Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

We are who We Hang Out With

Karen commented on yesterday's blog and said she had a cat who thought it was a dog. This cat liked the rain. I had a "Walk On" cat that was rejected by the two I already had. So this cat must have decided "The Heck with Them," that she was a dog instead. She hung out with the dogs and started acting like one. Last year in Westfield I watched as the fall migration of geese came flying in. In one of the flocks was a big white barnyard goose with a pronounced yellow bill. It made me think about my cat who thought she was a dog. I guess if you can't see yourself it's an easy mistake to make. We are after all a consequence of who we hang out with.

For those who give a "Rats Petotti" and that number remains mercifully small, I've come to develop a methodology for writing here at WDC. The first thing I do is idly push the pencil waiting for a character to emerge. The character usually brings with them the glimmer of a story line. Once this starts to happen I keep pushing the noodle (pencil... you know those metaphors for pounding a keyboard) until I have about six vignettes of between 2k to 3k words. At that point its time to get serious and write an outline. In school we were taught to write an outline first, but how can a person do this if they don't know what they're going to be writing about? This first outline is crude to begin with. Once it is written I begin to layer into it the components of what a good story should contain.. Once that is completed I start writing in bite sized chunks knowing that when I finish I'll have a coherent manuscript with a beginning, middle and end.

In the HSP class we wrote six vignettes with common characters and story line.

I have applied this approach to the final exam I'm taking for the Romantica course. Please be advised that the content will be classified GC. Anyone interested is welcome to follow along and comment.

Work in Progress on Romantica Final Exam  (GC) This file shows how my work is evolving towards completion of the exam. #1981189 by percy goodfellow