Fiction Writing Portfolio by Tom Farr
There’s nothing I love more than creating new stories, building new worlds and journeying through them with a cast of characters born from my imagination.
Below is a collection of all the short stories I’ve published with various publications on Medium. Thanks for reading!
“The Light in the Playground”
“The Toy Car” at The Weekly Knob
I wrote “The Toy Car” in response to a writing prompt from the super fun The Weekly Knob started by S Lynn Knight and Aura Wilming. It’s only 250 words, but it’s 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. It’s a disturbing story but powerfully redemptive.
“Under the Forest Lights”
“Under the Forest Lights” came to me when I was sitting in a room for four hours after a student finished their standardized test after only two hours (fyi: teaching is my day job). 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 rapidly 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.
“The Room” at The Weekly Knob
“The Room” was inspired by another writing prompt from The Weekly Knob. It’s a creepy story, but it was a fun one to write.
“Found Footage” at Digital Culturist
“Found Footage” is a bit of a departure from the usual kinds of stories I write. It’s a story about someone obsessed with creating a story that’s real by manipulating real people’s lives.
“When Life Knocks You Down” at The Weekly Knob
“When Life Knocks You Down” was inspired by The Weekly Knob’s “remote control” prompt. It’s the story of a woman struggling with life as a single mother.
“Myrra’s Blindness”
This story was inspired by a writing prompt from The Coffeelicious. The prompt was the picture that’s attached to the story, and I decided to tell the story of a blind young woman and her strange encounter with something she doesn’t understand.
“The Light Chases the Darkness” at The Weekly Knob
This was inspired by another great prompt from The Weekly Knob. This time the prompt was matches, and I instantly thought of a limit to the matches and desperate situation. Then a girl with green eyes against creatures with yellow eyes.
“A Father’s Funeral — Two Perspectives” at The Coffeelicious
Fellow writer and friend Ernio Hernandez wrote an interesting two-perspective story, which was the inspiration for a writing prompt for The Coffeelicious. When I decided to write a two-perspective story, I immediately envisioned a funeral, and this twisted story was born.
“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.
Extraction — A Serialized Story in 16 Episodes
Extraction is the story about a young man named Bryant Summers who loses the woman he loves to a horrific tragedy. The real story begins after the tragedy when he starts wrestling with questions of life, death, love, and sacrifice.
Tom Farr is a writer, teacher, and storyteller. He writes regularly about teaching at Teaching ELA and his love of Star Wars at The Force Analysis. His work has also appeared on The Writing Cooperative, The Startup, and The Unsplash Book. Check out his fiction writing portfolio on Medium.
