-
Tragedy at the Diner
Daily Prompt: By the Skin of Your Teeth: ‘Tragedy at the Diner’ is a fictional short story. What is there to say. I’m here only because I was quicker and smarter than someone else. I’m not proud of it; I’m actually a little ashamed. And I shouldn’t have been there at all that day. But, I had a few issues to work out and I wanted a drink while I did it. Grabbing a table far away from most of the customers, I started jotting down the pros and cons of my problem. I wasn’t paying much attention to what was going on around me. And I was actually making some progress with my dilemma. When I heard a strange noise, I looked up from my writing and saw the window shattering. I couldn’t understand at first what had happened, but things seemed to start moving in slow motion. It was like watching a replay on a sportscast, but this was real, here and now. Maybe the caffeine played a part, I don’t know. There was a truck coming straight at me sideways. It looked like a giant metal wall closing in on me like you see in those horror…
-
A Writers block cure for NaNoWriMo
When writing, sometimes it is best to get away from the writing to see and experience other things. This is especially true if you are having a writer’s block. By seeing other things, you might get a new perspective on the object which has consumed most of your focus. This new perspective may be the breakthrough to help you overcome your writer’s block. Sometimes watching/reading the news will give you an idea, or sometimes you need to get out and talk to people. Perhaps go to a nearby bar to find the local color as Faulkner and Hemingway did. Or, possibly, you should do the opposite; go somewhere completely alone and commune with nature as Thoreau did at Walden. The snap peas get lonely too. (Thoreau is rumored to have talked to his vegetables.) Whatever method you use, the point is to set aside what you are working on completely. Don’t think about it at all. Give your brain a break. Just like any part of the body, the brain gets tired. Eventually, you must come back to the writing that you want to get done. At this point you put on your favorite thinking music, cozy up to your…
-
To Write, or Not To Write of Teaching (“To Be, or Not To Be” rewritten)
To write of teaching or not to write on’t? That is the question. Whether ‘tis better for the mind to suffer the trials and tribulations of teaching malpractice, or to put the pen to paper to oppose it, and by opposing, end it. To train, to teach once more; and by teaching, to end the heartache and the thousands of drop outs that school is heir to? ‘Tis a higher outcome devoutly to be wished. To train, to teach, and in teaching perhaps they learn; Aye there’s the rub, for in that classroom toil, what dreams are born. When they have graduated school, what they shall achieve will give us pause. To teach respectability that lasts a lifetime long; To teach them to stand tall to the sneers and scorns of lesser minds, to end oppression’s wrongs, to be proud even though ridiculed. To bear the pains of lost contests, to rebuff the bully, no matter his size. To teach him to think on his own, so that when it’s quiet, his mind will higher rise. Who would packages bear, grunt and sweat, a day laborers life, never knowing from whence the next meal, and to dread the not knowing. …
-
National Novel Writers Month (NaNoWriMo)
It’s the first week of NaNoWriMo. Have you started working on your novel yet? You should and soon. You may love to read, but find it difficult to put together a novelette, much less a full length novel. What topic to write about is one of the toughest questions. First you start on one, then switch to another before even making sense of the first. There are so many great topics out there that need someone, anyone, to put them into words. After a burst of writing for a week, you look back at your progress and think “I haven’t made it anywhere.” You parse your scraps of stories and wonder “How can I piece some of these together to make a decent story under my deadline?” You realize that this piece can go with that piece, and then if you write another page or two you could link them to another piece. Finally you have something resembling a story. But it needs polishing. You rewrite it and come in just under deadline. Then after it’s all done, you look around and realize you still have disconnected scraps of stories waiting to be linked to something. “That’s OK,” you tell…