Bits and Bobs

[scfrankles]

It’s been ages since I did a journal post on either DW or LJ but I'm going to try and make the effort to post more regularly.

So, it was my birthday on the 6th, and I received some lovely fics from friends:

Three Little Maids by smallhobbit

A Year in a Life by mafief

First Birthday (An Inky Quill 221B) by stonepicnicking_okapi


And in July I took part in Flash Fiction Month on DA. I hadn’t really written for months beforehand, and I was starting to think perhaps that was it. My enthusiasm and the ability to come up with ideas seemed to have gone completely. But I’d also been watching a few writing events going past on DW that I usually took part in, and feeling a bit of a pang that I wasn’t involved. And FFM had been such an important event for me… In the end I decided to have a go and see what happened, without putting any terribly high expectations on myself.

You will be pleased/happy/horrified to know that the puns still live! I found I was able to come up with ideas for the prompts and challenges when I really set my mind to it. And I found I was still able to entertain others and entertain myself. As always I concentrated on humour but there were a couple of goes at psychological realism as well. I don’t expect anyone to wade through all 31 stories at this point but here’s a selection to give you an idea of what I got up to:

something serious (CW: contains (supernatural) bullying and one very strong swear word)

something humorous with puns

something humorous without puns

I didn’t win a prize but I did get an honourable mention for the month (there were four winners and four honourable mentions). Which I was very happy about because I hadn’t even been expecting that this time. It was just exhilarating to know I could still write and it was lovely to have people admiring my work and, well, admiring me. (I’m sure Small Hobbit will be pleased to know that my partner for the collaborative challenge described me as ‘hyper-competent’...)

But now the month and all the excitement is over, I rather feel I’m back to where I started. And I’m starting to wonder if I need to get out of a rut and stretch myself more as a writer. As a writer of silly comedy I do sometimes feel like a clever child being tolerated by the adults who are doing the real work. A DA friend whose writing I really admire was so enthusiastic about one of my stories 'The Flatmate' (the ‘something serious’ option above), which was by far the one which dealt the most with real human emotions. I think maybe I need to start concentrating more on what goes on inside my characters. It doesn’t mean I have to give up the comedy, just add to it.


The other thing that’s been going on is that I’ve been learning Dutch with Duolingo for the last six months. I’ve just ‘completed’ the course and received my virtual golden owl trophy. But I don’t really see this as the end—it just means I’ve now unlocked all the sections and so have access to them all. I’m planning on spending another six months on the course, earning all the crowns that are awarded for revising each section.

But I shall burble on more about my adventures in Dutch in the next post!

Comments

[rachelindeed]

It's so lovely to see your post! I've missed hearing how things are going with you over the last few months.

I really enjoyed all three stories you shared from your July Flash Fiction! You have a wonderful gift for spinning prompts in unexpected directions, and I so admire your adroitness with original fiction (something I've never made much headway with :P)

I take long breaks from writing all the time, so I can easily appreciate how hard it is to get going again sometimes. I often do better with some kind of external prompt or challenge, and I'm glad you decided to jump into the July challenge again - it seems so well-suited to your style :)

I think if you're feeling the itch to push yourself in new directions as a writer and experiment with new styles and approaches, that's wonderful! But at the same time, I hate to see you underrate your own talents and works because they're 'light' and purely comedic. I would just say that IMO 'realism' isn't a standard of maturity in writing, it's just a style (a ubiquitous one nowadays). When I think of great comedy, some of it does layer in lovely character development, like Cabin Pressure; some of it remains witty caricatures, like Fawlty Towers; and some avoids character development entirely with unapologetic good cheer, like Jeeves & Wooster.

I'm sure other people must have told you this before, but when I think of writers that your style reminds me the most of, the first that comes to mind is James Thurber. Stories like his "The Wonderful O" are classics, and it's so rare to find writers who can create something like that. Another popular writer whose style reminds me of yours is Marilyn Singer, who creates children's books based around reverso poems (poems that can be read both forwards and backwards, conveying different meanings each way with changes only in punctuation). I picked up her Mirror Mirror at the library while looking for books for my son, and I immediately thought of you!

Whatever direction you take your writing, I'm always happy that we get a chance to read it :) This year I've been doing some fannish things other than writing, like beta-ing and podfic, that I've enjoyed a lot, too. Sometimes it is nice to try something different <3

Hope you're having a lovely week!

[mafief]

::Claps excitedly at post:: Yah for posts!

Dude! Dude… I didn’t interpret the Flatmate as magical realism, per se. It felt like inner beratement to me and finally giving that toxic inner dialogue the boot. I like this story a lot, too. :)

Found the Pilish story. Dear lord, I didn’t know pilish was a thing ::checks off learning-something-new-every-day box::. Now I’m convinced it’s a very nasty challenge and you are an awesome/brave/creative person for taking that on.

My enthusiasm and the ability to come up with ideas seemed to have gone completely. …… And FFM had been such an important event for me… In the end I decided to have a go and see what happened, without putting any terribly high expectations on myself.
I relate to this paragraph a lot leading up to July and your experience during your writing event in July. I almost didn’t take part in Watson’s Woes. As you said, it was important, and I ended up being very happy that I did participate. So, it may not seem to weird when I congratulate you on convincing yourself to participate in the event in the first place (because that was a big step too!).

It doesn’t mean I have to give up the comedy, just add to it. Have you seen Scrubs? It’s a medical comedy-drama that emphasizes comedy. But how they intersperse a lot of comedy with drama means that the drama sticks with you. It’s set in a hospital, so they are dealing with heavy topics like death, addiction, abandonment, family friction, etc. while working through the silliness of everyday life. I was thinking of this when you were talking about adding to comedy. (I mean this as a nice, but I’ll apologize early if it doesn’t come out that way.) In any case, you will need to point me in the direction you are posting most of your works, cause I would like to read them.

But for little comedy things, Shel Silverstein writes poems and short poetic stories. Some of them have made me giggle for days and stay with me (like this one - https://www.poemhunter.com/best-poems/shel-silverstein-2/snowball/). They become important and critical in their own way. And I’m bringing that up because I still remember “How the Joke got it’s Punchline” even though I read that a while ago. You have such a fun and creative outlook that you use in your stories.

clever child being tolerated by the adults who are doing the real work I’m probably not suppose to giggle about that, but I did because I feel like that in life and most things.

Best of luck with the Dutch. I’ll be interested in learning more about it later. :)

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

I'm glad that participating in the FFM challenge helped you. I enjoyed the three stories. I think The Flatmate could be a nice full-length ghost story. And the puns were clever and your ability to commit to them hasn't waivered (as far as I can tell). Comedy is extraordinarily difficult, so while I fully support your intention to delve deeper into the inner lives of your characters, I consider the kind of story you naturally excel at to be as real a work as any. I don't know how the August HM prompt came about but it's quite a challenge to write anything but poignant fluff with a prompt like that. And, yes, I would definitely consider you 'hyper-competent.'

[tripleransom]

I'm glad you're writing again, however tentatively. And learning Dutch! Dutch? Wow. I'll be really interested to hear all about that.

I wish I could have done WW again this year. I firmly intended to and then most of July went by in a haze of antibiotics and steroids and...oh, well, there's next year.

But I'm so out of it. What's the FFM challenge?

[spacemutineer]

Terrific work with the Dutch on Duolingo! It's a nice little way to pick up a language or polish one you know somewhat. I've used it for German when I was traveling several years ago, and I try to keep my Spanish that I learned in school from completely vanishing from my mind with it. Helped a lot when I was watching Narcos. :)

Do you have big plans for your new Dutch skills?

[sanguinity]

I'm so pleased to learn you did FFM this year! All through July, I'd occasionally think about you and your recent struggles with writing fic, and wonder if you were doing FFM (and feeling a bit sad about the possibility that you weren't). And it turns out you were, hooray! I haven't been through nearly all of them yet, but I've very much enjoyed the ones I have.

As a writer of silly comedy I do sometimes feel like a clever child being tolerated by the adults who are doing the real work.

I think you do yourself a disservice. Writing good comedy is a tricky business, and you have a real flair for it. I totally support you spreading your wings, if that suits you -- it seems I've heard you express this kind of sentiment before -- but I sincerely admire your work as it stands.

[starfishstar]

Fun, thank you for sharing your work! Hm...is there any kind of introductory/info page somewhere about FFM or other writing challenges on DA? I ask because that sounds like a GREAT way to get interesting prompts and get some more new writing going, but somehow I always find figuring out comms and events difficult the first time, and from the outside. (But I also wouldn't want to make you have to explain it all to me, either!)

BTW, I totally feel you on the urge to expand past your usual writing range – even though you’re really good at the stuff you already do! I've been working on something similar (though for me it's the push from things that are entirely character-focused to things that also have, like...plot.) For me, basically I was just getting *bored* with myself, always doing similar things.

Which I suppose is all to say, I cheer you on in expanding the kinds of things you do, if that’s what you want! But also, don’t feel you’re doing something wrong just because you have one area you’re particularly good at.

Also, Dutch! You've gotten to a level of being able to read articles and watch shows just by teaching yourself? I'm super impressed! Dutch is one of my all-time favorite languages (I have a lot of favorite languages...) But though I can understand a reasonable amount if I work hard, thanks to its proximity to German and English, I can't really say anything. The downside of a country where everyone speaks English.

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

I did enjoy "It's All Open To Interpretation"

And I am indeed delighted to hear you are hyper-competent.

I'm sure you could easily broaden your writing. For instance Holmes Minor would give you a chance to write some ficlets which don't necessarily have to be dark, but would give the opportunity to look more deeply at the characters.

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

Welcome back and a belated happy birthday.

[debriswoman]

Hi:-)
First of all, thanks for links to your fics...enjoyed reading them all, and I do think you have a bigger range than you give yourself credit for.
I do understand your comment re this, though. I stay in my “ light verse which rhymes” rut most of the time, and watch other folk testing their limits and moving their boundaries.

Impressed with the learning of Dutch, and wishing you well in all of your endeavours:-)