The song mentioned in the previous post, “Build Me Up, Buttercup,” has this line in it: “I love you more than anyone, Darling.” Have you ever wondered exactly what the line means? Does it mean that I love you more than anyone else loves you, or that I love you more than I love anyone else? Or maybe it means both those things. In poetry, which, of course, song lyrics are and always have been, ambiguity like that is perfectly acceptable. Maybe even preferable. But in prose, that uncertainty of meaning should be avoided. It will probably be important to the plot or character development which of those three possibilities is the correct one.
But a well-written story won’t simply tell the reader which is correct, it will show. It might be something as simple as the character declaring his meaning in dialog, or, better yet, showing through actions and other conversations which of the three is true. The character might not know himself which of those specifics applies, and may have to discover it for himself. I can imagine a whole short story constructed around the theme of whether the protagonist loves Buttercup (or Princess Buttercup in The Princess Bride) more than he loves anyone else (including, perhaps, himself, family members, a best friend, etc.), or if he loves her more than anyone else (Prince, competing suitor, her family) loves her.
In The Princess Bride, Westley demonstrates that he loves Buttercup more than he loves anything or anyone else while other characters show clearly that no one loves Buttercup as much as Westley loves her.
Cable channel A&E has been doing biographies on pro wrestlers. Andre the Giant (Fezzik in The Princess Bride) was near the end of his career, and six years before his death when he made that movie. He’d had back surgery, but his shoulders were so bad that he couldn’t reach up or carry much of anything. When Buttercup jumps from the window and is caught by Fezzik, they had to lower her on a cable.
Andre the Giant (Andre Roussimoff) died alone in a Paris hotel room at age forty-six. He was in France for the funeral of his father.
How’s that for a segue, going from a soft rock and roll song used in an insurance commercial to the sad death of a professional wrestler?
On the writing front, I’ve submitted two short stories to two different magazines and query letters to two publishers for Saving Atlantis.
For the second one I made a slight change to the very beginning of Saving Atlantis. It’s primarily a move of some sentences either toward the beginning or away from it.
I also changed the beginning of Just Lucky, Book 1: Friends and Enemies. I eliminated the Forward and added some of that info to the First Interlude.
Book 2 should be published digitally very soon.
In writing Lying Swords I have finally come to one of the scenes, or episodes, that I first envisioned when I began writing. I wrote several hundred words, then stopped. It was not coming out the way I wanted. I haven’t deleted anything yet, but I am rewriting it in front of the original rejected version. When I get it finished, then I can delete the false start.
I’ve finished reading Double Cross and Cross Fire. Patterson’s books are pretty quick reads. I said last time that Alex Cross gets more than his share of psycho murderers. In Violets Are Blue, which was written before the others I’ve read, the psycho murderers are in California and Washington. He’s in California researching vampiric-type murders similar to the one in D.C.
Yep, more psycho murderers.
It tempts to me to see if I could write a novel featuring a protagonist that is a detective (or maybe a vigilante) and some villain that gets off on killing innocent people in imaginative and horrible ways. I’m not sure I have enough darkness within to do that for a novel-length story. A short story, yeah. But novel length? I think not.
Thank you for reading.
All you mothers, have a great day.
But a well-written story won’t simply tell the reader which is correct, it will show. It might be something as simple as the character declaring his meaning in dialog, or, better yet, showing through actions and other conversations which of the three is true. The character might not know himself which of those specifics applies, and may have to discover it for himself. I can imagine a whole short story constructed around the theme of whether the protagonist loves Buttercup (or Princess Buttercup in The Princess Bride) more than he loves anyone else (including, perhaps, himself, family members, a best friend, etc.), or if he loves her more than anyone else (Prince, competing suitor, her family) loves her.
In The Princess Bride, Westley demonstrates that he loves Buttercup more than he loves anything or anyone else while other characters show clearly that no one loves Buttercup as much as Westley loves her.
Cable channel A&E has been doing biographies on pro wrestlers. Andre the Giant (Fezzik in The Princess Bride) was near the end of his career, and six years before his death when he made that movie. He’d had back surgery, but his shoulders were so bad that he couldn’t reach up or carry much of anything. When Buttercup jumps from the window and is caught by Fezzik, they had to lower her on a cable.
Andre the Giant (Andre Roussimoff) died alone in a Paris hotel room at age forty-six. He was in France for the funeral of his father.
How’s that for a segue, going from a soft rock and roll song used in an insurance commercial to the sad death of a professional wrestler?
On the writing front, I’ve submitted two short stories to two different magazines and query letters to two publishers for Saving Atlantis.
For the second one I made a slight change to the very beginning of Saving Atlantis. It’s primarily a move of some sentences either toward the beginning or away from it.
I also changed the beginning of Just Lucky, Book 1: Friends and Enemies. I eliminated the Forward and added some of that info to the First Interlude.
Book 2 should be published digitally very soon.
In writing Lying Swords I have finally come to one of the scenes, or episodes, that I first envisioned when I began writing. I wrote several hundred words, then stopped. It was not coming out the way I wanted. I haven’t deleted anything yet, but I am rewriting it in front of the original rejected version. When I get it finished, then I can delete the false start.
I’ve finished reading Double Cross and Cross Fire. Patterson’s books are pretty quick reads. I said last time that Alex Cross gets more than his share of psycho murderers. In Violets Are Blue, which was written before the others I’ve read, the psycho murderers are in California and Washington. He’s in California researching vampiric-type murders similar to the one in D.C.
Yep, more psycho murderers.
It tempts to me to see if I could write a novel featuring a protagonist that is a detective (or maybe a vigilante) and some villain that gets off on killing innocent people in imaginative and horrible ways. I’m not sure I have enough darkness within to do that for a novel-length story. A short story, yeah. But novel length? I think not.
Thank you for reading.
All you mothers, have a great day.
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