Friday, August 27, 2010

Fill-in For Filler Friday

Well, today's Scott's birthday and he's spending it avoiding the internet. Still, let's wish him happy birthday, and maybe if we scream loud enough he'll hear us up there in Seattle.

Happy Birthday, Scott!!

As for Filler Friday, I've been obsessed by the word "scimitar" all week. I wish I could introduce it into one of my stories, but my characters tend to do things like make soup and do laundry. I don't think either chore requires much scimitarring. Or maybe they do.

I've also been obsessed by those poor Chilean miners stuck in the ground for possibly months! And then there are the Kenyan albinos! Really, there are so many fascinating and horrific things out in the world. I feel like we as storytellers have the power to bring these things to light, if we want to.

What's bouncing around in your head?

24 comments:

  1. Happy birthday Scott!

    Hmmm... you could always have your laundry washing housewife be cast back in time and kidnapped by a scimitar weilding Bedouin and they have many rip-roaring adventures...

    I've had the words wield and rip-roaring stuck in my head for weeks... thanks for the opportunity to get them out there.

    My mind is a rather scary place with many thoughts. The main one involves me advising people on my blog that they can inspect human characters in order understand the characters they created.

    I warned them of the dangers of doing this as a habit, but I'm wondering if I did the right thing to mention that nifty trick. Most people hardly ever realize that they can do it and I wonder if it's better that way.

    A close second is the violence in YA books debate that the Hunger Games series triggered... I won't go into this lest I trigger another debate here.

    Third involves my search for a crit partner that I can trust.

    Fourth thought is the idea of having to retype my first draft while the book isn't complete...

    Fifth is... chocolate.

    Sixth is how I probably gave you an information overload. If I did, I apologize. To be safe I'll stop now.

    Have a great weekend!

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  2. Scary insight into the ways in which my mind rambles:

    You said scimitar. My mind immediately went to Monty Python and the Holy Grail:

    I mean, if I went around, saying I was emperor, just because some watery tart lobbed a scimitar at me, they'd put me away.

    Oh, and happy birthday Scott!

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  3. NOOO!!! Now the only thing reverbing through my mind is:

    "We are the Knights Who Say NII! and we want a shrubbery!"

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  4. Misha,
    All my attempts at writing a time travel story have failed thus far. My characters never make it to the machine. They get distracted by laundry. Good luck on your search for a crit partner! I am lucky enough to be in a most excellent writer's group and I'd feel pretty lost without them. Make sure to find someone who is at your level or better!

    Rick,
    I'll do what I always do when people mention Monty Python. I'll roll my eyes. But I don't think there's an emoticon for that.

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  5. You could always throw in the scene where the housewife, tired of making soup and getting her hands all pruney from the laundry water takes a scimitar to the linens and then goes on a wild rampage through the forest chopping the mushrooms to bits so no one can use them in their soup.

    In my head? OMG LESS THAN TWO WEEKS UNTIL SCHOOL AND HOLY ORIENTATION BATMAN.

    That's pretty much it.

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  6. Stephanie, Now we're getting somewhere. I can see my characters shredding sheets! Did I read correctly that you're going to school for the culinary arts? That's something I've always wanted to do. I have fantasies of being on Iron Chef.

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  7. HAPPY BIRTHDAY SCOTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    That's the loudest I can go on the internet...

    As for what's bouncing in my head. Thoughts of sleep. Darcy is apparently sick and woke up with a very high fever and I'm very tired. But the word scimitar just perked me right up! I don't see why you couldn't work that into your story somewhere. You are far more creative than you're giving yourself credit for, Mr. Malasarn.

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  8. Happy b-day, Scott! It seems we have something besides the love of writing in common.

    Oh, Domey, if you really like scimitars, you could always try to blend the adventuresome and mundane like Neil Gaiman did in Chivalry. First sentence: "Mrs. Whitaker found the Holy Grail; it was under a fur coat."

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  9. Loren: Is it your birthday as well? Happy Birthday!!!

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  10. You could always borrow Virginia Woolf's "arid scimitar" phrase, referring to male psychological dominance. Or is that why the word's in your head to begin with...? :)

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  11. Happy birthday, Scott! May every year bring you a shade closer to not quite brilliant.

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  12. Happy Birthday, Scott! As for what I'm up to -- stealing time from everything else so I can work on my WIP novel. Or is everything else stealing time from my WIP?

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  13. Michelle, sorry Darcy is sick. Hopefully it doesn't last too long. Scimitar!

    Loren, apparently it's your birthday too? Happy birthday! Today is only my unbirthday. Someday I will try Gaiman again. I think I'm the only person in the world who hasn't been able to get into his writing.

    Simon, I don't think I remember the word from Woolf. I think I heard it on TV. Maybe. My mind is often a disorganized mess.

    Nevets, I think Scott really likes this idea of not quite being brilliant.

    Judith, good for you! I've been writing a lot more lately too. When I can actually get words on a page it doesn't feel like I'm stealing time from anything else.

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  14. I don't understand how you could be distracted away from a time-travel story by laundry. Don't you realize the dryer is a time-travel device? Where did you think all the socks were going?

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  15. What a good idea to take a vacation from Cyberia to celebrate. Happy solar return, Scott!

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  16. I have the opposite problem. Scitimars are always showing up in my stories whether I want them there or not. And none of my characters do laundry because they only wear chain mail bikinis and thongs, which rust in the wash.

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  17. edithroad, thanks!

    Levi, I have spent more time in the dryer than I care to admit. Never have I time traveled.

    Anne, thanks!

    Tara Maya, If I had a scimitar, I think I would be wearing more than a bikini. But I'm a wimp that way.

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  18. Happy Birthday Scott!

    Scimitar - Laundry. My first thought is your character found the scimitar in the laundry basket and touching it gave him/her mystical powers and launched them someplace else.

    What's bouncing around in my head. Just finished first draft of my current WIP. Yeah! So thoughts are which idea I'm going to go with next. Lots bouncing around and too much to put into coherent thought at the moment.

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  19. But Domey, here's the $64,000 question: are you a sock? :)

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  20. LOL. Have to add that to my list of Zen To Go.

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  21. And do we ever get to find out why you've been spending time in the dryer? :)

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  22. Happy birthday Scott!

    And for some reason (this is *so* ironic), the word I've been obsessed with this week is the word for not being able to think of the word you're wanting to use. Seriously. It should have been my middle name.

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