Musing on a challenge

I have completed yet another short story: Shouting Fire. This was another random word challenge. Like all the others, it made me think. But today, it made me really pay attention to the creative process for some reason.

The word was theatre. Nothing special. But it struck as I write just how important the first impression is to the creative flow. For example, my first though with theatre was the phrase 'never shout fire in a crowded theatre' to which my brain automatically responded 'oh I so want to do that now.' As can been seen from Shouting Fire, this had a direct impact on the plot itself. Similiarly, when I wrote Pepper last week my first thought was on the burning aspect rather then the versatility in food and this again carried through to the plot.

It is because of this that we actually need to be careful to be aware of these impressions because other wise it is easy to plagiarise without the intention. A good example of this is the fragments of 'The man from Ironbark' which I have included into the plot. I made a deliberate choice to work more of these in on the basis of a second impression I had from 'theatre'. It brought to mind my yr6 play in school – which is a similar production to what the character John is watching. I could have easily let this influence in without acknowledging it (although with what little I deliberately added it would be hard to accuse me of plagiarism).

This said, in such a short piece would the similarity to 'The man from Ironbark' have even been noticed if I had not gone out of my way to be obvious? This is a very good question.  

Upon reflection: poetry

I freaked myself out earlier.  Some days that's not much of an achievement.  I am a bit of an oddball at the best of times.  I caught myself making faces and odd poses in the mirror many times.  My own face can make some terrifying expressions.  However, what I freaked myself out with today was a short poem I wrote as part of a Daily Post writing challenge.

The idea was very simple:  Produce a few short observations of lunch that capture the essence of your experience.  From this I wrote Eating Alone; a very short piece of poetry that captures the theme of the challenge as best as my ability is able.  After I posted this poem it suddenly occurred to me that was a disturbing element of unease in the words i used.  This is a clear reflection of the mood I was in when writing it.  That is when I realized I need to go out to where there is noise and people!

Isn't sad how we can sometimes blind ourselves to our own mood?

Damn, double damn.

Looks I'd I'd better reconsider my plans to move. -_- Yahoo finance has managed to depress me with this article.  I have a social science based degree (Sociology and psychology) so this article is pretty damning.  But the researcher in me is asking 'From what data did they draw this conclusion' and 'How did they come to the conclusion from this data'.  The answers to both questions could be highly damning and invalidate the whole article.  I'd also ask 'What's their bias?'  If it's just shock tactics they might succeed, cause even with my critical thinking there's still a little voice going Oh crap.

Spicing up your coffee

1 teaspoon of honey and a teaspoon of mixed spice.  Perfect for when you are craving a commercial cup of coffee but just can't get out the door.

Insomnia, you creative genius, you.

I'm up way pat midnight AGAIN.  What is there to do this late, you ask? Nothing ^_^  Not a damn thing.  And so I'm writing.

Writing yay!!  Of course I'm writing.  It's all I ever do at the moment.  Well today's progress?  The start of parodically bad teen romance story and (and this is the good one) a new picture it and write challenge.

This weeks photo is:

Greet the Evil Mop.  He is the future lord and sovereign of the universe. This challenge was not a difficult one for one reason - I could not get the idea of walking into a cleaning closet to find this creepy bastard out of my head.  Therefore I have written Time to quit the day job as a result.  This a short piece of flash fiction inspired by my own life and a supernatural mop.  It amused me.  I hope it amuses you too.