For Fires:
For Fires is a short story/literature project that I'll be working on from April 18th, 2014 until April 17th, 2015, or put more simply, for an entire year of my life. The project will consist of fifty-two separate works of literature, set to be released on every Friday of that year. I wanted to originally say that each story would be around twenty pages, but after a lot of thought, I'm not really sure putting a number or a restriction on the creative process of this project really benefits anyone involved. Instead, I'll be writing something that I'm going to pour my heart into for an entire week, and then not touch again. I certainly don't know what to expect in taking this on, but I'm at a point in my life where it's really time to dive into something creative before the 40-hour work week swallows me whole.
Throughout my life, I've seen countless photography blogs dedicated to absolutely amazing 52 week projects, musicians like Evan Weiss (Into It. Over It., Stay Ahead of the Weather, Their/They're/There) release albums like Into It. Over It.'s 52 Weeks, in which he released a song a week for an entire year, and so many health and nutrition fanatics dedicate themselves to seeing what improvements they could make during an entire year. For Fires comes from that same desire to put everything I have into something, and just seeing what comes out of it one year later, except it's in the form of writing. I certainly don't anticipate everything I release over this year to be my best writing, but if I can come out of this with a new writing perspective, I can say it will be worth it.
My motivation for doing this really stems from a number of different avenues, but especially from my interest in story telling. I've always coveted the ability some people have, where they can just sit down with a group of their friends and captivate everyone by talking about how amazing their weekend was, a crazy date they went on, or even an awesome show they saw, because it's something I definitely struggle with. The name For Fires is a literal representation of the stories that I wish I could tell, real or fictitious, around a fire with my friends. The stories will focus on a wide range of topics, and to be honest, I don't think I'll be able to tell you what a single one of those topics are until this project is done.
For Fires will have a lot of different voices, literally and figuratively. Over the course of this year, I'm going to be working with a lot of different people for many different reasons. Special shout outs to Chelsea Trim for editing my work whenever I need her to and Jordan Ball for taking all the awesome photos on these pages. You can keep track of everyone that works with me on the project in the Collaborators page.
Thank you so much for taking a look at the site, and I hope you stay in touch as I keep writing, because honestly every piece of input during this entire project will be a welcomed sight.
About Me:
My name is AJ Pottle. I'm a recent graduate of Boston College (Class of 2013 - History Major), where I wrote for The Heights, a student-run, independent newspaper. Prior to writing for The Heights, I was also an intern for New England Soccer News. Currently, I am living in Worcester, MA. I don't really know what else to say other than that I use commas way too often, but if you think I'm going to stop, you're crazy.