. Spinning .

Ahh, so this explains it:

In my post on creative fantasy which I somehow managed to turn into a discourse on sexual fantasy figures (just scroll down and stop at Willie) I wandered off the old trail and got into some self-analysis as to why my lifelong fantasy men have always been cowboys. I guess the above photo gives some insight into my development (I’m the little chubby one on the left; that’s my svelte and more ladylike sister on the right).

Oddly enough, I also clearly remember an Indian village I built on a hill overlooking our house. There were three teepees made from sticks and dropcloths (painter’s protective mats) and I had a bowcase made out of a white with colored rings umbrella case to which I pinned some clothesline so it could be worn on my back.

Even odder, I never was a cowgirl, but an official cowboy (black-hatted one at that), and I was not squaw but rather the Indian brave in my little village. Evidently about when I stopped playing pretend, I also grew wise enough to recognize and fantasize about my male cowboy heroes instead of wanting to be exactly like them.

There is an excellent article by Joe Clifford Faust on his website The Word Foundry about the rather limited number of situations available as plot material for an author. Joe covers this often cloudy area of “stolen ideas” in a very interesting post. Here’s some excerpts:

“According to a gentleman named Georges Polti, there are only 37 Dramatic Situations in the whole entire world.”

“In other words, in the mind of a writer, one good idea can give birth to another. And often the offspring bears absolutely no resemblance whatsoever to the parent. You have to understand this aspect of writing in order to make use of it to your advantage. If you don’t, you’re either going to be a very unhappy writer or you’re not going to be a writer at all.”

“So to boil it all down. What makes us original is not the basic gist of the plot. There aren’t that many to go around.”

And this evil little thought keeps me from working on my Spanish, and I think I’ll dedicate it to Prof. Michael Arnzen at Gorelets for turning me on to Queasy Pops:

“I don’t think I’ll be going
to Hannibal’s for lunch today,
those crunchy tasty things
that grace his Caesar salads
aren’t really bacon bits at all.

And Mama says he’s
got a houseful of
the men who came to dinner,
for his driveway looks
just like a parking mall.”

Uh, in sending everyone around to read all the writers’sites I link herein, I realize that practically in the same post, as well as throughout Spinning you’ll find evidence of its author’s often unstable, neurotic, obsessive/compulsive, and generally all-around flakey and whiney tendencies. While no one here in the real world has noticed or maybe cared enough to have me committed (clean, white room with softly quilted walls, a desk, chair and computer—how bad would that be?) I do not want to imply that all writers are this way. They’re not. Even with the same velocity of drive and desire, most of them handle it far better than I, so don’t hesitate to visit the links I’ve set down here—they are much more reasonable, together types than I.

Continue reading →

I’m still finagling with the logo for the Fiction Webring, but please do check it out at the bottom of the right-hand column, and click on lists. There are some excellent writers in this group, and I’ll eventually learn how to place them in a more prominent position on this site.

Creativity allows a certain amount of free reign on use of words, although sometimes we tend to push a little bit too far and lose our meaning. “Reign” versus the more familiar “rein” in the previous sentence is one example of stretching meaning, but I hope still within comprehensible limits.

Free rein, according to a dictionary definition, means “to allow to act without restraint.” While there is no official assignment to free reign, reign meaning “to hold sway, prevail or predominate” adjectived (I love verbizing adjectives, then getting in even deeper by doing it to nouns as well!) by free, would seem to mean “at liberty to prevail.” Close enough in meaning, but with that slight twist that reveals the writer’s point of view and style.

I’d rather be a king than a horse, wouldn’t you?