Portfolio of original stories by Tom Farr
“Writing fiction is the act of weaving a series of lies to arrive at a greater truth.” — Khaled Housseini
I’ve wanted to tell stories all my life, but only in the last year or so have I begun to make any of my work public. I’ve published several pieces that I’m proud of and I’m using this space to keep links to all the stories I’ve publish all in one place.
Please check out my stories and I’d love to know what you think.
Short Stories
“The Pain of Bruising” at Curiosity Never Killed the Writer
I wrote “The Pain of Bruising” about a young woman who doesn’t understand her inherent value.
“A Conversation at the End of the World” at Made Up Words
I wrote “A Conversation at the End of the World” because I wanted to tell a story where worldwide disaster was something clearly happening but only in the background. It also hints at a much larger story.
“The Perfect Letter” at Made Up Words
I wrote “The Perfect Letter” as a love story with a twist. Sylvie, the protagonist’s love interest, is one of my favorite characters I’ve written.
“The Change” at Made Up Words
“The Change” won a short story contest during the summer of 2015. It’s a futuristic sci-fi thriller that was born out of a larger story that I hope to tell someday.
“The Interview” at Made Up Words
I wrote “The Interview” in response to a contest where the only requirement was to write a story about someone creative. The image of a secretive Hollywood writer/director being interviewed for the first time came to me pretty quickly, and though it didn’t place in the contest, it was still a fun story to write.
“The Weekend” at Two Thousand Words
“The Weekend” is one of my favorite stories because it’s been with me so long. I came up with the original idea several years ago and finally shaped it into something I came to love in 2015. I’m also working on adapting it into a spec screenplay.
“The Scar” at Wordhaus
“The Scar” was my attempt to write a horror story with a subtle moral argument. It was published by Wordhaus and won 2nd place in the thriller/horror category in their Best of 2015 anthology.
“Origins” at The Coffeelicious
“Origins” is a short story I wrote about a guy who’s meant to do something world-changing and the enigmatic girl with red eyes who seems to know more than she should.
“The Better Place” at Made Up Words
“The Better Place” wrestles with some of the questions that haunt me the most as a person of faith. It was ultimately born out of thinking about what I want my children to know about why the holiday of Christmas exists. The story itself is hauntingly disturbing so it’ll be a few years before they’ll be old enough to read it.
“The Outlaw” at Made Up Words
“The Outlaw” is what I call my supernatural western story. I wrote “The Outlaw” in December 2014 as a Christmas gift for my father-in-law, who loves reading and watching westerns.
“The Toy Car” at The Weekly Knob
I wrote “The Toy Car” in response to a writing prompt. It’s only 250 words and is a bittersweet exploration of death and life.
“The Coin Toss” at The Weekly Knob
“The Coin Toss” came as the result of another one of The Weekly Knob’s writing prompts. The first line of dialogue was the first thing that came to me, and the rest just flowed from there.
“Under the Forest Lights” at Panel & Frame
I came up with the story for “Under the Forest Lights” when I was sitting in a room for four hours after a student finished their standardized test after only two hours. I was administrating for only that one student and we weren’t allowed to have cell phones or electronics until the scheduled time for testing was over. A story idea about a rapid spreading disease and only one young girl with the cure quickly evolved into this modern-day fairy tale about two people who fall in love but face incredible odds to be together.
“Blinded Perception”
“Blinded Perception” began as a flash fiction story called “Unblinded.” It’s about a man who doesn’t see things as they actually are.
“A Parable on the Challenge of Being an Unpublished Writer”
I wrote this story to capture the stress and challenge of being a writer and wanting to create for a living. It’s a creepy tale that I think would probably resonate with a lot of writers and creatives.
Serialized Fiction
Below is the first episode of an as-yet-unfinished serial fiction story I’m writing called Extraction.
Screenplays/Scripts
In 2015 I was commissioned to ghostwrite the scripts for two web series. It was my first attempt at writing webisodes, so I wrote the script below to get a feel for it.
The script below is an adaptation of a short story I wrote in high school.
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Tom Farr is a writer, teacher, and storyteller. He loves creating and spending time with his wife and three children. He blogs regularly about writing and storytelling at The Whisper Project. Check out his writing portfolio on Contently.
