The Place For My Writers Notes

original posting 11 July 2008

A new occasional feature from the mad capering crusader! (What, you mean a caped crusader and a capering crusader aren't the same? :-)

"You're dealing with the demon of the external validation. You can't beat external validation. You want to know why? Because it feels sooo good." Barbara Hall

"Take chances, make mistakes. That's how you grow. Pain nourishes  your courage. You have to fail in order to practice being brave." Mary Tyler Moore

"Self-respect is the fruit of discipline; the sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself." Rabbi Abraham Heschel

"I wonder if other dogs think poodles are members of a weird religious cult." Rita Rudner

Quotes courtesy of http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3

So there we have four insights into the human condition. Specifically external validation, growth through opposition, the fruits of discipline, and poodles!

Your task, should you choose to accept it, is to think about it specific ways that each of these insights might be revealed in a scene. It doesn't have to be just one scene, or even the same characters, although it's more fun if you do it that way. For example, how could Jimmy learn the hard lesson that external validation is such an easy demon to become addicted to? And what are the costs of such an addiction? What about Mary Tyler Moore's advice? How can Jimmy learn those lessons? And where does discipline, saying no to oneself, come into the picture? And of course the poodles -- will Jimmy learn that strange haircuts are not enough?

Story, poetry, musings about these insights and their relationships, whatever you need to write right now -- write it!