Illumination Writing Challenge
The Superlative Stories of Timothy Key
The idea of “best” stories is subjective, but today these are my best!
Just over a week ago, Dr Mehmet Yildiz asked us to compile a collection of our “best” stories in order to showcase our writing ability. Great ask, but not always so easy to do. Best is a subjective term, for sure.
Dr Mehmet Yildiz also interviewed me several weeks ago and, in that interview he asked for a selection of my favorite articles. In many ways, the ones that I chose for that piece are also my best, because they all represent turning points in my not-to-distant past, or values I hold dear. On that day, the pieces I offered were my best:
But meaningful is only one manifestation of “best”. Another way to evaluate our stories is how much value we obtained from writing the piece. Using that barometer, I chose a different set of five stories below to highlight my work.
I found that I pull much more out of a story when I enjoy writing it; and especially if it draws a good laugh or chuckle out of me (and maybe others). For that reason, my highlighted articles are a bit whimsical in nature, and I enjoyed the heck out of writing them. Using that as my filter I present you with:
The Superlative Stories of Timothy Key
1.This story, as well as the next three, were inspired by actions of others. Poetry seems to be a big hit on Illumination, and I noticed as editor that there are a plethora of people submitting poems for publication.
Try as I might, most of the time I just can’t quite pull much meaning out of poems. I comprehend that they often are a manifestation of the author’s feelings, but I have a difficult time interpreting just what that means sometimes.
So, as an acknowledgement of my shortcomings and as a tip of the hat to those that actually know what they are doing in the poetry arena, I crafted my own poem trying to express MY feelings about how hard it is to decipher others’ here:
2. This next piece was a serendipitous interlude for me one day as I was struggling to write a piece on blockchain and medical records (which you will notice did not make it in any “best” list of mine).
While writing, I was conveniently distracted by a conversation on Slack between Holly Jahangiri and Tree Langdon ♾️ that centered on how to search for a specific story or topic on Medium. Holly offered up an off-the-cuff example and then noted that when she searched for the topic there wasn’t anything currently on Medium that pertained to the search.
Well, I was all too happy ignore the blockchain article and rectify the informational shortcoming on the platform. That brought forth this article which was really fun to write and hopefully also fun to read:
3. As it turns out, Holly Jahangiri is the muse for my next piece as well. After the amazing hot dog casserole event, she made a private note on one of my stories that related her experience working with her local fire department in a citizen’s academy. She suggested that we perhaps collaborate and create related stories.
It took a day or so, then all of the sudden her prompt just came to life in my mind and I wrote this piece as a counterpoint to the events she had told me behind the scenes. While the characters and exact course of events are fictional, I can assure you that every fire department in America has a “Lance” (story protagonist), that has experienced things in this way:
And please read Holly Jahangiri‘s perspective from the other side as well.
4. I love a good writer challenge. In fact, I satirically said as much here when I noted that Writing Challenges are Totally Stupid! I especially like ones that promote some good-natured banter in a humorous manner.
Since then I have been supportive of writing prompts and challenges by responding to the prompts and promoting them as much as possible. While I have quite a few that might tie for the top spot in terms of how much pleasure I had writing the story and engaging with others, here is one of my most recent engagements. It was a lot of fun:
5. Finally, this last piece wasn’t inspired by other writers, but rather by a television show. My wife and I fell in love with the series Schitt’s Creek this year and binge watched all the episodes available on Netflix.
On April 7, 2020 the show broadcast its season and series finale, and I wrote this as an homage to the show. If you haven’t seen it, you should. While the premise is silly and the characters start off being a bit over the top, all of that is a necessary backdrop to see how the characters mature and grow over the course of the series.
There aren’t too many tv shows that bring a tear to my eye, but when Noah Reid’s character Patrick sings an acoustic version of Tina Turner’s Simply the Best to his boyfriend David (Dan Levy) in season 4, it is difficult not to tear up just a little.
I did my best to capture what I feel is the magic of the series and promote it to others in this piece, which was curated in Television:
Thank you so much for allowing me to show off some of my favorite articles to you! I appreciate the engagement and encouragement that is shown constantly on Illumination and I strive to do my part to reciprocate.
If you liked this article, here are some of my recent stories:
Timothy Key spent over 26 years in the fire service as a firefighter/paramedic and various fire chief management roles. He firmly believes that bad managers destroy more than companies, and good managers create a passion that is contagious. Compassion, grace and gratitude drive the world; or at least they should. Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, and join the mail list.
