A short story.
An old woman gets into a taxi. She designed hydroelectric power stations fifty years ago. The driver is in his thirties — a phone in one hand, the world filtered through TikTok. The conversation that follows isn’t what either of them expected.
There’s a question every writer hears sooner or later: “Do you have a plan?” A client comes to a writer and asks whether they can be given a plan for the book they want commissioned. In general terms, the writer answers — but rarely with the kind of concrete detail the client is hoping for….
There’s one foundational principle in storytelling: nothing extra. It doesn’t matter whether you’re writing a novel, a screenplay, or a short story — the rule is the same. Nothing belongs in your story that doesn’t move the plot. Not characters. Not events. Not even descriptions of the setting. Few people consciously know this rule. But…
