Welcome to Saturday Writing Essential. This first column is going to be a long one because I have to introduce myself, outline what I have in store for you, and then give you some idea of what I’d like to see you write this week.
I’m at a disadvantage because I’m following Atticus who was loved and respected in this position. I hope I’m able to keep you interested enough that you’ll participate in what I’m planning to do.
My Background
First, let me give you an idea about whether I know what I’m saying. I’ve been writing professionally for a bit over twenty years in national and regional magazines, journals, and newspapers. A few years ago I started doing volunteer editing on two Web sites and I guess I did okay, because a literary agency asked me to be a contract editor for them. Then two publishing houses asked me to do the same. For the past year I’ve been letting my clients go and spending more time writing for fun here on Gather.
In November I started posting a series of writing tutorials for several groups here on Gather and those will continue until someone tells me to shut up. The last two weeks I filled in for Greg Schiller on Humor Monday so I have some idea of how this member editor thing works and, suddenly, I find myself with my own day and I have to fill it with something.
What’s Going to Happen
I have a very rough idea about what I want to accomplish here on SatWE. Basically, I want to challenge you to write things you’ve never written before or never felt comfortable writing.
Somewhere around 1957 I wrote a science fiction story for my English class and the teacher, after giving me an F on the paper, told me to focus more on reality. As a writer I have written most everything and one of them is a sci-fi story. It is one of several hundred files living on my hard drive that will probably never see anything done with it. Then, some weeks ago, a freewrite prompt had me writing something that was kinda, sorta, almost sci-fi. Following that, I wrote two sci-fi stories for WWE prompts.
The reason I’m telling you that is because I’ve never considered myself to be a science fiction writer and now I’ve actually written something sci-fi-ish that people liked (or at least didn’t hate).
That’s what I want to do with this column. Have you ever written science fiction? I’m going to ask you to do just that. How about historical fiction? You will. If you’ve never ridden a horse, you’ve probably never written a Western, but if you hang around SatWE, you’re going to give it a shot. Got it in you to write a fairy tale or nursery rhyme? I’m going to see if I can’t get you to do that.
My idea, right now is to rotate through many different genres during the coming weeks. I mentioned a few of them above and I’ll add whatever else I can come up with. I hope to make you comfortable enough that you’ll actually try something new and, ultimately, won’t fear any writing assignment.
Poetry?
All my friends know that I don’t like poetry. I don’t understand it, I can’t write it, and I read it only to appease my friends here on Gather. That said, I understand why some people like that art form.
It’s kinda like guns. I’m a gun nut -- I love every size and shape gun ever made, but I also understand that there are people that don’t like or understand them.
While I don’t pretend to understand poetry, I’m going to try to write this column in such a way that even poets will feel comfortable about making a submission. If you submit any type of poetry in response to my prompts, I promise I’ll read it.
If I don’t succeed in making you feel comfortable making a poetic submission, I expect you to tell me about it.
What Do We Do This Week?
Because I took so long getting to it, I’ll make this first prompt fairly simple.
When you were in school did your teacher include essay questions on your tests? One of the things that my teachers did was to ask us to “compare and contrast” some subject. Most of the kids hated that type of question, but I actually enjoyed them. I found such an assignment much easier because it gave me a starting point for my thinking and writing.
I mentioned above the different feelings people have regarding guns and poetry and both sides occasionally get really heated about those topics.
It seems to me that a less heated topic deals with pets. We have people on Gather that discuss their pets all the time and I’m going to ask you to do that -- with a small twist dealing with comparing and contrasting.
Tell me how dogs and cats are similar and also how they are different. I’m not looking for the physical things such as they each have four legs, a tail (usually), and sharp teeth. I’m looking more for personality traits such as how they play, sleep, and interact with other animals and you.
Be cute, be silly, or be serious. Discuss your own pets, your neighbor’s pets, or even pets you’ve seen in movies.
Okay, I’m a softie; if you want to compare and contrast your ferret, iguana, parrot, anaconda, or any other animal with a dog or cat -- have at it. (Don’t even dare to compare/contrast your husband/wife with an animal. Not this week, at least -- we’ll get to that later.)
Recap
Here are the submissions I could find from last Saturday’s prompt. If I missed someone, let me know and I’ll make the necessary addition(s).
The Valentine's Day Gift Michael Fishman
To My Valentine Granny Janny H.
A Love Story ~~ for SatWE John Beck
My Love Story - SatWE Elsie Duggan
Mum and Daddy -- A Perfect Love dianne j.
Unlocking the Secrets of Sky Tovli S.
A Personal Valentine History Clifford N.
~Love Letter~ JustMe ~I’m happy to be~
And the one(s) I forgot, missed, or just screwed up:
Love Worth the Wait... Jodie Martin Cordell
The Rules:
- Write something (prose, poetry, fiction, essay, whatever) showing how dogs and cats are similar and how they are different.
- There is a limit of three submissions from each member per day. If you’re extremely prolific, spread out your work and post only three submissions per day.
- Tag your submission with SatWE.
- Include (Saturday Writing Essential) as part of your title.
- I’m in SoCal and, in order to have a new column ready for next Saturday, I’ll ask that you make your submission(s) by next Friday, 3 p.m. (1500) PST; 6 p.m. (1800) EST; 10 a.m. (1000) Australia; 12:00 a.m. (2400) Tunisia; and 11 p.m. (2300) GMT. I promise I won’t bore you with these times every week.
Good Writing!
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Comments: 38
"compare and contrast" but several of my classmates would start every assignment either with that or with refuting some piece of literature. Cats and dogs should be an interesting challenge.
Btw, I posted something for the SatWE last week that never showed up...I may have posted it wrong, though. I'm kinda new and I'm still learning. But I thought I did. Oh well. I guess I'll get it next time!
Because you're experienced with such a format, I'm looking forward to what you come up with.
Now featured at Gather's Best.
Seriously, this looks like an interesting group. I enjoyed your introduction and think I can come up with something for this comparison prompt. I made just such a comparison the other night while speaking with a friend, so I'll draw on that. But, later, when I have the time. Now my real life in the form of a washing machine and a vacuum cleaner is calling.
This is an interesting group because each day of the week has a different editor and we all have our own way of doing things. There are some days I read the prompt and just shake my head and say, "Nope, that ain't me, I can't do that." Other days I'm jumping up and down saying, "Oh, yeah, I have the perfect story for that."
Vacuum cleaner and washing machine? Are those anything akin to brooms and dishwashers? Sorry, don't know anything about that kind of stuff.
I'm glad you caught that I was joking about the time zones. Sometimes that doesn't come across on-line.
Your poem and gun analogy is spot on. If we look for it, we can find poetry in things other than words.
For instance, I own a Colt 1860 .44 cal replica that has never been fired. I didn't buy it to blast at targets, as fun as that might be, rather I keep it on my desk to admire. I find the engineering elegant and the cap & ball technology fascinating. It is a simple but fatal tool that says so much, so well, with so little.
In short, it is a poem.
I have the Colt 1860 Navy replica. It was originally in the .36 caliber and mine is .44. It has a broken sear spring and, because it's a replica, I'm having trouble finding a replacement that fits. As soon as I find one -- I'm shooting it!
Lennnnnnn, I saw a different wonderful side of you in the post above. A toast to you.
Thank you, I'm pressing my Bud against the screen right now.
dd...smiles...
Thank you for adding Nuttin' But Sunshine to -- Sun Bespeckled Ink!
This is now Featured!
My first (and probably last) attempt at sci-fi was back in fifth grade, which was also the first "book" I ever wrote and what propelled me to keep writing. It was titled, The Last of the Atadans.
Just keep in mind that it's all your fault: they were your prompts that made me write the sci-fi stuff.
I do write Western romance, and a bit of 19th century, I pretend to write poetic thingies, I write some vampire paranormal, whimsy, memoir, children;s, young adult, I could go on ad nauseum, but everybody including me would be tossing our cookies, and I'd never get to dance and exercise or reading the books on my TBR list, or back to working on the 8 writing or editing or judging tasks I've committed to over the next 3 months.
By March, that number will be down to 4.
You threw a book into the fireplace? Shame!
I've read your work for some time and would be delighted to see what you could do with this prompt.
You'll do great until the workload makes you buckle at the knees. When that happens, take a deep breath and a sip or three of a banana smoothie - and you'll be just fine. If not, munch on a toasted Vegemite sandwich ... that'll fix anything.
I know I answered your comment before, but it's not here. I'm not going to blame Gather, I'll just say that I pushed something wrong. The reason I know I answered it is that I researched Vegemite and, reading how it was made, it made me sick.
Thanks for taking the time to read my column.
As to Vegemite, don't knock it until you've tried it. And once you've done that, you'll be able to jump tall comments in a single bound.