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

[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. :)

[scfrankles]

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 did personally interpret it as the flatmate being like a parasite, and the narrator finally realising it. But I absolutely see your interpretation, and I'm very happy that you've found another interpretation ^___^

Oh, Pilish takes up so much time ^^" But I'm glad I finally tried it. I'm not sure how much literary value the resultant story had - but the puzzle aspect of it was very appealing ^___^

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!). Yes, I absolutely appreciate that. Now I wonder what I was worried about, but at the time I didn't really think of myself as a writer any more. Congratulations to you too for taking the step ^___^

I have seen Scrubs - there's a lot about it I like. And that is exactly the sort of thing I'm thinking about when I talk about expanding on my comedy. I do tend to separate stories into 'serious' and 'humorous' but really the best comedy always has something serious going on too.

And I usually only post stuff to DA and AO3. If you want to have a rummage through all the FFM 2018 stuff, that's here. Or if you want to see the edited highlights, here is my featured gallery ^___^

The Shel Silverstein poem is very amusing ^___^ And I'm so touched you still remember How The Joke Got Its Punchline ^___^ I like that story a lot.

clever child being tolerated by the adults who are doing the real work I'm glad this did make you giggle ^___^ I'm heading towards 50 now and I still feel like this a lot of the time, in all aspects of my life ^^"

And the Dutch is going very well! I'm looking forward to sharing some of my enthusiasm about it ^__^