Month: July 2016 | the Wakefield Doctrine

TToT -the Wakefield Doctrine-

July 30, 2016 By clarkscottroger

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)

What?

damn! where the hell did I leave that SOC headset!?!! (Item 1 the kind of mind that, after the previous sentence, replayed in ‘True-to-Life®‘ Seven-Year-Old-Hi-Fidelity, ‘You’d forget your head if it wasn’t tied on’).

Warning: Excessive randomosity (and other crimes-against-the-written-word) ahead! Yes, this is ‘one of those‘ TToT Posts!

Item 2: I grateful for having lost all rhetorical self-respect, and, for god know what reason, am comfortable passing the most errant nonsense as a well-meant and heart❤️felt TToT Post!

3) If anyone has CS Lewis’s heir’s phone number, please let me know! I need to make sure that our Founderess doesn’t not stumble across this Post without fair warning… she’s of exceptional patience and forbearance (particularly for our people*), but, damn! I’m getting ready to click ‘Next’ and I’m writing this!

Grat Item 4: remembering that, for me, the key to a successful day today is to balance: ‘you only live once, do it right’ and ‘you only live once, don’t mess it up’ and ‘you only live once, don’t worry, enjoy yourself!’

5) Una and Phyllis and the secret world

6) ‘Almira‘ hey! usually when I mention writing ‘Almira’ I’ll simply give a preview of this weeks Chapter. But, in case there are any new Readers (and, no, I’m not counting too heavily on return visits, lol) here’s a quick synopsis:

Dorothy Gale has been some strange places in her relatively short life. She has met very curious people, rallied her friends, fought off her enemies and still tries to be a good person. Problem is, she does not believe she knows who she really is and. worse, where she belongs. ‘Almira’ is the story of mis-understood people and discovering the truth about ourselves and the world we find ourselves in.

7) yeah, it’s called the Book of Secret Rules (aka the Secret Book of Rules) and it’s one of the coolest, most fun things about this, ‘the bloghop-that-Lizzi-built’ and while zoe is our resident expert on all thing virginal (the Seven Guard Virgins, of course!) and is Curatoress of the BoSR/SBoR, allow me to say this: if you’re new to the TToT and you find yourself blocking on what to write, or whether what you want to write is appropriate, all you have to do is cite the SR (Secret Rule) Chapter and Verse (and include a short description of the Rule and why it applies, and you are golden.) Serially! Try it, it’s very fun.

8) work has been interesting of late, in it’s constant stress; the reason I cite the stress at work, (which is, of course, simply a part of the work I do), is that it allows me to practice learning to live right. (Having people with whom I can identify is totally the key to seeing the improvements that I have to date.)

9) Kristi for the amazing amount of work in beta reading ‘Blogdominion‘. I am aghast at what it was that I was asking of her! In my defense, this is my first story in need of beta reading and, having written it over the course of nearly six months, totally under-appreciated how much work would be involved. tres thank you, Kristi… (I would do a Capitalize everything joke here, but only Kristi would laugh… hopefully, …. someone remind me to send her a box of #2 pencils!)

10) SR 1.3 (which allows: ‘the completion of a List of Ten Items’ may serve as one of those self-same Ten Items. This accomplishment may be applied for the 10th Item only, unless there are Items that remain, unused and available for attribution.) (… hey! Item 7 Readers! like that)

Your hosts

A Fly on our (Chicken Coop) Wall, Amycake and the Dude, Considerings, Finding Ninee, Getting Literal, I Want Backsies, The Meaning of Me, Thankful Me, Uncharted, The Wakefield Doctrine

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Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: Personal, personality types, relationships, the Wakefield Doctrine

Six Sentence (out of a) Story (of like, 3,400 sentences) -the Wakefield Doctrine-

July 28, 2016 By clarkscottroger

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)

Wednesday night and I need to type by monitor light, as the curtains on the windows (in the room I use for an office) are always open, it’s 9:33 pm and Summer time. So, like 5 minutes ago I looked up and saw the window coated with tiny-motion, flying things with too many appendages. I had the desk light on and it must have been every neon, bar/nightclub sign in the world casting an invitation, like expensive perfume, into the path of every passing bug. Two words: ewww (no, not for the imagery of the neon temptation, although I must admit that the lure, allure and fantasy of the real thing, on a late city night is better imagined, than actually experienced). So, anyway, I turned off the light which solved the problem in two ways, one rather characteristic of the human condition: a) the bugs no longer were tempted to dash themselves on the transparent glass reefs of my house and 2) I can’t see them anymore, so out of sight, out of mind.

But this is about zoe’s weekly challenge to write a story employing six and only six sentences, the Six Sentence Story bloghop. I may be taking liberties the rules this week by trying to combine writing tasks. I’m working on ‘Almira’ (and editing ‘Blogdominion’) so time is not my friend. I thought I’d grab a scene from as upcoming Chapter in Almira and write it as this week’s Six Sentence Story, which btw, has ‘puff’ as the prompt word.

Frederick Prendergast felt the flickering warmth of the fireplace on his back as he sat at the head of the ornately-carved dining table on a cold snowy Sunday evening in December.

Grace Byrne stood, half in and half out of the kitchen, the swinging butler’s door providing her with as much of a sense of security as she’d found since arriving from Ireland to serve as Nanny in the Prendergast household, the brighter lights from within the kitchen created a somewhat stark contrast to her face, half-bathed in the warm rose hue washing up from the candles on the table, like rising flood waters.

“The twins are staying over in Boston tonight, with their mother, as nanny you are without responsibilities until sometime tomorrow,” Frederick’s voice was that of every young man’s, (or at least some young men), a powerful mix of hope, silky with insinuation and yet, barbed with the unspoken invitation for her willing complicity, his desire urgent enough to offer a darkly-bright invitation in seemingly harmless words, yet not yet strong enough to speak openly about what he desired.

The kitchen provided temporary refuge for the girl, one place in the mansion where her role and her duties were clearly defined, daylight-bright and re-assuring, the dining room, with changing light from the fireplace tempting her eyes to see what she felt rather than what she knew to be right.

“Cream puff, Mr Prendergast? Each one with a crust light enough to bite into, small but filled with a delightful surprise, I made them myself,” Grace Byrne waved wistfully to a little girl running through meadows in a far away country and stepped out of the kitchen, the door swinging shut on it’s own, leaving only the dim candle light to kindle the darkness that smoldered between the 18 year old girl, alone in a new world and the vainly insatiable man who smiled and leaned back in his chair.

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TToT -the Wakefield Doctrine-

July 23, 2016 By clarkscottroger

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)

Again with the Weekend! The days are speeding up, but the temperature is remaining in a good, ‘hot enough for you?’ range.

This is, of course, the Ten Things of Thankful, ‘the bloghop that Lizzi built’. I describe it that way, not because anyone is depending on me to identify the creator of this thing of ours, but to remind myself of the power of the initial simple steps, (whenever) we set out to self-improve ourselves. Often, at least for me (and therefore most clarks), the hard part is not getting started on a path of improvement, it is remembering the success that I’ve achieved. Let me re-phrase that, when we succeed at improving ourself, (really truly, fundamentally), the new state becomes the ‘always state’. Our lives change. Which is what (many of us) are after. But the drawback is when life changes, reality changes, and the new me becomes the only real me. It takes a lot of imagination (and effort) to remember that old me, the pre-improvement me, not for any morbid or negative purpose, and certainly not for the ‘well, you’re really still that person, not this new person, purposes. The value in ‘remembering before’ is in the reinforcement of the efforts that went into getting to where we are now. We did it once, and we can do it again, (as in, further improvement).

Ok! I don’t know what brought that on, but I’m grateful that the hostinae at the TToT are so tolerant of my, less than rule-straight manner of writing.

2) (well, ’cause I got one right above… about the co-hostinae here at the TToT?) I appreciate that I still retain the tendency to, upon hearing a random, but odd phrase, be able to hold on to my initial reaction long enough to write it into a post. Item 3 that follows, came out of nowhere, earlier today, while in conversation with Denise about clarks…

3) the phrase: ‘clarks can be so low-self-standardized’ I laughed out loud when I heard me say that, as did Denise. Which, if you’re keeping up with your Wakefield Doctrine studies, this ‘startled laughter’ is one of the markers of the ‘rogerian expression’. I will leave it to you, the Reader, to go here and read up one of the truly charming qualities of our rogerian brethren.

4) credit to Una, when she goes out into the backyard, she’s clearly there to work. She sits, (upright, not like laying down), and faces out towards the woods. Keeping watch, of course.

5) credit to Phyllis for doing the things she enjoys, which included this week, the annual, ‘go to the beach after work and go swimming under the full moon’ (I”ll try to find the vid from last year’s swim).

6) the Graviteers. As a group, does what groups do best, (when groups are good), i.e. despite the vacations, they are all, collectively and one-at-time and alternately, sending in the photos every day (except Sunday). There are tons of demands on our time during this time of year, but not a day in the Summer has gone by without the photos arriving and being posted. good group

7) just completed an online seminar, (about how to write a Query Letter). Sent in my sample synopsis and sample letter, one more step up the road taken. They promise to send me a critique in a couple of weeks, which is the reason for this exercise, i.e. the critique, ’cause when I send out Query letters, agents do not send letters back, (at least I haven’t gotten a letter back), that include suggestions on how to make my query more effective.

8) Chapter 17 of Almira comin at ya this weekend. So, guess who’s coming to dinner? (that’s unfair, Chapter 17 will only set up the dinner at the Gale Farm, the actual dinner should not show up until Chapter 18. I’m kinda looking forward to the challenge, to have a Chapter entirely one scene, ‘dinner at the Gale Farm’. Long before and many degrees colder, Almira is on the mend, staying at Annie LoPizzo’s, although with the frequency of visits from Sterling Gulch, one might be forgiven for thinking that it was his apartment! You think he’s fallen hard for our Almira, or what? We also get to look in on Frederick Prendergast, busy keeping the Mills churning out the profit for the Essex Company and if people get hurt achieving his goals, well, there are plenty more where they came from, (mostly central and eastern Europe), (I mean a lot, like a majority of the population of Lawrence MA in the late 1800s, early 1900s were immigrants from Europe, attracted to the opportunity for work and the, relatively, decent living conditions).

9) (will have to spend more time) on the Book of Secret Rules (Secret Book of Rules), may come back a little later. It’s a real good thing.

10) (speaking of the BoSR/SBoR), SR 1.3 binyons!

Your hosts

A Fly on our (Chicken Coop) Wall, Amycake and the Dude, Considerings, Finding Ninee, Getting Literal, I Want Backsies, The Meaning of Me, Thankful Me, Uncharted, The Wakefield Doctrine

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An InLinkz Link-up

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: Personal, personality types, psychology of personality, self-development, the Wakefield Doctrine

Sic Transit Gloria Thursday -the Wakefield Doctrine-

July 21, 2016 By clarkscottroger

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)

I will avoid the obvious, (and oh-so-tempting), joke about the command of our bloghop host, zoe, being to write a story, using six and only six sentences and instead say, “Moses ain’t got nothin on zoe!!!”* and her instructions for this here bloghop here. While most, if not many, of the stories here are fiction, on occasion we will see Six Sentence Stories that are accurate accounts of real events and/or experiences. Last week’s narrator notwithstanding, this today, (the photo) depicts what I’m begin told in my online seminar on writing synopsiseses** is the ‘inciting incident’ of this week’s Six Sentence Story.

“No, screw you!”

“…and, besides that’s not a car, it’s a fricken truck!”

” And, seeing how we’re looking for an accurate understanding of the message on your sign, is one a statement of qualifying authority and the other a command?”

“If I’m at the head of the line, what makes you think the people behind me know that I’m only following instructions and not driving way, way too slow, just to, like, be a jerk?!”

“Yes, I know you’re only doing your job, that doesn’t mean we have to enjoy the regimentation conditioning that’s in full expansion mode, choking the celebration of the individual, like an algae bloom in a small lake.”

“Thanks, and no, while you did nothing to protect me and/or my car, you have, in fact, saved me from yet another Six Sentence Sword hanging over my head!”

* to para-mangle a famous line from the movie, ‘Training Day’ with Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke

** not a ‘real’ plural form of synopsis, but a preferred form, at least around here

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-the Wakefield Doctrine- ‘…on being in love with a long-lost twin*’

July 19, 2016 By clarkscottroger

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks scotts and rogers)

Warning! Advanced (and semi-coherence challenged) Doctrine Post. Do not read this Post* unless you have achieved a Level 5 Point B proficiency ranking. No, really! This is about the Doctrine, the Three String Theory, hope-in-the value-of-unexpressed aspects and (it) borrows heavily from Carlos Castaneda and don Juan (no, not a mis-print), Walt Disney, Miss Bonnie and the dreams that we all share, whether we tell ourselves about them in the morning when we ‘wake up’ or not.

~~…you been warned.~~

Notice!!! Incredibly complex and subtly insightful, chock-frickin-full of revelations, discovery and flat-out Tuesday-samadhi has been postponed! Following is the Post that I found sitting under my keyboard this morning.

Hey! you ever see that episode of the Simpsons when Homer somehow has to win a steak-eating contest and, as he and Marge sit at the table in the restaurant, waiting for the current champion and the contest to begin, Homer starts stuffing his face with bread sticks from a basket on the table?

lol I kind of feel that way this morning.

Allow me to explain.

I signed up for an online seminar on ‘How to Write Excellent Queries, Opening Pages and …” and today is the first day of the three-day course. Today is all about the instructional segment, how-to’s and such. Tomorrow and Thursday, a panel of literary agents will be available to ‘talk to’ online. With questions and discussions, I assume. Should be beneficial and all, as I totally need to find the right agent to get ‘Blogdominion’ published. Regular Readers, familiar with my belief in the ‘we only have so many words in our heads on any given morning’ theory of creative writing are surely going all Marge Simpson right at about this point in this Post. ‘Homer! don’t fill up on breadsticks!’

lol! (shit! gotta lose the ‘lol’, they’ll totally think me to be an amateur writer! wait a minute! I am an amateur writer! hey! someone send me some money! Care of the: ‘Lets-send-clark-money-so-he-can-say-he-gets-paid-for-his-writing-and-therefore-somehow-is-not-an-amateur-writer-if-we-agree-the-meaning-is-limited-to-recompense-which-surely-is-reasonable-look-how-he-used-the-cool-word-‘recompense” Fund)

OK play time is over, got to step back and get into character as Jules said to Vincent. Will try to report my progress, later in the week.

* yeah, cool phrase, will try to remember what it meant to me on Sunday that caused me to feel the need to write this here post here.

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