Welcome to the cKotch.Com blog. I’m Christopher Kotcher, and this is the story that took forever to finally write.
Clip Art Tales
Elementary school computer classes never taught me much about computers.
Lower grades only ever played computer games. Higher grades did some keyboard work but mainly focused on fun little projects. We barely ever finished half of them.
These projects never stuck to any real pattern beyond requiring a computer. Sometimes we created slideshows advertising imaginary countries. Other times we researched animals in the zoo.
Once or twice our computer projects were linked to our other school work. Biggest example would be the fourth-grade state project where everyone researched one of the fifty states in the United States. (For trivia’s sake: my assigned state was Nevada)
Our use of each computer program was surface level. We never went all that deep. Hardly ever felt like we were doing something useful with the programs either.
All this being said, I still had some fun and got a few things out of these classes. Most of the more creative assignments were enjoyable, and playing games when work was done was always a good time.
My favorite assignment came one day between larger projects.
We were to place some clip art in a word document and write a small story about the picture. A simple task. But complexity was never required for me to enjoy a writing assignment.
I was big into dragons at the time. They were all over everything from video games and TV to books and movies. I had been wanting to write a dragon story, and this computer class project seemed the perfect excuse.
So, I grabbed the first dragon clip art I could find and started typing right away.
The clip art was nothing special. Just a long red dragon. It looked fairly standard and had little to do with the dragon of my story.
The Story Forms
I told the tale of a dragon who wanders a mansion at night.
I do not know where exactly this idea came from. My only guess would be the large number of stories about supernatural things surrounding old homes and schools. Prime examples during my day were Harry Potter and The Spiderwick Chronicles. A more recent example would be the film version of The House with the Clock in its Walls. I suppose, without even knowing, I also wanted to make a story like those. There was just something alluring about attaching something supernatural to a place with its own history.
My story started well enough.
A kid moved into a mansion. He grew curious of a strange silver dragon statue standing at the front of the house. At night, the kid heard something moving through the hallways. He entered the halls and found the dragon statue had come to life.
Then the bell rang.
I would need to wait until next week’s computer class to continue my story.
Project Discontinued
The next week’s computer class came soon enough.
I was excited to continue my dragon clip art story. Unfortunately, the time had come for another big project. The clip art story assignment was being abandoned. My story was saved only on the school computer. At the time, I did not have a flash drive or an e-mail account to contain it.
Free time in computer class would be my only chance to continue my dragon story.
Of course, the next big project left little time to do anything else each week. By the time we started getting free time again, I just wanted to relax and play computer games.
The story nearly became forgotten. Its original file was left behind in that computer lab. Locked away in a student account now unused for over a decade.
Still, the story did bounce back into my head now and then. Always with new ideas and directions. What was the dragon’s purpose? Why should the kid move into the mansion? All sorts of potential supporting characters and villains came to me. Family, neighbors, butlers, secret agents, werewolves, witches. A whole series’ worth of ideas.
And yet, I never put pencil to page.
I do not fully know why. Maybe I wanted to continue the story only from that original file. Perhaps I had so many ideas I wanted to avoid cutting any of them. This story was something great in my head. What if that greatness could not be transferred to the page?
No matter the reason, my dragon story was held in limbo.
At least, until high school.
Creative Writing Week
The year was freshmen year. The class was Honors English.
Our teacher was away for a week. But he did not want us to merely sit back and do busy work.
He wanted us to do something worthwhile. He gave us Creative Writing Week.
We had three assignments. A poem, a script, and a short story. Each day would focus on a different rough draft. Our homework was to type final drafts due at the end of the week. At that time, we would also pick one piece to share with the class.
You can already guess the story I wrote.
For some reason, I finally felt this was the time to finish “The Dragon in the Mansion.” Maybe I was ready to cut down extra ideas. Perhaps I realized the original file was not needed.
The short story assignment only required two pages. But I could not stop there. This story needed to come out. Words were flowing easily. Ideas were narrowing down naturally.
The kid moved into the mansion because his dad had won a workplace lottery and wanted a bigger house. The dragon’s purpose was to defend a nest for all other dragons. He extended his life to become a guardian. But the gem which extended his life would turn him to stone during the day.
The story was a good, though it had one glaring problem.
The conclusion came far too quickly.
The kid basically saw the dragon one night and the final fight happened the next night.
My classmates and our sub did love the story’s twists and turns. But I knew there was still more to be added. I wanted the kid and the dragon to have more time together.
Extending the Story
“The Dragon in the Mansion” was another obvious choice for Five Strange Stories.
To expand the story, I have tweaked a few things.
My main goal was giving more development to the bond between the kid, now named Jake, and the dragon, now named Torch. First step was simple: add more nights to the story.
Then I changed a few character details.
Jake’s family now has a strong connection to the mansion. His dad is not just some random lottery winner anymore. Torch’s purpose has been made smaller and more personal, though it still carries great weight for the world at large.
The story has become one of family and responsibility. This new version is everything I have ever wanted the story to be.
I am beyond happy I did not leave this project in that grade school computer lab.
Kotcher’s Call to Action
“The Dragon in the Mansion” is one of the tales featured in my new book Five Strange Stories, available now. You can purchase Five Strange Stories on Amazon. Five Strange Stories is enrolled in the Kindle Matchbook program, so anyone who buys the paperback can also get the eBook version for free.
If you wish to learn more about Five Strange Stories, check out my blog post One Stellar Success Story.
Finally, if you liked my content and want to make sure you read all my new blog posts, be sure to like my Facebook page and share it with your friends. I post a link there whenever a new blog post goes live each Friday at 5:00 PM EST. Liking and sharing is especially appreciated now when a new book has been released.
1 thought on “A Long-Delayed Story”