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.

Yes, there is a softer part in there, isn't there...somebody who started out very different than what he ended up(and some of that is front, anyway...the hardened soul. I know cause I have one. And I make jokes about the stuff that hurts, too.)

I always liked Munch, mostly because he seemed to really Not Care what other people thought of him, which gave him the freedom to be the jerk. I'm having a memfault, though -- didn't he care about Kay and the Lt. exam? That was humanizing and irritating at the same time. I should probably rewatch a lot of Homicide. Oh, Meldrick, how I miss you ...

Yeah, I think he choked on the Sargeant's Exam, because he never showed up and his explanation sounded like bullshit, imo.And I think he was offended that around the squad odds were 87:1 in favor of her score being higher. And of course, "jerk" is a relative term because I love that he is anti-authority enough to get booted from liquor class, but somebody who considers coloring inside the lines a "core value" as the books say, would think him antisocial. I thought he reminded me of my mom when that happened, although she is a lot more shy. Old hippies and their authority problems, gotta love 'em. I guess that woman did not have the authority to withhold the Waterfront's license after all. And of course after the detectives get shot, it's the Munchkin that makes me cry. "They wrecked my shoes, Gee." tears me up.(But part of that isn't in the script, I don't think...helped along by acting, which I may never have for my characters