by Mayumi-H | May 21, 2012 | Excerpts, Fearless, Process
I came across this writing meme a while ago, but only recently did it come back to me.
The rules are:
Go to page 7 or 77 in your work-in-progress.
Go to line 7.
Copy the next 7 lines (or 7 sentences), and paste them into your blog. (No cheating!)
Tag 7 authors to do the same.
Now, I don’t particularly care to get tagged in these things, so I didn’t do the last step. But I did like this idea, especially since the way this worked out, it highlights a piece of the story and character/romantic development that comes back into play later in the story (and which I recently felt the need to rewrite).
So, here’s my 7 lines from page 77:
But Amber just stepped over to him and lifted the book from his hands.
“That’s all right,” she said, as she sat down beside him. She flipped open to what seemed a random page, but the way she touched her fingers to the picture of a pretty princess laid out upon a bed of spiralling thorns told him differently.
“This one’s my favourite,” she said. “Brier-Rose.” She looked up from the pages and faced him with a tiny smile. “Sleeping Beauty.”
He smiled back, easing close to her on one arm. “You are quite the romantic,” he said.
She shrugged. “Faery tales are simple. The villain is always defeated; the hero always wins. The princess always finds true love.” She paused, her gaze falling once more to the half-coloured illustration beneath her fingertips. “And the father never forgets his children.”
Prince Florimund finds the Sleeping Beauty [Public domain image via Project Gutenberg]
Ross is right: Amber’s an incurable romantic. But I really like the way that she’s telling him a lot, here, even though she’s not spelling things out for him. That’s the way I like to tell stories, too: letting the reader decide how dialogue, action, or interactions can be interpreted beyond a surface level.
This excerpt happens all the way back in Chapter 5 (which feels like a lifetime of writing ago, though really just November 2011)…but it has repercussions throughout the rest of the story.
If you decide to participate in the Lucky 7 Writing Meme, let me know in the comments. I’ll happily link over to you!
by Mayumi-H | May 14, 2012 | Fearless, From Hell (A Love Story), Process
It’s my belief that any story is, at its core, about relationships. Relationships between people or groups of people, usually: families, friends, lovers, enemies, warring countries/planets/galaxies, spies trying to outdo each other, whatever. A story about a boy and his dog making their way through the post-apocalyptic countryside is about a relationship. Or a story about a female fighter pilot and the only thing in the world she trusts – her plane – is about a relationship. Even a story about the last surviving scientist looking for a cure to a world-spread disease is about a relationship.
Perhaps the greatest unconsummated love affair of them all?
Now, my stories tend to examine relationships on a smaller scale, usually between two people, along with a supporting cast of eccentrics around them. Love stories. But it’s never just a love story. I like some kind of conflict (often external) that will rear its ugly head, and which my characters need to face together to overcome. Or die trying in the process.
My question, though, is – when you have an external conflict that the lovers must face – how much time can you spend building the relationship, first?
I like building relationships, myself, but in this age of short attention spans, if a storyteller spends a lot of time forging that alliance between the characters, will the reader get bored before the big ol’ conflict hits? What’s a reasonable amount of time to spend getting a couple together? What if I’m telling this story all wrong?!
(image by Michelle Burnette)
Have you ever read a story and thought, “They would never get together that quickly!” Or, conversely, “Why is this truce taking so long?” What are your thoughts about this topic? I’d love to know!
by Mayumi-H | May 9, 2012 | Short Stories
We’re up to the 41st week in the 100-Word Challenge for Grown-Ups series! This week’s prompt is from the picture below. (Do be sure to check out some of the other entries, while you’re over there!)
Old bones exhibit in the National Museum of Scotland.
Photo by Julia Skinner
I have to admit that I originally took the prompt to be “bones,” and so wrote something a little bit different. But, with a modicum of tweaking, I think I was able to make this story fit. What do you think?
“One Last Leap”
Another doodle-y doodle
Tomorrow, the cloud prince would come. To take her away from the sea, the only life she’d ever known. And the only love.
With naked toes grasping the bluff’s edge, Cora shook her head. Tomorrow, she’d be dead.
A better fate than any mountain palace was the wave-tossed tomb below. There, in that watery hollow of forgotten bones, she’d first felt Fin’s forbidden kiss, and known she’d never love another. She wished him here, if only to feel him one last time.
But she couldn’t wait. Tomorrow was coming.
Closing her eyes, she stepped free…and heard him call her name.
Revisiting Cora and Fin, here, from another short fiction attempt. I changed Cauda’s name to Cora, because it, too, has a relation to water (in Scottish, it means “seething pool,” which is appropriate for her character). And, because it’s easier to pronounce. (I liked the look of “Cauda,” but even I had trouble keeping straight the pronunciation.)
I also don’t want to create a precedent for myself, adding drawings to these flash fiction stories, but I had to try my hand at an underwater moment, since I’m struck by the beauty of it so.
by Mayumi-H | May 2, 2012 | Short Stories
The prompt for this week’s 100-Word Challenge for Grown-Ups is “Ruby,” to celebrate the 40th week of this challenge.
We have 100 words to fulfill the prompt, and – while my idea is pretty cheesy – I hope that you enjoy my take. 🙂
“Precious Promises”
Amid riffling chiffon, she presses back against the door. It clicks, and she smiles.
He turns, tails flapping. “You shouldn’t be here-!”
Three strides, and she’s in his arms, silencing him with a kiss that makes him hum…and leaves a ruby smear across his lips.
“Sorry!” she laughs, and starts to thumb the smirch away.
He doesn’t laugh, though, but holds her tight. “Promise you’ll still kiss me like that after today?”
The question’s as important now as it will be in an hour. So is her answer. So she rises, seeking his smudged lips again, and whispers, “I do.”
“Precious Promises” by Mayumi-H
(I think I spent more time drawing this little doodle than I did writing this week’s prompt!)
I know that most of what I write with these 100-word challenges are fluff. But, I think, subconsciously, I need to be writing fluff, right now. I’m in the middle of a first draft novel that has a lot of heavy emotional drama in it, and I find these lighter-toned pieces of simple love and family life to be cathartic.
As for the doodle, I did a quick, small sketch in my pad during my train commute, and just had to flesh it out. It’s tiny, so there isn’t a tremendous amount of detail, which makes it quite cartoon-y. But I had much fun drawing and coloring something so simple with my Prismacolors.
So, how did you interpret this prompt? 🙂
by Mayumi-H | Apr 30, 2012 | Excerpts, Fearless
Sometimes, characters are clever enough to come to realisations all on their own:
“I was young,” he began at last, with a short but resigned shrug of one shoulder. “And she was sophisticated, and attractive, and so…confident about everything. Not to say that I was so naïve; I’d had my share of my totty. But this was different,” he said. “It was flattering. I mean, this wealthy, worldly woman said I was handsome, and exciting. Who wouldn’t want to hear that?” And here he did feel a dull pang of something like remorse. Not for Susanna, not for the woman who’d used him. But for the smitten, credulous man-boy he’d been. It had been so pulse-pounding and fantastic to know he could please a woman so, that he couldn’t quite bring himself to hate those memories, even now.
“Every moment with her was full of passion,” he said. “Part of that was because we were trying to keep it a secret, of course,” he admitted, and then he sighed a bit to himself, to recall the stolen kisses and clandestine trysts that had made him feel so virile and powerful and bold. “But I’d still thought that I could be what she wanted. I’d thought I could save her.”
I really like seeing characters face and admit to the ugly parts of themselves. I think that we all have those parts to us; there’s no avoiding them. But knowing our own faults can help us to overcome them – and not make those same mistakes – in the future.
Lovers, by Auguste Rodin [Public domain]
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