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From pets to people-- distractions can feel unending. Especially once you've hit your groove!
What are some ways you keep your focus? Monday's post had me reading through the stories I'd written as a child-- and its true what they say: Writing is Therapy. But flipping through my childhood notebook I found a couple of fables. Each of them ended with a famous quote. I realized what Child-Jade was doing: finding quotes and reinterpreting them. This is a fun little exercise on days where you can’t seem to get your head into your WIP, or a creative warm up. Like musicians warm up with their scales, painters warm up with techniques, writers warm up to writing.
Post in the comments what you come up with! Here are mine, circa 2008 (be warned, these are the words and interpretations of a 14 year old!): Every morning and through the afternoon, the squirrel would run and search for nuts. Acorns, walnuts, cashews. High and low, big or small, more and more and more. One day, while on his hunt. The squirrel encountered a simple mouse. “You look tired and thin,” she said. “Why not take a break.” In truth the squirrel was worn out and eyes shown not of health, but weariness. “I cannot,” he said. “I cannot rest now, with my meager supply of nuts while Bird grows full with his spoils.” On this day, when the sun shown dim behind the gray clouds, and the gulls squawked profusely in the sky, the fisherman brought in their weekly catch. The cats that live around the dock would gather, licking their lips and twitching their tail, anticipating a slip of the hand. They sat, peering from behind the posts, and looking down at the plentiful fish as the men worked. On this day, the young cat leaned over the dock just a little too far, ready to steal himself a meal. The men were busy, and despite the growing warnings from the other more experienced, the youth continued his dangerous advance. He knew what he was doing as he reached out a paw to grasp a floundering fish and — SPLASH— into the water he fell. The duck and the swan paddled through the shallows of the pond. They laughed and chattered of their day, gossiping as old gals do. Every morning they’s gather at the pond and share their latest news, and every afternoon, they’d go their separate ways. One day, like every other, they paddled contently in the pond. Like every other day, while the sun was high in the sky, the duck said her good-byes, and took to the sky. Bang! Unlike every day, the duck fell lifeless to the earth. The monkey laughed and played through the trees with his friends. He helped his friends perform tricky tricks, and hugged them when they cried. He also helped the elders gather their food and the younger monkeys climb. Monkey smiled every time they thanked him, loving every moment they were happy. On a forum I love, I mentioned the "Gas Powered Stick" villain concept as something I learned from Bravest Warrior. Took me until recently to connect the dots that it was a parody of the "Artifact of Doom" trope: The Artifact of Doom is somewhat an unusual villain in that it is a (seemingly) inanimate object. Nevertheless, it's pure evil; and is a threat of corrupting all to The Dark Side. It may also cause Great Insanity, not to mention death, or worse. The Ring from the Lord of the Ring series immediately came to mind even before reading the article on it. One could argue the Force became Anakin's "Artifact." Even W. W. Jacobs' "The Monkey's Paw" deals with decent into insanity all from one object. In reflecting on my past works (and WIPS), I've noticed that my characters create their own hells without the help of an object/artifact. Their slips of sanity or lapse into the dark side are self inflicted and cannot be blamed on anyone or thing other than themselves. It originated to explain away why a person of good standing would suddenly rebel against the norm ("D&D/Rock Music/Rap/Grand Theft Auto are turning kids these days into punks!"). As Oscar Wilde once said, "We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell" ('The Duchess of Padua', 1891). This, I feel, creates a deeper connection and a conflict not so easily solved after the object is thrown away away. What are your thoughts on the Artifact of Doom (or, as I will hilariously refer to as "Gas Powered Stick" until the day I am sued) trope? *** Does your story feature a "Gas Powered Stick"? Check out EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT ARTIFACTS OF DOOM by Britton Perelman. *WIP= Work In Progress
I did my first NYC Midnight Challenge earlier this year!
If you’re not familiar with the challenge, NYC Midnight has a bunch of writing challenges a year (from flash fiction, short stories, screenplays, etc.). In the challenge, you are randomly assigned a Genre, a Subject, and a Character. For the first round, you are competing against people with the same Genre, Subject, and Character as you. With only a week and a set word count, you must, construct your best work for critique. 3 judges will provide you with very detailed feedback that I absolutely found helpful! If you make the top 3 in your group, you advance on to the next round where you will be randomly assigned another set of criteria and a group to compete against. There are 3 rounds to determine the final winners and honorable mentions. Though I did not advance on to round 2, I loved the experience of being pushed out of my comfort zone with Characters, Genres, and Subjects I never would have put together. This is why I present to you: the Rotae Fortunae (everything sounds official in Latin!):
Don't cheat! Push yourself to create outside of your comfort zone and have fun with it.
I know you can probably do this with ChatGPT now... but I've got a wheel -wink- Feel free to share your results in the comments below, and if you’re bold, the first few sentences of your creation! Resources: |
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