Date: Wed, 28 Jan 1998 22:40:53 EST From: "Fable, Thy name is Legion" Organization: Romans in Undies, Inc. Subject: EXERCISE: VDC: Only 3 More Days? [yes, the WRITERS Valentine's Day Contest deadline draws nigh, nigh, nigher... and you haven't got a story written yet? well, take a look at http://web.mit.edu/mbarker/www/val98/val.html if you're not sure how to enter, but read along here if you want an idea for a story...] Make haste, make haste, while the bird bastes... Start by imagining a character. Young, old, or even medium-rare in age, with all the fittings (where did they grow up? was their family wholesome or less? what kind of school? oh, and consider the work, the apartment, the little house on the corner of the block...whatever makes this character a fine upstanding citizen of your imagination). Now, add another character. Provide the twain with a romantic relationship, if you please? You know, the static electricity of mutual attraction? Again, this can be a recent innovation in their lives, something of longer weathering, or whatever you please... One character wants to do the valentine thing for the second one. A card, a box of chocolate, flowers, or... (Why does this interest them? Well, you know the two of them, why is this important? Is it a yearly celebration? An attempt to smooth over the recent flurry of separation? What drives someone to red velvet, in your mind?) Now, stop for a moment. Make a list of at least five complications that might get in the way. The teacher decides that today (of all days) we will have a fire drill...and the card disappears from your character's desk? Or maybe the boss decides that everyone has to work over lunchtime today? The ATM decided to eat your cash card, and now you don't even have any money to buy the flowers? Go on, let your mind wander along the byways and alleys of possibilities...the aliens decided to take over the Hallmark store in the mall? Kewl! Pick about three complications. Pick the juicy ones, the ones that will make you (and the character) squirm. Put them in order, so that the easy one starts us off, and the stakes build as we struggle... Then consider the climax! Will your character succeed? How? Will they learn something? What? How will they change in the process? Write it up. Make the scenes live for us, starting with the character setting out to get a simple little valentine--and building through the struggle, the agony, the storm that forces them to dig down and decide whether this is really worth it or not--to the climactic point of the whole struggle where our hero(ine) shows what they're made of... Write! (Midnight, Jan. 31? That's 72 hours more or less! Get keying, get keying!) tink [it's really hard to soar with eagles while stuffing and basting a turkey...this non sequitur brought to you by your optic nerve]