This week, I’m looking for a story about an outsider who makes an attempt to become an insider. Loose interpretations are fine, but I need the outsider (who should be an interesting character, with motivations and agency) and the attempt. No stories about a character brooding and feeling sorry for themselves without doing anything, please.

But what better to inspire your stories of outsider-dom but sad lonely childhoods the music of R.E.M.? I'd write to R.E.M. all the time growing up because they'd have a song for whatever mood I was in, and I didn't have to pay attention to the lyrics, and when I did I could bend my understanding of them any way I wanted. And now that I've won, you can do the same thing! Pick your own R.E.M. song (as long as it's not on the blacklist below), or just ask and I'll flash you something good. Standard philosophy for song weeks applies here: don't rewrite the song, I'm just looking to see some sort of influence on your story.

Don't do these:

Losing My Religion
Shiny Happy People
It’s The End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
Everybody Hurts
The One I Love
fanfic/poetry/erotica