Behind the Scenes of the Ten Hour Project: The Inspiration

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The inspiration from this piece came from when I was in seventh grade. It was in my English class and we were learning about description. As a result, we had to read pieces of literature where the author went overboard on description. In the particular one we read, it was about an old woman who went to the store to get medicine for her grandchild. Nothing ever happened, I just remember something about a staircase that looked like a spiral. Anyway, I was about to die of boredom and then my teacher told us to finish the story. What happened when she got home? Well I threw a fit and didn't want to do it because I would have to use descriptions like the ones used in the story, but I couldn't copy. So here I was, ten at night, wanting to die, when I realized that I could do something with the ending. I turned the old lady insane and had her feeding a long dead corpse, which I described as gruesomely as I could. The teacher wanted description? I'd give her description! A++++++ for me!

So here I was, years and years later, and thinking of a story on my trip to Phoenix, and I remembered the old lady and the corpse. Why not take that ending, which was totally mine, and turn it into a full on story? From there I pulled in stupid experiences from school and it came together before I even got to Phoenix. The title "The Ten Hour Project" is how long my trip lasted and the reason Aria goes to the old lady's house. It was perfect.

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