Ficlet Friday

Today’s Ficlet for Ficlet Friday, “The End”, came to me in a fit of creativity late last Saturday morning.

Sitting at the kitchen table eating a late breakfast my mind flashed to certain folks in Raelyn’s Pre-K class discussing “having their picture made” which is a Southernism, a regionalism, a colloquialism for what I’ve always known as “having your picture taken”.

Take.
Make.
Two irregular verbs that feature prominently in a latter-era Beatles tune, The End.

The line: “And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make”.

I simply substituted “picture” for “love” and left that one line near the very end of my story.

I wrote most of the rest of it that day and have spent the intervening days just cleaning things up, removing duplicate or superfluous words and phrases and generally just making sure I’m supremely happy with the result.

I hope you like it too!

Ficlet Friday!

Ficlet Friday

The first Ficlet Friday that went well enough last week so this week’s entry, Shelter, is a welcome addition.

I started with a scene and a definite linear timeline but getting there was more tedious than I had imagined. Total writing time about 45 minutes.

I’ll get the negatives out of the way:

  • My “voice” is always a little too sing-song.
  • I like alliteration and rhyme. I like poetry, even where it might not fit.

  • I wish the drama were more concrete.
  • Onomatopoeias are fine but they’re also very vague.

  • I really struggle with dialogue.
  • Maybe the reason why I chose an almost silent scene was so I didn’t have to speak through my characters? I honestly don’t know.

  • Editing.
  • 1024 characters is really short. I wish I had just a few more lines, but that’s a slippery slope. Editing is positive, even if it’s only so long. I said exactly what I wanted to say.

What I like:

  • It’s the linear story I set out to tell
  • Sure, not a lot “happens” but I think I was able to convey the unspoken (HA!) tension.

  • I got to incorporate fatherhood & family.
  • If you read the blog, you know I love being a Dad and husband, even when they’re kicking my ass.

  • I can incorporate autobiographical bits without writing about myself.
  • I already have a blog. I don’t want my fiction to become a broader extension of that; they’re separate (at least for now). And while Raelyn doesn’t say spaghetti incorrectly, we do correct her for other things she says.

Please read it, rate it and leave a comment. It’s the only way I’ll grow or give up – your help.

And if you’d like to participate, start writing. Practice makes permanent.

Ficlet Friday

So the response to my first ficlet effort yesterday – titled “No More Friday Nights” – was really positive. I had a ton of fun being in the moment, writing a self-contained narrative and then just walking away.

Folks are free to use my ficlet as the beginning, middle or end of their own creative endeavors and I hope some do. The wife, however, got very lost reading it and admitted that she didn’t realize I’d intended it to be read as from one point of view and not two.

Though for my part I think you could argue both my original intent and her interpretation, which is all the cooler.

Anyhow, I’m thinking of starting a very achievable, fun ongoing blog post project: Ficlet Fridays.

The concept is simple. Each Friday I’ll write a 1kb (1024 char) masterpiece over @ ficlets. You’ll all come and clamor over the multiple merits of it’s awesomeness.

Lather. Rinse. Repeat. (Each and every Friday until I’m bored of this OR the ficlets lead me to a longer format idea).

And hey, I want your involvement too. The Atlanta blogging community has a ton of excellent authors including, but not limited to, Will (fellow ficleteer), Maigh, Duane, james, Bill & Thomas.

Of course if blogging is your preferred milieu and you’d rather avoid fiction altogether, feel free to ignore me. If not, jump on in to the short-form pool. The water is warm, but it wasn’t me.

And for today’s offering – Expletive Deleted – I’ve recycled and reformatted a story-starter that’s been sitting in my Google Docs for over a year with no progression. Better to share it than to let it fester.

Happy Ficlet Friday!

Damning the Dentist

So yesterday Jenn & I left work early with the best of intentions: take Raelyn to her Dental check-up, do some grocery shopping and get home early enough to cook dinner, get the kids to bed and watch some teevee.

Best laid plans and all that.

To set the stage I must mention that six scant months ago – the very first time Raelyn ever visited a Dentist’s office – we were told she was the best behaved and most hygienic 4-year-old they’d ever seen. Hubris and dumb parental pride had us thinking lightning would strike twice.

Yesterday, however, was every parent’s (and child’s) nightmare.

It began in the lobby. Raelyn was drooling and stupefied watching Disney’s “Meet the Robinsons” on DVD while we (and about 12 other sets of kids & parents) waited nearly an hour past our appointment time to be seen.

I agreed with one gentleman who brought up the fact, loudly, that he’d confirmed his children’s appointments multiple times via phone and email but the dentist didn’t respect *his* time enough to call or email to let him know they were running late.

His righteous anger and tone were spot-on and contagious (who hasn’t been held captive in a waiting room?) until he spouted this whopper: “Do you have any idea what my hourly rate is?”

Me? I have no idea what my own hourly rate is or this douchebag’s is, but I immediately switched allegiances and felt for the poor staff-member listening to this guy’s abuse.

It’s one thing to be angry about being late waiting in line, it’s quite another to throw your class and paycheck in someone’s face/into the discussion. He knew what he was doing, though. I caught his smirk as she skulked off.

On to Raelyn. Our perfect daughter. Our angel baby. The dentist’s dream.

She took two x-rays like a walk in the park. Try to insert the bite-plate for side x-rays and she clammed right up.

I saw it happen and thought it odd, but the tech had her out of the chair and picking stickers before I’d realized that parental oversight and good behavior had lost out to dental expedience.

In the hygienist chair she got brushed and flossed relatively well but the prospect of fluoride, which the hygienist warned her against swallowing because it might cause a tummy ache, caused tears.

After 10 minutes of negotiation, hand-holding, light shaming and cajoling she was over and done with the crying and fluoriding in under a minute. Kids!

Just as we had promised – and she should have trusted – it was worse to overreact than to get it done in the first place.

So now we waited for the dentist. When she said Raelyn *needed* to have those previously-avoided x-rays taken there were new tears. And a new challenge.

Back to step one, with a new tech, we went through fake x-rays on Dad, the promise of twice the stickers as before and another 10 minutes of back-and-forth and still NO x-rays.

For her part, the dentist was quick in counting and examining Rae’s teeth. The good news: no cavities, good brushing and flossing technique and overall high marks. The bad (worst?) news: the dentist said Raelyn could take ALL of the balloons home with her (there were close to a dozen and we were the last folks in the office at this point).

Jenn & I stepped in and told Raelyn she could decide how many balloons to take, but that she’d behaved poorly so she didn’t deserve the whole lot.

3 balloons and 2 hours later we were off to Publix, home and our normal schedule. So much for the dentist.

Parenthood!

Bonus Link: since there’s no new Lost tonight (my normal Thursday post) here’s some interesting info on the Time Loop Theory.

Oh, and I wrote my first Ficlet today. Have a go at it.