If I let these thoughts simmer and am making  a conscious effort to trying and turn these thoughts into a  story, the puzzle pieces start fitting together.

In this particular case I wasn’t mowing the lawn, I was  wiki-surfing. I think I was looking up Japanese words for  measurements, of all things, and somehow came across the Kojiki, which is one of the  oldest in-tact records of history known to man.

Though cryptic, one story (Section IX) speaks of the  Perpetual Night Realm (Yomi-no-kuni), an afterworld that  twists the appearance of those who go there.

A translated snippet from http://www.sacred-texts.com/:

‘Thereupon [His Augustness the Male Who-Invites], wishing to  meet and see his younger sister Her Augustness the  Female-Who-Invites, followed after her to the Land of Hades.  1 So when from the palace she raised the [35] door and came  out to meet him, 2 His Augustness the Male-Who-Invites  spoke, saying: “Thine Augustness my lovely younger sister!  the lands that I and thou made are not yet finished making;  so come back!” Then Her Augustness the Female-Who-Invites  answered, saying: “Lamentable indeed that thou earnest not  sooner! I have eaten of the furnace of Hades.’

The concept of an afterworld that makes you ugly is very  interesting to me.

“an underworld,…. the habitation of the dead,…. the land  whither, when they die, go all men, whether noble or mean,  virtuous or wicked.”

So a man loves a woman so much, he’s willing to go to the  afterworld to bring her back, only he didn’t realize she’d  be ugly, and when he sees this, he abandons her.

DEVELOPING THE CONCEPT~

Perpetual Night Realm … Eternal Night Realm? Realm of  Eternal Night?

Maybe it’s not out of love, but out of guilt. Maybe he ran  off with another woman, and over the years he feels guilty  for leaving the woman he married, realizing his first love  was his only true love and returns, only to find out she had  committed suicide. So he spends his days there drinking and  sulking, and a stranger starts showing up at the local bar  late at night.

Everyone in town’s afraid of this man, and there are rumors,  but one day, he builds up the courage, with a little help  from liquor, to talk with this stranger and slowly begins to  suspect that the person he’s talking to is Death.  He  discovers that since his wife committed suicide, she went to  the Eternal Night Realm. But Death warns him he should let  her go and move on.

Death finds out about his life, too. About how he cheated,  about why he left his wife in the first place, about how if  things didn’t go well here, he felt like he could go back  to his mistress any time.

Reluctantly, Death reveals it is possible to travel to the  Night Realm and return. How? Maybe via a relic or a  longboat? Maybe by ritual? Maybe by eating a mystical food?  Maybe by him threatening to do something Death would not and  could not allow to happen…?

So, somehow, he goes to the Realm of Eternal Night, and in  fact discovers his ex-wife is hideous. And he abandons her  even though she is glad to see him and wants to be taken  away from the horrors she’s seen. This shows his  superficiality. So he runs away, returns to the world of the  living alone, and seeks out his mistress, but she is  repelled when she sees how ugly he’s become. Death didn’t tell him, but warned him to let it go; Anyone who visits  the Eternal Night Realm, their features become twisted. And  now the world can see him for the monster he really is.

The title? The Never-ending Night