If you are reading this on July 7, 2022, go to gohavok.com and enjoy a free story by yours truly. I’d appreciate your patronage. Also, this article has spoilers! Including awesome art at the end revealing the monster in the story! https://gohavok.com

“Down Twisted Cypress Way” is my fourth publication in the excellent Havok online magazine—flash fiction, usually speculative. The next six month’s themes are vice & virtue, and this month’s is cowardice and courage. My plan is to write a story for each vice and discuss the vice a bit, in particular, how it relates to fiction.

What is cowardice? It’s not lack of fear or self-preservation but an excessive amount of worry over one’s self-being. Cowardice could lead to some disastrous results in an emergency or in war.

Cowardice to courageousness is an interesting change for people and an interesting arc for a character. When writing a story, the best research to do is to observe people. The real situations in your life lead to the ideas of the story.

In order to make your less-courageous characters interesting, consider charm, tragedy, or connecting to familiar experiences to make them appealing. Scooby Doo is a charming coward. 

Our cowardly hero, Zadie, is not based on anyone I know specifically. However, I’ve met a few women who live in fear because of trauma in their past. Zadie is my reflection of their behavior, and her arc in my story is my prayer for them. I want them to heal, to feel not alone, to understand that the terrors that they’re so afraid of, we’re all afraid of. For the Zadies out there, it’s okay to be afraid but don’t let it define you.

If you read the story, the epilogue is Zadie and Hugo end up getting married and living a wonderful life together. It’s the best happy ending I can give to one of my favorite characters.

Following is an illustration by the talented Dan Johnson of my story, “Down Twisted Cypress Way.”