A Romantic Bone

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original Posting: Fri, 26 Jan 1996 10:21:05 EST

[another friday, another week gone to bits, and here we are again. let's see, class, what shall we contemplate? a romantic skeleton buried in the closet? let us get the rascal out of there and into our viscera, shall we?]

Let us consider the denouement. Since you may not have your dictionary handy, let me quote the Oxford American Dictionary..."1. the clearing up, at the end of a play or story, of the complications of plot. 2. the outcome of a tangled sequence of events."

Now, in the case of the classic romance, we are looking for one (or more) of our central characters to learn something about that pristine peculiarity of extravagant emotional involvement--love. Along the way, of course, it is quite conceivable that the character may stumble into the arms of another, may be swept off their feet by strange and suspiciously unmotivated gestures by various players, or even misled into the briarpatches of emotional dependence...

So, without further hesitation, let us offer a few choices. Pick a number from...oh, say one to six? You have your number? Proceed.

1. Love does not cause suffering: what causes it is the sense of ownership, which is love's opposite. Saint-Exupery, "The Wisdom of the Sands" (1948), 49, tr. Stuart Gilbert.
2. Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction. Saint-Exupery, "Wind, Sand, and Stars", (1939) 9.6, tr. Lewis Galantiere
3. Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind. Shakespeare, "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (1595096), 1.1.234
4. Love sought is good, but given unsought is better. Shakespeare, "Twelfth Night (1599-1600), 3.1.168
5. Let the dead have the immortality of fame, but the living the immortality of love. Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds, (1916), 279
6. Love's gift cannot be given, it waits to be accepted. Rabindranath Tagore, Fireflies (1928)

Take that quote (from the International Thesaurus of Quotations, Rhoda Thomas Tripp) and think about it. Think of a character and situation where someone might need to learn the essence of your quote. Think about who might teach them, and how. Make a few notes about this and continue.

(start your engines!)

Now back up. Make a list of at least five mistakes, misinterpretations, or just plain lies that might mislead our character before they come to understand the essence of the quote. Think about characters who might benefit from leading our main character along the wrong paths, away from the truth, and pick at least two or three of these options. Sketch quickly what you are thinking about -- a line or two, maybe a paragraph about it is enough.

(and the starting flag is up, in the air!)

And back up once more. You now have a main character and the person who will teach them the final lesson, free them from the bondage of the villian, or what have you. You also have one or two characters who will try to get in the way, along with reasons for them to try to confuse the issue. All we need now is a beginning. We would like a situation where several of the characters can be introduced, along with some way of posing the question--will our character learn the important truth about love or not?

So spend a few moments considering where you'd like to start. If you want to, you may use the following...

She had just arrived alone at the party when the lights went out.

Introduce your characters and let the good times roll...

(and...
Go!)

Fill out your beginning; complicate the scenes that show our character being misled, confused, hoodwinked, and otherwise betrayed; and build gradually but relentlessly to the shocking finale when truth, justice, and romance poets triumph or fall in showing our character what love can be...in the denouement of our days.

[a bit worded, are we?]

Three pals, no room...

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

original posting: Fri, 19 Jan 1996 12:26:53 EST

Okay...here's the gimmick. First, think of three friends--people you know. Change the names, diddle with their personalities and so forth, but base this on three people you know. Before you go any further, write down at least their names.

[Hah! Before you go any further, pick the three people. Thought you could fool the teacher, eh? the magic eye of inspired knowledge sees all, knows all, and besides, I would have tried to skip ahead without picking the people, too...so pick your people. Write those three names down. Got it?]

These three people are traveling together. And the beginning of the story is:

It was the only motel for miles, but when they tried to stop there, the sign said "No Vacancy."

Where are they going? And what happens when they can't stay in the motel? Tell us about these three, their aspirations, their perspirations, their inspirations, expirations, and suspirations, even their respirations...and don't forget their interrelations...all around that full motel...and the night that never was.
 
One twist would be for one of them to have a secret--fear, desire, problem, you decide what kind of secret--which is revealed through the lack of a room.

Tell us a story, okay?

Pick a Story...

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

original posting: Fri, 5 Jan 1996 09:41:25 EST

We will start the year with a simple exercise. Pick a number from one to six. Those of you equipped with dice should use one--roll it, and see what number turns up.

Well, did you pick a number?

You can't go on until you pick a number. If one to six is too hard, just pick one of your fingers and use the other hand to count and find out which one it is.

[yawn...yes, I'll wait...just don't scroll down until you get that number...here, let me show you the choices.

there's one, two, three, four, five, or six.

heck, Dr. Woggle says he can count them on the toes of one foot, but that's a foot of a different species...:-]

You got a number, right? So, look at the corresponding entry, please?

1. Churinga--a name given to sacred tablets of wood or stone containing the souls of members of Australian tribes. After death these tablets are hidden in trees or clefts until such time as a suitable mother for the reincarnation of the soul appears in the vicinity when the soul leaves the tablet and follows her home.

2. Couvade--a ritual custom, common all over the world, whereby after the birth of a child the father takes to bed for ten to twelve days. It has been suggested that this is a form of Geasa, Tabu, or Novana, whereby individuals, or even whole tribes, have applied to them the same preclusion and precaution as are imposed on the mother of the (presumably) royal child. An alternative explanation is that the practice is intended to obviate the ritual sacrifice of the first-born, which formed such an important part of the religious background of many peoples, including the Hebrews. A Basque family living in the south of France practiced the couvade as recently as September 1952.

3. Cyhiraeth--a celtic goddess of streams who degenerated into a spectre haunting woodland brooks and whose shriek foretold death.

4. Daksha--in vedic myth...there was a great quarrel between Daksha and his son-in-law, during which Siva, infuriated at not being invited to a great sacrifice which Daksa had organized, sent a monster, Vira-bhadra, which cut off the head of Daksha. Subsequently the parties were reconciled but it was only possible for Daksha to be given a goat's head in place of his own.

5. Fei Lien--chinese god of the wind. He is also associated with drought, through his ability to dry up the soil and so prevent the growth of crops. He keeps his winds in a large sack, from which he lets them escape in the direction he chooses. In his human form he is known as Feng Po.

6. the cord used to restrain the Fenris Wolf of Nordic myth...made by the dwarfs from "the noise of the footfall of a cat, the beards of women, the roots of stones, the sinews of bears, the breath of fish, and the spittle of birds." as light as silk but strong enough to hold Fenrir...

Some interesting little nuggets from "Who's Who in Non-Classical Mythology" by Egerton Sykes, eh?

Your task, should you be moved to words, is to take this quirky little nugget and build it into a story. Maybe your heroine, faced with having a child, insists that hubby follow her family's long tradition of couvade? Or maybe the police pick up an old chinese homeless man--who blows them off their feet with his bag of winds?

I like taking old bits and pieces and building them into modern reality, but maybe you'd prefer just telling us the story of the fading of the stream goddess, a sad poem of lingering loss and dying beliefs...

Do what you like, but (as always) write soon, and write well.

[*Starting is such sweet agony, you say? okay, okay...how about

"There must be a way to take an ear off," she said as she rummaged in the tool chest.

Whose ear is she going to take off? Why? And what kind of tool do you think she is going to use?

And just who is she talking to?...*]

For those who are confused, the first part is one exercise. The little bit in the [* *] is a second exercise, just a "seed sentence" which someone might use to start a piece with. Admittedly, a few members seem to like doing both exercises at the same time, making a single joint exercise...but we won't ask and they won't tell if they inhale.

be reading you!