Steph, that idea is completely brilliant - never thought of it as an active, do-it-now idea for a group.

We do fast-writes in class all the time -- just as part of the larger group, not in our small groups. But, like I said, There's nothing that says we can't, and it was in the forefront of my mind because of the new drabble community.

Kristin, I'm currently writing the proposal for it in email, and about to send off to my agent.

Teppy, you need to get away from your crazy job and teach or run courses on this stuff.

Teppy, you need to get away from your crazy job and teach or run courses on this stuff.

I'd like to start a version of my school in some other location. That involves a long (expensive) accreditation process *if* I want to stay affiliated with my current school, which I very much would want to.

As I have neither the time nor the money to get accredited, nor the desire to become a renegade writing school despot, I'm content to create LJ communities and order my small group around.

Damn. I'd sorta like to see you as a renegade writing school despot; I'd come stand by the door and hold a whip, and smile menacingly at the students.

I'd take that class, I think. At least you wouldn't torture me with dialogue that was all in complete sentences.Yeah, I sat in that group thinking "Maybe I do have a knack for that, after all," which was good for my vanity, but not especially instructive. It'll be nice when I write Pembleton again...tap into that "yeah, I'm a genius. So?" thing.

For Nilly:

She stares across the table into that smirk she’s coming to detest. A bottle of Patron and two sticky shot glasses stand guard over the sad, wrung out bodies of limes. A mosaic of salt is laid in the flesh of her underarm, where it has rested on the table.

He is taunting me, she thinks resentfully, and swivels her wrist. It aches, from where he has manhandled her. But it’s her fault. She asked for it.

She lights another cigarette, takes a quick draw, fortifies herself for what she has to say.

“OK. Again.”

And they thumbwrestle for ascendancy.

__________

And Deb, I agree with you: I like the form and restriction of the word limit. I think it's fun, like a puzzle.

But then, I've always liked haiku, too.

To shift gears, just a little, what makes a character sympathetic? I've been thinking about this on lj, but I would understand if y'all didn't poke through my comments. Cause I've just watched one of my favorite TV characters ball his gf's new roommate, whom he's just met, while she's working late. I should really hate him now. Why don't I?

Sympathy is one of those odd things that I personally think is complete idiosyncratic to the reader/viewer. For me, reading, it's a matter of something - not necessarily a likeable trait or attribute - pinging an echoing chord somewhere in me.

Using your Homicide reference? I find Pembleton sympathetic, because I recognise certain attributes in him that find spots to ping in me: his arrogance, his impatience, his energy. So I cringe when he screws up, I sympathise, but that doesn't make him perfect, or even necessarily likeable.

It's just that I understand, emotionally, how and why he is and does.

And I should think Munch is a complete dick about 65% of the time. He's obnoxious, negative, talks too much, and is led around by momentary emotions. I can see why the wives had to leave.(And leaving aside how much of that sounds like me, that roommate thing? Pretty skeevy. And stupid. ) But I still feel for him anyway..maybe cause he knows he's stupid.

I felt sympathy for Munch when I found out about the candle. Because there's something there. We're all screwups, one way or another, but there's something in him that touched me. So, he can be a dick a lot, later, but knowing that thing about him, I'll give him a lot of leeway, even when I recognize that I could never live with him. But then, sometimes I wonder how anyone can live with me... which is part of it, I think.