Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)
This is the Doctrine’s contribution to ‘the Unicorn Challenge‘
A photo-prompt bloghop hosted by jenne and ceayr, it has the simplest of rules: keep it at (or under) 250 words.
“Damn”
The man stood on the beach. The sun struggled to banish the clouds, but, much as the approaching metaphors, it had reached a state of exhaustion. Even the Narrator, safe behind invisible quotation marks, frowned.
“Any one of them, is that the plot you’re saddling me with?”
The man smiled. He smiled at the sense of voiceless discomfit. The words were supposed to interlock and, in becoming a chain, lead the Reader to the end of the story. But, like the paper towel that was manufactured on the very day the machine operator’s wife left him, the logic between thoughts were jagged. And jagged, at least in the context of paper towels and alternating POV, was aggravating at best and boring at worst.
“As the main character I must consider each grain of sand on this beach to hold the key to a climax that is both satisfying and reasonable. What kind of Narrator are you? You’re not… no. No. Way.
The Narrator tried to hide, hoping to blend into the scene description, which, after all, appeared to be an expanse of ocean beach. But backing up meant moving other elements of the story.
“I know, you’re an Unreliable Narrator! What, you’re gonna drag out some Garden of Eden trope to distract the Reader from the fact this is not really a story!”
The Narrator looked around desperately. Then he saw it. Salvation. The Fourth Wall.
“I’m telling ceayr that you’re back on the Stream of Consciousness sauce again!”
About clarkscottroger
Stream of consciousness with a direction though.
And it IS a story, with an MC and a Narrator, just not as we usually see them.
Never mind the fourth wall, I wonder about walls 1 to 3 as well.
Another excellent take on ‘What the hell to write’ about a prompt
‘The words were supposed to interlock and, in becoming a chain, lead the Reader to the end of the story.’
I have a metal picture of the Narrator turning to the Man and saying ‘Make it so…’
“…just not as we usually see them.”
what a nice thing to say!
surely these moments, when we sit and… “gaze long into an
abyssprompt, theabyssprompt also gazes into you”jeez… had school tests and quizzes only been graded on random snatches of famous sayings, I might have gotten sufficient a GPA to make something of myself
lol
Once again, Clark, you have left me smiling.
Okay, the rest of my comment now.
Smiling because at least you’ve read my story this week which, in my opinion, is cheating slightly, because you’re supposed to get your inspiration from the prompt photo and not from my rant. Sorry, stream of consciousness.
Loved ‘manufactured on the very day the machine operator’s wife left him’.
As non-sequiturs go, that’s a nailer.
Quality scribbles, Clark.
Dude! I always(ish) read your stories.
And, it’s not so much inspiration as… creative course correction. Stylisitcally-speaking a course.
When I get better at this writing thing, I will totally be challenging you to swap ‘pens’, (better known, at least to young Y-Chromians, as sword-fighting lol). what’s the cool (and, when you look at it, kinda unlikely) word, pastiche? Maybe if’n we were talking about another art, say painting or needlepoint, the word wouldn’t look so awkward)
and, for the record, thanks for providing such an efficacious learning aid
Fortunately for me I’m high on pain meds right now. Res ipsa loquitur, y’know?
damn!*
hope you feel better (re:origin of need for…. and, being a responsible blogger, be sure to read everthing twice before hitting ‘Publish’ lol
* a comment on the less than ideal fact of age… there was a time when the first half of your statement was a celebration… wait, now that I re-read it, still is (just not, I suspect, as much fun as the purely recreational application of pharmaceuticals
Spinal infusion surgery is not for the faint of heart. Back in the day there were a lot of pharmaceuticals readily available. Pain meds were never my thing … however … I could write a sonnet (as the song goes) on the virtues of quaaludes. ‘memba them?
**Spinal FUSION surgery … lot infusion.
Not even going to bother fixing that last typo. You get it.
this is true
yow!
no, damn, I missed the opportunity (or lacked the nerve) for the more sophisticated mind-altering substances back in my anticipatory retirement days (aka college and grad school)
lol
You’ve gone all postmodern this week, Clark. This one has all the Wikipedia approved indicators – ‘a form of literature that is characterized by the use of metafiction, unreliable narration, self-reflexivity, intertextuality … ‘. Impressive. I do like the idea of a narrator ‘safe behind invisible quotation marks’. And that fourth wall. Very useful. Good one.
damn! (I hear the first sentence as a compliment that makes me turn and look around the room… oh, she means me! such is how I perceive the journey from the start of the blog. No writing (on purpose) prior.)
funny story (kinda relates)… our (will be talking about the Doctrine, so, the 3rd person) writing the very first post. All that was left was to hit ‘Publish’ (to the world and millions of Readers lol) We hit ‘Publish’. Then, closed the WordPress. Then shut down the computer. Quietly got up from the desk. Got our coat from the hall closet, pat to the pockets to check for keys went down to the garage, got in our car and drove away.
lol
I’ll sit comfortably here, in the back row, and contribute my applause.
A bit of applause from here, too.
ty, M