This week in the InMoniverse: Counting down to PoPS episode nine! In other news, life for readers continues to be hard, but Terry Pratchett is rocking my world.
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The Rules
There are none. Read the prompts, get inspired, write something. No word count minimum or maximum. You don’t have to include the exact prompt in your piece, and you can interpret the prompt(s) any way you like.
OR
No really; I need rules!
Okay; write 200-500 words on the prompt of your choice. You may either use the prompt as the title of your piece or work it into the body of your piece. You must complete it before 6 pm CST on the Monday following this post.
The Prompts:
Call of the Tame
Gilt Guilt
Define Divine
Ultramoderation
Swift Justice
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Plus, get the InMon badge for your site here.
Happy writing!
Sorry I missed out on last week’s prompt, my schedule just didn’t permit much writing at all. Here is my contribution to this week!
http://wp.me/p4RXZ6-mz
I have yet to encounter PoPS. What have you done?
Also, Terry Pratchett! XD
I think I told you about PoPS awhile ago, but probably suggested you wait before watching it. It takes them about a year to make each episode. You could start watching them now and pace them out, or you could wait a year and marathon them (they’re only going to make 10 episodes total).
But you will watch it. Oh, you will.
Be warned the film quality isn’t great to start with, but it gets better as the show goes along – along with the effects, writing, character development, plot, and general depth.
I know! This is the first purely Pratchett book I’ve read – and I can’t put my finger on why, but I freaking love it. Separately, I’ve probably seen all the story elements before, but combined, it’s like nothing I’ve ever read. This crazy mix of whimsy and magic and scifi and adventure and romance and farce and depth and good common sense! What is happening???
That is a very probable hypothesis. This being me, curiosity got the upper hand and now I’ve seen the extant eight. Now I have to wait a year for the next one. *sighs*
Very, very interesting, though. It’s such an odd mix of mundane, supernatural, hilarious, and disturbing.
It happens to all who pick up a Pratchett. I started with “Guards! Guards!” and I remember thinking “this is kind of sloppily written… so why am I finding it one of the best books I’ve ever read?” There are certain authors with whom, for my sanity’s sake, I cannot compare my own work. He’s one of them. Something in the way he sees the universe and is able to translate it hits home, whether he’s making me laugh, cry, or think (or, usually, all three at once).
Ahahahaha!
Well, episode nine is coming out VERY soon – possibly in the next month. So you’ll get one more to nurse on while we wait for 10. Jake Jarvi (writer/director and actor who plays Jonas) is a big Whedon fan, so you’ll see the influence there. They do weekly updates about progress on the show, and he also talks a lot about film and film production – stuff like the significance of various camera movements. I’ve learned a lot from them.
Yessss! I’m reading it, and I’m like, “What is this??? Why do I love this so much???” I’m usually able to analyze these things, but this is escaping me.
Laugh whilst you can. Soon, it shall be my turn again. 😉
That is good news. Though, still, a year for the finale is gonna be hard!
It’s hard to analyze a gestalt. Something that’s more than the sum of its parts. I’m sure you’ll make some headway, though, as you read more of his work. Because we both know you will. 😉 In my mind, Sam Vimes, from the Watch series, is almost the avatar of Pratchett’s writing.
By the way, you mentioned a series that sounded interesting to me, that you really love, but I can’t recall what it was. I think you mentioned airships, a dwarf, and a terrifying pot of coffee (I think that was all the same series, I could be confusing more than one, though).
That is all the same series! It’s by James P. Blaylock, the “grandfather of steampunk.” The first is The Elfin Ship, and the second is The Disappearing Dwarf. There’s a third one that’s actually a prequel, but it’s not nearly as good as the other two. I believe his greatest influences when writing them were The Hobbit and The Wind in the Willows, if that gives you any idea of how much you’ll like them. Also, Phillip K. Dick loved them. Blaylock seems to be the famous writer no one’s ever heard of.
Swift Justice by http://finallyawriter.com/2015/09/04/1128/
I managed to use all five: https://article94.wordpress.com/2015/09/04/lalochezia-metes-impropriety/
An admittedly mediocre response this week, at least in comparison to my own expectations. But a response nonetheless!
https://17thandwest.wordpress.com/2015/09/05/flash-fiction-call-of-the-tame/
That’s it! Thank you. I will track it down.
“Blaylock seems to be the famous writer no one’s ever heard of.” I feel this way about George MacDonald and P. G. Wodehouse. Do you know that we might not have had the Chronicles of Narnia if Lewis had never read MacDonald’s Phantastes?
Was that the one he said “baptized his imagination”? I should read it again. I don’t think I completely understood it the first time.
I’m always trying to tell people about Wodehouse, thanks to you, but if they haven’t heard of him, they’ve usually at least heard of Jeeves.
Yep! And I don’t think it’s really one to be, uh, understood. It’s more of an absorb kind of book, faerie in the faeriest sense of faerie. Trying to make too much sense of it seems counter-productive. 😉 MacDonald’s brand of allegory, or applicability, at least in his fantasy fiction, seems to be far more intuitive than cerebral. I prefer just soaking up that beautiful imagery and letting the rest wash over me. But tis certain that he’s not everyone’s cup o’ tea. My favorite of his works, that I’ve probably mentioned before, are The Princess and the Goblins, and The Princess and Curdie. But Phantastes is gorgeous.
This is true! But few of them have read him, and as fantastic as the tv series is, the books are even better.
Definitely. The style of the narrative is half the fun of the books, and you lose that watching it instead of reading it.
The same would apply to MacDonald, I imagine. Though a really good AD/set designer/director (and LOTS of money) might be able to create an amount of visual beauty to match the verbal beauty of his work.