Masked Author

WIP work of a young writer speaking to his masked mentor

A young writer sits inside his rusty office, filled with webs, dust, and crumpled paper all over his trash can. He sits on the hard wooden chair as he taps the eraser over his face. His eyes squinted not from focus but exhaustion. His mind decided whether or not the sheet of paper is fated to survive the day. All of a sudden, a knock came from the door. Startled by the noise the young writer slips the eraser further into his skin in pain. He grabbed the sheet of paper, only written with a few words before walking towards the door. He unlocks it and finds himself face to face with his mentor.

The mentor is a masked figure who is an acclaimed writer of the city, many have praised his works without knowing the man behind the mask. The young writer respected him so much that he chose to be his underling a few days ago. The masked man has gained his new apprentice.

“Hmm, I see you made a mess out of your office.” The masked man said as he took a gander around the room.

“Haha… yeah, I’ll learn how to get used to this whole writing business… eventually.” The young writer said, yawning under those words.

The masked man saw the exhaustion in his new disciple’s face in concern. “Are you feeling well?”

“I just… can’t come up with any ideas for a new novel. It’s stressing me out.” He said putting his hands on the sides of his head. The masked man put a comforting gesture on his disciple’s arm.

“Don’t stress yourself too much, may I have a look at what you’ve written?” He said with his palm pointing itself towards the almost crumpled sheet of paper.

“Sure…”

He took a look at what was written and was amazed by it, “ My… this is unique! Were you going to throw this away?” He said in surprise that his disciple would throw such elegant words to the trash bin.

“Huh, you actually like it? But the structure and-”

“My acolyte, those things do not matter when you start writing. Structure, grammar, and consistencies only matter once you even have an idea to begin with!” He said uncrumpling the sheet of paper.