Ganked from thewriteratwork
Category: storytelling
Drabbles
Drabbles are short fictional pieces of exactly 100 words. I wrote one a day (original fic!) throughout April. A few of them are connected, the same character, who I latched onto towards the end of the month.
NaDraWriMo
So I finished NaDraWriMo–30 drabbles in 30 days. A few days (2, 3?) I did none, so a few days I did two, all exactly 100 words, no more, no less. It was a discipline, like haiku.
A very painful discipline. I’m glad it’s over. For someone who can belt out a couple thou words in a day when she’s on a roll (like yesterday with AtS 6.16), I had more trouble coming up with a mere 100.
The results were pretty good, I think, especially when I ditched the prompts I was using and just started fiddling with this old story I started back in ’99. Remember those days, before there was an ATPo to distract me? I’m just playing with the old story, writing bits and pieces, and letting those bits and pieces reflect the mood of the day. This isn’t anything that’s going anywhere. Just me writing words that aren’t fan fic.
I’ll post highlights later. I’m knackered today and want to play.
A short natural history of my fiction writing
Argh!
What *is* it with all those “How-to” books on writing Fantasy assuming that you want to create an all-encompassing Medieval world? Isn’t “Buffy” fantasy? Isn’t “Harry Potter” fantasy? Both of those happen in the contemporary, “real” world? Where are the books that help you structure a fantasy story that takes place in the here and now? That gives you info on magic, the occult, mythological creatures, etc.?
Writing questionnaire
My old writing coach is writing a book about writing and “voice.” She has a chapter she is currently working on about “the storytelling impulse as an element of voice.” She sent her current and former students/clients a questionnaire. I just sent my answers off to her, and thought I’d put them in here as well for posterity’s sake.
Conversation at the Masqdom
Masq’s Brain: So I had a thought.
Hands: Oh-oh. You know what happens when she has thoughts.
Big Toe: Essays are conceived. Fic is written! Empires are forged!!
Nether-regions: And we most decidedly don’t–
Masq’s Brain: My thought is, drabbles.
Hands: Drabbles?
Masq’s Brain: Original fic drabbles.
Hands: I don’t do *sniff* drabbles. I write EPICS.
Masq’s Brain: This is in service of epics! Idea-mongering!
Big Toe: Tell us your plan!
Masq’s Brain: Thirty O.F. drabbles in thirty days. NaDraWriMo. If ann1962 can do poetry, we can do drabbles. All we need is some decent writing prompts.
Hands: Welll…..
Masq’s Brain: They could be about anything. Any characters, any mythologies or worlds I can dream up. And they can suck! As long as we’re writing original fic.
Big Toe: Yay!
Nether-regions (to Toe): Oh, go exercise or something.
Masq’s Brain: And we wouldn’t have to share them with our friends unless we–
Big Toe: Can’t resist showing off! Yay!
Hands: I suppose I’ll have to do the actual work. *Sigh* And after cleaning and redecorating your apartment all weekend!
Nether-regions: Looks spiffy, though. Like a real person lives here, and not an oblivious armchair potato.
Masq: So it’s a plan, then. Along with Angel 6.16, 6.17, and TD 2.01…..
Hands: *faint*
Original Fic
QoTD
“One cannot sit on language; it moves beyond the presence of things into the absence of things, the illusion of things. Art must interpret or it is mindless. Mindlessness is not mystery; it is the absence of mystery.” (Bernard Malamud)
That about sums it up
“It’s a cultural ‘known’ that guys are into lesbian sex, but as you point out, they’re not REALLY into lesbian sex. What they’re into is having sex with two women who also….uh do stuff…to each other. A guy with two real lesbians would probably turn out like with Ross on friends: at first he watches all excited, then after 10 minutes he goes to make a sandwich! Real lesbian sex doesn’t include us fellas! That’s what makes it *lesbian*!”
–from the Whedonesque slash thread
Author Nancy E. Shaffer 