I'm going to see to Wesley, see if he's still whimpering.

Giles ,'Chosen'


The Great Write Way  

A place for Buffistas to discuss, beta and otherwise deal and dish on their non-fan fiction projects.


Liese S. - Sep 23, 2004 10:07:24 pm PDT #6822 of 10001
"Faded like the lilac, he thought."

(Over a hundred words, but I can't edit, I've gotta sleep.)

Holiday World

The joy of slides and bouncing balls is forgotten. He turns his back sullenly to his impatient aunt; he doesn't want her to see his face, screwed up with the effort.

His sister has tried to help, "He doesn't quite do it yet. He needs help." But it is too late. He cannot ask for help now. His aunt has presented him with his shoes, and he must soldier on alone.

A loop, around, but then it slips again. He growls with frustration, and pushes away her fumbling adult hands. She says, "Look, I'll just guide you," but he can't abide it, and she can't wait forever.

Then, miracle of miracles, there it is. Not quite even, and who knows how long it will last, but there it is. His aunt doesn't even understand the achievement. When she tells his mother later, she'll be shocked. "He did it? He tied his shoes?" And he did.


Beverly - Sep 24, 2004 5:42:01 am PDT #6823 of 10001
Days shrink and grow cold, sunlight through leaves is my song. Winter is long.

Writing energy is just crackling in here. Miss you all. I'm on (very) slow dialup at MIL's so essentially just waving. Beautiful beautiful drabbles, all.


Deena - Sep 24, 2004 6:12:25 am PDT #6824 of 10001
How are you me? You need to stop that. Only I can be me. ~Kara

I love them all, such amazing bits and pieces of color and life. Great drabbles.


Pix - Sep 24, 2004 7:14:33 am PDT #6825 of 10001
The status is NOT quo.

First time drabble

The hall smells stale, like rotting pb&j and moldy notebooks. And that carpet, god! Did every school in America buy that same dingy orange to soak up whatever spilled or splattered or bled into it?

Oh gross. Don't think about it.

My shoulder is going numb from the weight of the bag slung over my arm, and it is every Monday I have ever slunk reluctant through school doors at 7AM. Every Monday spent walking the halls, waiting for class to start. Every Monday, except this Monday is the first.

My key, newly minted, scrapes into the classroom door.


deborah grabien - Sep 24, 2004 7:24:24 am PDT #6826 of 10001
It really doesn't matter. It's just an opinion. Don't worry about it. Not worth the hassle.

Oh, those are gorgeous!

Susan, can I make one editing suggestion? In the first drabble, can I suggest a phrase swap, for a punchier ending?

Right now, you've got it as:

She feels the pony quiver with life beneath her, and when she sees how far the ground is, she is exhilarated, not frightened. She laughs.

Just my take, but I kept wanting to read this as:

She feels the pony quiver with life beneath her, and when she sees how far the ground is, she laughs. She is exhilarated, not frightened.


Susan W. - Sep 24, 2004 7:40:31 am PDT #6827 of 10001
Good Trouble and Righteous Fights

deb, I like that. Edited. And I should really remember to post these on the LJ, too.


deborah grabien - Sep 24, 2004 7:45:33 am PDT #6828 of 10001
It really doesn't matter. It's just an opinion. Don't worry about it. Not worth the hassle.

Susan, thanks - it was the mentally wanting to flop the action (her laughter) for the feeling (her exhilaration), which in some way, I guess, is a sense of cause followed by effect, rather than vice versa.

edit: boy, was that not clear. Just that, for good dramatic effect, inverting the usual logic generally seems to me to work more effectively: the author shows the action, the reader goes whuzzah and takes ten seconds to react him or herself, and then author gives the reader the why of it.

I like writing. It's good.


Susan W. - Sep 24, 2004 7:53:20 am PDT #6829 of 10001
Good Trouble and Righteous Fights

Hmm. That makes sense.


deborah grabien - Sep 24, 2004 8:16:46 am PDT #6830 of 10001
It really doesn't matter. It's just an opinion. Don't worry about it. Not worth the hassle.

Hmm. That makes sense.

Here comes a quickie rumination.

It does for me, anyway. Because essentially, whatever visual creativity I've got is at the minor, hardest-to-access end of my creative scale; I can draw it with words, or play it with music, but things like photography, sculpture, painting, drawing, I suck at - I have no real access to that creative path.

But writing, especially the show not tell variety, has got to really paint those pictures. Thing is, the pictures won't be the same for any two people, readers, writer, anyone at all. So for me, getting the reader to subconsciously wonder what their own landscape of a scene is going to look like a half-second before they actually envision it is a nice bit of trickery: drawing them into it.

Saves a lot of grief.


Atropa - Sep 24, 2004 8:38:13 pm PDT #6831 of 10001
The artist formerly associated with cupcakes.

First time drabble

“Stop moving.”

“You nearly stabbed me in the eye!”

“No I didn’t. Look up. Okay, now close it.”

“I can’t believe you do this every day.”

A rustling noise as one implement is set down, another picked up.

“You are such a wuss. Open your eyes.”

“You’re not done yet?”

“You can’t wear eyeliner without mascara. It looks unbalanced. Stop blinking!”

I turn him around to face the mirror. The smudged black outlining one eye makes the other one seem a paler blue; oddly naked and almost vulnerable.

“Wow.”

“So, you like it?”

“Yeah. Do the other one.”