This was a fun one.
After feeling the proofed-and-published buzz, albeit on a rather depressing story, I was determined to remain firmly on board my little hype train and get to work on another short story, asap.
Unlike a lot of the other short stories I have planned, War Games isn’t an idea that has been lingering in the back of my mind since childhood. I don’t remember how it came to me, I feel like I was staring at a blank page one moment, then a story about a pillow fight the next, but I am delighted that it did.
Set in a typical family home, War Games follows a group of children having an intense pillow fight, Team Blue v Team Red. We mainly follow Ellie, who has taken up the role of ‘Chief’ on her team, guiding them into the battlefield.
The premise is simple, which, I believe, is why it flowed from my mind to the page so easily.
It was this story that made me truly fall in love with writing again, and not only writing, but writing something fun. I genuinely had a smile on my face as the big battle was happening. I loved bringing the family house to life with its creaky steps and cushy red sofa. And the ending… I actually annoyed myself when the idea came to me, which is why it feels so perfect.
Before War Games, I’d been fixated on the idea of writing a dramatic 300-page dystopian novel filled with heartbreak, twists, and turns. War Games is nothing of the sort; War Games, if anything, is making fun of that kind of writing. These kids are so caught up in their make-believe battle that they truly feel like they’re experiencing the drama in real life. But what they’re really doing is having a whole load of innocent fun, something I deeply miss having as a grown-up.
Unlike Ellie, Matthew, Jack, Katie, and Tyler (my favourite character), I was quite content playing by myself as a child. But like Ellie, I would get completely lost in my imagination, creating worlds of my own, whether it be a wooden train set spread across the sitting room floor, my Lego minifigures going to battle against Mega Bloks on my window sill, or talking to the bathroom tiles as if they were a giant computer face setting me my next super secret mission. When I was writing this story, I felt I was returning to that childlike mindset again. I was excited for what would happen next, the scene on the stairs felt like we (the characters and I) were scaling a mountain, I could feel Matthews’ excitement when he retrieved their secret weapon, and I could have lived in that final battle for hours.
Sometimes, as an adult, I still catch myself trailing off into the world of the imaginary, like when I’m on a walk in the forest, when suddenly, I’m a tribute in The Hunger Games, or when I’m daydreaming, definitely not at work, I might randomly start looking around and wondering what it would be like to manoeuvre around the office if I were three inches tall (at 5’6”, I’m not far off.), but it doesn’t happen nearly as often. Life is too busy, there’s too much real drama, and don’t even get me started on the news nowadays.
Escapism and imagination are incredibly important to me, now more than ever, and I feel like this short story, which came to me so suddenly, encapsulates that. The world is a scary place, and I’ve always found comfort in running off to a place that doesn’t exist to anyone else but me.
War Games helped me find that place again.
Jake Grayson Writes 