Prompt #43 — Write Like Fred Muratori

Muratori’s speaker (view here) has almost no authority in his life; his ideas remain largely unacknowledged or ignored. It’s somewhat ironic, then, that he is the voice of this piece: here, he is allowed to speak. Plenty of works consider disenfranchised men—Hemingway’s Francis Macomber and Thurber’s Walter Mitty come to mind as starting points—but they don’t often do so from the man’s first-person perspective.

PROMPT

Take an individual who feels somewhat meaningless in the face of his or her society. Don’t speak in the voice of a slave, political prisoner, or other such person—but pick someone who feels oppressed in the face of government protocols, corporate policy, logistical nightmares, or something similar. Create a character that feels anonymous. Then give him or her a voice, considering how he or she might speak—not to protest his or her state or situation, but just to reflect on the mundane aspects of his or her life, as Muratori’s speaker does.