The Story Behind the Story: “Search”
A behind-the-scenes look at how this short fiction came to life.
Search is available to read at Does It Have Pockets, first published in February 2024.
I kid you not when I say that Search was a byproduct of a burst of morning inspiration, so much so that I typed the first draft of this flash fiction piece in white heat on my phone in under an hour, still lying in bed after having just woken up.
I wrote this piece originally as a response to a themed call for submissions from another publication, in which the words “roadkill,” “waterfall,” and “blackout” had to be used in the story. The rest was up to the writer. Ironically, that publication was the first to reject my piece, but that did not deter me from submitting it to other publishers, convinced that I had something unique to offer.
Search was another one of my short stories where I had experimented with form.
In the literal sense, the form of the story is that of found fiction, particularly a user’s internet search history. As an anxious person, I use Google search liberally, seeking answers to my questions and reliable information to appease any concerns or doubts. Because I was all too familiar with this frantic search behavior, I realized that I could tell a full story by using only words and phrases from a character’s search history — not needing to expound further with traditional prose.
Figuratively, Search also connotes the character’s distress to evade getting caught for a potential crime. Here, the character assumes that a search is underway for the suspect in a roadkill accident that happened on a highway in Metro Manila; hence, the desperate attempts to find ways to destroy evidence or to prepare oneself legally in case of potential charges.
I really like how this experimental piece came together. It reads like a thriller and is able to get the job done in eliciting panic-stricken emotions in less than 350 words. The back-and-forth between two themes, the typhoon and the crime, mesh well together — with the anxiety and anguish heightening with each new search term.
I had sent Search to 15 different publications before it found a home with the last publication I sent it to, which was Does It Have Pockets. Even though I had a couple more publications in my back pocket to send it to in case of further rejections, I waited until I specifically heard back from Does It Have Pockets before sending it to more publishers because I just had a feeling that this publication was the right match for my story.
In their About page, it says that Does It Have Pockets is an “online literary magazine with an emphasis on the uncategorizable. Scifi poetry? Memoir as instruction manual? Fiction as recipe? If you’ve ever been told, ‘I love this, but I don’t know where to put it,’ try us!”
I did try them, and thankfully, my hunch had been right.
So, Long Story Short (SLSS) is a Medium publication where I pull back the curtain on my original works of short fiction that have been published in literary magazines and journals.
I write about the why and the how, and I aim to post my thoughts within two weeks from the story’s first publication, while the story is still fresh on my mind.
By doing so, I hope to have written artifacts beyond the stories themselves and be reminded of my motivations, inspirations, and evolving writing process, as well as the state of the external world and my inner life in that moment in time.
Thanks for following along.
For more short fiction writing, consider subscribing to my Substack newsletter of the same name, So, Long Story Short.
I write drabbles and offer a behind-the-scenes look at my original works of short fiction published in literary magazines and journals.
