Month: September 2018 | the Wakefield Doctrine

Six Sentence Story -the Wakefield Doctrine-

September 12, 2018 By clarkscottroger

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

This is the Six Sentence Story. Our host, Denise, provides a new prompt word each week and invites one and all to write a story six sentences in length, using the word.

Its fun, its interesting and can help a writer get good at the wordifying.

Ya know?

(If a younger version of myself, say from junior high school in the ’60s, read this Six, no one would be surprised to hear, “Hey man, it’s a comic strip! Does getting old always mean losing your sense of humor?” The reply would be somewhere along of the lines of, “Shut up, kid. You’re thirteen-years-old in a semi-martial, wholly patriarchal culture where violence is as American as…. Wait a minute! Maybe you’re right.
…Nah, you’re not right. You’re just young. You will, with luck, grow out of it.”)

The prompt word:

SUPPLEMENT

“What the bloody ‘ell is this?” Holding the clear-yellow capsule up against the bare incandescent bulb hanging from the ceiling, Andy gave voice to his two defining traits, suspicion and aggression.

Without removing his cap, he tilted his head back and to the side in order to prevent the smoke of his cigarette from obscuring his vision, even as he blinked spastically to clear the 90 proof tears from his eyes.

“It’s a supplement, like on the telly, you said you wanted me to get yer some; the bloke in the commercial said it would make things like when we was young.”

“Shut up, Flo,” ignoring the full breakfast on the table, he held the capsule up to his nose; the tattered remains of what was, at best, minimal intellect, sufficient only to give free rein to animal instinct.

The woman stood at the sink; were she to shrug it would be difficult to notice, endless years serving sentinel to a union more martial, than marital. took its toll on her posture as well as her spirit.

“Gimme somethin’ to drink,” Andy put the two capsules in his mouth and stared at Flo with a bleary-eyed belligerence that spoke sad volumes about their thirty years of marriage.

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: Six Sentence Story, the Wakefield Doctrine

TT o something -the Wakefield Doctrine-

September 9, 2018 By clarkscottroger

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

‘A long-ago photo showing Ola indicating where we should bury her.’

This is the Ten Things of Thankful bloghop. Our current host, Kristi, invites you to join in our weekly event. Its really quite a simple concept. Write a post sharing Ten Things for which you are thankful/grateful and link it to her blog. Although most of us live in a decidedly decimacious* culture, the Ten in ‘Ten Things of Thankful’ is open to personal interpretation. It’s fun, it’s interesting and its been known to have a positive effect on those that participate.

Hey, speaking of bloghops and learning to write, I also participate in the Six Sentence Story bloghop. (Six Sentence Story motto, ‘as long as you gots one more semicolon that you have periods, you’re in business!’). The question forming in my mind, ‘Could one write a TToT as a Six Sentences Story?’**

Lets find out.

Thankful

Sunday morning was overcast, the woods surrounding the house¹ teetered on the edge of autumn²; like a drunk mistaking a lamppost for sobriety, the cold lurked just beneath the grass, which being closest to the earth, had already given up hope. Ola’s³ grave, echoing the tale of Avalon, becomes more visible as the leaves on the trees die and carpet the earth; Una⁴, more patient than her predecessors, sits and waits for breakfast, a black-on-black-with-eyes-of-brown reminder that family is more about connections with the past, than one particular individual.

In this virtual world⁵, we share Tales of our lives and, lost on the uninitiate confined to the world of brick and mortar, this includes memories, fear and ambitions, things that cannot be taken from a drive-up window or cast upon front doorsteps, like messages in clear plastic wrapping.

Sunday, despite the assurance of certain versions of the Bible to be a day of rest, rarely is in the 21st Century and so Open Houses⁶ are scheduled; the time to edit the next chapter of Almira⁷ or write the next installment of Interlude⁸ awaits, welcome company as I sit in a client’s home, waiting on opportunity. While Una and Phyllis⁹ spend the afternoon search familiar forests for new trails and interesting lifeforms, my Guest Sign-in Sheet awaits those who would buy a home in a seaside community or, reading this, take part in this admittedly odd TToT, by sending in their single Thankful to be incorporated, like a long-lost uncle mysteriously appearing on the doorstep of the house overlooking the ocean, into our story.

All good things come to an end, is a lesson at the heart of this bloghop; for many it serves as a reminder to appreciate what is good and, for a fortunate few, it offers the key to experiencing life as a gift, rather than a burden.¹⁰

* not a ‘real’ word. It refers, of course, to our ‘base 10’ system of mathematics which permeates our culture (and therefore reality, at least for some), except, of course, for measuring cups and record-player turntables

** those new(er) to the TToT, one of the ‘beauty parts’, (as Lou Collins would say), of this here bloghop here is the… liberality encouraged in format, style and general flights of creativity. While there are participants who excel at writing orderly and coherent lists of Ten Things that relate directly to the writer’s past week (or month or life-to-date), the rest of us are given a box or crayons and a sheet of construction and invited to sit at the empty desk in the back of the room. Which, as we come to appreciate only after too long a time, is perfect for us.

For those of a mind more comfortable with order and sequence, this week’s Ten Things of Thankful are, as follows, (Ed.):

1. comfortable home; 2. hypograt: end of summer; 3. Ola; 4. Una; 5. access to the internet and those who have become friends; 6. work that I enjoy; 7. my primary WIP; 8. my flash-fiction serial; 9. well, Phyllis. 10. Secret Rule 1.3

link

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: the Wakefield Doctrine

Six Sentence Story -the Wakefield Doctrine-

September 6, 2018 By clarkscottroger

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

As readers know, we enjoy the Six Sentence Story for providing fun reading and the chance to learn more about this writing thing. Which, in a clark often can be one and the same thing. Provided, of course, the learning is not tied to an external demand. You know, “…learn the terms of the Treaty of Tordesillas. It will be on the exam at the end of the week! Your grade point average is taking on water faster than a lifeboat on the USS Puffed Rice!”

In any event, seeing how the re-write of Almira is in semi-full swing, I’ve decided to use characters from that story in Six Sentence Story(s). This, for two reasons: to practice my POV chops and to get to know them better.

This week, Denise, our host, informs us the prompt word is:

Difference

“Well, Hunk, I can’t for the life of me understand why you’re fretting so,” the quiet voice was distinctive for the very subtle stress on the word, ‘can’t’; coming from a lesser woman, an admission of powerlessness, on this particular evening it revealed a glint of steel. Before he could reply, she raised her right hand, the gesture as unnecessary as it was peremptory, “Mail-order college degree or not, your place is here in Circe, and besides, who ever heard of a farm hand working for a Chicago book publisher?”

Hunk Dietrich stood in front of his employer and hated himself, Listen to her, she’s right, you’re nothin but a farm hand; the partially crumpled telegram in his left hand, somehow resisting all efforts to crush it into illegibility.

Looking down at the table, one undeniably created for a large family, the gaps between the three place-settings spoke volumes; the young man heard a different, quieter part of himself, Dorothy managed to get away, surely I can,’ and looked toward his employer’s husband who, with the relaxed concentration of an experienced mountaineer hammering a piton into an icy cliff wall, continued eating his dinner.

“Henry’s got nothing to say, at least nothing that that’ll make any difference, young man.” By force of will, Emily Gale, turned a small, subsistence farm in Circe, Kansas into a large and successful business, not surprisingly, she was quite capable of doing the opposite to the men in her life.

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: Six Sentence Story, the Wakefield Doctrine

TToT -the Wakefield Doctrine-

September 2, 2018 By clarkscottroger

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

Friday Walk

This is a bloghop. As such, all are invited to link to Kristi’s blog and, by doing so, create a web of thought, ideas and, specific to the theme, gratitude. The Ten Things of Thankful has been active in the ‘sphere for, like, years. Lizzi’s creation, it’s theme is the sharing (of) the experience of gratitude (and gratitude-related life events).

Its simple, it’s satisfying and the participants are all of good intent. This is critical. The ‘good intent’ part. Because the TToT is not like other grat hops. The format (which suggests a list of ten (10) items) is, in some of the participant’s imagination, arrives in a box that includes: crayons (the really fun colors that are only found when you can afford the 128* crayon set (With Built-in Sharpener!), some felt pens, one of those rolls of Oreos that you never see in anyone’s actual kitchen cabinet, and some folded construction paper). In other words, this ‘hop is meant to be fun and productive. Hell, we even have a Book of Secret Rules (aka Secret Book of Rules) that lets you….range far and wide, in search of the groups of words that not only convey how you feel, but how you would like to feel, were but the world more like the place you experience among friends than it seems to be on too many morning.

Lets get all photonic this week. Those things and people and lifeforms and geography that I am grateful for includes:

1) Una

The Holiday Weekend awaits.

2) Phyllis

Off for the Hike!*
* on foot. (No car…except to get to the state park or forest or wherever it is people go when they want to take a walk without automatic transmission, a/c, and leather interior!)

3) Living near the ocean

4) the Gravity Challenge: val, joy, may, lisa, kristi

5) Almira. (Where we are now: had the first fifty pages critique’d by one of the published authors at the Romance Writers group I belong to** and, in her notes, she pointed out that the story (that she liked!!!) would be even better if I’d crank up the gain on the ‘Show’ in place of ‘Tell’. (Actually she mentioned ‘deep POV’ for any character in a given scene.) As a good critique, it was a net positive experience. (A sign, imo, of a good teacher.) Her website, if you’re in the mood for Romance stories…. is Jo Ann Ferguson (tell her the Doctrine sent ya)

6) Item Five (cont’d) …so, as a result I’m back to head banging (the old meaning, not the more modern celebratory enjoyment of rambunctious*** music) and working on the story. I kinda knew that this was part of the process, ‘hey great book! now all you gots to do is re-write it a couple or three times!’ lol Mentioning this review here is a genuine Grat Item.

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

8) THIS SPACE AVAILABLE (Simply put: if you would like to try participating in this here bloghop here, then send in the Grat Item (that, while you’re sure is a good one, what you’re not so sure of is if you could do a whole post). This is your chance to try it out. Send it in as comment and I’ll do the rest.

9) the Writers Club (the current ‘exercise story’ is Interlude. A time travel story with flash fiction pacing (aka really short chapters). You’re all welcome to jump in and ‘put on a character’ and join the fun…let me know and I’ll totally set ya up.)

10) Secret Rule 1.3

*(whats the deal with the prime numbers? is Crayola part of the secret conspiracy that we’re all nominally aware of which includes hidden drawings on currency (‘fold the dollar bill this way, then that way….and once more and look!‘), the Rosicrucians (seriously, an all-powerful secret society that is a regular advertiser in… Popular Mechanic?!)

** a clark, with allusions of becoming a writer, going somewhere and joining (in person) a writer’s group… why, what could be more natural for a clark to do?! lol… well, say what you will about our people… natural inclination to mumble, posture like a shy bulldog, preferring the social shadows between outside and the spotlight… once we get captured by a passion, there is little we will not do… great for becoming a CPA, heavy equipment operator, not so good for public performances, brain surgery and affairs of the heart…

*** lol yeah, as in ” My god, Angus, that new Back in Black song is…rambunctious, innit?”

music video