While Sunny Day Parasol Co., the serialized noir I’ve been posting, has been “in the can” for about a week now and the publication of the story has been winding up, I have not been idle with the spare time I have had at my disposal.
(more…)Tag: writing about writing
Writing Hooks — 15mar26
Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash As many of you are already aware, I have been trying to create and add more prose content to the site after a very lengthy hiatus away from the habit. What many of you may not know is that Sunny Day Parasol Co. was going back to when I first started trying to post long fiction online around 2000. I had a small site I named after my spoken word salon in the Belltown neighborhood of Seattle in the mid-90s, “Sweet Immolation” and, at the time, I envisioned fiction in the age of the internet being an episodic or serialized thing.
(more…)Writing Hooks
Some writing thoughts from a diseased mind before they drag me off-stage…
Something I learned today: The “Vaudeville Hook” was not just a cartoon trope, but was used in real life. The “hook” (akin to a shepherds’ hook) used to pull off performers who had gone off the rails, were unpopular with the audience, or had overstayed their welcome. I had suspected that these were not a complete fantasy, having managed my own poetry “vaudeville” in the 90s and having occasion to wish for such a device to move things along for those very reasons.
What I didn’t know was that the hooks were part of the stage equipment, used to pull back the stage curtains at the start of a performance. Huh.
(more…)Rebooting fiction prompts
Photo by Peter Herrmann on Unsplash The last few prompts that have intrigued me enough to write about have a wee bit of a problem when it comes to the stated goals of including more prose fiction to this site.
As I work on the barebones outlines and start making headway into the actual writing of the stories based on the prompts, I discover that they are regularly exceeding the length of what folks normally consider to be flash fiction (<1000-1500 words by most standards; my personal limit being <2000 words).
With only the beginning scene for the occult noir story the prompt handed me last week, I am already at 1000 words, which makes it hard to have a middle and end in the next 1000 words. To complicate matters I only have the vaguest notion of where the story might end up, so it could easily be quite a bit longer by the time I’m finished.
But I’m enjoying this world that’s coming into shape and I don’t want to rush the story just to fit in with an arbitrary limit that no one but myself is imposing on me.
So, first-off, I will stop calling those prompts “flash-fiction prompts” and just call them “fiction prompts”.
Secondly, due to the added length, I’m going to post fiction offerings longer than flash-fiction lengths in episodic format to keep the posts within the average attention span. Plus, this particular story will benefit from the technique of employing mild cliff-hangers. I probably won’t post an episode daily when I do this, but I will try not to let it go longer than a week between episodes (I’m also taking additional editing steps that are not common to my posted fiction).
I also have a rough outline of a story that I may pursue for Jolene’s prompts, and that will likely also exceed my original limits (if I share it at all, it depends on if my take on the humorous tale feels right when it is done).
Just letting everyone know where my head it at and explaining my thought processes. The first episode from the files of Vivian Locke will post later today. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I have enjoyed writing it.
Where’s the prose?
Okay, I’ll admit. I’m still working on the prompt from 12 February, and it might not be done until tomorrow. And, I’ll probably break my target limit for length on this one. You can’t win them all.
Unlike most of the prompts that I’ve worked on that feel like they fit nicely into the <2000 word limit, this one feels like it needs to breathe and be allowed more space to be told. I don’t think I’ll exceed 3000 words, but it may get to that if I need to. Three hours of brainstorming and researching elements of the story and two hours into writing, I am 1600 words into it. I think this feels beefier than the other tales because it fits into my wheelhouse a little better. Appalachian Gothic vibes very close to the pulp horror that I’ve always found to be a big influence in my writing (when not swooning over Kafka or Salinger). This story has more elements of the atmospheric to it, which take up more space.
I’m still plugging away and hope to have something posted by tomorrow (at the latest), earlier if possible.
But now, I need coffee and to start making dinner soon.
Stupid exposition…
Sometimes you have to know when to just give something a rest and a rethink.
I was merrily pounding on my keyboard a story for the flash fiction prompt I posted earlier, having quickly developed an idea earlier in the day — when I came to a sudden impasse.
Two things went wrong.
My imperfect memory of the geography of Seattle was partly to blame. The light rail system did not exist when I lived there and my planned story relied on several elements that were just not the reality of the situation on the ground. When I grew suspicious I checked out a few details and caught that flaw.
That was a hurdle I probably could have overcome. Just change assumptions to fit the real world geography and modify a few words here and there. Easy-peasy, lemon-squeezy.
(more…)Half-penny thoughts — 17nov25
Photo by Dariusz Sankowski on Unsplash Every once in a while the well runs dry for me.
That’s where I am at the moment with writing: fiction or poetry or what have you. It’s been at a bit of a drip feed for a couple of months now, so I am going to do what I always do when this occurs: continue to write with less poetry and fiction in the mix, let my creative energies either rest or try new things to “break it up”, and let that well recharge.
It’s not that I don’t have ideas. Rather, it is that they translate in a garbled manner or refuse to come out of hiding. I’ve learned that the best thing to do when that happens is to not force it. When I have forced creative writing, then comes the blocking and I don’t want to do that. It’s kind of like an insomniac trying to force themselves to sleep; the more one thinks about the lack of sleep, the less likely they are going to sleep.
So, I don’t sweat it, keep in the habit of writing (just not poetry or fiction), and consider other outlets for that kind of energy while the creative writing well fills back up.
How about you? Does your “well run dry”? If/when it does happen, how do you approach the matter? Do you power through? Or do you give yourself a break? Or does the dry spot break you?
Sound off below. Please focus your comments on your own experiences rather than commenting on my current state — I’m good, and I’m more interested in how you handle yourself than getting advice on how I should handle me.
Half-penny thoughts — 04nov25
Except for romance novels (where it is, after all, the focus and intent), I feel sex scenes in fiction almost never add to the story and almost always pulls you out of the story as a reader.
Or, maybe it is just me.
It could very well be me.
(more…)Half-penny Thoughts — 30oct25
A couple of thinks on the cheap have occurred to me over the past few days.
(more…)digging in the middens
I am having a bit of a dry spell when it comes to creative writing, which is neither unusual or much of a bother.
When the desert decides to take up residence in my head, I sometimes power through and other times I find “less creative” ways to keep writing (like this post). I don’t let it bother me when the ideas go fooom and I am left with a cranium filled mostly with fluff. But I do keep writing when that happens because I invariably discover something I want to write about as I am “just writing”.
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