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

This is the Doctrine’s contribution to the Unicorn Challenge bloghop.

A word-count constrained imagination contest* hosted by jenne and ceayr, the prompt is an image and the only limit is ‘tell your story in under 250 words’

Fair Warning: A bit of a ‘shaggy dog‘ story.

I know what you’re thinking.

You’re thinking, ‘Who the hell left a wetsuit our to dry in the middle of where anyone could steal it? Worse, what kind of person would take a photo and bait the writer with an Old Testament fixation and a clear need to make people smile.’

Am I right?

Well, I am and you’re not.

There’s a lesser-known approach to writing fiction that maintains the simple direction: “Write something that will engage the Reader and then, no matter how outlandish the initial premise, (or, if you’re lucky, an inciting incident), write your way out of it.”

Now you’re getting warm. This would be simpler, if not more conventional were the author to adopt the Second Person POV for the narrative. You’d type the scene. You would find a way to break the fourth wall with a sense of good-natured humor, (a resentful Reader will not continue to ‘The End’), and voilà! Story written, story read.

But, now you’re thinking, ‘Where’s the payoff? The reward for engaging in a writer-Reader transaction?

Funny thing about that. The Reader is not drafted, (not counting those conscripted by classroom adjutants handing out writing assignments), the Reader voluntarily pays their money, (usually of the most precious of currencies, Time), and rightfully expects to be: surprised.

So, big finish!

“The three Marys stood before the Spool of Life and heard a young man in a white rob say, “Surfs Up!”

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